Electric Deregulation

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I can tell you guys now, run screaming from this disaster. This is my 3rd call to the whatever the h*** you call it to get a temporary disconnect so a new breaker box can be installed today.

I started this fiasco last Tuesday to get it turned off today and on tomorrow for early AM. Last Thursday they came to reconnect it!! Had never been disconnected. I called, reset it all up for priority disconnect this morning. The da** system won't recognize my SS number, you get a customer service rep, this is with TXU and they go through all this rechecking everything, even told me it had already been disconnected when my husband had just called me a few minutes before. I don't know where these people are, probably Siberia. I have now been on the phone 45 minutes, hubby and worker are still down there waiting at 15 till 10!

I warn all of you DO NOT LET THEM DO THIS TO YOU!! They took a perfectly good functioning system and destroyed it, what a mess.

Talk to your congressmen, anybody that will listen and I doubt we buy anymore property in Harris County. Thankfully we live in Montgomery County and have that wonderful old fashioned system that works really well and I'm STILL on hold after asking for and speaking to a supervisor supposedly.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

If your state is going to deregulate, RUN SCREAMING TO YOUR NEAREST REPRESENTATIVES AND SAY NO WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT. Gather friends, neighbors, business people, anyone you can get, put out petitions, write letters to your newspapers.

This is a total mess this is my 3rd call to get service off today and back on tomorrow so we can put in a new breaker box. This started last Tuesday, they went in last Thursday to reconnect a meter that had never been disconnected. It was clearly on each call a disconnect for today and reconnect for tomorrow. I have escalated to a supervisor now and been on hold off and on for an hour. The first rep said it indicated it was being disconnected. Now they are saying there is no order at all, total MESS!! The supervisor is trying to escalate it up the line to get a disconnect in for today.

I will likely never buy another property in Harris County, Texas, I am thankful we live in Montgomery County and the only county not involved in this. They are wanting to bring us into the fold so we can have all the advantages of dereg, I will fight this tooth and nail, I guarantee you. I have no idea what will happen. Hubby said they can pull the meter but I doubt we could get electric turned back on if he did. We are absolutely furious about now!!

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I didn't realize this thread posted, can someone delete one of them. Yes I'm made enough to start 2 threads on it but didn't mean to.

I'm still on hold for over an hour now.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

After sitting on hold for an hour and a half I lost connection with the company!!

So 10 minutes for a bathroom break and I'm back on again. I definitely am transferring from TXU to Reliant once I get this mess taken care of or maybe before.

I told them hubby could pull the meter himself, they said if we did that we could get charged a tampering fee. I don't know if they could prosecute us to or not.

I am trying to maintain my cool but I am absolutely LIVID. We started this process last Tuesday to make sure all would be set up and work smoothly.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I'm on hold again waiting for TXU to do something. I will have been on hold since 9AM this morning shortly except for 10 minutes when I got cut off. Almost 2 1/2 hours, unbelieveable. Going to have to move a potty in here soon.

They are trying to get the disconnect for this afternoon, told me not to schedule the reconnect till this is completed.

 

[tommu56]

Is their some sorta lock on the meter?

Around I call make the appointment.
If they don't show I cut the seal pull the meter and ask forgiveness and just say it was an emergency
I usually don't have that much trouble getting them out.

tom

 

[Bird]

I didn't realize this thread posted, can someone delete one of them. Yes I'm made enough to start 2 threads on it but didn't mean to.

I'm still on hold for over an hour now.

Well, instead of removing one of them, I merged them into one. Take a time out, a deep breath, count to 10, etc. I can certainly understand your frustration, but don't it get the best of you. I, too, have TXU Energy and so far have had no problems with them.

I frequently get to feeling as you do when trying to call almost any big company.

When we lived in Navarro County and had a rural electric co-op, I got thoroughly disgusted with them a couple of times, for different reasons, but as far as the situation your describe . . . we had to have our meter and master breaker on a 16' treated pole, 4' in the ground, with the meter 6' above grade. Well, such existed when I bought the place, but the master breaker panel was a pretty sorry one, and the pole was rotting out, so I called the electric company, told the lady I had set a new pole right beside the old one and was going to move everything to the new pole over the weekend. She said that was no problem if I wanted to break the seal, pull the meter, and do the job myself; to just call when I finished and they'd send someone out to put a new seal on the meter. I did call Monday morning, but I don't think anyone ever came to check on it.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

They still haven't showed up. I have called the untility commission and tried to call the exec offices, ran my cell phone out of money and charge and of course at 4 most shut down!$#@$#@$#FASDAFDCZX

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Oh my ***, I get ahold of them again and now they say oh between 4 and 6 and my husband just walked in the door!!!! He gave up after waiting all day, they never gave me a time before. Now he is heading back down there because we don't think they can get in the gate. I'm about ready to start drinking or beat my head up against the wall.

I WILL NEVER BUYANOTHER PROPERTY IN HARRIS COUNTY!! I heard there are so many issues down there and now I know one of them.

 

[Mighty Dodge]

They deregulated here (MD) last year and now the bill's about double what it was. More competition, lower prices, don't believe it.

M.D.

 

[Bird]

You would think that deregulation and more competition would result in lower prices and better service, but it is a fact that we had better service when there was only one electric company and one telephone company.

And I'm so old and cynical that I think the worst thing to happen to the business world was the invention of answering machines. It used to be that you promptly had a real person answer the phone instead of having to play telephone roulette and hoping you're pushing the right buttons without knowing whether you'll ever get to speak to a live person.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

This has made me physically sick, I have spent almost 4 hours on the phones with them, they would put me on hold forever, probably hoping I would drop off. I was doing really well with one guy, the system went down and I lost the call. I sat down and cried, literally. I wouldn't hang up, I've worked at a call center, if you get a dropped call they don't do much, but one that someone has sat there for an hour will likely be pulled for review. They have bunches of them from me.

They are saying it should be tomorrow. I'm wondering if I just have service disconnected and then go to another provider if I can do that quickly. Hubby could hook up the box and then it would be ready when another provider turned on the service, but I don't know if that is a quick thing you can do.

I am writing the PUC, TXU execs, and Centerpoint execs, this is asinine.

 

[skipro3]

Deregulating critical infrastructure is a sure way to introduce terrorism to the United States. All it takes is someone to hack these podunk, fly-by-night electric companies and they can black out huge areas of our country. I know, I work for an electric company. We are upgrading everything in order to comply with CIP (Critical Infrastructure Protection) and Homeland Security.

You can read about it here;
Critical Infrastructure Protection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would bet that if you reported your problems to your representative in Congress or the Senate, that you would see some action. Just tell them you suspect the lack of responsible management is resulting in a lapse of homeland security on the nation's electric grid.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I filed a complaint with the PUC and sent a copy to TXU, I included Centerpoint but I'm not sure who is to blame, likely both. I just found out on my last call I can contact them and see what the status of our work order is, going to try that in the morning. First time in 35 years I've filed a complaint like that, did for my mom way back when when all the old folks couldn't get their service fixed. It was fixed PDQ. I'm just sick of this, we have so much to do right now and I basically lost a whole day, plus its infuriurating.

Hubby too said get in touch with our state reps, likely will do that also, enough is enough.

 

[tommu56]

I forgot to mention I suggest to any one to get a meter socket with a breaker or disconnect built right in it then you don't need the electric co to do any thing to shut power to house.

I never though of this till we went to a fire (was volunteer foreman) and meter had a barrel lock on socket and we needed electric shut off and there was a disconnect in the same box so I shut that off there and didnt bother electric co.
If the meter comes out after a fire it is a pain to get it put back in beacuse of electric co's their red tape.
This was a frend of one other ffire fightres so I went in to pannel and disconnected all the bad wiring and had the pannel back up for them that night.
The pulled their rv over to house and plugged it in and stayed there till repairs were done.

tom

 

[Bird]

I filed a complaint with the PUC

I had a problem with a phone company in 1995, called the PUC in Austin, and I got a call from the phone company within a couple of hours and they got busy and fixed the problem.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Tried calling Centerpoint Energy this morning, got cut off twice. I asked what the status was, she said I needed to talk to my provider, I explained I have talked and talked to my provider and finally filed a PUC complaint. She said they had put the order in for the 1st, the day last week I called instead of the 6th. She said she re issued the order to a technician and it should be done within 4 hours today, we shall see.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Still noone has shown up to disconnect it. We are waiting till 6PM and then if they haven't I'm calling in to do a move out and then sign up with another utility if possible.

 

[Ronbo]

I believe Centerpoint owns the lines. TXU just bills you for what you use. Look at powertochoose.com and find another reseller. We are with Spark and have been very happy.

I installed a new service after Ike. Had a tree on the lines and they had to clear the lines prior to turning on the power.

If your ring is the type that just has a seal, I know of people that have cut the wire seal and pulled the meter. After the work is done, don't worry about it. They will only read your meter every other month and usually from the street with a scope. In a few months they will notice the seal is missing and replace it. Must have fallen off, or maybe kids.

It doesn't do any good to get upset. They do not care about you. You are talking to a minimum wage earner, or someone in another country. File with the PUC and change companies.

Ron

 

[BobRip]

Still noone has shown up to disconnect it. We are waiting till 6PM and then if they haven't I'm calling in to do a move out and then sign up with another utility if possible.

Like it's been said, pull the meter yourself if you know how to do it safely. Safety is key.