I signed up for a heating protection plan in 2009 and was paying 20.99 per month. In one service call I was told by a sales representative from Direct Energy that there is a more comprehensive plan (Total home protection plan) that covers air conditioning and plumbing, etc. for additional 9 dollars. The sales person explained that I will be receiving the same benefits and more and there is no need to sign for a new contract. That was in February, so I said go for it..
To my surprise, when I saw my next bill, I was billed for 20.99 and 29.99 together so I called Direct Energy customer service and they acknowledge the problem and told me that they will be crediting the amount to my account and will be reflected in the next bill..
Next bill came with a charge of 20.99, 29.99 and a number of charges with a credit that amount to additional $40 charge. After a long and unpleasant call to Direct Energy, I was told that in order to switch to the new “Total home protection plan” they have to cancel the first plan “heating protection plan” and then add the new plan. Something that is completely new to me especially I called a month ago to inform them of the charge. Also they told me that I missed on the chance to cancel the plan (two months) which is a complete trickery especially I called a month earlier regarding the problem. Some of the things I heard from the executive support (supposedly the highest ranking support) indicates to me the following:
• Direct Energy do not care about customers satisfaction at all
• Direct Energy customer support is very inflexible even if the customer is obviously screwed by them. They would not make any adjustment to the additional charges taken from me.
• The cancellation, change, and renewal policies are very tricky and Direct Energy takes full advantage of these confusing policies.
• Sales people do not give you the complete picture and charges when they sign you up to any upgrade. They basically want to complete the sale and get their commission.
Overall satisfaction with Direct Energy is very poor. I recommend that you be careful if you decide to go with Direct Energy and don’t change your plan in the middle. Of course I recommend that you don’t even go with Direct Energy to start with.

I got into the contract from Direct Energy. The said that I would be much cheaper than what we were currently paying. They reps, after a couple months gave us a quote. Now that we compare its unbelivelable. I have asked couple of times to get the reps to get a reading on the meter. But they are too busy and I always have to run around. The bills went up from $180 TO INSANE $1150 (MY HOUSE IS ONLY 1100 SQ FT). So I think this is a RIP OFF and these type of things schould be stopped. I think at times these RIP OFF companies should pay a heavy price for scamming middle class recession affected people. Who are trying to make ends meet but they have to come up with funds to pay these kinds of insane bills each and every month. We have to let the kids starve but make bill payments to keep their good credit. I think that something needs to be done!

I've had several problems with this company. First with the billing. They didn't send the bill the first two months or so and their explanation was the person supposed to come and read the meter was not available. Recently, they cut my service saying I didn't pay the last month bill. When I called and said it was paid but I didn't have the transaction number ( I needed to look on my bank account on line) they said I could pay on the phone to have the service reconnected, and you know it will take 24 hours to be reconnected.

The next day I had to call from work and try to get someone to help but nothing happened. My husband called me and asked what did I do because they reconnected the power very soon in the morning. They waited after my husband went out for a moment. He saw the car of the company getting out the building when he was getting back home.

No sorry calls or notes. I switch to another company just now. It's all bout costumer service, people. Also I think is ilegal to come to your house without a notice and cut your power knowing there might be children or sick people that need the power to survive or medical purposes.

We live in a house that was built circa 1920 and have been systematically renovating. The first part was a total tear down and rebuild of a kitchen addition completed in early 2004. A year later we began to address other structural and infrastructure issues prior to tackling cosmetic upgrades. We invited Direct Energy to submit a bid for replacing our roof, gutters, and soffits. When the salesman, John Bailey, came to inspect the scope of the project and give us a bid, we told him we were also putting siding on the new addition and replacing siding on the original house. He told us they could provide a quote on that work also. We signed contracts for all of this work to be done. There were specific guidelines requested, such as how the window trim would be done.

The crew that did the roofing seemed professional, but when I was concerned that I didn't see any ice shield. The workers pretended they could not speak English (I had heard the foreman talking to John in English). Anyway, I was assured by John that the job had been done to spec. The shingles seemed to wave along the edge and he said the floor of the roof had some warping. Don't know why that was not addressed initially before the shingles were applied. And the old shingles did not wave along the edge. In addition the shingles began lifting later and he sent someone to address that problem.

Another subcontractor did the siding. The windows were not framed as requested. I complained, and all that was done was John took photos. He did get the contractor to remove soffit material he attempted to complete the job with rather than open another box of the siding material. The siding guys removed the old siding material and did not protect it overnight when they left. A rain/wind storm drove water into the house and was dripping from the light fixtures of the new addition. A late night call did summon them out to tarp the area they had not protected.

We also had contracted with Direct Energy at the same time to have insulation put into the walls and attic. We now thought we have a home that is secure from the elements. WRONG. We have lived in this house over twenty years and now for the first time we have ice dams every winter. This only started happening after the "improvements." We have called every year, and nothing gets resolved. Last year an "expert" was sent to evaluate the problem. He stood on the sidewalk and concluded we needed to purchase additional service of heaters in our gutters to the tune of approximately another $1000. He came to that conclusion by contrasting our house with another nearby similar house that also had ice dams. That house we already know is in desperate need of a new roof and gutters.

This past week the ice dams were worse than ever with huge ice cycles draping down like stalactites. No other house in the neighbourhood had these except for the same house that had been noted before that still needs a new roof and gutters. We also for two years straight have now had water dripping into the house from a window frame when the ice dams form.

We have spent a lot of money with Direct Energy, including a new Trane central air conditioner (the ONLY thing that has not had a problem). I cannot proceed with interior work until these issues are resolved.

I had my post winter maintenance last may, crack in the heat exchanger.OK, so i bought new furnace from them, heating maintenance was to be removed then and there, oops!! I guess they forgot, called 3 times throughout the year to re- cancel maintenance, but the last time they finally told me i missed the cut off time to cancel.Ya know sometimes i wonder if my old furnace was really screwed or they just needed to make a sale, who knows.Our government really needs to keep an eye on these guys, I have a few more complaints but I am too mad to sit here any longer...just thought i would throw this in, I`m sure there is many many more out there alot worse.YIP theys is crooks, yes they is :)