I have been a Reliant Customer for 7 years and transferred my service every where I have moved. The last move was just from one apartment to another and I thought that everywhere was okay - a few months later I received a phone call asking did I want to switch back to Reliant, I advised at the time that I had not switched away from Reliant and didn't know what they were talking about. They advised I had been switched, but wouldn't tell me the name of the other company and asked again if I wanted to remain with Reliant. Of course, I said yes, then about a month later I received back charges advising I had no plan during this time, huge bill, and I asked I thought it was wrong and I shouldn't be held responsible for their wrong doing or whoever's wrong doing, it was not me. They still would not drop those charges and said I had to be put on a payment plan, paying $100.00 plus current charges for six months. I do not have alot of money to just throw around and am a grandmother living with a child, who do they think they are. I am still battling with trying to get my account paid up to date - they have no help for me, now I am having to find a place to help me with my bill, that was what Reliant advised for me. They do not care about customer, only money. Can anyone help me with this?

A telemarketing representative identifying himself as a Reliant Energy representative contacted me concerning using Reliant service claiming huge savings particularly on demand charges. After much debate and calculating bill comparisons with the rep I agreed to to a 3 month trial with them to see if the rates would really save me money. He told me I had 3 months of bills to cancel and that I would recieve a duplicate bill so that I could compare their rate to TXU's rate which I was currently with at the time.

After agreeing to this I was sent over to a phone varification center and they read me 10 minutes of stuff. Of course they count on you glazing over and agreeing to everything, which I did. One discrepancy that I did not question was a 60 day versus 3 month cancellation time that varied from what the phone guy and the scripted agreement said. The next thing that came up was the cancellation terms which were never covered at all, so they had to back up and sell me on this. It was a situtation of convienent omition and leading me to believe something that was not true with out actually making recorded statements that were false.

So, after two months I called in since I was not happy with the rates and figured out that I was basically paying the same thing to them as TXU. The went over everything again and told me I was in a contract and there was nothing I could do as I was past the cancellation time. I told them I had three months and they reminded me that it was in fact 60 days. 3 months stuck with me because the sales guy went over that period so much. In fact it was 3 bills and not three months if you do the math on the situation. Again, a minor discrepancy and an exercise in leading.

I called repeatedly and worked with a supervisor at Reliant who researched the entire situation. He told me that they showed the contract to have come from a door salesman who came to me. I told him this was not the case and that I was not happy with the timing on the cancellation and how it was presented as well as the rate and went through the deceptive verbage used. He told me he understood and appologized for the situation and said he would work on resolving it. The solution was suppose to be cancellation with no cancellation fee. I told him I would pay the usage, but I did not feel the cancellation fee was fair considering the I never heard back, called him several times leaving messages, and again did not hear back. I proceeded to cancel the service as it was costing me $3-500/month over what I could and should have been paying since they promised to save this amount with the rate change. I went with Stream Energy this time and have been very happy as they saved me exactly what they said they would. Reliant sent be a final bill with a $3400 cancellation fee.

A month or two later I was contacted by Reliants internal collection office and went over with them the situation in an effort to pay the past due and to have the cancellation fee removed. The lady I talked with told me she would work to resolve the issue and get back with me. Again, I heard nothing.

I was later contacted by Robinson Law Group, a collection agency for Reliant, and asked to pay the past due balance. I talked with them about the situation and the lady said she would talk with Reliant about the situation and would get back to me. She called back about two to three weeks later and it was as if we had never spoken. She did not recall any details of the situation or discussed resolution or why I was contesting the cancellation charge. I went over it again and she was suppose to talk to Reliant and see what could be done. Two weeks later I get another call and she wants to set up a payment plan with me. Reliant will not remove the cancellation charges at all so I have turned it over to an attorney.

Why is it that the consumer must pay for the providers INCOMPETENCE. And then they want you to feel like its a privaledge that they let you pay. I received a bill for 172.00 as opposed to my previous bill of 7.19. Called to find out what happened, was told, probably bad meter, but if I requested a work order that they (reliant) will probably try to charge me for back usage. I said it needed to be fixed. Got a RE letter 13 days later that they couldn't check meter because it was not accessible. Been in same place for 7 years that I know of along with 12 others.This just keeps getting worse, now I owe them nearly 900.00. And am being virtually forced into accepting there payment, or disconnect.

My December bill from Reliant had a meter reading that was 1000kwh higher than it should have been. I didn't notice it until after I paid the bill. When I called and complained they said that it would even out on the next bill. On December 31st we saw the guy reading our meter in the back yard. I went and read the meter after he left. When I received my next bill the meter reading was "estimated". It was also 1200kwh higher than the actual reading. My actual meter reading was still below what they had billed me for the previous month - they owe me money. Well, they billed me for $190! When I asked them how someone could be in my back yard reading the meter and then turn in an "estimated" reading they simply put the blame on Center Point Energy. This company is a joke and just seems to be over charging everybody to make up for the loss of money that the hurricane incurred. How an energy company is allowed to do this and then threaten to turn off your energy if you don't pay what you don't owe is criminal. This product is essential for life and no company should be allowed to do this.

I have been trusting that I was getting a decent price from my electricity billing company. At the time I signed on with them they had one of the best rates around. I am on a month to month plan and I was not diligent in comparing the rates they were charging me each month. I got my electricity bill for the month of November. We did not run the air-conditioner that whole month but the bill was still very high. I looked at the rate they were charging for the energy charge and compared it to the last few bills. I realized they were charging me 18 cents per kWh and had been charging me over 19cent or for at least the last several months. I compared that to other companies on line and it's much higher than anybody else in our area. The real issue is that Reliant Energy is advertising that their current rate is 13.8 cents per kWh for the plan I'm on. Apparently once you get on with them they jack the monthly rate up thinking you will be like I was and not pay attention. I know rates fluctuate some but I went back and looked at the average rates for electricity in our area the last year and the rates have been dropping since mid summer. The cost of energy (gas) has been dropping very rapidly during that same time frame but not from for me. What they advertise is just a teaser rate. Avoid them. I have since found that there is a lot of information about Reliant being one of the worst energy billing companies for price gouging in both Texas and California. I should have done my research earlier.