Many people have lots of gripes about the deregulated electricity market in Texas. Some people think it’s a sanctioned form of graft to drive up prices. Some people seem to believe that it creates unnecessary complications. Many people simply don’t understand exactly how the process works, which partly explains people with the first two point of views. However, when the Texas electricity market was deregulated in the early part of this decade, it was with the express purpose of letting a free market reign…well…free.
What exactly does that mean to customers? Well, the general idea of the benefit to customers was the idea that competition between different providers would force them to evolve into better services for the customer base. With market competition, no one could afford to rest on their laurels, no one company could afford to offer exorbitant rates when competing providers were substantially cheaper. Customer service would be at a premium, and the retail electricity providers (REPs) that offered the best customer service would do much better than their competition when it came to retaining customers. In short, the fact that no electricity company was operating on an island would force them to improve their business and their processes, to the benefit of us, the consumer. This makes sense, right?
And by and large, this has worked. Customers with bad experiences with one provider have often found great service with another REP who is happy to have their service. The prices in the marketplace, thanks to low natural gas rates, are as cheap as I can ever remember seeing them. Customers have outlets to express their dissatisfaction, and many REP’s have put great focus on customer service and retention. Except, apparently, for Reliant Energy.
I was looking over some of Reliant’s offers the other day, and I noticed something that struck me funny. Examining the Electricity Facts Labels (EFL) of their plans, under additional fees, I noticed a $5.95 Customer Center Access Fee. Certainly this seemed wrong. Was Reliant really reserving the right to charge a customer $5.95 for calling Customer Support? I kept looking around, and I noticed that it’s printed right on their web page for each plan, I’d simply missed the text. Taken verbatim from their website:
Customer care representatives are ready to help you 24-hours a day for $5.95 per call
Wow. There’s no misunderstanding that message, I don’t think. If you’ve got a problem, Reliant Energy would be thrilled to help you…for a small fee. When most other electricity providers are striving to use top notch customer service to set themselves apart from their competition, Reliant Energy is actually trying to monetize customer service to increase their coffers. Normally when someone accuses an REP of price gouging, I laugh. However, this actually fits fairly close to the mark.
Now, I’m not certain if it applies to all of their plans, but it is present on the few I checked. And I’m not certain as to how or when these charges get added onto a customer’s billing account.That much isn’t really clear from their information. Is it discretionary? If so, when does it apply? Or does it always apply? What happens if a customer has a billing error, or something that might genuinely not be their fault, like an erroneous disconnect notice? Do they have to pay $5.95? If so, to me that seems like paying to go out to dinner at a restaurant and then paying for the cleanup and dry cleaning bill if a waiter spills food and drinks all over your outfit.
Personally, I think charging people a fee (and not a cheap one) for every customer service call is outrageous. What kind of company that offers a service is only willing to assist you if you pay them? Can you imagine if your cable went out, and the only way your cable company would come out and fix it was if you had to pay them? Particularly if none of it was your fault to begin with? I cannot. Is the next thing on their list a $10 monthly charge simply because we have the honor of having Reliant Energy as our electricity provider? Fortunately, when one company tacks on fees such as this one, Texans that live in deregulated areas have the option of switching to other providers that value their customers and are willing to answer their questions and complaints…free of charge. That’s what makes electric choice in Texas so fantastic.
Below is a link to a PDF file of one of Reliant’s EFL’s which discusses the charge:
http://www.reliant.com/files/0901751880921abb.pdf