Consumers Energy
Reviews and Complaints

why is my bill252 this mo. and72 last mo. what differenc would being on the budget plan make? we are senios and on low income and much medical. is there any help? is there not another co. delivered by consumers that has cheaper rates?

Been trying to get a Smart Meter for 2 years with no success! They tell me it won't change my bill. That's BS, when the lady on the phone said all Consumers Workers have Smart Meters. WHY? CAUSE ITS SAVING THEM MONEY! Maybe my Lawyer can help me out.

MY SERVOCE WAS TERMINATED WITHOUT RECEIVEING LETTER OF INTENT. OPERATOR TOLD ME THEY MADE SEVERAL PHONE CALLS REGUARDING ACCOUNT THEN LATER TOLD ME THEY HAVE NO PHONE NUMBER ON FILE, SO HOW DID THEY CALL ME 5 TIMES WHEN THEY HAD NO PHONE NUMBER? THEN THEY SAY THEY CANT WAIT 40 HRS TO RECEIVE 85.00 TO KEEP MY ELECTRICITY ON THEY WILL ONLY WAIT 24HRS WHEN TOTAL OWED IS ONLY 193.00 IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THEY COULD WAIT AN EXTRA 20 HRS BUT THEY JUST WANT TO HIT ME WITH THAT ### RECONNECT FEE THIS IS RIDICULOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE AND I CANT EVEN GET A MANAGER ON THE PHONE TO HELP ME ALL THEY WILL DO IS TRANSFER ME TO THE COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT. ITS MY OPINION THAT THEY ARE BEING UNREASONABLE AND THEY DONT GIVE A ### ABOUT THE LITLE GUYS WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO WORK FOR A LIVING. I WOULD THINK THEY CAN GIVE A LITTLE LEWAY TO THE CONSUMER ESPECIALLY IN THIS TIME OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP. MY NAME IS RODGER GAGNON JR. AND THIS IS MY COMPLAINT.

Consumers energy seem to consintraited on private work and forget about the long lasting customer they have had for thirty years. 2 days before, discussing the limits they have on cutting a tree on a property line. Consumers assured me they would not go over the property line. Which they did and of course it can't be fixed because its all cut up.
The customer service should be an automatic recording telling all customers we don't have time for you and we really don't care! That is exactly what I have experienced in a tree in my yard, with no permission and yah by the way, no wires were near where they were cutting? There is no standard, just a guy that has rights to do whatever he feels like.

Before Consumers Energy makes any changes to your bills, rates, account numbers it states it very clearly on your bill what they are going to change. Why do they need to advertise on t.v. when it states in 100% clarity on your bill when something like that is going to happen. By the way, try getting your electricity from somewhere that isn't regulated and then complain about Consumers Energy, everything they do is approved by the MPSC and if they don't meet those standards set by the MPSC they are fined like crazy.

Yes my bill gets mailed late but gets paid every month. i have never not paid in over 25 years to these people so for being late they are now punishing. I paid 219$ last month on the 19th this month was billed 147$ and they disconnected on the 14th charged me 517$ to reconnect 300$ for security was paid within 1 hr of the disconnect and here 24 hrs later they still have not restored my power 20 degrees last night with 4 children in the house small town no storms and they said at customer service they were having too many calls to come out. It was just punishment for being late. shut em off for 147$ after the tens of thousands i have spent with them over the last 25 years. They are lucky not to have any competition.

ABSOLUTELY! It's a good thing that we can't switch to another Electric company out here, because Consumers would be OUT OF BUSINESS! I can't BELIEVE! the awful, awful, awful customer service this company expects us to live with!

Has anyone else been "taken" by the 6 million account number changes? WHat if I DON'T WANT my account numbers changed!? Couldn't Consumers have taken out a few ads on TV and etc to inform people about the change?

Now I owe $600.00 or so and I can't help but think that there is some huge fraud going on somewhere. I WISH I could make my own electricity!

Brenda Schulz

We had a power surge 0n 9/i4/08 that has cost us over $3000 in replacements, caused by a tree rubbing on the overhead wires. Our insurance has a dedctible of $250. please sent me claim form. Thanks. RA Wagar acc # [protected]

Also, if your bill isn't telling you that you were on their Budget Plan, why would you pay what your bill told you to pay? Despite their error, you did make the mistake by not paying for what you were using.

One last thing, it is actually law in Michigan for you to provide utility services for your children. It is not against the law for any utility to turn your service off. You could actually get yourself in trouble with child services for not providing your child with utilities. Thats the way the law is...and probably should be.

Consumers Energy is not allowed to profit on Natural Gas. They are only collecting on what they pay out on the natural gas that is used. They do make some profit on delivery and your customer charge, but those charges are regulated by the MPSC and Consumers, as a business, is limited at how much they can profit on your bill and annually.

my bill last year on 5/22/08 came in at724.27$ and now this year on 5/1/09 it came in at 622.13$ and i have this rising suspision that consumers is fraudulently raising prices right aroud tax time to obtain monies for personal gain

I have also had problems with Consumer's energy. Today I was actually just searching around because some guys came to my house today, door to door knocking, looking to "lower my heating costs". I knew it was a scam already but I played a long. I wanted to get the word out to not let these guys into your home. I think it was called something like extreme energy and they had white shirts on I think. The problem is, they aren't even getting permission from the apartment complexes to sollicit services, in these non soliciting apartments, so the next time anyone else sees them, play along and call the police. Don't give your information to them, especially your social security number. Better yet, refer to the special that was done on 60 minutes that exposed these door to door salesmen. They are theifs and not safe to deal with, not to mention they don't have the authority do these sales at your door.
Ok back on subject. You were in deed paying for these services. They don't have anyway of "eating these costs". They simply have been billing you for what the meter was reading (including the leaks). What you should do, and what I did, was make a complaint through your local BBB. In my case, I moved from an apartment and had services shut off and restarted in my new place. The people who moved into my old place didn't have them started in their name and I started to get utility bills for the old place. I kept calling and telling them I was not living there and they said that I had to pay since somebody was using the services. AFter getting 4 months worth of utilitiy bills these people racked up on my account, I contacted my BBB and they took care of the situation. However Consumers was not happy and said that I was "lucky" and that most people would have had to just deal with the situation. My advice to you is that you should go through the BBB give them all the information you shared here, along with your confirmation code. Also, I don't think they can turn your services off if you have kids. I think it's illegal for them to do that to you. Thats not okay. You would think that in today's day and age, even if you wern't able to pay your utility bills, but you did in fact pay, that it would be illegal for them to turn your services off while you have children in your house. Screw Consumers. They are a monopoly that is unfairly overcharging us and taking our hard earned money right out of our pockets. I am sincerely sorry this happened to you and I wish you all the luck in the world with this situation.

I have been trying to get my gas turned on in my new residence for 2 weeks first they told me there was an investigatin because meter was romoved because of last tenet. I finally got them to turn it on for me, or so I thought. They told me they could not reach me at my number and the next date was a week away, fine it was set to install10 28 08 between 4pm and 8 . I wajted in cold house till 9I called company several times from my cell only to be put on hold for 15 min at a time they told me to wait because they would be comming. I went home got up at 630 emailed them then I called they said they woud be there bet 9 and 4 again I waited I called and they said supervisor would call me still nothing. they said they could call till 9 pm after last night I know they go on emergency only calls. I still dont have a clue to when their going to do this I have a heart cond, and copd I have to move but I cant move into a cold house please please help thank you Lynn Carter

Thanks to Consumers Energy for billing me 6 thousand dollars on a gas bill for a residential
Home address and now that my gas is off and i have no heat there still billing me, and its 200 dollars now
OK so you redone my bill and my gas is off what now, you don't have respect for human life of a 53 year old female, with COPD, living alone with her dog and house maybe going into foreclose, the days and nights are unbearable, i feel like I'm in a State, of an emergency the DHS don't help cause i have no kids, and Consumers Energy ither,

I just received a bill from Consumers Energy and my bill is typically $74+ a month. This new bill is now at $3, 735.97. They added on my roommate's past due bill to mine without authorization. I just moved to this home in October and the Consumers was in my landlords name. On the same day around the same time when I was at work and my fiancée was at home she called into Consumers to have it put in her name. I did an online application for service and never herd another word back from them until January. In January I received a bill in my name for $376 along with another bill in my finances name for 125.00 and both were different account numbers. In February we came home after work and found our power and gas were shut off. I called to find out why we were shut off and I was transfered to the fraud department. We were being accused of stealing power and gas. Our power and gas were never shut off all bills were always paid. We have a 5 year old child in our home and they did not care. That week the temps were in the single digit's. They did not care and I kept getting the run around. It took them a week to turn my power back on after I cleaned out my account to pay them to restore my service. I don't have money just laying around to do what ever with. That money I had to use to pay them I had to take food out of my family's mouth. It made me late on rent and was charged late fees for that and I also had to go by a generator just to try to keep us warm. I do not know what to do at this point. I cant afford a lawyer and consumers will not do anything to fix their issue. I don't have the money to take them to court and sew them. Does anyone have any ideas that I can do without missing work?

You have failed to pay for the lease of the "underground pool" that, you say, extends into our property. We believe it's been about 4 years sense Consumers Energy has paid

Unfortunately I am in the same boat as well. I have been battling them for years regarding bills that are not mine, not my social security number nor in my name. They refuse to provide me any documentation that can support my claims and have left myself and my 5 children without heat or hot water for over a week now. How can I possibly owe $5, 699? It is obvious that this is a combination of bills because they would not allow it to get that high! They turn it off within a few months of unpaid bills... I am at my wits end. How can they do this to people and leave children without heat?

LISTEN EVERYBODY, THE SAME THING IS HAPPENING TO ME. REMEMBER THIS AS WELL; ONCE THEY TURN THE BILL INTO COLLECTIONS (THE ONE THEY WANT YOU TO PAY), THEY DON'T HAVE A RIGHT TO THE DEBT -- THEY SOLD IT! SO, FOR THEM TO CONTINUE TO DEMAND PAYMENT FROM YOU MEANS THEY ARE TRYING TO GET PAID TWICE -- BLATANT FRAUD, ORGANIZED CRIME, ... MY FRIEND AND I ARE GOING THROUGH EASTERN MICHIGAN LEGAL SERVICES, C/O ATTY MIKE STANLEY. HE HAS HELPED ME IN THE PAST WITH THIS ISSUE, BUT WE NEED TO START A BONAFIDE CLASS ACTION SUIT AND STOP THIS CRIMINAL ACTIVITY THAT LEAVES US STRUGGLING FOR UTILITIES, AND RUINS OUR CREDIT! EMAIL TMBOWLES@LIVE.COM FOR NOW, AND LEAVE YOUR CONTACT INFO. I WILL DO MY BEST TO QUICKLY CREATE A FACEBOOK PAGE WHERE WE CAN COME TOGETHER TO START AMASSING AND ORGANIZING OUR EVIDENCE. A LITTLE HELP WOULD BE NICE THOUGH, SO PLEAE FEEL FREE. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

I got told if I didn't inform them when ever I move they can charge me with a felony for an 800 dollar bill that I offered to pay 100 bucks on top of the monthly bill. They refused stating I needed to pay at least 591 dollars that is what I make in a month and I have rent so what do I do sleep in a tent so I don't end up with a felony charge for trying to stay in a place with electric. Its not somebody Else's responsibility to pay my debt and my room mate should not be punished.

These guys have been doing this to me for years. I've paid for several bills that did not belong to me. In addition to that it just seemed like I could not escape them. The more money I gave the more money they tac on. I finally moved out of state and now they just harrass my family back home. These guys are criminals. Good luck with the state by the way. I tried that all they did was made an arrangement to pay and then add previous Tenants bills to mine. (My father owned the rental house and they told me either him or I would have to be responsable so already paying the 1800 I originaly called about I just shut up and paid.) Im back to owing them 4000 now somehow. Ive requested investigations and nothing came of it. Once they know you'll pay be prepaired. Theyll keep coming after you for more.

Well i finally got consumers to take off the bill that was not mine. So with very much persistence I finally got it taken care of

I am a reporter. Please email tmoreno@mihomepaper.com. I am interested in following these claims.

I called Consumers Energy to pay my bill on 7/18/20 but the website & automated phone service Rejected both my credit cards. While waiting for a “real person”, my call was dropped! POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!

sorry about the ' ! I am going for an apostrophe- but it doesn't seem to want to translate.

We are from Kalamazoo in a dispute with CMS and now with the MPSC concerning a tale that is too long and aggravating to go into a lot of detail about. I am asking for those of you on this board to please contact the MPSC([protected]) or [protected] for MI residents) and file your complaint. Then, call the gov's office and file the same complaint! We have been told that the MPSC actually has limited ability to force CMS to do anything! They answer to the gov's office([protected]). Why do we have a toothless regulatory agency? That's a good question that a Gov's office assistant we spoke with is going to look into. It begs the question- what recourse do the citizens of MI actually have if CMS is defrauding them? And, one could argue it is fraud if they advertise and promise to deliver efficient and reliable energy- but ignore problems with the delivery that could be costing their customers thousands of $ each year. Apparently we are the only people to ever contact the Gov's office about these kinds of problems. I'm not sure if I buy that, but if you do it and then let us know- then I guess we KNOW we aren't the only ones.
BTW Arual98- we were told that CMS couldn't figure out the difference between faulty readings from bad equipment retroactively. Basically, in our case it was looking like we would be owed a refund, so they chose to tell us they couldn't figure that out. Funny how they can figure out that YOU owe THEm somehow! You are absolutely correct- it was their equipment malfunction, their QS system that failed to catch it in a timely manner, and their loss because of their own failures. Stay on it and get people you know who have issues involved too. It's really easy to ignore a small handful of complaints, something CMS are old pros at. When it's coming from the Gov's office, a larger group and hopefully a news article or two it gets harder to ignore. We are working towards a formal complaint in front of a judge- so please contact us with your tale. We won't divulge identifying info., but each complaint helps us to know exactly what systems need fixing. karmadist@gmail.com

What the company will NOT tell you, is that, in order for any complaint to be officially addressed or recognized, you must INSIST on a FORMAL COMPLAINT. The reps are trained to deflect objections and just allow the customer to vent, ect, to avoid anything going on actual record. Also, if you are just complaining about usage, the reps have to have you get your own meter reading and fill out useless paperwork and so on, so you are better off just calmly letting the rep know that you are calling to specifically file a formal complaint. That you do NOT want a callback from a supervisor (they are sometimes the same reps from the regular phones to cover for the actual supervisors and will do nothing else for you - again, avoiding an offiicial complaint.)
The formal complaints are seen by the Public Service Commison - this is the only way they know there is a problem. If everyone did this instead of wasting time with the phone reps who are not empowered to change a thing, the problems that plague customers will actually see the light of day.

Our bill, labeled as an Actual reading, said we had 0 as in zero usage in February. How is that even possible? We called and they have no good explanation. Of course, the next months bill was sky high.Didn't Consumers get in trouble not too long ago for claiming actual readings when they were only estimating? I seem to remember that when I worked as a leasing agent for a large apartment complex and the bills for our tenants were all over the place.
On a separate issue with Consumers- do you get auto-dial phone calls constantly, even after you have paid your bill? You do have the right to have your phone number removed from their system because using auto dialers to collect debts is illegal. They call cell phones which can cause charges and there is not a live person at the other end of the phone to speak with.

They really suck! I get a shut off notice every month for my bill even though it was under $200. Now my bill is higher cause they say it was a billing error. I have to constantly deal with their nasty attitudes and hang ups. We need to have another major energy company that would have great customer service and better rates or maybe everyone go green to eliminate their a#@#!

My bill was estimated as well and it went from $179 to $349. I was told it was there mistake but I will still need to pay the bill. Is there a State Representative we can call to handle these issues?

Here is a better one for you, I have renters that will not pay, the consumer's bill was in my name. They racked up a $1000 bill then the renters just changed the billing name just before shut off, consumer's energy never notified me of the change. I was going to let them shut the power off to get rid of the renters or force them to pay, but now consumer's energy tacks the bill on my credit and the low life renters will be able to stay in the house rent free longer WTF any suggestions?

For the last four months we have had consistent problems with our bill. What a hassle, and a rip off!
This last time the employee told us to evacuate our house, and sent someone here to investigate. She stated on
our file a gas leak! Not even close. The employee who arrived was no help, and used profanity. This is a waste of our time, and clearly theirs. Prices could be lowered if they ran their business better!

The SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME! They hung up on me and essentially said that their online problems were my problem and that, oh by the way, they were planning to stop my service WITHOUT ANY NOTICE. I cannot tell you how mad I am right now & we all really have no other option out here!

6/25/2023

I filed out the refund form for ev charging but can not take a picture of the cars screen for setting the time. I do have an old film camera but no film. my cars vin# is 1G1FZ6S07N4102677. can you help?

Steve Ruth

14034 East Lanedn drive, Holly MI [protected]

The week of April 17 through the 21st tree cutters were sent out to trim limbs around powerlines by Consumers energy company. My backyard sustained very deep ruts from the large equipment they brought in this will require dirt to fill in the deep ruts and grass seed. I do not feel this is my responsibility to fix.

Won't turn on our power because of previous tenants even thou we have children in the house and it's week before christmas

I deliver the mail and your meter reader people park in front of our boxes constantly. It would be appreciated if you would have a service talk with them about parking in front of mailboxes. Thanks

I think it is charging to much money and it ain't fair that there the only company in Michigan that is a monopoly it ain't fair and while this is going on I want my gas back on asp

6090 belford rd Holly Mi.48442 [protected], 2 companies with bills that are triple Electric use only.please resolve this for me. [protected] or [protected]. 6090 Belford Rd Holly Mi.48442 South Flint Gravel inc. and Aldridge trucking company.inc. Thank you