Customers are not too happy with Discount Power as of late or so it would appear when looking at customer reviews online.
Nancy P on 09/15/2022 gave them a 1 star review and emphatically states, “Do NOT sign up with this company”
She goes on to say, “they are total scammers”. She says they charged her more than double what her rate was with the previous electric company she was with.
My question is why did she choose a higher rate that was double what she was currently paying? There seems to be missing information here.
I am going to assume she was put on an introductory rate and then it expired and the rate increased in price subsequent months. Without knowing more information I have to speculate about this.
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It could also be that her prior electric company she was with went out of business because of a historically high jump in Texas electricity prices in the summer of 2022. Normal fixed rate residential contracts for a 1 year fixed contract were in the range of 23 – 26 cents per kWh. It was truly ridiculous!
Some energy companies went out of business and the Public utility Commission of Texas had to move these customers to the “Provider of Last Resort”
The Texas government automatically moves customers to a provider in these situations so you don’t come home one day and electric service is turned off.
Your great super cheap contracted rate is no longer honored by your previous electric company because they no longer exist and your new rate is super high because the Texas energy market prices have skyrocketed for everyone.
In these situations you lose your contracted rate but you also get stuck having to shop for electricity rates when prices are at all time highs. It’s definitely a horrible issue but if this is what happened Discount Power had little to do with it beyond being the Provider of Last Resort for the Texas government.
What Ayan M. Had to Say About Discount Power
August 6 2022 Ayan writes, “I never signed up with this company yet receiving electric bills. this is a scam”
If it is true that he never signed up with this company than this is what they call in the industry slamming.
What is slamming? When you are switched to a new electric company without your permission this is called slamming.
Ayan desires to prosecute Discount Power and wants to know how and why are they doing this. Ayan sounds like a pretty disgruntled “customer” and I can see why. I have never had my electric service slammed but if it did happen I would be pretty upset.
Without having information beyond this a couple scenarios that may have caused this could be door to door sales people hired to sign people on electric service that went ahead and switched service without getting the express permission to do so.
For instance, if a sales person came to Ayan door and talked to him about changing service and Ayan entertained the notion but did not say for sure they he wanted to do it the sales person could have been desperate and signed him up anyway.
Hopefully any outsourced sales people knocking on doors for Discount Power didn’t do this but it does happen and not every sales person is on the up and up.
Cindy W. Claims Discount Power “Price Gouges”
Cindy W wrote in July of 2022 that Discount Power charged her 3-4 times the cost of what her previous energy contract was charging. It looks like I can see what happened in Cindy’s case. Texas electric rates jumped to historical highs around this time. If an electric company is not executing their business properly during volatile price swings in the market they are very susceptible to going out of business.
The PUCT will force a retail electric provider to hand over their electric service customers to a provider that has the financial means to take them over in these insolvent situations.
It looks like Cindy was with an electric company that did not hedge their energy properly and had to give over their customers to any provider willing to take them. In these situations the price is a market price which is usually very high.
The reason the price is so high is because if it was so volatile to cause an electric company to have to give up all their customers you are likely dealing with a major uptick in the price of Texas electricity.
The market prices at the time the customers were given to a new electric company were high to begin with and the new provider has no ability or justification for honoring the price the previous electric company gave them.
What happens in these cases is that the new provider can get blamed for the previous providers mistake. Whoever Cindy was with prior to being automatically switched to Discount Power by the PUCT should be blamed in this case. I wonder what provider that was that went out of business?
Basically Cindy was with an electric company prior to being switched to Discount Power that went out of business. Texas has a safeguard to move these customers to a new provider so no interruption in service occurs.
There is usually some type of warning that goes out to shop electric plans to insure you are on a good rate but it sounds like she may not have gotten that notice.
I can’t say I agree that this company took advantage of Cindy as they were likely giving her the market rate and agreement with the Texas government to insure she has uninterrupted power. This explanation doesn’t take a way from the fact that it was a tragedy what happened to her and I would not wish on anybody to have to pay the equivalent of a mortgage payment for 1 month of electric service.
Martin S. Reacts to Being Disconnected Due to Non-Payment
The last review to mention comes from Martin related to a disconnect of his electric service. He claims he did not receive a notice that disconnection was imminent due to non-payment. He says there was no responsiveness from their customer service department and has decided to switch electric companies.
I will say whether your a car lot or a business leasing or financing you something if the business does not get their money they are coming for that asset. It will never be a very customer friendly situation to get your car repossessed or have your electric service turned off.
Martin does have a point that he should have been given notice that he was in danger of being disconnected for non-payment. If he never received this notice than Discount Power would be in violation of a PUCT code. At this point it is deciding if what the customer has said in this online review is true or not. Based on his stated words taking them as truthful he definitely should have been given some notices.
Donny Eisenbach
Donny has been writing about the deregulated energy markets since early 2007. His knowledge has helped consumers lower their electricity cost.
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