Duke Energy of the Carolinas

I wanted to send an email and a complaint about Duke Energy. We were getting our electrical service upgraded at our newly purchased home from partially original hardware (1967). I spoke to two people at Duke Energy two weeks before our scheduled work days in order to have them come out a physically turn off the power to our house and have it scheduled to have them come turn it back on in two days. The day it was supposed to be turned off, they never showed up to have it disconnected. I found out the following day (my electricians should have told me the day of but didn't.) that the power was not in fact cut off, despite my account with Duke saying that it had been disconnected. I spoke with four different people that day at Duke Energy to get it disconnected.

Hands down worst customer experience I have ever received. Called about my bill being charged duplicate charge of $117.08 on the same day and was told by everyone I spoke to “I understand this situation is messed up but my hands are tied”. Eventually told me to contact my bank and my bank handled it but once my bank refunded me ONE of the TWO charges they were alerted and billed me again for the same amount because I was refunded 1 or the duplicate charges. INSANITY and all they do is tell you “my hands are tied” and the aggression and rudeness in most of the customer service reps tones was something I have never experienced before. Then the rep proceeded to go on a rant about how Bank of America is awful so I hung up after 2 hours and no resolution.

We have lost power 6 times for several hours over the last 5 months and have woken up to blinking clocks other times, not knowing how long the power was out. Anytime there is a storm, we are just waiting to lose power, have no confidence in their service anymore. I would give Duke’s power service 0 stars, but the review made me give them one.

This company is awful. I moved out in June and am being billed through August. They say you have to stop service over the phone but never actually tell you that and give you the option to do it online then claim they don’t accept that.

We placed order for new/additional service installed to our garage. During whole there has been no contact or update on my work order. We make multiple phone calls to Duke Energy with no progress. We asked for supervisor multiple times and Duke stated they do not give out that information. That calling the builder support line is only option to resolve the issue

We have been sitting here since 5:30 p.m. without any power with small children and being pregnant. About to lose all my food. Possibly lose my bearded dragon. Praying and hoping I don't go in labor in this heat. They said it'll be back on at 11:30 p.m. and then turn around and say, "Oh 9:00 a.m.." And it says, "Sorry we understand your concerns." What a crock of **. I don't think you understand completely at all. I will be calling the manager first thing in the morning and I will flip the hell out. If there was another power company I'll be going to them instead of Duke Energy. They cost way too much. And I barely use any power other than the AC here lately because it's super hot with a bunch of small kids and being pregnant.

Someone in my complex gave them the wrong apartment number which canceled my account and pushed my deposit into my bill. Not only did they not confirm with me any cancellations or transfers but I was told they can’t do anything to reverse the deposit and they can’t even bother to call the current account holder to confirm a transfer or cancellation. Now I see why Duke Wnergy has so many negative reviews.

They have unreliable service and their rates are constantly going up with no explanation. I live on a fixed income and always leave on the same lights on cook the same weekly meals and do not have any changes. My rates keep fluctuating monthly with their erroneous explanation saying that I used more which is untrue. Then they keep asking me to pay for others that do not pay their bills because I never miss my payments but my electricity keeps getting interrupted weekly with their outages for just any unexplained simple thunder or just rain. Not any major storms. I lost a lot of my food this week and I had no power for two days. This is getting ridiculous already. What is going on!!! Could someone in the the government investigate this company please. Thank you. I have medical condition and can’t live with this ongoing problem. Thank you.

I moved to MN from NC in June of 2020 during the pandemic, I learned that I had an outstanding bill for the months of July - October 2020 that I was never contacted about for 2 YEARS! Apparently they sent the bill to collection and collections sent the bill back to Duke Energy. I find out 2 years down the line I was charged for 4 months of Electric I wasn't even in the state of NC to rack up. This outstanding debt that belongs to the owner of the home I was removed from during the start of the Covid pandemic is keeping me from moving into an apartment here in June of 2022. Customer service and their supervisors would not assist me at ALL and said that the charge for something I didn't use for 4 months would remain on record until someone else comes along and assumes responsibility for the charges, Leaving my disabled Mother and I about to be homeless in the middle of June in MN living under a bridge.

Duke Energy had suspended their billing then restarted after overhaul and used old bank info that was bought and stopped electricity and penalized no use of auto payment until one year due to their system.

We have been in a guarded relationship with Duke Energy (our ONLY source for power in our area) since we installed solar panels in 2012. Duke Energy immediately put us on the highest rate schedule, even though we do not generate enough energy to power our entire home. Still, we changed when we did things like laundry and running the dishwasher and carried on. Suddenly in 2022, our power bills have tripled for no reason at all. I'm not talking a few dollars. I'm talking HUNDREDS of dollars. Our power USAGE hasn't increased, just our costs. Duke Power, which has always had a decent reputation, has become a cesspool of corporate greed. Bad enough that all us customers have to pay for their coal-ash cleanup where they have dumped their byproducts on the poorest communities in NC. Now, it seems clear they intend to make everyone pay. And pay. And pay.

I have wasted hours and hours of time on hold with the customer service department of Duke Energy over the last 3 months. I have a garage apartment that suddenly had its monthly energy bill jump from $25 to over $300 a month.... When I asked Duke Energy to come and check this out they said there were no issues they could find with the meter. This continued for 3 months. Finally I demanded a new meter. As soon as my meter was replace the energy bill had dropped back down to $25 a month!! CLEARLY the meter was broken. That said - they are refusing to refund me for the expensive months because there is "no proof" the meter was broken. I am feeling completely scammed and without any options for help. I will be forced to pay $900 for energy I know we did not use.

Duke Energy is redesigning their website. This is critical! Why? Because Duke Energy is forcing all to use this site to make payment unless you authorize this outfit to have direct access to your banking account. For YEARS I used ebill. My bank sent me notice. I went online, indicated to pay ebill. Always EARLY. Then DUKE ENERGY STOPPED EBILLS. Since ebills were stopped, they have messed up my payment twice and then started harassment via email on not having my payment yet.

I have had nothing but problems with Duke Energy since around February 2021. First, I was charged a $46 monthly fee, for around four months, for a payment arrangement that I never had or requested. Then I was sent a bill that stated I didn't owe any money until November 2022. When I went on their website, because I knew that had to be a mistake, I was given the message to pay a penny immediately or face disconnection. I took a picture of this message with my iPhone if anyone from Duke Energy would like to see it. So, I called them and was told I actually owed around $250 even though I didn't have any sort of bill backing this up.

Duke Energy Customer Service rep states they have always charged basic fee $14 for accounting, handling our billing. But with NEW software they have now, it breaks out showing fee separate. Customers never knew they were being charged this fee. Duke Energy hid the fee in our usage or taxes & customer rep can't tell me where $14 was hidden. During this critical time with COVID they do an rate increase as well. This is absurd and sad Duke Energy is doing this to the American people they service. You have the president giving out stimulus checks to help manage their bills and all we doing is paying a high electric bill.

I waited on hold for 2 hours for a representative to pick up and put me on hold for another hour.... Transfer and holds. They do not answer, they can't find the information and transfer you from department to department.

They do not send out bills every month, their website to pay online does not work either. You call and they say they are behind on billing. How does a company this size get behind on billing not one but two months going into third month. How does a company claiming to be a Fortune 500 company lets this happen. This company is just like the Texas power company back in February, but they are here in North Carolina.

Duke came out, marked our yard and said they would be replacing a power line running through our yard... WEEKS ago. Supposedly was supposed to be finished in late March. Today, 4-15-21 it has not even been started. Several calls and a written complaint on their duke-energy.com site and NO courtesy call back to update me as to when this project is to be done. I have work in my yard I want to do but waiting for Duke to get their job done instead of my work being dug up after doing it. Just spent 1 hr 53 minutes dealing with customer service attempting to get someone to react to my request. Shocked, amazed, disappointed, irritated...about their lack of customer service. Looking at online reviews back many years, so many complaints that I do not understand how the BBB can give them a A+ rating and Angie's List gives a 5 star rating. I give them a zero rating but had to give a one.

We need at least one more power company!!! Duke is ripping Mount Airy NC off. It's just me and my wife and just watch one TV and maybe one light and a outdoor light. So sad it cost us $168 each month and I am disabled and my wife is disabled also. It is so hard to make it. They're the highest times too.

My experience so far with Duke Energy has not been great. My wife has always had the electricity in her name and we never had an issue. They even sent her the deposit back once we moved from our residence years ago. Well this year we moved into a new home and decided to put the electricity in my name. I don't have much credit but I was told my deposit would be $179. Well once we got the second bill, there was another charge of $179 added which made our bill $440!

I moved to a nice community in North Carolina- Pender co. My community has about 40 homes. It's an area where EVERYTHING IS ELECTRIC. Well, about 3-4 weeks ago, Duke Energy knocked and said they are replacing the meter with a new digital one (entire community was replaced).... No big deal? WRONG. Well the first bill came and a HUGE $90 increase in my normal bill. In fact we met as a community and 23 homes had $60-100 increases to their billing!!!! Nothing different than any other month or history.

So because I was sick and am not able to make the full payment at this time for my past due balance or my full monthly balance I am unable to receive the help needed to keep my lights on during a global pandemic! I simply asked to have an extra arrangement setup this one time but because they are setup on an automatic system I’m going to be without power for 2 days because the system doesn’t allow them to give the extra hand!! Yes I know there are other agencies out there that can help but that requires having a vehicle to travel to them to fill out paperwork which I don’t have. Be sure you do exactly what Duke tells you because you won’t get any extra help!! Can’t wait to move to get away from them.

Renter scheduled turn off on Monday. I called the Friday before to turn on but they showed no turn on till Wednesday 5 days later. So they came out on Monday, turned it off but can't turn on till Wednesday. Ludicrous. Why they can't turn power on and off on the same day even when schedule days in advanced makes no sense and is just a waste of everybody's time.

Been on the phone with this company Friday 11/20/2020 from 10:10 am- 1:45 pm trying to get assistance to get my electric turned back on. Literally I called and waited sometimes 20-30 min, then get call disconnected to have to call again, wait again, be transferred to multiple people, to be told they couldn’t find my acct, or it was pending (since Oct 12th). But I have had service last 5 weeks, not to mention 8 years at previous address, 16 years at address before that or it was turned off accidentally??? Mind you gas co and water co had no problem transferring service. Sucks when you only have one choice in a provider. They have no incentive to do well????

I been Duke Energy customer for over 15 years because I do not have a choice. With monopoly corporations we don't have a choice or ability to switch to different power company. Horrible company it's take days for them to restore power but in overhand membership company Brunswick Electric have the power back in portion of the time its take Duke do the same. Over a years I see same things cross the street customers of Brunswick Electric enjoyed the power and we can seat without power for days. It's clear the different approach of two different companies. What is the difference between corporations and membership companies. I wish we have freedom of choice.

Another power outage today at 6 a.m. Just got notice that power would not be restored until Wednesday night at 11:59 pm. Why not just say Thursday at midnight? The workers don't try and fix the issues. Laziness. I sat there and watched one crew near my house just stand around talking. I work from my home! 3 days to fix the power??!? This is absurd! They don't deserve 1 customer let alone millions. Fix the power outages Duke Energy and stop lacking your customers!!!! That PAY YOU!!!!

I moved to a new apartment and had to get the electricity turned on. My previous apartment provided tenants the option of paying their electric bill through the them so I didn't have service with Duke energy. I moved in June 2019 to the new apartment and I was charged $400 for a deposit essentially paying for usage before I was there. I paid the fee and enrolled in the equal pay plan. I get paid once a month on the last day of the month and always paid my bill then. On my March 2020 bill statement, my bill was $468 and I was unenrolled in the equal pay plan. I called Duke Energy and was told my bill was late although I've always paid at the end of the month. I was also told I would have to wait another year before I am eligible for the equal pay plan again. As a result, my bill will now fluctuate. During this Covid-19 pandemic this is a scum bag move to pull on customers. The monopoly this company has in this area is criminal!!!

A company that is truly unprepared for any power outages. If they are your electricity provider you will CONSTANTLY experience power outages if so much as someone sneezes in your neighborhood. In one day these are the times they said power would be restored.

I lost my entire family except for my one son. They are charging me for my deceased brother's last bill, he lived alone, saying it's a "family matter". I am a senior citizen with one special needs disabled son, we live alone, it's Christmas time and grieving the loss my entire family, Now Duke Energy is threatening to disconnect service at MY home if I don't pay my dead brother's bill. I've spoken with MANY reps and supervisors and wasted HOURS of my time on hold with them and NO ONE CARES OR WILL HELP ME.. They have told me numerous times someone higher up would call me back,,, NEVER HAPPENS! They have stressed me and caused me more health problems. IF I COULD GIVE THEM NEGATIVE STARS I WOULD!! THEY ARE HORRIBLE!!!! And they know there is nowhere a customer can turn for help!!!

As a business graduate with much business experience, this company needs many improvements. Customer service representatives tell every customer something different and bypasses answering any questions that are an issue on a customer’s account. Even further, my light bill went from $200 to $417.00 and I was told “the charges were from a previous month” when I am never late on any bill. Well, come to find out, the charges were from where I transferred power and the CSR did not even have the appropriate knowledge to decipher my bill until I made her read each charge on my account slowly. Manipulation is how Duke Energy makes their posits without any care or regards to customers throughout the process. Also, you know a company is bad and managed poorly if the marketing team cannot improve online review ratings. From experience, try to refrain from being a Duke Energy victim!