FirstEnergy Reviews

After being left on hold for 3 hours on April 7—only to be disconnected when the clock hit 6 p.m.—I tried again today, April 8. Despite being told the expected wait time was 5 to 15 minutes, I’ve now been waiting over 40 minutes with no response. This level of service is not only unacceptable—it’s absurd. At this point, calling this company a joke would be generous.

This company is incredibly difficult to work with. As a property manager, we have many accounts in Maryland & Pennsylvania. Every time I call them to transfer service or address an issue, I am on hold for no less than an hour. Today, I am currently on hold with them as I type, watching the clock climb at 1 hr 37 minutes. I can't get this issue resolved online, have been transferred once already & am so tired of dealing with outlandish wait times. I would never recommend this company,

Penelec-First Energy does not return call and if you wait online as you see below over 2 hours they picked up and told me they needed to transfer me to transfer dept. I’m on hold again. This is day two of this nonsense. Call Attorney General. File complaint at FCC. They refuse services. We have many acts as property owners. They are causing delays in our business.

Terrible service, costs keep rising. If they didn’t have a monopoly or there were other options, I would never do business with them. But I'd bet their management keeps giving themselves raises as they screw the public.

I recently attempted to set up service, but unfortunately, my move-in request couldn’t be completed. I was directed to contact Jersey Central Power and Light for more information, but after being on hold for over an hour and 42 minutes, I was unable to get the help I needed. I understand that some processes are out of the company’s control, but better communication or alternative support options would greatly improve the customer experience. I hope they can work on streamlining this process in the future.

This company has no business operating in New Jersey. An Ohio company with antiquated equipment is just bilking the people of our state. I have already put forth a bill to get rid of this company in new jersey. I can look 2 houses down where J CP NL is. Fully operational during the times when I have lost power. Our lines actually and physically connect. The people of new jersey are done with this absolute sham of a company.

I don't even get my electricity through them because they suck so bad, but I still have to pay through their website. Now, a company that has $100M laying around to name a football stadium is making me (and 6 million others) pay them fifty cents for the privilege of paying my bill. Garbage company.

Three hours after losing power and the outage status still shows crews have not even been dispatched to investigate the problem. This company is trash. This is far from the first time this has happened either.

First Energy just takes and takes. Now you have no choice but to make a payment through a third party. Unless you participate in auto payment, you're now being charged .50 as a service charge even when you use your bank account as payment where you supply your account and routing numbers. It is a $2.75 service fee for other payment methods such as using a debit or credit card. Just another item to add to their absolutely horrible customer service where wait times to be able to talk to someone is always over an hour. So disappointing!

I would give them minus stars if I could! They are overestimating bills by 3 times more than what we are using, if you try and call them, their office is closed. And now, if you want to pay your bill online, they charge you. I just got my bill yesterday and it's due in 4 days, it'll take longer than that to get there by mail. This company needs broken up, it has a monopoly on electric in numerous states and they are ripping us all off.

The absolute worst customer service in America. This really makes me fear for the future of our country when a simple bill pay has taken me 3 days, now today is the due date. Absolutely 0 competence on First Energy's part.

The power goes out every couple of months on a regular basis. There doesn’t even have to be bad weather. For instance, tonight 12/10/24 our power went out. It's not raining or snowing or even too cold or windy, but at around 5:00 pm the whole neighborhood is sitting in the dark. Invariably the power usually goes out as you get home from work in the evening and you’re lucky if it’s restored sometime the next day.

It's currently 10:30 PM. I have work at 5 AM. I have wet clothing in the washer that I can't dry because the power went out at about 10. This happens CONSTANTLY. Way more than any other company I've been with. I'm not gonna have dry clean clothing for work now. I'm only glad I had charged my phone beforehand so that I'd have an alarm for tomorrow morning. This company is unreliable and only gains business by monopolizing areas. Avoid places that have deals with them.

After moving out of an apartment 18 months ago, I received a letter from a collection agency stating my bill was sent to collection. I had no idea that I still owed on the account. Thinking that it was paid in full. I had not heard, or gotten any kind of notification at all for 18 months, and then I got a letter from a collection agency. The bill was only $38, so it wasn't a big deal, had I known about it. It could have been taken care of a long time ago. I contacted FE and they were absolutely no help at all. The issue was not that I owed the money, rather, that they waited for 18 months without contacting me at all, then turning the account over to collection. In my opinion, this is extremely poor customer service and because of their negligence, my credit rating is affected.

I called FirstEnergy to let them know my father died and to stop the electronic withdrawal. I was told that was completed. Then I wanted to put the bill in my name, so that I could pay it from my funds. I had to wait on hold because that was another department! I got a statement today saying they could not withdrawal funds, plus a charge! So I called again -waited on hold and got cut off! Called again and was told 5-15 minute wait time; after 27 minutes, I hung up.

Customer service is atrocious. Billing practices are questionable at best and they take advantage of the limited choices in service. Multiple attempts have been made to advise of issues and they ignore the issue until they want money. It's insane. Good luck talking to an actual person or getting a callback.

During our regular maintenance we were told it would take 3 hours of down time for the power to be restored. At this point it’s taken over 5 hours and it was eventually turned back on, we planned on going out of state for the weekend so these extra two hours were alright, but shortly after we were almost ready to leave the power went back out again. Get your times straight and don’t restore the power just to shut it down again. Needs better management or workers.

The waiting list was supposed to be from 45 to 50 minutes. I have been in the phone for more than 2 1/2 hours. I tried this several days and every day has been the same experience. When someone answers always is the wrong department and they transfer me to a different department which basically I have to start over and over for several days. This is so far the worst experience I ever had on customer service.

This company should be brought up on charges for theft, hold people hostage and mob strong-arming. They employ scumbags that want to blow smoke and cover for the ones that sign their checks. Incompetence and lazy are two of the nice words that I can say. Been without power for 3 days. No updates, no nothing. Except for them telling me we should be better prepared but in fact it was them that wasn't prepared when they had warning that this storm was coming. Where they could have sent crews out, ready to go in their famous trouble spots that they just put bubble gum and tape on from time to time rather than actually fixing the problem. "We the people" need to take up arms at start holding these big companies and corporations accountable!!

JCP&L is an actual Nightmare. NO service people available. My vacation home is used maybe 10 weekends per month, AND I have solar, but my bill is always over $1k/month. Nobody to speak with, no help, just $12k+ a year in unwarranted bills!

If I could, this company will get a 0 star review. Our last two bills were unexpectedly high over $1300 for a single family home, we received a disconnect text on a Wednesday and my plea response text was to allow us till Friday morning when we get paid to pay the balance. The guy responded he will need to shut it off till Friday, I called to negotiate. My wait time was 45 minutes then they hanged up on me. Meanwhile, the guy showed up at the door and I begged him to give us till Friday morning (2 days away) because I have 4 young kids in the house and he said he can take payment now or shut it off, I politely asked him to give me a second so I can go and make calls for family to send us some money. 2 minutes later, without waiting he shut it off, my kids and I can’t cook, no water access due to the pump being off and we have being using restaurant bathrooms. What kind of heartless, senseless, rude people do you hire to represent you?

I have been trying to reach JCP&L for 2 reasons:

First Energy Ohio Edison can’t even retain a phone call, can’t transfer a call, dropped 3 calls after long waits. They are absolutely hideous worst of the worst electric utility. I called them at 12:30 and they wasted my entire day.

I am very happy with First Energy as they can restore power very quickly after a severe weather outbreak. When I Stayed at the Kalahari Resort Hotel for 2 nights from 8/23/25 until 8/25/23, The power only flickered but it remained on during the entire outbreak. I'm fascinated by how quickly they can restore power in Northern Ohio when the storms caused over 400,000 customers to lose power. In just 12 to 15 hours after the storms, the number has dropped to around 160,000 customers that still don't have power. The pace of restoration is much Faster than DTE Energy in Southeast Michigan which had poor service and reliability where I live. First Energy is reliable, prepared for every severe weather event that occurs and can quickly restore power when it goes out. Thank you for your Help in getting the lights back on as quickly as possible, You guys are awesome.

Absolutely useless power company. Every single storm it's power out for days on end, and always some piss poor excuse as to why we go for ages without it restored. If you have ANY other options, please take them.

First Energy CANNOT keep the lights on in my house. Piss poor excuse for a power company. The slightest storm almost guarantees a multi-day outage. I'm considering solar because of just how plain awful this company is. I'd rather spend $45,000 hooking up panels because at least then I know I will always have power. Unreliable as all hell.

This is, hands down, the worst excuse of an electric company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Higher rates, customer service is laughable, and your power goes out EVERY TIME A CLOUD PASSES. As consumers, we are forced into contracts with companies that do not care about the customer, only the customers money. It does not matter if the company drops the ball OVER and OVER, they still require you to pay and fulfill your contract. Yet, let ONE bad thing happen in your life where you miss payment and they will cut you off like a cancer. This company should have to pay their customers back for the food we have lost due to their negligence and disregard for critical updates to their infrastructure, and maintaining the best possible equipment for their customers in this last week.

First Energy has shady business practices. They'll come out and damage your property when they do work on it and then deny any sort of responsibility. I wish the worst things in life for their employees and the company.

I completely understand that we are in a staffing shortage industry why I deal with it at my employer, but that gives no one the right to scream at you over the phone while you’re trying to explain that the website is down. There is no way I should be reminding the employees at First Energy that we are on a recorded line as they begin to scream and yell because you ask a question in regards to updating your email. I do not work at First Energy. Would not know how many emails can stay on one profile hence why questions are asked. I don’t even know if everything got switched over on my account because she hung up on me intentionally after Scoffing.

I emailed them 1st on 5/27 about my meter not working again on 6/6 and then again on 6/30. I received an email on 7/3 they would be at my house on 7/5 to repair my meter. At 2pm on the 5th I called because I haven't heard from them. I was on the phone from 2pm until after 6pm mostly on hold! I spoken with 5 people and 1 supervisor. Basically I was told by one person the service # I gave was given was for a different address, the supervisor was the most arrogant person. She could tell me why the repair person never came to my home, when they would be at my house to repair their equipment. When I asked about the bill she stated it would be spread out over time. I ask how I would know if it's correct. She didn't answer.

If it rains we have constant brown outs all day long in the entire town, They should sell out to someone willing to upgrade their failing infrastructure. I wish we could afford to move. I had to install heavy duty whole house surge protectors to keep from losing anymore appliances.

Absolutely terrible customer service. They truly don’t care about the customer and are just a scam trying to steal your money. We never received our first bill and when we got the second bill were informed that we have late fees for not paying the first and have a disconnect date sent. They did not care at all or take fault the bill was never sent out. Our bill is also off the charts high at $1200 for less than two months of service and they claim it is totally normal and of no concern. Of course not because they want the bill to continue to be high so they can get more and more money. Overall just terrible terrible service from Sherry and Kim. They are greedy and care about no one.

The customer service is terrible. I have been on the phone for 3 hours trying to pay my bill… I was on hold for an hour the first time and then they had to transfer me Which took another hour. It was awful!

Updated on 09/14/2021: I thought the reps (Alice, ID **) was able to revert the charge to another credit card. Just called my credit company to confirm, my credit card company has not yet seen a credit from JCPL. Alice told me it will be done in a few days on 9/1/2021 and follow-up with me after her resolution. Two weeks passed and no credit, no follow-up. JCPL thought people forgot anything fast! Just try to play games with its customer.

Back in Feb 2014 I had to move from my PA home to SC we called all the utilities to shut them off! Penelec aka First Energy didn't turn the power off for 7 months then put a $400 mark on my credit report! When we moved there was a major snowstorm that hit the entire east coast! We tried to work with them to lay what we should have owed (a week not 7 months). They refused. Basically said they don't make mistakes? 7 months without a payment? How do they let that happen? We were forced to pay the collection agency because we are buying a house! This was unfair and should never happen to anyone!!!

Let me start off by saying, they literally try to steal from you. I have been charged twice for bills I already paid. It's happened so many times. I think they hope people won't catch it. Then when I call to tell them what they did wrong, they try to confuse you with all kinds of crap and almost sounds like they are reading a script over and over. Unfortunate for the people who work here because you all are basically snakes and sound stupid trying to justify your double charging a.k.a theft.. Sorry, I keep proof of all transactions. Nice try.

I called JCP&L (First Energy) to because I am moving to another apartment in my same complex. After going through 90 prompts just to get to a representative, I found out they changed my address and shut down my account almost 2 months ago. I have no idea how this happened as I have been in the same location for a year and a half.

So my air conditioner was not working correctly this summer and ran around the clock trying to keep up upstairs. My bills for June thru Aug averaged $550 but on a regular basis are $140. During these months, I submitted 2 payments each month. In no way did I get a shut off notice as it was paid before the next bill. I check my bill online and it said they are tacking on a security deposit of $445. I immediately call and said I have lived here for 31 years and have never had a notice like this. Their response was basically, "Too bad. That's the way it stands and unfortunately it doesn't matter that you lived there for 31 years. We are NOT taking it off" even after I explained I can't afford it. He said, "Good luck to you!" So I had to put it on one of my credit cards. RUDE RUDE RUDE and there is nothing you can do!!!

Obviously they are not going to be happy, but the guy who spoke to me was so rude. I couldn’t believe how he spoke to me! I could not speak as he spoke over me all the time, so I simply said, "Look I’m a customer, it is up to me what I do, Just make sure you understand". I want to to close my account with 1st Energy, and I then slammed the phone down before he could be so rude again???? Unbelievable! This was on the 14th November at around 5.30 - 6.30 so you know who this person was.

We live in NJ and went to a summer home we have in FLA for 7 weeks between July and August. We turned off all lights and set air to 80. When we returned home I noticed an electrician replacing the meter. He told me the meter had stopped and was replacing it. Few weeks later I received my electric bill and was billed an estimate from last year's bill. I told them that we were away for 7 weeks but they really don't care and said I am responsible for the estimate bill since the meter stopped working. I feel I am powerless in that if I don't pay the bill. They will shut the power. I have no recourse but to pay the estimated bill. This is JCP&L and Toledo power. If anyone had a similar experience and could tell me if I have any recourse against them, it would help. It's ridiculous. If the power goes out because of weather then all they do is say sorry, but if I owe $$ and don't pay, they shut the power.