Electric Company for Bridgeland in Cypress? (Houston: good credit, house, buyer)

[tmc300]

Hi, we're moving to Bridgeland soon and I need to apply for electricity. Through the Power to Chose website, I narrowed down to Mega Energy or Discount Power. Both companies offer $8.7 cents fixed rate for 12 months. Has anyone used Mega Energy and Discount Power before? If so, they are good companies to use? Thanks for your help.

[GettaClue]

The state's PowerToChose.org site offers more than just pricing. They also have a customer service scorecard. The most current version (July through Dec. 2010) is at: http://powertochoose.org/_content/_complaint/scorecard_0111.pdf (broken link)

You'll notice on this one that Mega is way down the list at number 36 of 39 providers.

If a provider isn't shown, it's usually because they they're too new to be reliably rated. Sometimes a change in their company name or their "doing business as" name can cause them be excluded too.

IME, it's well worth it to pay a bit more for a provider with a decent reputation (I like to stay in the top half of the list) and who has been around for awhile. You can really wind up paying big time for unknowns and the difficult ones in much bigger ways than just money.

I also wanted to add....be very careful, especially with many of the very low rate plans Many times they have added fees which jacks up the actual rate. be sure to read both the Terms of Service and the Facts Label for each and every offer you're considering!

[piyf]

Just go with the cheapest that has a lock in on the rate with decent reviews. But don't just go by that site as sometimes it has out dated pricing and terms. I've never had to call my electric company.


Most people give reviews when they have something go wrong and hardly post when everything is great.

[kreeyax]

Reliant has 7.4 cents with 6 month contract, 20% wind, if you go through their link on the power to choose site. I usually bounce between Reliant and Champion, they both seem pretty decent.

[chris_ut]

Champion is good. Gexa is not as good but you can get a ton of airline miles if you have interest in such things.

[GettaClue]

Originally Posted by kreeyax

Reliant has 7.4 cents with 6 month contract, 20% wind, if you go through their link on the power to choose site. I usually bounce between Reliant and Champion, they both seem pretty decent.

The problem with going with a 6 month contract right now is that it puts you having to shop contracts again in August, the very time when rates usually tend to be at their highest.

[tmc300]

Thanks for mentioning about the scorecard. One thing I don't understand is what are the complaints about. Once you have electricity set up for your house and as long as you have electricity for your house, what's there to complaint?
I'm currently living in Asia and I've only contacted my electric company once to set up for my home. After that, I've never contacted them again.
Is it different in Houston? If you use companies with bad scorecard (like Mega Energy), what are the complaints? Do you lose electricty or something?

[GettaClue]

Complaints can be due to all kinds of things. While some are from people who didn't pay their bills as agreed and are upset at the outcome, there are also a lot of complaints regarding providers' failure to perform in some manner.

Some examples:

• Switching a customer to a provider's company without authorization.

• Failure of the company to set up and/or provide service as agreed.

• Requiring deposits to set up service, even though the customer has a good credit score.

• Inaccurate billing, and/or failure to resolve inaccurate billing.

• Adding unauthorized or undisclosed charges to an account, or overcharging various fees.

• Failure to give customers their promised incentives.

• Failure of the company to respond in a timely manner to customer requests for information, etc..

• Failure of the company to return deposits to the customer in a timely manner.

Sometimes a complaint or a dispute does indeed result in power being turned off.

[mwaldenm]

Just got my first bill from Mega Energy.
Signed up for un unbeleivable rate ($00.078 KWH) and then realized they screwed me with a "TDSP Pass Through Charge".
My bill went from $276.35 for the regular rate to $396.15 after I added the Pass Through Charge.
My new average is $00.11 per KWH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The customer service rep (oxymoron) said it was listed on my "FACTS" sheet. I read the entire agreement prior to signing up & did not see this charge. I also did not print it out, so I guess I am screwed.
$200 to cancel, or they gave me the option to re-sign a new agreement less the "Pass Through Charge" for $00.096 per KWH.
Bait & Switch.....
BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HH1962]

You need to read the fine print. They suck you in with a low rate and then get you with the hidden fees. You must do your homework.