Let me start by laying out some backround for our home. I've been unemployeed for a couple of months now. Been looking for a job, but having no luck with it. This means our only source of income to pay any of the bills is my husbands military paycheck. Those of you in the military know that it's not a HUGE paycheck, and with several things we're working to pay off money's gotten tight. We've been working with nearly everyone we owe money to with satisfactory results on both ends...except Amigo energy.

Our bill was due Nov. 10th and was the total of $346.08. Starting a few days after we'd received it, my husband and I took turns trying to get a hold of someone with Amigo energy to work out a way to pay the amount over time. It was a higher bill then usual, but I figured that maybe the prior month we only paid a partial amount...I haven't gone back and looked through the old bills yet. I plan too though.

Anyways, it wasn't until Nov. 18th that someone finally picked up the phone. This was after almost two weeks of us alternating who would be sitting on hold for an hour and longer and different points during the days. On the 18th I waited 1 hour and 37 minutes on hold before someone answered my call.

I was told that we had to pay $216 that day and that it had to be a money gram, because we hadn't called before the 10th. I said okay, so if I pay $250 the left over amount will go onto the next bill? The rep told me no, because we had to pay $346 to keep the electricity on. I asked where that number came from and she said that it was the past due amount. I asked where the $216 came from and she said that was the amount due. So I asked if the total amount we owed was around $550. No, she said, we owed $216. Again, I asked if $250 would keep the electricity on and the conversation started repeating itself. When I asked to speak to someone else to get clarification since we were not understanding each other, she hung up on me.

Determined to get at least part of the bill paid, I went to Walmart to do a money gram for $250 and after I parked the car, called Amigo again to make sure that would be enough to keep the electricity on. I walked from the far side of the parking lot on hold. Waited in line for about 45 minutes on hold. Got to the teller, told her everything I needed to do, had her figure out the correct company code (we had to send one previously to the same company when we didn't get our bill and the payment was past due), received my receipt, went grocery shopping for milk and bread (with the last of our money), paid for that, got to my car, and hung up the phone because I didn't want to be on hold driving through town.

Soon after I got home, my husband did as well and I explained everything to him that had happened. We had an appointment that night, so didn't have time for sitting around on hold again. On the 19th, he went to work and I proceeded to call Amigo again... and again.. and again... I had to keep calling back between times I was filling out more job applications and trying to reach the people I had already filled out job ap's with. Suprisingly (not), even though my on hold times varied from 30 minutes to 2 hours, no one ever answered my calls.

Today's the 20th. I called again and waited on hold for over an hour before I hung up because I had a doctor's appointment to attend. Once I got through there, picked up my prescriptions, and made it home again, I called Amigo again. This time after about 30 minutes someone actually answered!

I told him that I wanted to make sure that my electricity was going to stay on and set up a date to finish paying what was now past due and the current bill between the 29th of this month and 1rst of December. The guy I spoke to told me we owed Amigo $501.49. I asked what for since I just made a payment of $250. He said that he didn't see that, did some more checking, asked for ridiculous amounts of information (phone number, address, how we paid, when we paid, referral number, and a bunch of other stuff) to finally say oh yes, you paid that but you still owe $501.49. I asked how our bill had gotten that high. He told me that it was just the amount due now. I said okay, but we paid $250 two days ago. Doesn't that take off about half of the bill? He replied it did, but we still owed $501.49. I asked if our electricity was going to be kept on since we paid 1/2 of that and was put on hold for another 15 minutes.

When he came back, he had a new number of $96.08 that had to be paid before the 24th or our electricity would be turned off. I stated again that we have NO MONEY and had JUST PAID everything that was in our checking account and wanted to set up a payment plan to bring everything current. He said that was impossible since we were already late and they had already been working with us.

They had???? WHEN??? In over 8 days we had gotten 2 phone calls answered. How in the heck were they working with us?

Anyways, we were going around in circles and I asked for the number to their legal department or who I would talk with inside Copperas Cove so that we kept our electricity going on and he told me that it was impossible to keep it connected unless we paid the $96.08 and then hung up on me.

Now we're trying to figure out how to make the negative dollar amount in our bank account grow into the positive so that our electricity isn't cut off on the 24th until we can pay it 5 days later.

Moral of all this?

AMIGO ENERGY is NOT your friend!
They DO NOT work with you.
They have POOR POOR POOR customer service.
If you're trying to save money, you're better off going to paper fans and candles.