Direct Energy Consumer Reviews - Page 3

DALLAS, TEXAS -- I signed up a year ago with their 100 Gift Card I have yet to get it. It has been six months. I keep getting the runaround. They told me a couple of months ago when I was almost at 6 months when would they mail my Visa card. They don't tell you that you have to wait 6 months when you sign up. They don't tell you either that you only get 50 the first six months which I have not got yet and then you get the other 50 dollars the last six months. I have called them 4 times.

I never can get an English speaking person. They are all I guess from India and Pakistan. They say you have free nights and weekends. Well my bill is higher than my regular bill was with my other electric company. If you have any sense at all. Do not sign up with them and do not believe a word of what the customer service person tells you if you can understand them.

NEW YORK -- I am getting charged and billed for gas and electric rates 3 times higher than our local company. I have also compared rates with 4 other companies, and KNOW unequivocally I'm being ripped off. This raises concern for our elderly and others! This has been going on for a few months, and I thought the problem was with my local company. So, after several phone calls, and looking at 12 months of reviews, I discovered Direct Energy was billing me exorbitant amounts each month.

After several attempts to file a complaint and resolve the unethical charges with this company, and directly with "Sulma @ Office of the President," I am filing consumer complaints with online sources. I will also file a complaint with Attorney General. WARNING: Do NOT chose this company for your energy needs!

BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS -- A representative knocked on my door at 6:30pm on a Saturday of a holiday weekend. The gentleman gave a quick schpeal in regards to lowering my energy cost to .07 cents. When I told him mine is currently at .04 cents and I was not interested, he asked to see my bill. I said I was not comfortable with that and he stated he had to see my bill to confirm. I grabbed the front page of my bill, after blacking out personal information, and handed it to him. He asked for the editions pages and I once again said I was not comfortable and not interested. The young man huffed, turned around, and under his breath (although he was not being very discreet) "whatever, bitch". This company will now never get my business.

NA, OHIO -- I thought I found an "internship" but I was wrong. I was working for a company who made me and others go door to door selling direct energy. I shadowed the lady and only made it past day 2. We were going in terrible scary areas. They never once said in my interview I would go door to door selling and I am so beyond upset with this whole thing. The people "selling" you the direct energy scam are people who are just looking for money and don't actually work for Direct Energy they work for another company telling them to sell Direct Energy. DO NOT BUY in on this.

SAN LEON, TEXAS -- I was using the balanced billing with Direct Energy. I noticed our bills were escalating rapidly toward the end of 2006 then they started dropping off. I thought they had discovered their error and was actually billing for the correct usage. This was after the November 2006 billing. Then in April/May 2007 I got a balanced bill for $0. I knew then something was wrong and called. They checked and said my meter had STOPPED WORKING in November! I checked on the PUC website today and discovered they by law are supposed to read my meter at LEAST every 3 months. This meter "stoppage" wasn't discovered by THEM, I discovered it SIX MONTHS LATER!!!

They were not reading my meter or they would have discovered it! Then! THEN! They SAID they sent a man out to check the meter. They SAID we had TAMPERED with the meter and that was what caused it to stop working, making it legal for them to charge us for more than 3 months bills. They provided no evidence whatsoever of the tampering. We DID NOT TAMPER with the meter either. We've lived in this house for over 20 yrs and it would be STUPID to do something like that as we know we would have been caught doing something like that, plus, being from the old school, we are HONEST.

I asked them WHY the meter man didn't SHOW us the evidence if he truly had found something and was told it was against their policy! That would be like taking your car for an oil change only and then them billing you for major repairs like a transmission replacement and them telling you that you would have to just trust them that the repairs were made, you'd have to pay, even if you didn't authorize them to replace the transmission! THEN DIRECT ENERGY SAID they got the actual usage from TX New Mexico elect. and billed us for almost $4,000! I had been paying on the balanced billing, and the period of time that was unmetered was over the WINTER time.

There was NO WAY we could have used that much electricity! My husband is 73 yrs old, has Alzhemiers disease, and is on oxygen for Emphysema. He HAS to have A/C and electricity. I had no choice but to try to arrange payments with them as we couldn't and can't change providers until past bills are current. We are on a fixed income and with the cost of EVERYTHING going up...we can't afford to even eat!! Just as soon as I can get that paid off I am going to switch electric providers. Other people in our area who are NOT with Direct Energy have much lower bills. Those WITH Direct Energy, they have bills like mine. EXTREMELY HIGH!

Our neighbor with D.E. had the same thing happen to them...so-called meter tampering and was billed an additional $3,000! They moved as they were renters. They later told me their bills went from $600 plus a month to $180! What's wrong with this picture? My on-line billing site past bills information was also changed from what WAS on there to what is on there now, making it harder to figure out what happened and why my bill/meter reading was so screwed up!

IF my meter really wasn't working, D.E. SHOULD have caught the problem no more than 3 months after it stopped working IF they had ever been actually reading my meter! My advice? DON'T use DIRECT ENERGY unless you like being ripped off!

GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS -- I set up a payment arrangement with Direct Energy. I paid the bill prior to the payment arrangement due date. Direct Energy failed to update my payment and therefore it kept my new monthly bill as it was in arrears. It is a poorly managed system. The representative said that they would not fix my bill until the new bill was paid.

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND -- A salesman came to the house pretending to be from the utility company and asked to see my account numbers for my gas and electricity account. I gave him the information, and signed something. Only after this did I realize that this was actually a scam and that he had switched my account over to Direct Energy. If someone comes to your door asking for your account numbers, do not give it to them.

ONEONTA, NEW YORK -- Signed up a few years ago because their energy was somehow more "environmentally friendly." What a cost you end up paying for that friendliness though! When I cancelled after the Summer of 2018 my electricity rate was almost FIVE TIMES what the New York public utility provider would be charging. Then I cancelled (with good customer service, I suppose) by phone and the next bill was THREE TIMES what the previous bill was for settling the "budget billing" remainder. DO NOT go here. Spend your money on the environment however else!

CONNECTICUT -- Direct Energy is the electricity supplier for my residence. I was on hold for 55 minutes waiting to question customer service about a sharp jump in my rates. I finally gave up and emailed the corporate office. The company tripled my rate without notification. If you are thinking of an alternate electricity supplier, don't pick Direct Energy!

DALLAS, TEXAS -- My ultimate complaint is that Direct Energy is so completely incompetent that remaining with them became impossible. During the first 6 months I received my electricity from Direct Energy I only received one bill. They were completely incapable of generating a bill. When the bills finally did start coming there were several conflicting statements that came. We paid each one almost immediately - though it was hard to tell what we actually owed.

My father who switched to Direct Energy at the same time I did had ever worse trouble. In fact he only received his first bill after about 11 months when he and I decided we should move our service because Direct Energy is so incompetent.
That is when things really went wrong. They closed my account and sent me a final bill which I paid 2 weeks before it was due. Almost immediately upon canceling my coverage I started receiving calls from 1-800-955-3103.

When I would answer no one was there but it was clear it was an automated call. On July 3, 2009 my father mentioned to me that he had been receiving calls from an 800# that was driving him crazy because no one was ever there when he answered. He decided to call the # and found out that it was a collection agency looking for me. To be clear, I have not lived with my father for 20 years. As it turns out Direct Energy had turned me over to a collection agency at least 3 weeks before the bill was even due.

The collection agency made many harassing calls to both my house and my father's house but NEVER left any messages. I was told these were "courtesy" calls, but no one can explain to me how this was courteous. This collection agency now has all my information including my SS#. Do yourself a favor and avoid them. There are too many better options out there than to deal with them.