“ I have been a supposed customer for 5 years and I was gullible enough to believe in them as a company by giving my automated billing information. All they had to do was supply a competitive rate and automatically take their money. However........ Spark quietly and efficiently but according to their business strategy and "fine print" increase your unit cost by as much as 25%. They are complete crooks! I hope to break from them as soon as possible. ”
“ They were charging me almost double the normal rate per unit. Scam! ”
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I rarely write reviews and usually only give positive feedback, but I decided to just write a review as opposed to taking more time to mess with the late charge this company tacked on my bill. I paid my August electric bill the way I always do through my bank's bill pay online on the 2nd of the month. The bank sent the payment in on the 4th of the month. On the bank site it said the bill was delivered on the 11th and it was due on the 12th. Last week I received a letter saying the payment was late. I called and disputed this and the person said I would have to wait for my bill to see if there was a late charge, which seemed ridiculous since I had gotten a letter from them about it.
When I recieved the bill of course, they had a $12.44 late charge. I called again and in order to speak to an operator I stayed on the line like the recording said. I was disconnected after two minutes. I repeated this and the same thing happened. The third time I called I chose the 'set up a new account' button and someone answered on the first ring. It was the billing department. I told her the situation and after checking she said I would have to contact my bank so they could send all the documentation, and that was after I had established a year's record of paying my bills on time. This is the first time a company has ever done that. With a great credit history and a record of paying my bills on time, a reputable company, even a credit card company, has always forgiven an occasional error. Both operators were very efficient, cordial and cold as they explained the situation but refused to drop the late fee charge.
In the meantime I had already changed my service to a company with a much better customer service record with a much more competitive price and I will be saving money. I will never use this company again.
So, instead of using my time to contact my bank and go through all the riggamarow of fixing this mistake, I will pay them their twelve extra dollars and use this time to inform others of the practices of this company. In the long run, if people avoid this company, Spark will certainly have received their twelve dollars, but hopefully lose future customers because they put profits ahead of customer service. ”
“ When I cancelled-becasue renewing with them would have been higher than anyone else- they overcharged me on the rate, overcharged me on a monthly fee-because it kicked in because I cancelled. Thier customer service plays stupid and really slow-took 30 minutes to get one answer. Disconnected from conversation three times. They offered no promotions and quoted me one rate and charged another.- would do nothing to correct. ”
“ When I cancelled-becasue renewing with them would have been higher than anyone else- they overcharged me on the rate, overcharged me on a monthly fee-because it kicked in because I cancelled. Thier customer service plays stupid and really slow-took 30 minutes to get one answer. Disconnected from conversation three times. They offered no promotions and quoted me one rate and charged another.- would do nothing to correct. ”
“ Since I received the email from Spark saying that it is time to renew my contract, I made a huge mistake by switching over to StarTex without realizing that my contract with Spark does not end until 4 days later. They charged me $250 for early termination. I called and emailed them several time but they just refuse to do anything to help minimizing this cost. StarTex even offered to help me by allowing me to come back to Spark without charging the early termination fee. Again Spark refused that offer as well. I have been a great customer by doing several referral for them for 6 years and this is the way that they treated their customers. I will not be the only customer that they lose. ”
“ After being a loyal customer for years, my bills increased dramatically. Months later I learned that my contract had expired and they had switched me to a higher rate. I never received anything from Spark notifying me that the contract expired. I went from approx $60 a month to $200. I spoke to a supervisor who explained it was my responsibility to log in to their website and look for notifications about the contract expiring. I asked how I would know They sent me two emails a month - I am disappointed they couldn't be bother to email me that my contract was expiring. I aksed to renew the contract retroactively and was told it was not an option. I aksed for the name of someone higher to whom I could write a letter and was told that was not an option; I could only write to the anonymous email account. I feel misled and cheated. ”
“ Spark Energy takes advantage of people just because they can and I have never had my electricity turned off in my life. They were the first to turn off my electric when I protested a bill. Turns out their provider reads the meters occasionally, because I read meter also and it was no where near the correct reading. The readings also reflected the next larger number each time they read it. Only one member in my household and I keep my programmable thermostat on 80, since I am cold natured. Something wrong there. Never had electric bills like the ones I received from Spark Energy. ”
“ Had to file a Formal Complaint with Public Utilities Commission of Texas. After insisting I was being over billed I confirmed through Centerpoint Energy they were in fact over billing on my pass through charges. Worse company ever, extremely poor customer service!!!If you use this company be prepared for the worst!!! ”
“ i had a 12month contract with them first bill about average 2nd bill almost triple. I called them they said they had undercharged prior month. 1st bill @300.00 2nd $900.00 i complained no good. after that my bill averaged out. like a fool 2 year same thing 1st bill 300.00 2nd almost 700.00 same crap. I'm with southwest power and light. my bills havent been this low in years. @ 150.00 to 200.00 a month 1600 sq ft house. ”
“ Promised lower rates always. Promised no contract, just month to month.Last months rate doubled.Rates have been higher than local supplier. Now they say it's a 24 month planand they will save money only over the 24 months.They are liars.Promised to get back with me and have not. Next step complaints toBBB and reg commission. ”
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NO customer service at all..will never recommend
to family/friends ”
“ When I moved out of state, Spark would not honor our agreement and tried to charge a $200 termination fee. After 15 phone calls and 3 months wait, I got this fee removed. Months and months later, they still refuse to close my account. Is there any other reason for this then to try to charge me for something and hold my personal information? ”
“ I was a customer for 3 years and I renewed for another 3 years at 9.2 cents per kwh. But somehow they lost my renewal and started charging me 34 cents per kwh. I called and wrote them over and over and they told me I was screwed. They refused to give me a refund, so I found another company that is treating me like a human being now. ”
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I receive a final bill 8 month later for which they apologies but then Spark energy requested immediate payment.
It seems absurd that a company keep you waiting months on end for a final bill but then pretend immediate payment. it seems like double standart to me. ”
“ We initially signed up for a 2-yr contract with automated billing and payments. Did not discover that contract had ended until I questioned why last bill seemed extremely high. I noticed that they just switched me to higher M2M rate. When I asked if I could get adjustment if I renewed, CS told me NO, the rate would be effective the date I renewed. I argued that they gave me no advance notice that contract was expiring and expected me to remember 24 months after signup! Total difference between old and new rate was over $300. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THESE CROOKS AGAIN! ”
“ I used spark about 2 yrs ago and had several problems with them. I was happy with my initial rate which at the time was lower than the others, but when I tried to cancel at the end of my contract because I was moving out I had difficulties. It was near Hurricane Ike, I had set a turn off date plenty far in advance and they forced me to pay for electricity after the cancellation date they agreed upon. It did not get turned off for almost a week later(which I paid for to just be done with it). Then about 8 months later I got a bill from them saying I owed MORE money. They said they made a billing error. I complained a few times and nobody would budge, then stated in an e-mail I would complain to the PUCT they decided to drop the extra fees.Please beware!I gave half a lightbulb since that was the lowest I could go! ”
“ The Texas PUC mandates that electricity providers make customers aware of the expiration of their contract 14 days before the event. Spark does not send a letter as in years past. Customer service (complete misnomer)was most unhelpful as I tried to resolve the matter. Yes, it is my responsibility to review the bills. However, I would have never thought to check the contract expiration date each month. I was told by customer service that the only way they would reduce my bill was if I renewed my contract. No way. I signed up with another provider, for a much lower rate, and wrote off last month's extremely high bill as a lesson learned. ”
“ I've been trying to cancel my account for days now since I'm going to be moving. I called them to get it cancelled, and to their credit they did that pretty quick. To settle a final balance due (of only 24$ mind), I was redirected several times to the pay desk, where i was put on hold twice for over 2 hours. I'm on hold with them right now, it is 1.5 hours and counting. Never going to go back to this company again. ”
“ I agree with previous post. Exact same thing happened to me. They did not notify me of contract about to expire - so I had 2 months of summer electricity bills to pay the automatic newly contracted rate that they just decided on. When I called to discuss, I was told that they "have no obligation to notify customers of contract expiration." DO NOT USE SPARK! ”
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