Duke Energy of the Carolinas

This year has been especially bad with the hurricanes and rains, I've emptied and replaced my food three times costing nearly 1,500 total, it fried my upstairs AC unit by flickering during hurricane Florence, costing me 4700 hundred dollars to have replaced, it burnt out my brand new golf carts internal charging board flickering on and off costing me 800 dollars to replace. Me and my wife obviously couldn't work or send oldest to school with no water or power when we went four days down which cost use our income.

It has been a twelve year constant pain in the side, it's a major reason behind why I'm planning on selling this home and moving under REMC coverage elsewhere. There comes a point when a company should become inclined to acknowledge their actions or lack thereof, the results of these actions and take care of the consumers that keep them in business. Their equipment is old, worn out and outdated, they know this but do nothing to update it, they don't repair or replace any of it unless it fails. Like many others customers they service, I have never missed or been late making my huge monthly payment to this company, but they do nothing to help us consumers and the reasons are simple, it cost a lot of money that they are unwilling to spend satisfying the little guys.

They have the best of the best in the extremely affluent sections of their coverage areas, when a disaster happens they send the repair crews to the wealthiest amongst us first. These aren't just accusations made by a jealous poor man, I'm not poor by any means and work in close proximity with the electric service providers across the middle Eastern part of the country.

When the second of two deadly hurricanes hit us (Florence and Matthew) REMC had initiated the emergency protocols, they had dozens and dozens of trucks from all across the country staged beforehand along with every support element necessary to successfully battle a natural disaster, while maintaining coverage as well as humanly possible and restoring coverage quickly when it was knocked out. They did their consumers a tremendous job throughout both storms while enduring the hardships of each head on.

Duke had dozens trucks in place for hurricane Florence also, but failed to have the appropriate support element's in place or a staging site efficient enough to proficiently carry out operations necessary to ensure consumers with the best coverage possible or shortest down times possible. They were forced to scramble and then repair equipment, fuel trucks, replenish supplies, and prepare for duty so while in the harsh elements, even sleeping and eating whatever was available inside the repair trucks. It was totally unprofessional and ineffective at providing acceptable service to consumers, or acceptable work conditions for the repair crews.

The second hurricane to come through (Matthew I believe) found REMC ready and prepared to handle it head on again. Duke however decided to ignore the weather forecaster's predictions, they made an internal decision to ignore the national weather advisory also, they decided that it was going to be a very minor event and it would blow over, I believe they assumed the weather service was over inflating its impact because hurricane Florence had so grossly exceeded predictions. Whatever convinced them hurricane Matthew wasn't a serious event and didn't represent a legitimate threat to Central North Carolina is irrelevant, because it was a major storm and did substantial damage to North Carolina, along with Florida up to New York and everything in-between. They didn't initiate any emergency protocols at all.

When the hurricane hit one company was on top of it wide open and maintained outstanding service, the other was caught with its pants down and only had its normal repair crews on duty, two trucks that were themselves short repair men to form two complete crews to operate them. Power was interrupted all across the east coast and those of us with Duke energy spent days without power because they had to call for help from FEMA, almost every electric crew in the country was either on the east coast already or headed there, finding the support was difficult and it took time to free them up and arrive, it was a terribly miserable time for almost all Duke consumers, along with the crews they needed who had to scramble to get done at one location and race here with no rest to fight our hurricane.

It was totally Duke Energy's fault, it was created entirely because of greed, they rolled the dice to try and save money at the expense of the consumers and service crew workers' well being, they failed. The others who were covered by a membership Corp had very short outages and were taken care of quickly, Duke's consumers had literally days to wait and not even an apology for mismanaging a natural disaster and causing thousands of consumers excessive, unnecessary hardship was coming.

But after a few weeks we did all receive a letter in the mail explaining basically that even though they had cut every corner and pinched every penny possible, it was still costly and our rates were going up as a direct reflection of the huge amount it cost them to repair their equipment after the storms. Do you think they used this extra money to upgrade this obsolete equipment? No, not even a little, so I sit here in the dark going on hour 8 at 1:46 am because it sprinkled this afternoon and we had a twenty mph wind gust. My 279 dollar power bill is in my mail box as I type this, my home is occupied 24/7 so that's just another average bill.

But the fact that terrible coverage has cost me right at 7,000 dollars in repairs this year alone has given me a lot of reasons to think about my arrangements.... I can sell and relocate (what a pain), I can buy a Generac whole house system and propane powered appliances (at this rate it'll pay for itself in under two years) or just keep taking it and continue getting crappy service while paying top dollar for it along with paying good money to fix my belongings their negligence Continuously damages. You will never win against any crooked corporate with a Monopoly on its consumers, so options are always limited, but I don't have to continue giving them my money, although leaving them isn't as easy as a phone call either, unfortunately.

I do plan on moving under a providers umbrella that I know first hand at least gives Max effort to provide quality service. I feel bad for anyone like myself who unknowingly chooses to build in a poor electric service providers district and even worse if you were unlucky enough to build in one of that provides us worst coverage as I did. It's bad enough to have second or third rate coverage, it's even worse when you get the worst they have to offer.

Here's an idea, on the off chance any Duke executive were to see this and care enough to make it this far! If you're unwilling to update or replace your worn out, rusty, garbage equipment you have hanging all over the state, with new improved equipment that we all know exists, and you're also unwilling to properly trim trees on a realistic scale to properly allow appropriate power line clearance. The least you could do is stop raising rates and offer some kinda coverage Ins. That could help guys like me when your ** service destroys my most valuable electronic utilities and possessions, it could provide some relief in the repairs. Not necessarily laptops or ceiling fans, that's whatever. But an HVAC system, an electric golf cart computer, 500 dollars worth of spoiled groceries over and over, fridge's, freezers, water pumps, solid waste pumps, televisions and other expensive items we pay a lot for.

We have family members on oxygen pumps that require electricity, no power they gotta go to hospital or a power source at best. You are supposed to provide an extremely important service but your pathetic efforts coupled with dangerous assumptions regarding natural disasters isn't just dangerous. It's unacceptable! Once again someone there should be held accountable. A lot of these things are necessities when you have children and others depending on you, But either way, many of us work hard everyday to pay your bill and Save what we can to buy the things that get destroyed when you fail us, so instead of charging me extra for something I'm not at all satisfied with, try looking out for the consumer, we are people also.

If you had insurance to help with damaged items related to power surges and outages you would make a substantial profit, many of us would pay the extra twenty or whatever. You undoubtedly can find the resources to get accurate estimates and come to find in correct, you would make a fortune, and please lots of people tired of fixing stuff we believe you broke by being a cheap, lazy, selfish company who really doesn't care about anyone period.

I was at least able to understand this new person and told him that ALL I wanted was to get electricity hooked up and I just wanted to make sure that was all scheduled to happen. Then he tried to have me sign up for emails for coupons, etc. It was torture!! If there was another company that I could have used I would have. Why does a company that makes that much money need to harass people after they’ve already signed up for their services?!?! Awful way to treat new customers.

They never had a conversation with me about the smart meter, and I never received any mail correspondence to inform me of the installation. I feel that Duke Energy doesn't respect its customers, and they actually trespassed when they crossed my gate without my permission when there was no emergency to warrant that type of behavior. I am a disabled veteran on a fixed income and was told by the company to pay a ridiculously high fee as well as a monthly fee to "OPT OUT" of something that I never agreed to have installed.

At this same time we came to the end of our Equal Payment Plan for the year and had a credit of $531.01, so we're expecting a "free" month or two of billing based on our having paid too much over the prior year. After calls on 1/1, 2/6 and 2/13 we escalated the call to a supervisor. She let us know it happens and that the final meter reading on the old malfunctioning meter was likely incorrect. She reviewed our history and said we should expect an adjustment but did not know the time frame. She referred the claim to the Complex Billing department and said that we should not expect fast action as it takes a very long time for them to determine an estimate of what we should receive as credit. She said to continue making the EPP payments monthly and if we received a disconnect notice to call them. WHAT THE HECK???

So we wait and wait and wait. 3/25 call and have to go through the whole story with a CSR, then again with a Supervisor (Amy). The status was that it was being investigated by "Bill Sort". And we would have to wait for their determination. "Give it another month." I asked her if she was serious and politely stated that was unacceptable and need to escalate this to her manager. The manager was insulated and not accessible, so I left my number for her to call me.

Amy offered to put the account on watch and she and her manager would review it morning and afternoon daily. I asked for her extension - does not have a direct line. Gave her my cell # and asked for weekly calls to provide updates Friday, and if she was not available Friday to call Thursday. Also asked to have the Manager call me at her earliest convenience to escalate the call internally for action.

Electricity is very high and it's unfair. I live alone! Why is my bill 400-something dollars? I bet the CEO does not have this problem and don't know what it's like to be financially abused by utility companies. Then you turn my power off 2 days before the day I said I could pay? I could not believe it. Now I have to pay all these fees and could possibly be billed another deposit. This is mind blowing how this world is so greedy and unkind. People go through things and you have all these organizations and programs that you have to go through hell and high water to contact and you still don't receive assistance!

On their website they even have share the warmth listed under the assistance tab but when you click on it or try to call they don't mention any of those things and give you numbers to social services. I just don't understand. I absolutely hate this company. It's 33 degrees outside and you disconnect my power 2 days before my pay date and now my whole check is going to go to this electric bill and fees and a new deposit. Very shocked and disappointed.

I spent HOURS on the phone with incompetent customer support who refused to reimburse me for the charges on an account they failed to cancel. My old apartment complex even confirmed to the Duke Energy representatives that they should be the party charged for the utilities at this address now, and that they would gladly pay the Duke bills. Duke continued to refuse to help.

Currently, I am STILL on the phone with Duke Customer Support after being transferred to multiple parties and speaking with multiple supervisors. The lack of customer service is absolutely pathetic. They are spending HOURS attempting to find a recording of my call with their customer support agent to attempt to prove/disprove that I requested a service cancellation. When, instead, they could reimburse me for the charges, and charge the correct party, who will GLADLY pay the amount owed.

This is the most incompetent company I've ever dealt with and I will be installing a large generator system that's going to cost over 8k dollars because Duke Energy that we all pay 300 to 600 dollars every month for power is too incompetent to keep the power on. And apparently they only work in daylight hours now and only then if its warm enough according to their EMERGENCY contact number that puts yo through to people that know nothing except what a computer screen says. And the sad part is I'm in the middle of a city and barely out of town limits which put me out of reach of a competent city power provider.

"No, I am having trouble with my online account..." She proceeds to ask if I’m renting or do I own. I repeat, "I’m having trouble with my online account." All of a sudden the phone rings and someone else comes on and says, “Would you like to review your account today?” Ummmmm, “No I don’t!” She says, “How can I help you.” I explain once again, she asks would I like to make a payment (although my bill is up to date). WHERE DO THESE IDIOTS COME FROM? Talk about frustrating and to top it off my issue is still not resolved. Clearly NC has hired cheap labor. Insane, scary, and sad all at the same time.

3rd: apparently they NEVER ACTIVATED my account and somehow put it in my husband's name... Not once did he call to start up service because, again, this idiot told me everything was good to go and provided me with a new account number that apparently was never even active! It baffles me how they never own up to their mistakes! THEY HAD ME ACCUSE A GENTLEMAN OF THEFT AND I WENT SEARCHING FOR HIM. I found his new house and confronted him... He was just as confused and because of DUKE, he lost his electricity and had to fight them like I did... Still am... I HATE that I have to have them as my electric company and because of that - they think they are able to do ANYTHING they want to you and your account because they can! This company is beyond disrespectful and don’t care to help you.

The biggest issue with Duke Energy is their customer service. Every time you call them, even when there isn't an outage, all you get is a busy signal. The single time I did interact with them over a missing payment they had lost, the person on the other line was extraordinarily rude and insisted that I did not pay my bill. When he finally discovered that it was an error on their end he curtly asked if there was anything else I needed and did not even apologize. It is astonishing that the city has allowed this monopoly to operate in this manner for so long.

We saw multiple other power companies on the roads making repairs and replacing various items and when we conversed with Duke asking why other companies were able to restore the power their answer was well our employees don't feel safe... It was completely outrageous. This has got to be the absolute worst power company on the planet. And here we are with hurricane Michael and yet again our power is out. The wind is only 30 miles an hour with some rain. How is our power out yet again!? When I called their customer service line I got the run around how they weren't sure when the power would be restored, that a lot of people were affected in our area, that the storm is terrible. The storm is not terrible, at all. If I had a choice on who my power company was you bet your ** I would NEVER use this crap company ever again. COMPLETE NIGHTMARE!

It has been over a year, since Duke energy in Cashiers were suppose to come and finish the job...Diane, from Duke Energy at that time was the supervisor she came by gave the ok for Duke energy to come and do the underground connection. We did our part spent a lot of money and all i get from Duke energy customer service is: in two days someone will call you, two days=365 days..........Diane, has retired and all i get from DUKE IS ZERO RESPONDS.. Enough of this... Duke get on with your work.

1.The amount of usage we're billed for that exceeds the previous month and the previous year over year usage is almost exactly equal to the amount recorded on our old meter for the 11 days from Dec 14-Dec 27 until our new meter was installed. 2. The 2,100kwh recorded for the period from Dec 27-Jan 16 (on the new meter) is almost exactly the amount we used for the previous month and the previous year for the same period. 3. And if you multiply the metered usage of our old meter, 700kwh, for 11 days x 3 (for 33 days) it equals 2,100kwh.

It's obvious that the new meter is either recording 40% more kwh or the meter reading was changed when the tech came out to program it; adding the 700kwh for the first part of the billing period from the old meter to the new meter's read. Having planned for the TOU metering the month before we changed our habits and have been doing all of our laundry, dish washing, car charging and most of our heating during "off peak" hours leaving only basic lighting, refrigerator and water pumping for anytime use. The % breakdown of off peak hours on hour plan is 82% off peak and the rest during peak or "shoulder" hours. But the 550kwh vs 1550 kwh is a 25%/75% split.

Everything I see points to either the new meter having been adjusted or somebody estimating our usage. A representative has agreed to have the meter checked but insisted that it was correct.

I've been calling since 2010. Three years. The lines are still live and still there. No one can tell me anything, except that there is yet another work order. But no one knows who fills these orders or when. It's very confusing. Does it take three years to get your power turned on? Why should it take three years to get it turned off?

I called Progress Energy asking why they did that and etc. They said that they hadn't received any payment. I tried to explain but they were so rude. I was very mad because my wife is pregnant and it was very cold that day. So I tried to explain but they didn't care. I've been a customer for 8 years. I would be only because I have no choice. It's very frustrating!