TXU Energy... Just Forgot? And, they couldn't give a rat's ass about it either.

Last night I was going through my mail and found my electric bill. I never read my electric bill. Why? Because I have it set up so that TXU Energy, my electric company, automatically drafts my bank account at the start of each month. I also have what they call "budget billing" so I pay an amount equal to my average usage for the last 12 months. Yeah, I'm a sucker, "budget billing" really means they always have some of my money and they get to earn interest on it. OTOH, the convenience of having the bill paid automatically and of having a consistent bill is worth letting them hang on to some some of my cash. BTW, did I mention that I am also on a 2 year contract with them? By promising that I won't change electric companies for years at a time I lock in a fixed maximum rate for electricity. In exchange I am locked in as their customer for the term of the contract.

In other words, I would think I was a dream customer. I let them keep some of my money, I always pay my bill on time, and I am locked in as a customer. So, I see no reason to read my electric bill.

My wife opened the bill and read it. And then asked my why the TXU energy was threatening to turn off our electricity. Say what? It seems they didn't get paid last month. How could that happen when they draft my account for the money? I checked my bank account and, sure enough, no draft from TXU Energy. Now, I know that if there wasn't enough money in the account to cover the draft that it would have triggered a message from the bank, and, one would hope, from TXU Energy. But, I didn't get a notice from either of them. And, oh yeah, the same bill points out that because of budget billing they have more than enough of my money on hand to cover the bill.

To put this in perspective, I live in central Texas, just north of Austin. Today, June 25, the outside temperature is expected to reach 105 degree Fahrenheit. If the electricity is turned off while I am not here, the temperature in my house can get hot enough to kill my dogs and cats. It can get hot enough to kill people. Adult humans die of the heat here every year. Turning of the electricity is literally a matter of life an death. Here I am holding a letter threatening to turn it off.

I called last night to find out what what was going on. I waited on hold for 15 minutes (total call time 17:53). I got through to a customer service representative who told me the computers crashed an hour ago and should be back up in a couple of hours. Until then they could not do anything. Since it was 9:30 p.m. I and I didn't want to wait until 11:30 I decided to call today. So... why was I put on hold in the first place? Why didn't their automated phone system tell me that the computers were down and the customer service reps couldn't do anything? Why did they waste 17 minutes of my life?

So, I called them today and asked what had happened and what I had to do to make sure it would not happen again. Their explanation was enough to send me through the roof. The guy on the phone told me they had a little trouble with their software and "forgot" to bill me. He assured me that it was not due to anything I had done or anything I had control off. To made sure I knew that it was not personal, he assured me that it happened to a lot of customers. So, why didn't they bill me when they remembered? Oh, they didn't think of that. OK, is my power going to be shut off? Well, yeah... if I don't pay the bill soon enough it will be shut off. Even if it was your fault for not asking for the money? Well, yeah... Even though you have enough of my money to cover the bill? Well, yeah...

I told the guy not to take what I was about to say personally... Seriously, can you imagine having to tell someone that they are being punished for a mistake made by the company you work for? A mistake the company made no attempt to correct? A mistake that they didn't even tell me about? You have to feel sorry for the guy. OK, I told him to put this in my records at TXU Energy: "If you turn off my power due to your failure to draft my payment, I will take the maximum possible legal action against your company. I will treat it as if you came into my house and put a gun to my head."  He said he didn't take it personally and that he had entered the comment in my records.

I then asked him to change the draft date from the last day of the month, to the second day of the month which is after  pay checks go into the bank. He said he would, but then I got cut off. He stopped responding to me and after a couple of minutes the call was disconnected. Great....

Punchline? I called later in the day to verify that the draft date had been changed, and was told that the customer service representatives can not change that date. The only way to do it is to go to their on line system, cancel the current draft set up, and then set it up again with the new date. One of the reps was lying to me. Which one?

The way TXU Energy has treated me makes it clear that while I think of myself as a dream customer, TXU Energy thinks of me as shit. Nice to know.

Punchline to the punchline: I just got off the phone with TXU for the fourth time... I got a fellow who actually cares about customers. He informed me that during May 2009 TXU Energy failed to draft the accounts of every customer who pays by bank draft. A corporate decision was made not to inform any customers of the error. That is, they tried to cover it up. They then went ahead and allowed their automated billing system to threaten every one of those customers with termination of service. TXU Energy hoped it would just go away. Their failure to notify customers has resulted in a very large number of very angry phone calls, and the loss of a large number of customers.

He also explained the process I needed to go through to change the date of the bank draft. Customer services representatives at TXU can not make the change. They can, however, forward the request to someone who might be able to make the change and offered to email me to let me know what was done. The email will either tell me the change was made, or it will contain the forms needed to make the change. Since it is a bank draft they many need a voided check. It is so nice to run into someone who actually cares about customers. OTOH, he agrees with me that TXU Energy could not give a rat's ass about their customers. Nice to know that even their CSRs know the companies actual attitude toward customers.

Every once in a while I start to think that some company might actually value me as a customer. But, the wake up call always comes.

Update, Sunday, June 28th:

It is Sunday afternoon and I just got off the phone with a fellow who identified himself as a supervisor at TXU Energy. He called to tell me that it is against TXU's rules to allow a customer who pay by bank draft to change the date of the the draft. I said that I understood that I might have to file some papers to do that and that he would email those forms. He informed me that no, that was incorrect. I had to cancel the bank draft, then call a CSR and request that the draft date be changed, and then file papers to reinstate the draft date. I still didn't follow what he was saying. I said, yes, OK, so you will send me forms to do that, and we can get this done. He said, no. There is no way to change the date in one step, I have to use the on line system. I asked how the CSR was going to change the date when I had canceled the bank draft? And if he could change it when it didn't exist why couldn't he change it now? I never got an answer to that question. I asked why I had to go through all these steps? He said that was their rule. 

I was pretty pissed of by then. I asked him why I cared what his rules were? I'm the customer. I originally called because you didn't even bother to draft my account and threatened to turn of my power. He said it was their rule, it was built into their system and there was nothing I could do about it. I hung up. I had had enough.

There is one thing that was clear through most of these phone calls. Total and complete disrespect for me. Yes, it felt personal. It felt like I was talking to a series of people who get their kicks by pushing people around.

What the hell, if you feel the same way I do, call them up at 1-800-242-9113, get in queue for a CSR and then just sit the phone down and wait until you hear it beep. If you are really pissed at TXU stay on the line and tell them they need to improve their customer service.

Update, Thursday, July 2nd:

The bank draft from TXU Energy came through today, 3 days late. The amount drafted was less than a third of the amount stated on my bill. I immediately called to see what was wrong and found that they had marked by bill as being paid in full. I talked to a human being who said, that, indeed, the bill was paid in full and that they had given me a $50 credit for my trouble. Wow, my opinion of TXU may be improving. Except that they can not explain how the amount drafted could possibly have covered the amount owed. Even with the credit I should still owe $150. The nice lady on the phone says that as far as she can tell the bill is paid in full. My comment to her was that problems that go away by themselves come back by themselves.

Update, same day, 3:00 pm:

Just got hung up on by TXU Energy. A nice lady called to let me know that they had made some errors on my account and to compensate for my trouble they are giving me a $50 dollar credit. She went on to tell me that I would receive a letter telling me how much I owed and giving me options on how to pay it. I asked her some questions and it became clear that she had no knowledge of my previous calls. She was just being paid to go through a list of names, call them, and read a script. I explained what had happened this morning and she transferred me to "someone who can help me". After a short wait I found myself talking to another nice lady who asked me to explain why I called and hung up on me half way through the explanation. Just hung up.