Our Analysis of WTU Retail Energy

I was a happy Reliant customer. A WTU sales rep came to the door and basically sold me on their service. I have a house with a detached garage. The garage has its own separate power meter. My ONE and ONLY request I had with WTU was that I had one account with both meters on it. I was assured by the salesman as well as WTU over the phone that that wouldn't be a problem at all.

My first bill came and it is indeed two entirely separate accounts. Even further, the garage account has "garage" as part of the street address. My postman told me that is not a valid address to the USPS and it threw up flags on their sorting equipment. Calling WTU to fix the problem resulted in a 2 hour 55 minute phone call. Which I was going to be charged a $2.00 reconnect fee as well as a $50.00 deposit -- for which I AM ALREADY A CUSTOMER!! Fixing the address issue is an impossibility according to the 5 people I spoke with at WTU. Apparently, having one account with two meters is just something their system isn't designed to handle. Reliant had no issues with this at all. When I discovered the error, it was 31 days after signing up. 1 day past the 30 day limit to cancel service.

When all was said and done, I just had them cancel the entire request and leave the screwed up address and the two entirely separate accounts in my name. (I'm *NOT* paying them $52.00 for them to fix their mistake). So thankfully the post office knows who I am and where I live. For the next two years, every single time I get a bill now, I'll be reminded what a screwup this company is just by looking at where they addressed the bill to.

In the last 24 hours, I'm at least confident in the knowledge that I had actively prevented two people from signing up with WTU. For the next two years, I hope it is many, many more I can convince to stay away from them.

WTU will *NOT* work with customers, especially to fix their own mistakes. I deeply regret my decision to go with WTU. This is a lesson to do my homework on a company before signing up with them. The $300 cancellation fee appears very, very tempting just to go back to Reliant and be done with WTU and their gross incompetence.

Stay away from WTU. If you have one property with two or more power meters, stay FAR FAR FAR away from WTU.

Moving and had service terminated. Online system deleted credit card on file and didn't recognize account number when I called to pay the final bill. Had to finally call the above number, then select start service to get a live body to transfer me to billing. Should change online billing so that account info is NOT deleted until final bill is paid. Helloo....does that make sense to anyone? I've spent an hour just trying to pay a bill. By the way, half the links and phone numbers listed on your websites don't work. Doubtful we'll be using you again, especially since I've read the other reviews and found out there are less expensive companies.

I've used WTU for a while now and have had a good time with them, however this month my bill had increased by $60. I inquired as to why this was, since none of my electric usages had increased. They told me since they had to send me two disconnection notices I was being charged $30 per notice. This was never once communicated to me. I guess since they sent me two pieces of paper in the mail they get to charge me more. Backstory? I hit a rough patch at work the past two months and fell behind. I made up and paid the bill in full($256). So I fixed things with my electric provider. I thought everything was fine and dandy until these "surprise" fees popped up on my next bill. I suppose if this were communicated to me, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But it was not. Very, very poor communication from my provider. Now they're willing to waive one of those $30 fees. Gee, that's great. But wait.. Since you, as a million dollar corporation, did not tell me about any of these fees, I should not have to pay them. I asked several friends and family if they had this issue and they said they noticed it on their bills before and they had the EXACT same issue.

If you are unfortunate enough to have chosen WTU, don't let your guard down for a second or they will rob you. My bill this summer increased about 300%---come to find out my contract had expired so they put me on a "variable rate" which actually means "invariably high rate." I'll own up to getting complacent; i should have been more aware of the length of my contract, but this kind of behavior seems like it's just designed to take advantage of people. Also, expect aggressive collection calls the second your bill is late, as well as a $30 collection fee. On a side note, i had to sign a new 12 month contract to get a reasonable rate, even though i will not still be at my current address by then, and the representative i spoke to could not offer me any firm guarantee that i would not be charged a $135 cancellation fee if they could not transfer service to my new location. Since it I didn't have the money to put down for a deposit with a different provider, I had to resign with WTU even though i hate them! Again, personal responsibility, but I bet what happened to me has happened to a lot of WTU customers. Don't make the same mistake I made.