Consumers Energy defends higher prices, bills

miss-moll wrote:

Last month we had a $400 bill from Consumers (gas and electric)- waaaaay higher than normal.
I made payment arrangements on their "new improved" website. They sent me the paperwork with the first payment being due 2 days earlier, so the website refused to accept it. I called and they pretty much told me "tough luck" and insisted I pay them $200 that day, plus an extra $5.75 convenience fee.
What a bunch of a**holes.

A convience fee for what ?

A concerned person wrote:

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A convience fee for what ?

If you pay your bill online through their website or over the phone, they charge you a convenience fee to do this.

Nice huh?

A concerned person wrote:

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Yes you are correct we havent met in person , well atleast we dont know if we have or not ..lol ..but honestly you are the 1st person I have known that they estimate it to high on. Especially the month of the change over .

LOL.. exactly.. at least that we know of!

They always estimate too high on us. Where our meter is, the gate is nonfunctional to get in the dog pen. The previous owner had to board it up as their dog kept getting out ( 2 owners ago did a really REALLY bad job on the fencing and we haven't had the money to fix their errors). So, you have to go through the gate on the FAR side and walk around back. Most of them are just too d.amn lazy to actually do the extra work, and there are many notes in the system that our dogs are not outdoor dogs. So after about 3 months of me calling and pitching fits and talking to supervisors on their poor staff, I finally get an actual reading. The previous owner had a HUGE credit in the middle of winter and didn't have to pay a gas/electric bill for 2 months because of it. THAT'S how badly they estimate out here.

neecer wrote:

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If you pay your bill online through their website or over the phone, they charge you a convenience fee to do this.
Nice huh?

They do this to cover their Visa/Mastercard fees for accepting online payments. Only they charge about $18.00 too much for it. They call it a convenience fee because it's convenient for them.

Booger Snacks wrote:

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They do this to cover their Visa/Mastercard fees for accepting online payments. Only they charge about $18.00 too much for it. They call it a convenience fee because it's convenient for them.

They also do this for checks, not just credit cards. So it's just a way to get more money out of people. I know I've had WAY too many of their bills get 'lost' in the mail and have had the checks cashed 10 days past the due date when it was mailed in at least a week in advance. To drop the bill off at the Clay location is way out of my way unless I have a friend take it in when she's in that part of town or Mr. Neecer is able to before/after work.

neecer wrote:

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If you pay your bill online through their website or over the phone, they charge you a convenience fee to do this.
Nice huh?

Especially when it costs them less to transact the deal. Less labor....

Nicholas wrote:

Well CE said that they have not read our meter for 36 months its been an est.but now they can magicaly read it and gave us 20 days to pay $1990.37 or they will shut it off on me my wife and 3 kids. I called and said we pay our bill every month and have rec. of that they said sorry and the phone went to a busy signal.plus the back el. is at $0.75cents and the normal on the bill is$0.54per whatever they charge and a 2% late fee will be added every month to the balance that is 40$ per month just late fees. we cant afford this and i guess will have to go without until I can get someone to listen!!!

Contact Target 8 on woodtv.

neecer wrote:

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If you pay your bill online through their website or over the phone, they charge you a convenience fee to do this.
Nice huh?

Ok, I'm confused (Again). I have my bill directly taken out of my checking account. I looked at my bill for July and there was no extra fee that I can find. Does this "convenience" fee only apply if use a credit or debit card?

neecer wrote:

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If you pay your bill online through their website or over the phone, they charge you a convenience fee to do this.
Nice huh?

I hate utility companies. Not helpful, I know. But I needed to get that out.

All this talk in here had me going back through my electric bills and checking. I have NEVER had an estimated bill in the last 3 years. Maybe it has to do with location? Are they more likely to do an estimate in for a rural customer? I just don't get how Consumers can get away without doing an actual reading for 3 years as an earlier poster mentioned. That's just wrong!!!

Hurley35 wrote:

All this talk in here had me going back through my electric bills and checking. I have NEVER had an estimated bill in the last 3 years. Maybe it has to do with location? Are they more likely to do an estimate in for a rural customer? I just don't get how Consumers can get away without doing an actual reading for 3 years as an earlier poster mentioned. That's just wrong!!!

I am wondering if consumers changed their meter , tv8 had a story about a year ago about someone who had their meter changed and it was incorrect and wasnt set according to the one they took out and they had some astronomical bill , something like 18k .But when target 8 contacted consumers they corrected the problem immediatley.

Yeah I think they are more likely to estimate rural customers , that way they dont have to pay all the driving and stuff.Because I have noticed the bills we get usually get estimated in the winter months.

Hurley35 wrote:

<quoted text>Ok, I'm confused (Again). I have my bill directly taken out of my checking account. I looked at my bill for July and there was no extra fee that I can find. Does this "convenience" fee only apply if use a credit or debit card?

That's different and there is no fee for that. If you pay online through your bank's online bill pay, or have it automatically pulled out, there is no fee. If you call them to pay or use CE's website to pay, THEN you get slapped with a fee for that.

Hurley35 wrote:

All this talk in here had me going back through my electric bills and checking. I have NEVER had an estimated bill in the last 3 years. Maybe it has to do with location? Are they more likely to do an estimate in for a rural customer? I just don't get how Consumers can get away without doing an actual reading for 3 years as an earlier poster mentioned. That's just wrong!!!

We go a couple months at a time if I don't hound them to actually read it. I think it's because of where the meter is and the laziness of the reader. When I was home, we had someone who was here every month and I walked him to where the meter was so he knew. He also knew the puppies were inside if there was no vehicles in the drive and if there was, to let me know he was there. That way I would let him know if the dogs were inside or not. We didn't have an estimate on our bill for 9 months. We had 2 estimate this past winter, one was after the 'blizzard' and we couldn't even GET to the gate let alone open it. The other was the day of that nasty ice storm, and we got Pounded with ice down here. I remember that day. Took me 1.5 hours to drive 25 miles and took Mr. Neecer 3 hours to just get to the shop from Battle Creek and then another hour to get home from the shop. I don't think he was reading that day.. not that I blame him!

And funny, now we're back to estimates unless I call and complain. Make me think the other guy was too accurate and they weren't getting any extra money, that they would have to refund anyway!

Wow, I just paid my CE bill: it is the highest bill we have ever had since this house was built and that was back in 1929. i think it was about 125%. Wow.
Don't these folks knowthe effect they're having on "everything?"

A concerned person wrote:

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I am wondering if consumers changed their meter , tv8 had a story about a year ago about someone who had their meter changed and it was incorrect and wasnt set according to the one they took out and they had some astronomical bill , something like 18k .But when target 8 contacted consumers they corrected the problem immediatley.
Yeah I think they are more likely to estimate rural customers , that way they dont have to pay all the driving and stuff.Because I have noticed the bills we get usually get estimated in the winter months.

We're considered rural, but we're in the village limits in an actual 'neighborhood'. The village went and replaced all the water meters last summer so they could 'scan' and get the reading from it instead of checking each one. Would make sense for CE to do that too. But then again, they wouldn't have any reason to over estimate anyone.

I can honestly say, I have never had an under estimate. I even had to get after them when I lived in Rockford. The meter was on the side of the house that was closest to the driveway, he didn't have to walk 10 feet and he could read the meter!

neecer wrote:

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That's different and there is no fee for that. If you pay online through your bank's online bill pay, or have it automatically pulled out, there is no fee. If you call them to pay or use CE's website to pay, THEN you get slapped with a fee for that.

Yeah, it's so damned hard to push those little keys on the computer...gotta feel bad for those hard working folks at Consume-all<gag..hack! ewww!>

neecer wrote:

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We're considered rural, but we're in the village limits in an actual 'neighborhood'. The village went and replaced all the water meters last summer so they could 'scan' and get the reading from it instead of checking each one. Would make sense for CE to do that too. But then again, they wouldn't have any reason to over estimate anyone.
I can honestly say, I have never had an under estimate. I even had to get after them when I lived in Rockford. The meter was on the side of the house that was closest to the driveway, he didn't have to walk 10 feet and he could read the meter!

Yeah they still might not consider that rural , I am guessing they mean these places where people have 10-20 acres between them and its like 1/4 mile between drives.
But its interesting you brought that up , consumers has been putting in new meters of some kind.They know exactly what happens to them also . One of the guys I know ,when they came and took and put the new one on his house went down to a vacant house down the road took that one off ,removed the new one and put the old one up in its place . The interesting thing is within an hr consumers was back pounding on his door demanding they tell them what he did with the old meter.Now if they cant tell anything about the meters how did they know he removed the new one and replaced it? Espescially within that hr.

michael g wrote:

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That's what practically everyone on this site has been complaining about. They get a bill that's way too high because Consumers did an estimated bill.
And again, what's the difference? You pay for the electric you use. Does it really matter if it's $80 one month and $120 the next month, or $100 each month? If you don't like the variability, sign up for the budget plan.

DO NOT sign up for the Budget Plan. I did that for about 6 months and it tripled 4 months into the plan because they said that I was going to pay a bigger payment at the end of the plan. They should have figured that out when I first signed up for it. I was looking to save money, not shovel more their way.

Broke wrote:

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DO NOT sign up for the Budget Plan. I did that for about 6 months and it tripled 4 months into the plan because they said that I was going to pay a bigger payment at the end of the plan. They should have figured that out when I first signed up for it. I was looking to save money, not shovel more their way.

Oh yes another thing about why not to sign up on the budget plan, I have know a couple people who did and if they get into trouble and cant pay and get a shut off notice ,they cannot get public assistance because of it . SO the end up getting their electric shut off even in the middle of the winter.

neecer wrote:

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That's different and there is no fee for that. If you pay online through your bank's online bill pay, or have it automatically pulled out, there is no fee. If you call them to pay or use CE's website to pay, THEN you get slapped with a fee for that.

Thanks for the Clarification Neecer. I guess I'm just going to keep doing it the way I am. I've never had a problem with it, it's convenient and my money stays in my account right up until the due date collecting interest.