JEA

Multiple times I had to deal with the carelessness of reps on the phone. One rep couldn't even credit me 5 dollars. JEA will raise your bill, then you will come home to a dark house and wonder why is your bill so high. JEA needs to be deregulated, that's when you have multiple electric companies. The only way for this to happen is the people of the city have to go to the lawmakers. If you're content with only one company controlling all of the electricity then don't do nothing.

According to JEA's own site a leaking toilet wastes about 2,700 gallons of water a YEAR. So what about the other 51,000 gallons of water that went poof? When I contacted the JEA office we arranged for a representative to do an inspection of my apartment and guess what...... you guessed it NO LEAKS. So I sent in the paperwork... it took me several days to send in the paperwork. I talked to a manager at the office when we set up the apartment inspection and I specifically asked if they were going to turn off my water or wait till it was done. She said NO. So I come home from work today and guess what my water had been turned off and still no reply from JEA about an adjustment to their obviously inflated bill. Now I will be forced to suck up a $414 water bill, late fees, disconnect fees, and of course a reconnect fee bill. So their fraudulent bill will cost me over $500.

Updated on 1/6/2016: This is an update to the one before. Yes, they charged me $125.37 for water, $15.12 for sewer, and then a reconnect fee of $14.00. They gave me a credit of $140.00 as an adjustment. So basically, they over charge me $414 then give me a credit of $140 of the original $413 that was erroneously billed to me and I'm supposed to be all happy and giddy about that. That is the equivalent to a robber stealing your car and returning a wheel from said car. Then the $140 that they credited me with will be used to pay the other fees they so nicely leveled on my account.

Now, how is it that for 3 years I used 3000 gallons of water a month exactly? Not 3001 or 2609 but 3000 on the dot. I would say that they are rounding up their customer's water usage, which is basically charging them for water that the customer didn't use, which is the same as stealing to me. I mean, if you look at their number of customers and if they over charged by even $10 each month to every customer, they could be stealing 100,000 to 1,000,000 a year from their customers. How is that legal? Where is the legal overview or accounting?

I find it absurd that I can make on time payments for years and then one accident can cause my "internal" score to drop significant. I have a great credit score with bureaus but JEA I don't. I find it crazy JEA can continue to operate in this fashion. Please help me understand how a one time offense (which in JEA terms counts as a two part fraction) can result in an $700 fee. Thanks JEA for the holiday season gift. Sad where greed has driven America. The fact that nothing can be done about this speaks volume to where we are as a country.

Since then JEA has said I used 390 gallons of water on the 30th, 380 on the 31st and on August 1, 287 gallons on the 2nd, 463 gallons on the 3rd, and today at 4:30 am which the bill cycle just started 3:30 am I have already used 390 gallons of water. And by the way I live alone and nothing has changed and I don't have any leaks (these are the excuses JEA is trying to use in their defense). Something has to give. I'm calling the media and hiring an independent contractor to figure out what's going on. WHEN IT COMES BACK IN MY FAVOR, MY NEXT PHONE CALL WILL BE TO AN ATTORNEY!

Recently I got a bill for 100+ during local election time and then back to 208, and now 340 again with no change in usage habit on my end at all. Customer service at every level has several excuses they resort to (which always lays blame away from the company) and sometimes my bill has increased insane amounts after complaining which makes me hesitant to submit this, but I am at my wits end. I have a friend who lives on a nice side of town and who's house is twice the size of mine with many more devices running including a washer and dryer and pays only 35.00 a month!

I'm past angry and now just sadly in resignation at the way this can be allowed to happen for so long with no possibility of choice or recourse. It does seem cruel and bizarre that anyone can get away with something like this in a modern civilized society. It seems like most who have suffered (according to this site's post alone) have no normal means of action at the time of dispute. I wonder if that is what the "internal credit score" is really used for. I report this now because I assume for every filed complaint on this site there are many more who have not come forward and/or have no knowledge of any legitimate avenue to report... But at this point it's only a matter of time before this company's deeds are fully brought to light once again.

By my records, over the years, I've over paid at least thousands of dollars over what a normal and even high end ($100-$200) bill should be. Sometimes I've gotten a normal bill but often it's very high for no plausible reason on my end and it's been happening more and more often just in the past few years. All I know to do at this point is document and wait. I hope change comes soon.

A credit score means nothing with these people. It's just another way to bully the community! They have the power and control to charge high prices. To punish those that are falling behind, those that have lost income and a means to pay by saying "Hey your credit score dropped because you've been having problems with paying your bill so we're going to charge you more than what you've been having difficulty paying"...This doesn't even make sense. Yet we politely eat the Bull Crap they are feeding us and pretend that it's OK. Does the City of Jacksonville agree with this kind of abuse? We can't go on strike because we will be in the dark, no water, freezing, dying of heat strokes, etc. but because life isn't fair we have to roll with the punches because there is only one seller, one producer that we have to depend on. This is really sad and upsetting for many not just me. It's a means to an end when the majority is being kicked down and beaten by the same monster.

I have asked JEA to review these bills and see if they have made an error. A similar event happened to us about 8 years ago and it took a while for JEA to correct the error. We will see how long it takes them this time. My problem is that such errors should never occur. The standards of any industry today would never allow for such high error rates in billing. Don't these people have a way to audit their own activity or institute proper control procedures to prevent errors? It appears that this organization has no quality control procedures.

Well the CSR was rude and not helpful at all, suggesting to me that I call one of the agencies that they partner with (very convenient) or set up a payment arrangement. I told him, "I am not paying what I do not owe!".... I will pay for any electric I have used (my apartment complex charges us 50.00/ month for water use) and that is it! He said, "Well, I can't tell you what to do, but services will be interrupted if it isn't paid!" I asked the obvious, "Where else can I go for Electric???" Of course, he said, "Nowhere in Jacksonville"... So I either pay it, have my lights turned off, or move...

So, to RECAP: I will have my lights disconnected for PAYING MY BILL- Just to also mention I have been a Jacksonville Resident my whole life - since 1979. I opened my JEA account at age 19. Highest amount I've paid them was 2009 - it was a little over 1,700.00!!! My average bill is over 300.00, until I moved to my apartment in March 2014, my bill has been considerable lower. When I suggested that this "deposit" was to cover what I haven't paid, due to moving... the CSR basically said (not in so many words), "Yes, we review your payment history and issue a deposit based on that." BUT FOR WHAT!!!! In my opinion I believe people like me are the "neighbor to neighbor" program - PAYING BILLS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LEFT THE CITY WITH UNPAID BILLS OR GOTTEN LOCKED UP OR HAVE THEIR BILL TURNED ON IN SOMEONE ELSE'S NAME!!!!

SO.... JEA SAYS, "YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS TO DISCONNECT BUT YOU WILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING"????? My name was nowhere on the agreement with his bill.... I SIGNED NOTHING.... I could not do anything to protect myself from a situation..... They have placed the account in my name and his (if you pull the bill... it shows BOTH our names). THEY HAVE PUT IT ON MY..... YES..... MY CREDIT... Not only did I have to move.... but unless I pay the bill in HIS name... I can not use JEA...... I have tried writing JEA... I gave his number and he still refuses to speak with them since 2012.... and even though I am honest and trying to resolve this..... JEA will not budge. They advised me I have to resolve the issue with him and get him to come into the office!!! I have cried over this.... so many times.... lost my house and forced to either find housing that is less than what is desired.... or pay his bill.....!!! JEA has never contacted me back about this issue when put in writing..... They will not address this issue... when I ask... why is it on my information????

They use also some other tools and stations to produce electricity. Should we pay for all of these including their salaries?). They do not respond properly to my Complaints, they say they charged us pursuant to the Florida Laws, but never said which one. There are no such Fla. Rules exist whatsoever! My neighbor pays about $800.00 of JEA's bills for little house like mine. What should we do? This is 100% ripoff. And if we will not pay, they will cut our utilities...

When I called JEA to make the payment and assure everything was ok, I was not informed about their credit score points policy or that those 2 bounced checks or "infractions" had brought our score down, nor that this would result in us being required to pay a deposit of $700 on top of our regular monthly bill. So we were shocked and confused when we got our bill for this month stating we owed over $1000 in order to keep from getting disconnected. I understand we made a mistake by bouncing those checks, but I feel it is unfair as JEA does not make its customers aware of this credit score policy until AFTER you have an infraction!

When I called this morning, I asked why they do not inform their customers about this policy. Why not put this information on your monthly bill and make people aware of the fact that they can have a perfect score for nearly ten years but be penalized for one mistake? The rep just kind of stuttered and had no answer or explanation, except, that is their policy. I am outraged, we already struggle to pay $350-$400 a month for their ridiculously high rates! And reading other people's similar stories just makes me angrier. This greedy company is making billions off the backs of struggling families, the elderly and handicapped, etc. How do they sleep at night?!

This "imaginary credit score policy" is nowhere to be found on their website Jea.com nor is that information sent along with monthly statements. This company has a long history of overcharging consumers and price gouging their customers but they continue to report record earnings. Miscellaneous fees, overcharging, price gouging and recharging deposits is how this company is able to make these record earnings and it is not good for the consumer. Unfortunately for Duval County residents, Jea is the only utility company in our area so we have to get service from this horrible company. People are already struggling to make ends meet in this bad economy adding miscellaneous fees and overcharging consumers an additional $100-$300 is not good business. I believe this imaginary credit score rating policy is just another ploy to get more money from their customers without validation. Consumers should only be required to pay for consumption of electricity not ridiculous fees padded up by ridiculous policies.

I asked for a supervisor because I said might does not give me any confidence that my money is going to go through. I was told you cannot speak to a supervisor. I said, "Are you ever going to respond to my email?" They said, "We got it and everything should work." All the while on the website, the amount due says 0.00 because the due date in the future is already paid. It is not already paid. It will not pay until the due date. JEA needs to severely update the webpage so at the very minimum it should say amount due is still amount due and then after the due date, it goes to 0 to show it was paid. Or, at least enable a payment history feature if you're not going to change anything else, so we as customers know if auto payment is not going to work. We can see we have to manually pay.

I have never had such horrible customer service and piss poor technological information in my life. I hate to say it, even Comcast is doing better than JEA at this point. Now my credit gets hit because all this showed I never made a payment on time when I was misled from every possible direction from JEA.

Furthermore, I spoke with a Ruby today, 1/5/13, at around 8:27 am and she told me that I could not wait for her supervisor to get off another call because I would hold up her phone line from assisting someone else and that I would have to wait until Monday for a call back on my situation because her managers were too busy on Saturdays to do call backs. So I said, "So what if I didn't accept that answer and choose to wait anyway, what then?" She said she would just release the line and "hang up" on me and she did just that. So I called back and spoke with a Yolanda at 8:38 am. And she just lied and said there were no supervisors on Saturdays and when I called her on that lie, I pretty much got the same treatment.

Is this the way JEA treats their customers because they're the only electric company in Jacksonville? Well, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do which is what I did to get IRS straightened out for the same kind of treatment. I sent a letter to my president and I will call the news stations and bring some light to JEA's customer care practices.

Make no mistake, they are not collecting marbles anymore. It's all about how much money they get come hook or crook. The problem is at the top, we do not have a choice to request another provider. We do not have a voice in the making of any decisions in what is asked (demanded) from us. It is and must be a time for change in the way that we receive our power and services. They want to estimate our bill from a time when we have a higher usage rate because the meter reader wants to do their job from the comfort of his or her vehicle because it is either to hot or too cold outside. I have seen this with my own eyes, they use a set of binoculars to read the power meter and rarely check the in ground water meter to get an accurate reading. And what is the explanation on how they figure out the amount of sewage that flows through the toilet and put it in a dollar amount? I don't know. Has anyone ever asked the meter reader this? I did and guess what I got, the Gomer Pyle look and answer, "Golly, Don't tell me, don't tell me. It's a bean, it's a bean... Lima bean, Shazam."

Makes no sense, right Golly! It's funny but really not funny at all. We are being forced to pay whatever they think and too bad for us. "We will cut off your lights and water. We just don't care." In my opinion JEA, over the years, has committed awful and dehumanizing atrocities on the people of Jacksonville all for the sake of profit and having all the marbles and we are left with nothing but the dirt in this time of a bad economy and no work for the people of Jacksonville. It should be a time when all the price gouging and deceit should stop and more understanding on the part of JEA and help the people of Jacksonville. There are people out there right now that are sitting in the dark, either cold or suffering from the lack of compassion that JEA has showed in the past and will probably continue to escalate as times get harder. We are not supposed to have a monopoly in this day and time; this is not the 1800s.

People are being forced to either have electricity or food. And that brings up another catch, if you are out of work or have a disability or someone in your home has to have electricity to power the equipment that keeps them alive, guess what? You are out of luck. If you are on food stamps and have no power to cook the food then you starve. It is all about how much is enough. Do you need that new Jaguar or BMW every year and just how well should you sleep at night knowing that the poor and disabled has paid for it?! These people at the top know they cannot be fired. They do not have to worry about being held accountable for their greedy ways because they have made sure that our voices cannot be heard and that our opinions do not matter. Oh, you will hear about someone dying on the news but what you won't hear is what were the conditions that might have led up to on how they died.

Now I'm not saying every death is caused by JEA, that would be ridiculous and wrong and totally unfair to say, but there have been times when just a bit of understanding and basic humanity might have made the difference in someone's life, mothers and fathers worried and ashamed about their children having the basic needs to maintain a decent lifestyle. My father was a strong and independent man but there was a time when the lights were shut off and we had to suffer for it. It may sound funny but he had a very strong resolve about himself, so he built an outside toilet and dug his own water well. We used kerosene lamps and he said, "Who needs JEA?!" Of course you cannot do that in today's time. They would put you straight in the jail. I have an in-ground well at my home and was told that I could not use it because that water belonged to the city.

Wow, I hope I never find gold on my property but it would mean someone downtown just got a new BMW. Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading this even if you don't agree, but that's one freedom they have not claimed and taken away yet. JEA, just show a little compassion for your customers.

On my first interaction with Ms. **, I explained that I am currently working at the Public Defender's Office in Sacramento, California and have not been in Florida since May 11, 2012. I advised that I could fax time sheets, receipts of travel, and hotel receipts for the time period in question. I also advised her that no one lives there. I even doubled checked the residence prior to departing from Florida, even coming back to the residence and to make sure nothing major was on (except the refrigerator and a light).

I have had a friend as well as my apartment staff check my residence and everyone has noted that a faucet was kind of leaking, the refrigerator was on, and the light was on. My office manager did note that my electric box was missing the cover. I conveyed all of this to Ms. ** and, very sternly, Ms. ** kept reiterating my bill to me, in which I advised that I have had 7 years of education, which would include my BA degree and my JD degree, so I do not need her to keep repeating what I had already read.

She also suggested that I had someone living there, as though I was lying to her. I advised her again that no one lives at that residence and she kept advising someone was. I told her that my bill has never ever been as high as it was, suggesting someone read the meter wrong, or there was a complete error. Her demeanor grew more and more defensive as the call continued. She advised that in situations like this, if I had water services with JEA, then she would be able to tell if someone was there, but since I did not have water, then she could not do anything. Once again, she presented to me as though I was lying that no one was at the residence. I asked her to have Ms. ** call me Monday morning and the call was ended.

Ms. ** did call on Monday and I could not answer because I was in court. I called her back and left a voice mail. The call was never returned. The next day, I called her back and the representative placed me on hold and said she was in a meeting. I was placed on hold moments later, only to have the representative convey to me that Ms. ** would not take the call, that she reviewed my account and will offer no credits. I advised the representative that I did not need her to relay messages, that I obviously called to speak with Ms. **, not to be placed on hold as messages are relayed back and forth. I still have yet to be contacted by Ms. ** or anyone from her staff since.

Since then, I have sent an email to Mr. ** with a cc involving Mr. Dickenson. Neither one of them responded; therefore, I forwarded the email to them, and still have yet to get a response from them or their staff. So here I am, a very dissatisfied consumer of JEA services based on my interactions with an unprofessional staff, and still with no solutions to an issue I have been dealing with for some time. I would like this issue addressed.

I asked the JEA to supply me with the work order, and proof of consumption usage. To date, I have never received the daily usage report for November or December. No proof of usage was provided. The JEA phone manager made promises that she would mail and email the information. She never did a thing. I followed up several times. She was not to be found. The requested information never came through. Every promise was broken. With the new meter, my water usage showed 1,000 gallons.

I am one person living alone. I am 65 years old. No one else stays here as this is a one-bedroom. My laundry usage is one to three loads a week. Toilet uses 1.5 gallons per flush. I do not use a dishwasher except for one time per month. Suddenly, in February, the bill jumped to 3,000 gallons for water. How did this happen? I do not have an outside line to my knowledge unless the apartment has one.

The JEA sent out a representative who stated he was unable to see if the lines were crossed because I was not home. The phone representative told me that this same JEA visitor stated no lines were crossed. This is conflicting information. Then, he stated that the meter worked fine.

I received a copy of the usage of water daily for this period. Strangely, it shows a reset each month with big jumps in usage. On May 17th, after the reset 970 gallons were added on that day for my June bill. In April, after the reset for the beginning May bill, 750 gallons were added on the 04/18/2012. In March after the reset, 950 gallons was added to my bill on 03/21/2012. I tried to explain that when my meter is read, additional usage is put on my bill. The strangest thing that happens is that on each monthly reading, there is a big jump in usage. Also, on 04/27/2012, there is a 260 gallon usage. In addition to the reset game, there is a jump in usage to 260 gallons on certain days. This is very suspicious, and is perhaps water being used on my meter from the apartment complex to water the lawns or clean rugs.

To date, no one from the JEA has been able to explain what is going on. Why the same tenant with no changes in usage of water has gone from 1,000 gallons per month to 4,000 gallons per month? There are no outside faucets to my knowledge unless the apartment has one that I do not know about. Is there a switch over feature on this new meter? A relative has a 5-bedroom, 3-bath home, and her bill is never more than 3,000 gallons of water. I assume that she is on a lower usage calculation than I am. I am writing to you because I have been unable on two occasions to have the JEA resolve the meter and water usage jumps.

Also, neighboring apartments with two bedrooms have the same electric charge that I have. These apartments have two bedrooms, and I have one bedroom. I do not use my AC during the day unless, it is over 95 degrees. They run theirs continually for the two bedrooms, and their bill and my bill are both $90. I do not use a television except for 1 hour a week. I use a dishwasher for one cycle per month. I use a computer with LED daily and two ceiling fans. I use a roaster for 3 hours twice a month, and never use an oven. How is it that I have the same charges as the two bedroom? I am looking for the truth from the JEA. I do not need anymore untruthful or surmising explanations. The JEA is discriminating!

This service will be on a second house we have bought in Jacksonville with the economy. I would think the municipal-owned electric provider would be helping new home buyers instead of nickle and diming the public. No excuse can justify such a price jab. Why does a company I subsidize need to act like the banks at this time, and nickle and dime everyone? In the future, anything JEA would put their name on, is tainted as far as I'm concerned.