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Old 07-16-2012, 09:13 AM
 
352 posts, read 777,818 times
Reputation: 323

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I just moved here and am renting a house that is all gas. I move in this weekend to find out there is no gas on. No big deal, I can setup an account online and have someone out that evening to turn it on. Not Centerpoint.

There is no one in the call center on weekends. 1st Red flag. I came from a small town in Florida and there was ALWAYS someone in the call center to take new orders and to get customers up and running ASAP. So we had to spend the weekend taking cold showers and couldnt cook or dry clothes. Great aint it?

2nd red flag is reading reviews online where this company has turned off peoples gas without notice and tons of other horror stories

My question is this the only game in town for gas? Are their business practices really this shady?
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Old 07-16-2012, 09:18 AM
 
Location: Katy
340 posts, read 802,563 times
Reputation: 303
I have my own horrible personal experience with them also, and unfortunately, yes they are the only game in town for Gas that I am aware.
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Old 07-16-2012, 09:32 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX (Bellaire)
4,900 posts, read 13,730,475 times
Reputation: 4190
Centerpoint is a monopoly. That being said I have never had an issue with them.
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Old 07-16-2012, 09:37 AM
 
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
8,309 posts, read 38,766,834 times
Reputation: 7185
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris_ut View Post
Centerpoint is a monopoly. That being said I have never had an issue with them.
It's funny to me that anyone would go to the trouble of splitting up HL&P only to assign all of the ROWs, all of the pipe in the ground and all of the wires in the air to a single entity.
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Old 07-16-2012, 09:55 AM
 
833 posts, read 1,885,106 times
Reputation: 845
Yes they have the monopoly, it is not deregulated like electricity. It could be worse our electricity could still be a monopoly like other states.
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Old 07-16-2012, 09:58 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX
18 posts, read 41,601 times
Reputation: 22
Centerpoint IS the only option and due to their monopoly, they have no regard for their customers or interest in customer service. They act like it's a privilege to use their services.
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Old 07-16-2012, 11:00 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX
2,052 posts, read 5,869,623 times
Reputation: 1298
I've never had a problem in about 25 years of using them, but then again we've always scheduled our service to be turned on/ switched before we moved in. I guess gas is not considered a "necessity" so they don't bother with weekend hours. And the landlord apparently did not want to pay for the gas between tenants so it was shut off. At least now you know to check on all the utilities ahead of time for the future.
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Old 07-16-2012, 11:39 AM
 
Location: San Antonio, TX
381 posts, read 1,092,600 times
Reputation: 311
I'd be more upset with the landlord for not keeping the gas on and/or not informing you that you will need to call Centerpoint and turn the gas on ahead of time before you move in. When no one is using the gas (in between tenants for example), the minimum charge for gas is cheap (about $15).
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Old 07-16-2012, 01:25 PM
 
Location: Houston, TX (Bellaire)
4,900 posts, read 13,730,475 times
Reputation: 4190
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtothemak View Post
Yes they have the monopoly, it is not deregulated like electricity. It could be worse our electricity could still be a monopoly like other states.
Ya we are so lucky to get to pay higher prices for our electricity for the privilege of being billed by a different entity than who controls all the generation and transmission capacity.
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Old 07-16-2012, 03:50 PM
 
Location: Pearland
799 posts, read 2,440,701 times
Reputation: 696
I will say that centerpoint was by far the easiet service to transfer to my new house. Uverse, and Green Mountain make me want to puke. Uverse mostly. I hung up halfway through the order because I couldnt stand to have the rep butcher another word, or not understand some obvious request. Im all for globalization, but cmon. Isnt customer SERVICE about the worst thing to try to get ESL people to perform?
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