Consumers Energy

My husband and I moved and called to transfer service to our new place. We were living with friends in a rental. 8 months later we get a $586 bill "for our convenience", they never shut off gas at old place so they just stuck us with 8 months of a water heater running. Place has since sold and landlord disappeared and out of touch. DTE changed their system so we cannot get last light bill from friends to show even that was shut off as well. They will not respond to questions like "Why was it on and unpaid for EIGHT months before being caught? Anyone else would be cut off after two" and "I know you can tell it's the same amount every month and the usage is WAY lower compared to the year before". When I asked "Why would we leave the gas on in an empty house where no one lives". I'm told "People do all kinds of things for all sorts of reasons".

We have found that our representative who took the call was not at fault in this situation." But the call was not recorded. Basically was told to deal with it. They cut off the gas at our new place when they came to this conclusion with no notice. It looks like it will cost around $1000 to convert the place to all electric. I'll freeze to death first.

I'm wondering how it's legal for consumers energy to install a smart meter on our home, without our permission, and now want to charge us $123.91 to remove it, not to mention an extra fee per month to have the old meter read. These meters are not safe, there are all kinds of health hazards associated with them, as well as a fire hazard... This is like highway robbery, and they're getting away with it. Shouldn't they have had to ASK us if we wanted one of these meters BEFORE installing it when we weren't even home?

Since we have had the "Smart Meter" our bill has doubled. I had a 20 minute conversation on how it must be us using more energy and no real answers. We have not changed our habits from one month to the other. We use the AC very seldom and they told me that has to be what's drawing so much energy. I smell BS and will have this meter replaced with the old one ASAP. Consumers should be ashamed at what they are doing.

This morning I called Consumers Energy regarding my recent light bill. First representative said she would have to give to another representative so I was transferred. Jenn the one that took my call was very rude. When I asked her name she said Jenn and spelled it out rudely. When I asked her last name she said she did not give out her last name. I asked to speak with her supervisor and she said the supervisor would give me the same information she had just given me.

I told her I wanted the supervisor to report her for being so nasty. She still refused to transfer me to Supervisor but tried to play nice after I told her I would hang up and call back and ask someone else for the supervisor. They give you your daily usage in their reports and I have been keeping up on daily use and the KWTS end up being more than what was posted. Now I'm told that feature is not totally correct. It just rolls over at midnight and we don't get total KWTS. Useless feature if not accurate.

I have never dealt which such inhumane prejudice in my life. Consumers Energy are very fraudulent in everything they do. Bills continuously go up. You're forced to pay any amount when you know what your bill should be even after you try to lower it. By not using light in the daytime. Buy energy efficient lights, new windows and all but you never see any real results. I cannot wait to move away from Michigan just to avoid dealing with consumers. They literally rape your pockets and it's so unfair. I can honestly say I wish Lawyers would investigate this company as a whole. They are shady with their dealings. Worst company in the world to deal with.

My gas bill has almost doubled with the 'free new meter'. I'm using much less gas because of summer. I'm hanging laundry outside, using little to no heat. This is price gouging customers for a 'free new meter installation'. An investigation needs to be done - now.

I have a 78 year old living with me and Consumers wants to shut us off and no agency can help us at this time. They have no mercy on the people. They all money hungry vulture. We fell behind because husband was on medical leave for two months with no pay and we couldn't keep up on payment plan. So now any day we're gonna be turned off. No place to go for help.

Inquiry about service was met with an employee who is fond of raising her voice. Inaccurate information was provided to a 3rd party by the "fraud" department. Accusations of tampering with the meter. People were accused who have no idea what is going on as they never submitted a request for service, let alone tampered with any meter. No communication about bills owed on the house, no calls, no letters from Consumers Energy. My guess? Someone legally obtained services, moved on, and Consumers failed to bill the service properly. SO someone, anyone must PAY. Fraud carries a six year ban. So accusing another party of fraud is particularly cruel and offensive, not to mention immoral. These are unethical people! Fraud being perpetrated by the Fraud department? Anyone else get falsely accused? This only happened when authorities were contacted to talk to CP. Guess that made them mad enough to lie.

Since January CE is saying our usage has nearly tripled since the prior year. The only changes we have made was the installation of LED lights throughout the property. Our furnace, water heater, and range are all gas. Additionally we do not have A/C. Our NG usage dropped since 2016 so cold weather is not the factor. It's obvious we are being overestimated by CE.

I think your Smart Readers are all wrong. I was not even in my apartment in May, and if I was I have a fireplace. There is no way that my bill can be as high as it is this month!!! You need to either get your bills to the customers at least 1 month before they are due. I have never gotten a bill to my email address. So, I look and you have me under PAY NOW. This company needs to rethink their so call Smart Meters. They are Dumb Meters.

Consumers Energy is just another soul-sucking monopoly of an energy corporation, yes, but the real reason I am writing this review is to make sure others are aware of scams associated with their gas providers. If anyone comes to your door and asks to see your energy bill and cannot prove that they are with Consumers Energy, tell them "no thank you" and shut the door. Last week, a clean-cut, well-dressed young man came to my door telling me that my home had been "red flagged" by Consumers Energy and he needed to see my bill. Thinking that I was in some sort of trouble, I complied. He then proceeded to tell me that he was from a gas provider that works with Consumers Energy, and that we were paying rates higher than what we needed to.

All he asked for was my name, email, home address, and phone number (no social security number or payment info) so I thought there was no harm. After he left, I got a little suspicious, so I started poking around on the internet about his company, Provision Power and Gas, and found that they had been sending out people to scam Consumers' customers. They tell you your rate will be "such and such cents less per unit," but what they don't tell you is that the low price is a promotion that lasts for one month. After that, it becomes "variable month-to-month," in other words, MORE EXPENSIVE THAN IT WAS. If someone wearing a Provision shirt knocks on your door, don't even open it.

They are not paying someone to walk around so that you can save money, they're doing it so that they can make money. Thankfully, I called them within the 30-day cancellation period and got out of it with not fuss, but I would have been pretty upset if I got to the point of paying extra on my gas bill before realizing what had happened. Bottom line: STAY FAR AWAY FROM DOOR-TO-DOOR ANYTHING! Real companies do not use this technique to communicate anymore. It is guaranteed to be a scam!

So this month I used less electric than last month and my bill comes and my bill is $75 more than last. It seems like every month the bill goes up a little even if I don't use more kWh. These new smart meters are junk and just make it worse on all the customers. I'm looking into switching providers. I suggest many do the same.

Setup on budget billing of 88.00. Bills have still been over 150 per month. Contacted the company, there was nothing they could do. I paid $900 in March. New offer for budget was $95. Paid that amount once then in May my bill said 349.00. I call again. They said I still owed 270.00 from when I paid $900. I was told I paid what I owed. I'm confused, because this company has no competitor they can do whatever they want. They price gouge, change rates monthly. You can not budget plan ever. I don't have gas or air conditioning in this house. So tell me how my little 2 bed 1 bath gets so high? I can only imagine and I feel horrible for those who live in a larger house or have multiple utilities. You can ask anyone who is stuck with this company because we don't have any other option unless we don't want power. And consumer knows it. It's unfortunate that they don't care about their community, or how the people in it struggle.

Ever since the meter has been installed my bill is much higher than usual, despite using less energy than when we had the old meter. How can my April reading be 950 and my May be 266 when I did absolutely nothing different? In January the reading was 1234 and February was 1186. It was 65 degrees in February. We ran no heat that month, and what little heat we needed, we burned wood in our wood burner. These readings don't make any sense. I feel overall the "smart" meter is inaccurate and our readings have been unusually high majority of the time.

I am very disappointed, and frustrated with Consumers customer care. Almost all of the reps I have gotten say "hang on a second." Then route me back through the automated system, then another rep answers the phone, and asks me the same questions the other person does. Also the automated system is terrible. Most of the time it keeps telling you to just do it online.

This company is awful. They shut my power off with NO warning and tell us they won't turn it back on until we lay a $1,800 deposit and they wouldn't work with us on a payment plan. Who the Hell can just pull that kind of money out of thin air? Not only that but our call got disconnected a minimum of 5 times and got a different person every time and a different outrageous price to turn it on. How can there be a different $ every time? They suck!!! Too bad they are the only damn option.

I bought my home 12/24/14. My electric bill (with one exception) has averaged $60 per month EVERY month. A new meter was installed. My next bill jumped to $95! I called & explained NO CHANGES to my household. I am a senior and live by myself. I received no resolution and was forced to pay the $95! The next month my bill was $145!!! I called again. I explained I live on my social security and cannot afford to pay this huge bill! They told me it was my fault and there was nothing they could do. How can they do this???

Our apartment complex here requires we opt out of smart meters, which all of us have done. Consumers Energy comes in at random and installs smart meters without our permission, we ask to have them removed, they remove them and then they charge us another removal fee of $124. This has happened to me twice in one year. They also take no responsibility for their errors. Plus it is impossible to call in and talk with anyone who can do anything about this. I repeatedly need assistance and to spend at least an hour even getting thru to someone who can do something about this. And then they accept no responsibility for their errors. Just a matter of time until they do this again. The contractors who do the installation say that their orders are often incorrect. One recently was afraid to (validly in this case) install an ordered smart meter!

Summer of 2016 had brand new Windows installed. Then they upgraded the meter. This winter instead of bills going down they went up. Also installed programmable thermostat. Bill went up an extra $125. Why. I would like a higher up consumers energy rep to contact me.

I don't know how it's legal or possible, but Consumers energy shut off the gas on the 20th of January, 2 days after making a payment, and being on after applying for the "winter shutoff protection plan"! I am a low income single father of two teens, with a disabled brother also living in the house, and I make payments, albeit sometimes late, I never just don't pay. Yet today, a 32-degree day so I guess they figured it as warm enough, they turned off the gas without even knocking at the door. There are 3 dogs, a cat and a lizard plus 4 people living in the house, and I guess they figured we don't need warmth!!

Consumers Energy are liars and practically gangsters the way they shake us down for every dime then shut off services when you're a little late! I've explained my situation, have always paid, apply for their "protection plan", which doesn't do anything but mislead, because if you're late, they shut off anyways? I don't know how they can even call it shutoff protection when IT does NO SUCH THING! I paid EVERY MONTH except being LATE in DECEMBER, and now dead of winter I have NO GAS, wow! Hopefully a lawyer can help.

My bill has been $44 to $54 for several months. Now they have added on so many other things it jumped to $78. The main one was "distribution" which added on $22. I now have to "rent" the lines they send the current through. I afraid to see what's on next month's bill.

During the time of installation of their handy new smart meter at my family's address, they decided that they are going to leave the energy and gas on after saying that there was an issue during the installation. Two weeks later, they turn off everything without a notice at all and tell me and my family that we were fraudulent and tampered with the meters and turned them all back on after they "turned us off"? Well I am the type to file a lawsuit but won't win because I'm sure that lawyer fees fall into category of non profit.

Apparently it's fully acceptable and even commendable for customer service reps at Consumers Energy to insult clients. The representative went as far as low-blowing me about being a parent!!

Well over the last 6 months my bill has doubled and at first I was trying to figure it out but wasn't too concerned. Now it's been 6 months and I pay my bill every month and pay the amount due but over the last 6 months my bill has been roughly around 275 dollars!!?? And when I call Consumers and try and figure out why they say I need to use the energy saving tips on their website. Well I have changed everything in my house to energy saver. Then a month ago we started having power surges and they sent out a tech and he found corrosion on the line connected to my house. The tech informed me we were using 12 volts on the left side of our meter and said so pretty much you are running your house off a car battery right now. Then when I get the bill this month after the line is fixed my bill is less than half it was last month!!!

Then I call Consumers and ask them, "Since the line was bad am I responsible for this big bill you keep sending me?" Their response was, "We will have a tech come and check the lines and make sure our equipment is running correctly but anything that has to do with the lines has nothing to do with your bill." So after the lines were fixed my bill just mystically goes down, conveniently.

Consumers always say they do all these donations to charities and programs but what they don't say in their commercials is that they are trying to take as much money as they can from their customers to pay for the charity work they do so it doesn't come out of their pockets! Job well done Consumers Energy for another unpleased customer!!! CONGRATULATIONS you've done it again! But unless we relocate you will get your money and continue to have the power of ripping off low to middle class families. Merry Christmas to all of you. I will pray that you may be considerate one day and that karma doesn't come back on you. Good day!

This all really begins over three years ago when I lived out in the middle of nowhere with my fiance and our daughter. We always paid our bill (which was quite high for such a small house, but we assumed it was because it was so poorly insulated). After reading some of the accounts on here I wish we would have paid closer attention to our bill. Sometimes a little late, but we never received a shut off notice. When we moved in the middle of winter, it was pretty hectic and since we were staying with his parents until our house was ready, I didn't have to bother with utilities and, my fault, I forgot to call and have it switched out of my name for about a week.

I called and spoke with a representative and was informed that my bill was close to $1000. I was stunned. We knew we had one more bill coming and that we had yet to pay the current bill, but we were expecting a $250-$350 bill, not $1000! We assumed that the landlord came to the house and ran up a bunch of gas and electricity while it was still in my name, but I wish I would have examined the bill a little more closely when it arrived. I have been sent into collections because I can't pay that and I am not able to make payments on that balance, so I'm hoping they don't add it to our Consumer's account at our current address and make it my fiance's problem to deal with.

So now our current situation. I am sitting here in my dining room freezing with no gas, no heat, no hot water, the day before Thanksgiving. We were shut off yesterday around 5pm. Shut off and denied access to heat on the first really cold night of the year with two young children in the house. We paid the amount necessary to have service restored last night, but it was past 5pm, so no one was available to come restore service and it will be done first thing in the morning.

It has not yet been turned back on. They wasted no time shutting us off and allowing us to freeze, but they are sure going to take their time getting over here and turning us back on. All over $140 by the way. We're not into the thousands or anything. Just $140 bucks. That's all it takes to have them shut off your gas while you sit there worrying about whether or not your kids are warm enough or if your pipes are going to burst. It's just not fair. Yes we let our bill get behind, but only a month. I just wish they were as determined to restore people's gas as they are about shutting it off.

I have been fighting with Consumers Energy for over a year now. I let relatives stay at my property. When they left they left a bill that was not too high but high. When I returned to the property to restore power Consumers tells me I'm responsible for the bill on the house because I own and I benefited from the power. What power? There is no power. What am I benefiting from? So I go and attempt to get help with the bill because they have now added $1900 in late fees from it not being paid. I get the help. They talk to Consumers and work it out where I can pay some, they pay some and the power is restored. Well we paid what was asked and now they are saying that not good enough. They want another $2300 before they will turn on the power. Consumers refuses to work with or help anyone. I'm going to go to congress with this and see if they can help me.

I am a consumer of Consumers Energy almost for the last 10 years and paying for appliance protection plan for last 7 years. Last week, for the first time I have to ask for their service as my furnace was off. I ended up with totally low standard services by the Consumers Energy third party services. Ended up taking couple of half days off from work and one half day for my wife as well to complete this service. My understanding is, Consumers Energy trying to use their name to sign up people for this protection plan, getting the money in their pocket, sub-contracting to a low cost servicing party that does a very poor job.

Consumers Energy don't care at all as I struggled to reach a customer service manager to understand what's going on with my case. I have paid enough over the years for the protection plan that brought additional sufferings only. Without the plan, I could call a local professional and with very less time and money my furnace could be up and running. Found no reason to buy protection plan from Consumers Energy and if possible not buying energy from them as well. No wonder why Consumers Energy is rated so low in this forum.

I am beyond frustrated with Consumers. I own a business and a home and use them for both and keep having horrible assistance! I pay my bills on time and am absolutely fed up with them! Called to set up a payment plan for winter and I was told cannot take payments over the phone. And she was RUDE about how if I own a business I should not have to be making a payment plan. From the business side I have always been able to make payment over the phone and never have had an issue with setting up a payment plan. Cannot believe how rude my representatives have been over the past few months and I wish there was another company in my area to switch to.

This utility company is the absolute worst, most disorganized of any I have previously dealt with. Payments plan is offered and then retracted once a payment is made. They continue to harass me with overdue and disconnection notices even though a payment arrangement was already in place. Nightmare from hell.

I was a customer of Consumers for 2 years in an apartment I shared. The rates varied greatly and the customer service reps never gave me a direct answer of why this would happen when we lived consistently the same way. Upon the end of our lease at the apartment Consumers continued to bill us despite the fact our lease had ended and we had provided them with a proof of the end of our lease. We had to pay two more bills than we should of, and threatened to send our bills to collections during the period of time we spent trying to get the issue resolved. If you have the opportunity to use another company, I would recommend that you do so!