Green Mountain Energy Reviews
About Green Mountain Energy
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- Good customer service experience
- Transparent pricing and communication
- Commitment to green energy options
- Poor handling of billing issues
Green Mountain Energy Reviews
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Reviewed Sept. 8, 2023
Stay away from them if you don't want a headache. They didn't follow the term on the contract. They took all the electricity exported from my solar system. I use only 1/10 of solar system production (I have a very big system) and I have $0 dollars for credit (3 months on the road). More than that, I have to pay for electricity using at night time. Ended up, I pay $150/month average plus $220 for the solar system. It didn't do me any good. I will look for another company. Stay away from Green Mountain. They are not honest in doing business.
Reviewed May 3, 2023
I have been using this company to bill me for light the past 2 years. Something is really way off these past few months. I have been paying 250-340 a month for a one bedroom. Their estimation of my usage has to be way off because I have not seen my bill this high, steadily, during the past years. I have ZERO change in my habits. I will not be renewing my contract when it ends. And if it keeps going up at this rate you bet it’s worth spending $150 to cut it off if I can save money somewhere else. Highly disappointed. I know I’m not using $340 worth of light especially if no habits have changed. $120 was the average up until the end of December. Wish I could rate 0 stars. I don’t have that kind of money to spend every month.
Reviewed Jan. 2, 2023
This is the worst energy company I have dealt with. The customer service is poor, they will overcharge and can not explain why the bill has doubled. Please do your research before using this company. My bill went from $105 to $223 last month for a one bedroom apartment with nothing changing in my usage and I was gone a whole week for the Thanksgiving Holiday. When you ask them for an explanation, they tell you to call Center Point Energy. So basically they are a middle that can't do anything except overcharge and collect money. Please do your research.
Reviewed July 24, 2022
I want my $1000 back. Over the last 17 months this company has charged me $1000 more than if I were with ConEd. I thought the increases were out of my control based on the news and when I looked closer I found the culprit. The comparisons are unfortunately buried on the ConEd site and all the messaging from ConEd has made us think we are not an energy efficient home. Maybe not the most but our overages are from our supplier. Green Mountain! It is so confusing because it appears we are locked into a good rate and yet they're killing us with overages. Investigate this company. Something has gone down hill since 2019. All the most current reviews are ONE STAR. Do not be fooled. All of the 5 star reviews are from 2019!
Reviewed April 15, 2022
For a company that says they are about “going green” they absolutely are not when it comes to consumer plans. For a company that promotes switching to solar and tries to get households to do so, they still find a way to charge high fees for switching to those plans. As a long time GME consumer they are still charging $150+ to change plans and to go to solar.
Reviewed Dec. 29, 2021
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I noticed my electric bill as a single person living in a 1 bedroom apartment had been getting ridiculously higher and higher, until it was disclosed to me that it was due to Green Mountain (they show up as ESCO on Con Edison bills in NYC). I was sold on the claim (by some hipsters that I now realize work on commission for getting people to sign up and are not held accountable for basically lying/saying whatever nonsense to get that sign up... because they aren't held accountable by the company) that I would save a small amount on my bill while helping the environment at the same time. Great, but turns out this is not the case. They left out the critical bit of information that after 3 months your rate will DOUBLE. Literally.
I can't believe these criminals are allowed to operate and take advantage of people. Laws are needed against this and count me in if there is a class action lawsuit in the works because their predatory tactics are out of hand and lots of people are reporting mysterious and sudden hikes in their bill (notably post 2020). And green mountain's sneaky "ESCO" charge is behind that. This company is based on a bait-and-switch scam. Beware.
Reviewed Aug. 18, 2021
This company is a scam that takes advantage of people who care about green energy/climate change. They lure you in with a fixed energy supply rate for a short term. Then they'll quietly jack it up to almost double. I switched to Green Mountain Energy after being approached by a sales person in a Best Buy. He said I would help save the environment and have more stable, probably cheaper energy bills. I knew it sounded too good to be true, but the website seemed legitimate and I wanted to help the environment.
The following summer, my energy bill for my tiny 1 bedroom apartment crept up to almost $400 PER MONTH. They had started charging me 16.9 cents/kwh, nearly DOUBLE what Con Edison was charging for that time period. And if you contact them to complain, they'll say too bad, and it will take you 1-2 billing cycles to get off of them. There's a special place in you know where for companies who give green energy a bad name by running an energy supply extortion racket. They make people wary of climate change initiatives. I hope New York state makes this practice illegal because this company should not exist and its owners should be sued. Stay away. Do not do business with Green Mountain Energy under any circumstances.
Reviewed July 19, 2021
My charges from Green Mountain have been astronomical for my little apartment. So after 2 months as a customer I called to ask why. First they told me that in order to avoid a $150 change fee to another plan I should adapt my lifestyle to fit the plan I mistakenly signed up for by running the dishwasher and washer and doing my baking at night. Then they offered to switch me to a lower per-kwh plan with no change fee if I extended my service to 2 or 3 years. Then they said the best they could do with no change fee was to switch me to a fixed-monthly plan that deferred but still eventually billed me for these astronomical rates. I immediately switched to another provider and contested the $150 disconnect fee they billed me for through my credit card. Get TXU or Reliant instead.
Reviewed Jan. 15, 2021
I had Green Mountain for electric for 2 years. I should of never renewed after the first year. My electric bill was $300-$400 every month for 1 person at home. I had new insulation put in attic, and also had my AC unit checked, after I switched electric companies my bill is now averaging no more than $150 a month. Since my bill was so high every month I went on deferred payment plan. Once I was off contract with them I switched electric companies. They gave me a payment plan to pay a final bill ($543). After I paid the first payment I received a phone call that they would not honor the payment plan set up and if I didn't pay a minimum of $67 a week they would send it to collections. I have not paid bill late so not sure why they decided to not honor payment plan we set up. If I could give negative stars I would.
Reviewed Dec. 31, 2020
I've been trying to pay my bill for two days. Website is worthless. Keeps me in a spin. I have solar in Texas, and they are the only (or one of very few) that will do net metering. Let me tell you, after their "credit" for my solar generation, I'm paying about 10% more than when I paid a lower rate, and received NO credit back into the grid for my power generated. Their rate is exceedingly higher. Need some competitors, that provide both service and aggressive pricing. Being environmentally conscious should be more expensive!
Reviewed Nov. 16, 2020
My spouse wanted to add me into account as a joint representative. We contacted the customer service on the website. Then he told us to call the customer service. It couldn't be completed over chat. The customer service only works from 8 AM - 5 PM from Mon-Fri. After finding sometimes in the middle of working time to call them. They said NO! It couldn't be done. Only 1 person on the account. It's ridiculous!
Reviewed Nov. 8, 2020
My electric bill doubled, normally it's about 50 dollars a month. Now it's 120 for 3/4 of a month. I will cancel my account as soon as possible. I feel they take advantage of people's willingness to help the environment.
Reviewed July 21, 2020
I was a customer of Green Mountain for about 3 years, starting from the time I purchased my house and got service. When I started, my per kWh rate was about $0.01 or so lower than the area's primary energy provider. I wasn't lied to, but something you should understand if you live in a deregulated power market is that when you are asked if you want to use an alternative energy provider the operators you speak to are carefully restricted as to how they can respond to questions. In some sense this makes sense, because otherwise you could have operators that work for the primary supplier bad mouthing other options, which wouldn't be fair. That said, it also means they can't supply some important information about options they present to you, which is how I got taken advantage of by Green Mountain.
When I was presented the option, I knew enough to ask if the price was a "teaser" rate, meaning that the true price was higher than what I would start at. I was told no, that what I was being offered was the regular rate. Here's the sneaky part though. When they say it's the regular rate, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the rate they charge every customer, it only means the price won't increase during your contractual period, typically a year. So what happened to me is that almost immediately after my first year the company began scamming me.
That's a hard accusation, so here's what I mean by it: when they are defending themselves, companies like Green Mountain will tell you that after your contract period expires, prices may "fluctuate" with the market. Most people hear fluctuate and think 'up and down', but that doesn't actually have to be true for them to use the word. After my initial year, Green Mountain began raising rates by about $0.03 per kWh every six to eight months. Always an increase, and always by about the same amount. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what their strategy was. They know many, and I would argue most, people don't scrutinize every bill. We get a lot of bills every month, and getting into the weeds on each and every one of them would be draining and time consuming, so we scan our bills to see if they look 'about right'.
Green Mountain is taking advantage of that aspect of human nature to slowly scam you out of hundreds or thousands of dollars. Their hope is clearly that by increasing in small increments over quasi-random time periods that they can sneak the increases past your monthly bill scan, like the proverbial frog in the pot of water. They want to boil you, but they know full well that if they try to do it all at once you'll drop them like a scalding hot pot handle, so instead they just make little changes designed to slip under your notice.
Unfortunately this strategy is not unique; you see it in a wide swath of monthly services these days, particularly if you are older because companies know that older customers are less likely to carefully scrutinize bills. My mother, for example, has her Internet and cable TV bill increase almost every three to six months unless I call and threaten to switch services to keep her bill from increasing. And I have had to tell her to hang up on calls from her providers after a negotiation because I found that after I negotiated a new price the company would call within a month and try to confuse her with some offer that nullified the regular service rate.
It's a disgusting but popular strategy in any market that isn't regulated. In my case, my Green Mountain electrical charges increased four times over two years from just below parity with the local energy provider to just slightly more than double, and I have zero doubt they would have continued that trend for as long as they could. While I admit it wasn't illegal, I would argue that their behavior was very intentionally deceitful and opportunistic, which meets my definition of a scammer. That said, you will often see defenses of companies like Green Mountain, whether real or fake I couldn't guess, that fall into one of the following:
1. "Sure they regularly increase prices, but it's on you as the consumer to keep track of that and if you call them they'll reset the rate and contractual time period." Boiled down this argument is 'It's all your fault if you get taken advantage of because I found a way to not get taken advantage of'. This is a facile and callous argument that assumes that because you have the time, energy, and mental wherewithal to find the loopholes that everyone else should as well. By this argument, if I have never paid income tax because I studied tax law and found obscure ways to avoid paying my share, the system is still completely fair even if you end up having to pay more because me, and people like me, found ways out of paying our share. Some people would actually agree with that logic, but it strikes me as the kind of thing people say until they find themselves hurt by being on the wrong side of the equation.
2. "I don't mind paying more if it helps the environment." Neither do I, within reason, but that isn't what's happening here. If the price increases were just to cover the gap between industry standard and green power generation costs, there would be a regular or average price that might fluctuate slightly but would otherwise be relatively stable. That isn't what's happening here. This is a systematic attempt to keep increasing prices and gouge as much as they can from customers without alerting them to what's going on, while trying to hide that reality behind a camouflage of 'going green'. Somewhere some elderly people are getting charged triple or quadruple standard costs because they don't have the capacity to catch on to what Green Mountain is doing to them, and I find that reality repugnant.
3. "Maybe they are gouging a little, but they are pushing forward the transition from fossil fuel to green energy." No, they absolutely are not. Beyond some token programs, the extra money they make isn't used to further the transition of our power grid, it's used to make investors wealthy by using tactics that we would otherwise complain about but might give a pass to here because of our emotional connection to the concept of "green energy". Making a profit is not a sin, but how you make it is important no matter how noble sounding the rationale.
Anyway, that's my complaint about Green Mountain. I think that they use highly deceptive and opportunistic business practices designed to make them appear like a noble option when they are really just taking advantage of people's desire to do something good. I'd strongly recommend avoiding becoming a customer of this company.
Reviewed July 14, 2020
Green Mountian Energy company took 2 payments out of my bank account. I called them 1 business day after to get my money back. I have called EVERYDAY and have talked to an "account supervisor" EVERY TIME. They "ESCALATE" the issue.. I have called EVERYDAY FOR 2 WEEKS STRAIGHT. This starts my 3rd week of trying to get my money green mountain STOLE from me. I wanted to go green for the environment but their customer service has shown me I need to find a new company.
When they took the 2nd UNAUTHORIZED PAYMENT FROM MY ACCOUNT they caused me a week of negative money in my account; which I got penalized for. I started this June 30th and it's is now July 14th and I am still trying to get my $138 back and get compensation for the other bills that are now late because of Green Mountain. I was told that the account supervisors boss would call me july 13th but again was lied to. I used to sell this service door to door in the hot Texas heat.. But no more am I a supporter.
Reviewed Feb. 8, 2020
This company has horrible sales methods!!! He basically told my husband we were required to give him our electric bill, that he works with the township and several nearby areas. I was supposed to have received a letter requiring me to show them my energy bills for proof of overpayment. My husband KNEW that I wouldn't be interested and yet he insisted! My husband told him I wasn't well, that I was in bed, but he said he had to see my bills, it was "required". I finally heard enough and went out there and asked him what service he was selling, electric, solar or gas, he lied, said neither. Then he told me he has to see my bills to show me "proof". I said no that I wasn't well and needed to rest and this wasn't a good time, he said, "Good then I'll be quick." "No no no," I finally lost my cool and told him I wasn't continuing the conversation with him and he said, "Well then, no worries, we'll be back."
Such a disturbing incident, I've never in my life seen such strong arm tactics to get customers! This borders on extreme and desperate tactics to keep their pockets fattened with all the money they're duping people out of by forcing them into joining. Sickened by this company. I will file a complaint the next time they come to my door!
Reviewed Dec. 27, 2019
I moved out of my apartment on December 4th, having paid up through the end of November. Accordingly, I asked this company to send me a break down of the actual charges for the last 4 days, and I will pay it. They ignored me twice, then finally mailed me a bill for 2 months claiming it was due the day before I had even received it in the mail. I would never do business with these folks. Avoid them and choose someone else - you'll be much happier!
Reviewed Oct. 16, 2019
I wish there was something like "zero" stars. I would give that to Green Mountain Energy. Beware of this business and do not get their service at any cost. I had a single bedroom apartment, I used to travel for work so I wasn't home Mon to Thu yet my bill was $200 a month. Then I called and inquired after 4-5 months and they changed my plan and brought it down to $100 a month which also I thought on the high side. But the best was yet to come...I bought a house in Aug and moved out. However, I kept my apartment lease until the end date of Oct as it was cheaper to keep the lease and run out its due course than cancel it. So Aug to Oct I did not live in the apartment at all - and guess what my bill was??? $125 a month! I called them and they had no explanation. Do not sign up for them at all.
Reviewed Oct. 15, 2019
I've lived in my current house for 10 years and have used Green Mountain for 10 years. We live in an established 30 year old neighborhood with trees that line and cover the streets, but most of the house is not covered. I'm guessing our neighborhood is at least cooler overall than some of the newly built neighborhoods. We get the Texas heat with maybe some shade on the house when the sun rises and sets. Our house is 2,200 square feet, running on one A/C unit and we keep it at 75 degrees when we're home in the summer, 78 when we're out of the house at work, with little/no-use of the A/C in the winter (gas heater). We have those black solar screens on our windows, the original windows (none of that fancy gas filled energy saving double pane windows), the A/c is about 2 years old, and all brick construction.
Our bills for 2019 have ranged from $60 in January to $125 in July and the highest was $162 in September. I've never had a ridiculously high bill like one person said >$300 in a small apartment. When they e-mail me to let me know my contract is about to expire, I get on top of that to avoid what these other reviewers are probably experiencing (suddenly higher rates). I've actually received a call from a rep one time to ask me if I wanted to renew over the phone since I didn't respond to the e-mail. I hope this review is helpful and that more people consider using a green energy company.
Reviewed Sept. 24, 2019
I have been with Green Mountain Energy for 2years. I live in a one bedroom, square foot 759. It is sad to say, but Green Mountain is dishonest. Honesty and loyalty goes a long way. I don't need you to discuss my bill, I need the company to be honest with their customers! For a one bedroom my bill is $347. If Green Mountain has any regards to their customers!?! Hopefully, the representatives will be honest when signing up customers! No, worries I will not be recommending anyone I know to do business with Green Mountain! Integrity?
Reviewed Sept. 22, 2019
While I don't know if their practice is unique, the average billing feature is a scam. Essentially they are supposed to average your bill, giving you a reasonably consistent rate month to month. Sounds great, right? However, they raise rates constantly - which means you quickly begin accruing a monthly balance from the amount 'over the average' (the average is based on previous usage, so if the rate constantly goes up, you'll never be paying a consistent amount - it will ALWAYS be more). So when you want to cancel average billing, or switch providers, you owe the full deferred amount. Basically this functions as a unlimited-length contract with an extremely high cancellation fee. Awful and deceptive practice that should be illegal.
Reviewed Sept. 9, 2019
Called on three separate occasions to set up new service. Was given the wrong information the first two times. At the end of the third time, I asked if there was anything else needed or would I walk into my new house in three days and the power would be on. I was told "Yes, there is nothing else needed. Your power will be on in 24-48 hours."
Arrived at the house on a Saturday Evening...guess what...NO POWER! The morons sent an email requesting more information even though I was assured I was 100% good to go. They then let me know that it would be another 48 hours, but with the weekend, like 72, before they would turn my power on. RIDICULOUS! I asked for a manager and after another hour of wasted time, mainly waiting on hold (Likely because they have so many other customers they have screwed over) and he said he would escalate it IF after he listened to a recording of the call that the email part was not explained to me. He, of course came back and said it was, even though it was NOT.
They have my SS, my new home address, all the information they could need in the world and the morons can't turn on my power. Utter incompetence. I will NEVER use GME, nor NRG, their parent company's products or services again. I will warn everyone I know or even bump into about their CRAPPY lack of customer service.
Reviewed Sept. 5, 2019
First of all I want to say this is one of the most ridiculous energy company. I have been with GME since 10/2019 and for the first few months it was good until lately when my bill spiked up and up and up but I never bothered to check. I just made my payments. When my bill was due I paid it always on time only for me to move from my 1 bedroom apartment to a new house some few days ago and I get a bill of $500.73 and when I called them I was told it was money that accumulated from my bills since January 2019 saying that I signed up for average billing which I did not. Neither did I have any knowledge of that.
Now they are telling me I signed up for it and that I have to pay for it or that they can do a payment plan for me and I am wondering if I was paying almost $130 monthly for a 1 bedroom apartment and then they still say that's just part of the bill and they were keeping part of it aside which is what accumulated to $500.73 and am letting them know I didn't sign up for the average billing stuff. I am just gonna go ahead and file a lawsuit because I am not going to pay that money.
Reviewed Sept. 4, 2019
My rates went up after the contract period. But, it's up to you to ask the right questions when signing up and read the agreement to understand what you are getting. They do send a notification in the mail when your term is coming up. All you need to do is call and request a new contract rate at that point. With that being said, I called and was given excellent service from their customer service team in getting everything resolved and back at the preferred rate. I don't mind paying an extra $10/month to support green energy.
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2019
The first 3 months of the agreement you're lulled with a low cost per kw/hr. It was about a penny higher - I was fine with that. All of a sudden it over DOUBLED. I didn't catch it until summer when we started our pool. Over the past 8 months.... Green Mountain Energy has cost me an additional $1,019.44. The latest cost per kw/hr is .149. I have dropped Green Mountain.
Reviewed Aug. 24, 2019
At first, I was super satisfied with the company, the price was great and I was only paying 0.07 - 0.08 a kwh... I had my electric bill on autopay and never really thought twice about it until I saw my bill one month was over $350.. (Normally around $120) When I finally looked into it I noticed that they had spiked my rate to over 0.016 WITHOUT emailing or calling me or anything and I had in fact been paying double and almost triple what my old rates were for the past few months AND the current month that I was on was somehow $630!!!!
I called the customer service and of course, he wasn't able to help me with any of the previous bills but offered "the best price on the market" at 0.011 kwh.... OH but the kicker was that I had to lock into a 5 year contract AND I HAD to do it right then and there over the phone before we hung up if I wanted to make sure that I got locked into that "Great Deal." You could tell he was reading off a script and taught to pressure people into locking into long term contracts. I felt more like I was talking to the wolf of wall street than I did a customer service representative that actually wanted to help me..
Reviewed Aug. 14, 2019
Because we are very conservationist in our use of resources, we signed up with Green Mountain Energy a year ago. Our Illinois electric provider (ComEd) offers a current rate of 6.725 per kilowatt hour. We just today received a bill with Green Mountain charging us a whopping rate of 14.9 per kilowatt hour. That rate is way out of line and not acceptable. We canceled our Green Mountain account effective as immediately as possible. We have solar panels installed (they were leased), and we hope removing Green Mountain and using our solar panels will restore some sensibility to our electric bills.
Reviewed Aug. 1, 2019
So i found this company a couple of months ago, and I have nothing but good things to say. It looks like they might have done things differently in the past, but the negative comments I'm reading here are nothing like my experience. My bill went up about $8 from before i signed up, which is right about what they said it would do. I know that my flat rate is only good for 12 months but i can just call them up and get a new flat rate. It's pretty easy, and i feel really good about how i get my electricity now.
Reviewed June 30, 2019
This is a scam electric provider who will up your rate after the first 3 months of promised low rate to an insane level. I have lost 300-400 dollars over a year not noticing their scam! Taking advantage of people who have a soft spot for the environment is truly evil. DO NOT USE THEIR PRODUCT!
Reviewed June 21, 2019
These people are disreputable. They lure you in with promises and treat you horribly once they have a contract. My bill went from $127 to $345. They suggested average billing which is a trap. They average the bill, but they hold a deferred amount in an account that you are liable for paying at the end of the contract or if you try to get out of the contract. With all of their shady bills, it will cost me over $1000.00. I thought was helping to save the planet, not take advantage of people.
Reviewed June 14, 2019
Most cost-effective way to get 100% renewable energy. I found this company to be true to its word. As long as you understand that product you are signing up for and the term of the contract, there should be no issue in prices raising after the fact. Just remember to call customer service at the end of your term to negotiate a new rate!
Green Mountain Energy Company Information
- Company Name:
- Green Mountain Energy
- Year Founded:
- 1997
- Address:
- 300 West 6th Street, Suite 1600
- City:
- Austin
- State/Province:
- TX
- Postal Code:
- 78701
- Country:
- United States
- Website:
- www.greenmountainenergy.com