Austin Energy - Austin, Texas

Jade G.

relentless as only a monopoly could be. On a payment plan and pay your bill ONE DAY late? DISCONNECTION NOTICE! This is really how this company does business? disgraceful, inhumane, despicable. God forbid I have other things going on in my life like working 60-hour weeks to pay their exorbitant tiered rip-off system plus don't forget the extra $30 tacked on to every bill for "trash, community," and other various fees, even though I already pay those to my apartment community AND THRU MY TAXES

Ean K.

This company feels like a huge scam. Right after signing up with them, I got a new card from my bank because I had a faulty chip. I forgot to update my card in their system and I received no calls and no emails from the company letting me know my payments failed to go through. All I got was a letter in the mail letting me know my account was “cash only
payments” because the payments failed. Now I have to pay cash only for 12 months unless my banks writes them a letter. Total trash organization.

Miranda R.

They charge you for waste services whether you want it or not. I only wanted to set up electricity, I don't need someone to take out my garbage for me. It should be an optional service, especially when I'm already paying trash services at the apartment complex! Furthermore, the trash can has its own fee, and -- no -- you can't use your own.

This company is dishonest and immoral, and their actions should be considered criminal. They duplicated my service fees, but never sent me a single bill. I had been paying my services without fail on time, and then months after moving found out all that money I paid them was being charged to me again. They refused to work with me or remove it from my credit as a derogatory mark. Since they are the only place in Austin where you can obtain electricity for an apartment, they can basically do whatever they want--and they do. They will tell you they don't care, and they won't even try to fix their own errors.

If you can, rent in Round Rock; there are multiple options in that jurisdiction. You'll probably end up saving hundreds of dollars, even if you pay more for gas to drive further to work.

Michele K.

I have had electricity with them for 3 years, From first months bill to the very last there have been issues!! First 3 months bills were 500.00 for a 2/2 apt 890 sq ft. I am very frugal with my AC, 75 at night and off during the day. I ran my AC 2 to 4 months out of the year and still didn't have a bill that wasn't 200.00 /mo at the least. I called and requested they check my meter, City of Austin blames my apt complex, apt complex blames City of Austin. My apt complex was nice enough to replace the whole AC unit and thermostat which had no impact on the bill. HORRIBLE customer service!! Had my electricity turned off for the first time EVER in my life for a past due balance that was being disputed. NO notification prior to disconnect that it was going to be disconnected. LAST bill comes in which should reflect a 200.00 deposit refund. It doesn't it reflects 0.00 and i can't get them to adjust it or refund my money or explain mathematically my last bill. I was told a supervisor would call me in 24 to 48 hrs. This was after calling all morning to get a busy signal, then 20 minutes on hold to get a representative, then placed on hold back and forth for another 45 minutes with no resolve. DO NOT USE THEM IF YOU DO NOT HAVE TO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Catherine H. M.

Pay your bills and you won’t loose service!! Susannah did a great job helping me with my disconnection of service. Austin Electric was a great company to deal with. By choosing auto-pay my deposit was saved. Plus I didn’t have to remember to pay that bill.

I had zero problems during my 7 month affiliation with them. My service was never interrupted and when I had a question all concerns were addressed in an expedient manner.

Thank you Susannah for making this, my final association with your company, an easy process.

To her supervisor since the survey failed, some error message was stated, she was very professional and helpful explaining your 3 day policy for disconnects and the reason for the possible delay, along with my other concerns.

Rebekah F.

I called in when I moved to change my address to ensure my power wouldn't get disconnected as well as put a medical necessity notification on my account. Needless to say, 36 hours later my power was disconnected. When I called in again, the rep put me on hold to review the recording of my original call, eventually confirming that they had made a mistake and let me know it could be over 8 hours before anyone came to reconnect my utilities.

I did my part in a timely manner, yet their actions have forced me from my home and prevented me from being able to work until they get around to correcting their error. CoA needs to do better serving it's citizens.

Ge J.

I cannot believe they still got 1.5 score! The service was terrible. They usually had outage and inform you after that (too late).
The service stop is also a difficult process. I have stopped the service online, and called them to confirm that. However, they still charge me one more month after the service stopped. When I call them, was told that they didn't get the "stop request". And their attitude was really terrible! It's like you owe them and should be thankful for charging you more money!
The worst thing is that you cannot avoid them in Austin!!!!!
Anyway, call them as many as possible to make sure everything goes well with your electric bills.
BTW, don't just believe the high score comment (try it yourself)!

C

The second star is because I do actually have reliable energy and billing, and did get my deposit back.
That said, I hate that I have no choice but to use the monopoly. I used to live in a deregulated city where I was able to choose Reliant. I had the option to choose wind power if I wanted, along with multiple plans that fit my needs, and also helped me lower my bill. Here, I have no choice but to pay their rates, regardless of how high they are (or how they split them into 20 pieces to make them look lower). The very best part was the great website for Reliant (and this was several years ago). I could track my electricity in depth, which helped me reduce my bill and keep up with causes for increases. Which leads me to the worst part of Austin Energy - the "app." What. A. Joke. It is not an app, although the picture they put on the website makes it look like one, but that picture isn't even of the same website, and the link takes you to a different place entirely (they're doing you a favor). The so called app looks like it was built in the early 90s and is so severely limited to be almost useless. The graphs are missing sections or in some cases, nothing at all shows up for a listed option. The text/email alerts are a waste, as you can only get them if you get to the next tier. It is 2017 in the city of tech companies, and there's not even a decent website, much less an app. It hasn't changed in the 2 years I've been in Austin, but why bother with trying to improve - it's not like anyone can leave.