bad customer service
My electric service was shut off today. All for a past due payment of 78.00 that I never received a bill for, nor did I receive a shut off notice for.
Allegheny Power said that they haven't received anything returned so they assume that I just havn't paid it. They want a 40.00 reconnect fee and want to make me wait 3 days for them to turn it back on.
I understand that this is not a normal situation. Basically the Post Office was returning all my mail addressed to my home address and post office box for four weeks. This has caused numerous issues with packages and bills being overdue or returned.
My complaint is that
A) Allegheny Power does not show my mail as being returned when I know it was. The dates my mail was being returned started and ended during the time that those pieces of mail were sent.
B) No supervisor is available to talk to for 48 hours through Allegheny Power. Whatever numbskull thought that was a great idea for customer service needs to loose his job since this change was implemented in May. The customer service reps cannot do anything to help the customers. That is why supervisors are available. Even the call center employees agree that this is a rediculous policy. Change it.
C) The fact that it will take 3 days to come out to restore service.
D) that these people told me to call my doctor to get a note to turn service back on because I am pregnant, when in fact it is ILLEGAL for my doctor to do that unless someone in my home is on life support. Train your reps for proper response.
E) that no contact was made via a correct phone number to tell me I owed them a measly 60.00. I've been trying to get the phone number corrected that has not been in use for almost a year now.
F) That a company will disconnect service, that is a monthly requirement for anyone living in the us for being less than 30 days behind in a payment and for such a small amount. they even admitted that my reconnect fee wasn't even enough to cover the cost for them to disconnect/re-connect, so what was the point in doing it for such a small amount of money anyway?
Some may not view this as a legitimate complaint and may say "well, just pay your bill". Trust me, I would have if I would have been contacted at the right phone number when the mail was not delivered to me. Allegheny Powers new policy of making the customer wait for 2 days to speak to someone is absolutely absurd and is in no way considered customer service. Just because they realize that people have to have their service since we cannot obviously pick who we want to use as our electric company, they feel that they can treat us however they want, whenever they want.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
awful company
Just a couple of days ago, I recieved two pieces of mail from Allegheny power. One I knew was my bill, but the other I had no idea. Upon opening it, I found that they are charging me a $117.00 security deposit, due the same date as my next bill, which is roughly two weeks from now. Their reasoning for this? Well, since I have had 3 shut off notices in 12 months, they feel that I deserve to pay this amount, in full, or face possible termination of service.
But what I feel is wrong about this is the fact that my service has NEVER been shut off. Yes, ive been late a few times. But never has it been shut off, and ive been here 3 years. Im a single mom just trying to get by, and when money is low, I first pay what MUST be paid out of neccesity.in the colder months, that is my heating bill, which can blow up to almost $500 monthly in the winter. (gas heat.)
How is it lawful for them to charge this extra security deposit? I paid a deposit when I first got service turned on, what was that for? Obviously it was for nothing because now they are demanding another one! This seems like a very underhanded thing to be doing. They are focusing on getting extra money out of people who CLEARLY do not have extra money to throw around.
Ive seen a couple other complaints on here concerning this, and I hope it gets noticed by somebody who can do something.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
There has to be something that can be done.
I have never not paid a bill. Never not paid the whole bill. I have been late a few times. I am a small business owner and have alot going on. I have been late. That is what a Late fee is for. Right? Now $1108 Sercurity Deposit. Really. I have been in the same loaction for 17 years. I have 4 different accounts with them on 4 different buildings and they do this. There has got to be someone out there that will take this matter to the higher court and get them realmed in. 4 years they said until I get my deposit back. Only one power company around here and they want to rape you. And that is what they are doing. It is down right wrong. WRONG WRONG WRONG
This is clearly unlawful. I paid my bill, got caught up, and THEY APPLIED the usage payment TO THE SECURITY DEPOSIT, then turned around and charged me a LATE FEE! These folks are crooks, and as a commenter posted earlier, using their monopoly status to apply leverage to good hard working Americans. It's similar to the credit card company that skyrockets your interest rate to 29% and piles on late fees such that you end up paying many times over the original amount due. If these scumballs at Allegheny Power do not respond positively to ANOTHER CALL tomorrow, I'm hauling their [censor] into court.
p.s. my monthly bill is between 80$ and 100$. so this deposit is almost 4 times my average monthly bill.
I moved from one house to another. Granted i do always pay a few days late because of how my pay days fall. I am a single woman trying to make it on her own, its hard to keep up sometimes. BUT my power has never had to be cut off! I have ALWAYS paid !
So when i moved they decided i need to pay a 380$ deposit. If i am having a hard time paying the bills on time then why penalize me almost 400$?!? I am still trying to pay the deposit off 6 months later!
AND i have no other choice in my area! This is clearly a monopoly and they are clearly raking their customers over the coals to make extra money.
Did you guys get this resolved? I just got a notice like this in the mail wanting a $360 security deposit! We have NEVER had our power shut off, although we have been late maybe three times the past year. Our balance isn't even currently late and we get this notice this month!
I have had the same problem. We pay a payment EVERY month by automatic bill pay but apparently our average payment amount went up and we were under paying. So we got a termination notice and had to adjust our payments. Since this took 3 months to totally catch up with the new amount we received the Deposit demand of $284! We have never been shut off and have always made a payment and have lived at the same address for 5 years. Ridiculous.
high electric bill
We have lived in our house for 5 years and have never had an electric bill over $320.00. Last billing cycle my bill was 387.00 and I was like ok the price increase isn't to bad. Well we just received our current bill and it was $814. I have inquired around to some of the neighbors and apparently we were not the only household that had such a HUGE bill. All of our bills were an average of $300 and all of the sudden all of ours are now over $800. Something is wrong with this picture. All of us have called and complained and they have given us the same story about what could possibly being pulling our current. Heat was the number one excuse, well we have gas heat. So I told them to come up with something else and they claimed my hot water heater could be going bad or my well pump. So I had a plumber come to my house and check those two possibilities out and the plumber said all in good working order. I find it impossible that several houses in my subdivision is going through the same situation as myself. I feel we are being ripped off. If I did not find this as being awkward most of my neighbors would have just paid there bill or made payment arrangements to cover bill and prayed that next bill would not be as large as this one. I feel we all need to stick together and figure out why all of us has had such a HUGE rate increase.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
living here in central Pa we are having the same problems with the outrageous electric bills for January and February. What I have discovered is this, the variable rate is what got us, even if you were on a fixed rate.this is because you must renew your contract annually with your supplier and if you don't you are automatically switched to the variable rate. This is usually in the fine print.It's legal but not ethical. I'm afraid it all boils down to our elected officials not doing their job of looking out for us. RS
Allegheny Power does not read your meter most of the time. I was overcharged and decided to fight it by contacting the attorney general about my situation. Now my electric bill is half of what it used to be and I haven't cut back on electric use at all.
There is an easy fix to this. I had the same problem and I gave a call to the attorney general and he looked into it and now my bill has been cut in half. I suggest all of you do the same thing or the power company will continue to over-charge you knowing you have no other electric company to go to.
I live in a 2 br apt, moved here in Nov, 2010. I put plastic on all the windows, a blanket down by the door. My electric bill was over $380.00! Heat set on 67. I was a little put off by that. Here it is 5/29/2011, heat has been turned off for over 3 weeks, the bill is $200? I really can't understand how this is possible? I lived in a 2 and 1/2 bedroom house and my bills were maybe 58.00, granted my furnace was gas. Never have my electric bills been like this. I called and questioned them and they told me that this was an actual reading, and that is what they usually run up in these apartments. I can't even put the air on in here because I'm affraid I won't be able to afford it! Sweating my but off up in here! Anyone have a plan as to how to stop this? E-mail me with suggestions! sheryld66@comcast.net. Write AP sucks in the subject line.
our average electric bill was about $250/mnth since we moved in last year in June we have a combo electric/oil heat (upstairs is a small electric furnace, downstairs is all heated by oil)
we received our monthly bill on Monday and both my husband and I flipped at the WHOPPING $1576.26 bill
they claim we used 17013kw in 27 days. For most of March I was in the hospital for chemo/radiation and heart problems. (even offered proof no-one was home since my family were in WV with me if they weren't in school/@work)
when I called and spoke to a Rep they said it may be a wronged meter reading and said they'd send someone out.
Today we got told to check all our appliances have, and to have our water heater/well pump checked (well pump has been off the whole time we've lived here and were told it hasn't been used in at least 5 yrs!) because since their reading on March 16th (1wk ago today) they claim we've used another 550Kw...and no-one's been home!
Kids were at school I was in WV and my husband works 12 hr shifts from 0800hrs to 2000hrs and goes to bed @ 2300hrs (with exception to occasional let nights on week-ends to play the Ps3) we don't share properties and live on a small farmette so no, there's no misterious wires running from my building that I notice.
then we get told "maybe the use of the Ps3 is the reason"...ummmyeah right!
I was late three times this year because of high bills and they are demanding 400. deposit on top of my bill. I got a bill today of 987.00! I called and they are making me pay a deposit because after 45 years of service I never paid one.
And their isn't anything I can do to waive the deposit that I can not afford right now. They don't care. Dorris was so rude she acted like she owned the company and it was her company the way she was trying to collect this deposit from me. What a witch to deal with. Apollo PA
I am James Davis and I ran for governor of West Virginia in 2008: http://jamesdavisforgovernor.davis-publishing.com . Most of you may not know that because the Secretary of State, Mrs. Ireland, made sure that I was not on the ballot or my name even close to the voting booths. She even refunded my money, telling me that there was an error in my registration and the date passed for a new registration and she would put me on the Write-In ballot.
Throughout my campaign, I tried telling the people that the utility companies and PSC was robbing us blind. The local news stations and the local newspapers always cut that part out of my talk. There is a way we can stop the utility companies from sucking us dry and turn their shady dealings back on them. Go on this web site and read about solar panels: http://www.greenraysolar.com . You can hook those up to the grid and the power you don't use will go into the grid and start turning your meter backwards and in a very short period of time, Allegheny will have to start paying you for the energy you are putting into the grid.
In the last three years President Bush was in office, the utility companies requested from PSC and got 157% increase in rates through the 'Free Marketing System'.
I am thinking about running for governor of West Virginia again in 2012. If you want someone in that office that will put a stop to these companies ripping people off, then e-mail me at: DavisJms7@dslextreme.com and put in the subject line: James Davis For Governor in 2012 --and I will tell you what we will do to take back our money that has been stolen from us by big business and our government.
PS- I am checking my meter reading, just to be clear.
I have used Allegheny Power since moving here in February. I am participating in the automatic payment plan so I never miss a bill and I'm never late. Every month my bills were estimated around $11 or $30, which I thought was a little low- but I knew they were just estimating and I should expect a bigger bill when they do the meter reading.
However, I am a single young professional female living in a TINY one bedroom, one floor apartment. Two days ago I checked my bank account and they had taken $1, 700 OUT OF MY BANK ACCOUNT!
Are you kidding me? $1, 700!? For one girl? I NEVER leave a light on in more than one room, I always decide what I want out of the fridge before opening it so I don't waste energy, I always unplug my appliances and I kept my heat on very low during the winter. I even plugged up all the holes and cracks in my old home with a foam gun.
I told my landlord and he thought it was ridiculous too and there must be a problem. (By the way- this bill is more than twice what I pay in rent). I called Allegheny and they said it must be due to my heat usage and that my apartment isn't very well insulated. It's complete bull. I'm so angry. I work for a non-profit making very little and struggle to stay independent. I'm so sad that people are so willing to screw people over.
I'm going to do something about this. When I get heated and passionate about something, I don't stop until something changes, so I will keep everyone posted.
Good luck with everyone else.
Allegheny Power is definitely the rip off of the century with their $1200 estimate for one month. $300 a month to $1200 estimate for March is a bit of a leap even with a cold winter and/or ice age. $320 bill with a ten day power outtage. They are quick to rip us off fast and hard and with no end in sight. HELP US ALL. I say regulate the hell out of them.
terrible experience
First, they overcharged us thousands of kilowatt hours that was only found because we found it. Gee, they 'estimate' our usage many times higher than it is, consistently. I wonder why that is? They basically said 'Oops'!
That translated into a $350 reduction of our electric bill. (We KNEW they were wrong - we are frugal! Lights off, utilities unplugged when not in use, freezing our tushies off all winter NOT turning on the electric heat, hovering in front of a wood stove to stay warm!)
Here's the kicker. One week after we called them on their over-estimation, we get a letter the basically states: Our research has indicated you are under-secured. Therefore, you must pay an additional $351 security deposit (think the amount is coincidental? Me thinks not...) due with your next bill. If you do not pay this deposit in full with your next bill, your electric service may be terminated.
We have had this account for two years, paid a security deposit when we started it (which they still have), and we're managing to meet our obligations in spite of a rotten economy. So why do they want more at this time?
You know what their excuse for this additional security deposit is (besides the fact that the government has lifted the regulations on the industry so the pirates are free to rape and pillage at will?) They are doing it to offset losses from foreclosures where people are walking away from their final bills. Oh, THAT makes sense, put it on the backs of us who are barely surviving, push MORE people to the brink of foreclosure. How about your executives take a modest cut in pay instead?
I REALLY, REALLY HATE CORPORATE GREED! Especially in these times when we should all be looking for solutions together, not having to deal with Corporations grabbing all the loot they can while running to their off-shore hideaways in their corporate jets.
So, if you have your electricity through Allegheny Power, let them know you dislike their unfair practices. And look into other options for electricity providers. If you don't – stay as far away from this company as you possibly can.
All I can say to Allegheny Power is this - BAD FORM! Now, as to what I can DO about it - that is another story altogether. Filing complaints on websites such as this is merely the beginning of my perfectly legal and multi-armed attack against their corporate greed. I have also filed complaints with the Pennsylvania Utilities Commission, the BBB, and the President's Commission on Energy, to name a few.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
My Bill for April 2011 was $1100.00 for a 1500 square foot home. April was sort of a mild month. How in the world could our bill be $1100. When we bought the house 11 years ago a $200 bill was a large one. What has happened? And unless you keep all your paper bills, you cannot really know what your usage was/is. They should be required to show all this information on the website so customers can evaluate what they are being charged.
I have Alleg.Power you can plainly see by the $$ multiplier on my Bill, that they just took a raise in 2009. Yet I just received
a letter from them, saying they haven't had a raise since 1999,
and are planning one in January 2011. This is crooked!
Timothy A Gigliotti
I'm tired of their games, I'm going to try to get the Pa Attorney
General involved in an Investigation.
I agree that meters should be read every month. My bill for Jan., Feb., March were all estimated, sucks, now this month, April was read and it was really high, May is estimated real low. I have read my own meter but it's a pain. Companies should do it. Three months in a row estimated. What's their excuse and it better not be the weather for I had to go to work in it.
Allegheny Power complaint; Good for you! GO for the Juggler. This just shows everybody how incompentent washington runs the country.
fees and charges
We have had allegheny now since our home was built in april 2005 and they have been horrible! The power goes out randomly and constantly. The sun could be out with no wind and the power goes out. It's ridiculous. Any time the is going to be a storm, you can guarantee, you're going to lose power for at least 2 days. To top it off, in 2005, we went on the budget plan at $88/month. Our bill remained there for a few months then went to $99. Grew again to $118/month.in the meanwhile, our usage rates continued to decline yet out bill to raise.in dec 2006 our bill shot up to $125/month. When I called (after finally getting ahold of more than an answering machine), they told me we used a lot in the winter. I let it go, paid extra each month to get the bill back down. It only dropped to $118 again before all at once, I got a bill for $136. When I called to ask why my bill was up when my usage was down significantly, they told me they had a 27% rate increase. Yay. Since that happened in summer 2008, my bill has continued to raise $8-$10/month it is now at $150! Still, my kwh usage is lower than before. We conserve in everyway possible. We deal with cold home in winter, warm home in summer, bought energy saver lights and appliances, yet bill continues to skyrocket. Almost every month they owe me money from where I have continued to overpay my bill and my monthly payments exceed my usage yet they deem it necessary to increase my bill and penalize me if I don't pay that much. As it stands right now, they owe me $145.07 but they sent me a bill fro $150 and if its not paid in full or paid late I have a late fee. They never give me extra for letting them have my extra money to collect interest on. Times are tough and the economy sucks so if they continue to raise our bill, we will soon have no power in our home. Our entire home is ran off electricity so we are literally helpless w/o it. My husband and I have 3 young kids to care for and provide for and a. P is just another kick while we're down but no matter how much you plea with them, it does no good, your bill will continue to rise.
They refuse to engage a live person when taking care of new service requests.
My request then gets denied because they say the meter is old even though it was just installed.
I need service started for my business.
So hard to deal with these custy service people.
Here's phone numbers for supervisors, call them instead of the 800 number. The squeaky wheel gets the grease:
[protected]
[protected]
I see i am not the only one. my husband passed away 2 years ago and i moved into a smaller place. it is electric heat, the worst ever as far as cost. i have had trouble paying the high bills, but i have been doing my best. I have applied for liheap but didnt get all the information in on time. allegheny had me on a budget but when the liheap didnt go through, they took me off the budget and I got a late notice even though i paid the bill on time. the bill i got said i had 3 shut off notices and i owed them a secuirity deposit of 280.00. I thought it was a mistake, i was furious and i called them, the woman said that because i did not get liheap even though i paid my bill on time, it was considered late. Prior to this I had been calling them trying to get some help in some way. I told her what my situation was, I have been calling trying to get some help from allegheny power and it just keeps getting worse, I am not getting any help. my bills are very high even though I havent been using heat or air conditiong at all for a month. I keep thinking why havent I caught up on this bill yet. I have paid them over $ 1600.00 over the past 4 months. my bills are not going down yet. I DONT KNOW IF ANYONE FROM ALLEGHENY WILL EVER SEE THIS, I HOPE THEY DO. They dont care that they are dealing with people. There is something wrong with the board of directors. if i could live without heat i would, I have 2 children living at home with me. Ann Perrotta 64 leith st. Uniontown pa. 15401
Allegheny Power is the greediest company in the world. We have been paying our bills on time with Allegheny for 20 years. They have gotten every penny for their over-priced service. My wife and I have both lost our jobs, and we're scraping to get by on part-time work. We're a couple-hundred behind on payments to them for the first time in our lives. So - benevolent company that they are - instead of understanding our plight, they slap a $250 deposit charge on our bill from last month on top of the monthly charges. Yeah, like we can afford a $450 bill right now. We call them and tell them we can't afford their extra charges, and appeal to their conscience. Oops, they don't have one. They won't pull the deposit requirement. We can't afford it, so we make our monthly payment for the electricity. Then, the [censor] apply the payment to their IMMORAL service charge, and say we haven't paid our bill. THEN, they send one of their schmucks to our house to disconnect our power unless we pay the whole thing in full on the spot. THAT'S EXTORTION, and if I did it to someone, I would be arrested. But, of course, Allegheny Power owns all the politicians. So, now my asthmatic daughter won't be getting her medicine this month, and we'll be eating crackers and water while the FAT CAT [censor] that run this company live the high life in their mansions. New corporate motto: ALLEGHENY POWER: WE'RE WHAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICA!
I know what everyone is talking about. The electric bills are outrageous! It is absolutely ridiculous when you get an electric bill in that is just as much as your rent. I have heard so many different excusses from the electric company over and over again. You can use the same amount of electricity every month but the electric bill goes up and up. Your using " more", how? When you are doing the same and using the same appliances every month. I have changed light bulbs to energy saving, not leaving any lights on including my front porch light, unplugging things when not being used, etc... And no change; the bill just keeps getting higher. Personally, I think that the electric companies are literally taking advantage of people. These companies are just getting richer and richer off of us. If any average person would steal or "scam people" they would be sent to jail for robbery but these companies get away with taking advanage of people all the time; They just get away with it. The poor and middle class people are "slaves" to the rich class (companies) .
WOW IM GLAD TO SEE IM NOT THE ONLY ONE HAVING ISSUES WITH THIS SORRY ### ELECTRIC COMPANY THEY HAVE THE WORST CUST. SERV AND THEY ARE RAPING PEOPLE FOR THERE MONEY EVERY MONTH. SOMETHING REALLY NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH THESE ### HOLES.
My girlfriend and I moved into a small, 2-bedroom apartment in May and have had nothing but issues with Allegheny Power since the move. First and foremost, we were both previous Allegheny Power customers with service in our names. When we got the first bill, we were surprised with $261 deposit even though we were both previous customers. There was no negotiating with the agent we spoke with and had no choice but to pay the deposit.
We got the first bill and everything seemed okay. The second bill we received was an actual reading for $153. The next bill we received was an estimated reading for $117. The estimated reading was actually more than the actual reading from the previous month, yet the bill was $36 cheaper. Then, we get this month's bill which is another actual reading. Interestingly enough, the usage doubled from the last actual reading we received and the bill is now $279. This is absolutely ridiculous and our habits have not changed. I am gone for over 12 hours a day and my girlfriend is gone for over 8. The air conditioner is not running when we are not here and we are very cognizant of the energy we use. Our computers are powered down when we are not using them. The only thing we have that draws constant power is the refrigerator and alarm clock. So, I have asked for another actual reading this month and I stated to the agent I want to present when the meter is being read. We will see if that happens.
I have rented a larger, 2-bedroom end unit apartment in the past and a 3-story townhouse and have never paid more than $120 a month for electric. Unfortunately, our hands are tied because we have no other options in this area so someone needs to step in and hold power companies accounting for raking their customers through the coals. We all work extremely hard for the money we make and it is shame we have to spend so much of it on power.
I hate these energy monopolies the CEO of Allegheny Energy raked in over $37 million in his salary...Thief! Check out http://www.mycreditsucks.org/forum
I too am in the same type of boat as all of you the difference with me is that they shut my power off. I have a bill that runs about 120.00 a month it then jumped to 150.00 and so on... I lost my job and missed one payment i got hammered with a 450.00 payment due i sent a payment of about 300.00. didnt matter they shut me off and i will not recieve any money for sevral days? I have a pregnant wife and all of our heat is electric, I have literally been freezing to death. The have now hit me with a depposit that needs to be paid before hook up can occur, another 106.00 that i don't have. I not fully certain as to when I can get things up and running again. I hope soon I am otherwise going to freeze, die of hunger, and smell to high heaven...somthing about taking a ice shower really doesn't please me.
I purchased a 4 unit apartment building in July that was in need of rehab. 2 of the units remained in my name with allegheny including the common area meter. up until about 3 months ago I didn't have much of a problem, the most expensive bill was 127.00 to that point. Keep in mind this is a 2 bedroom apartment. Then all of the sudden it went up to 200.00 then the next month to 280 something. Finally last month it went up to 389.00 for one month! A 2 bedroom apartment! I called the company and they told me that it had to be something inside the unit causing the increase. So I hired an electrician to come check it. He found that the heat pump emergency system was kicking on and causing more power usage, but no way was it using 400 dollars worth of power. Allegheny refuses to check into any of these problems themselves. I'm fed up. How is there over a 100% increase in 3 months when I wasn't even using any power. It was just sitting there waiting to be rented out. It's insane. The upstairs unit that just went into my name 45 days ago was 120.00 the first time I received a bill. the next month it was 220.00. I have no idea how they are doing it but I know I am being over charged. These are 2 bedroom apartments. I know people with 4 bedroom houses that pay the same or less.
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