First Choice Power
Reviews and Complaints

First Choice Power has been by far the worst company to sign a contract with. They are so resisting to understand if you have a problem. We had sent our payment by mail like always this past May and come to find a week later they shut off our electricity. Just at the wrong time when the weather started heating up towards the 90's. We realized that the post office lost our payment. But after explaining countless of times that it wasn't our mistake, they would not comply anything with us. With their ignorance, we had to sleep in 80 degree weather for three days, lost our food, and worst of all even explaining we had a two year old in the house, they didn't really care at all. needless to say, If you want to trust an electrcity company, First Choice is not the one for you.

My husband has been with First Choice Power for several years. We realize that with the expenses of everything increasing that our power bill would as well. Though when we receive our August bill, it was $440. That is a charge of .238 per kilowatt hour. Which is double the price that we paid last month and last year. I call the company and ask them why the increase? They tell me that since we are on a month to month basis the rates can increase by 35% every month if they wish to do so. They tell me that they sent us a letter 3 months back stating that rates would increase and that we should get "locked in on a fixed rate of .174 cents per kilowatt hour. "

Then I state "why does our bill say that the usage was an estimate of 1804 kilowatt hours", and she says that they sent out the bill before actually checking the meter. The meter was read and the kilowatt usage was in fact 1540. So I ask for the credit of $75.00 now because I cannot afford the bill received. She states that they cannot do that, that they will credit next months bill.

First of all I never received a letter stating the charges were going to double. Second of all I checked with my mother who lives 10 minutes away in Sanger and has Coserve electric and she says that her charge per kilowatt hour the same month was .12 cents, and upon research realized that if we switched to Stream Electric the month to month charge would be at the most .15 per kilowatt hour. This is the same electric, coming from the same wires to your home, just a different provider.

Upon trying to figure out if it would be more beneficial to switch or just get in at a fixed rate with First Choice, I asked the customer service dept to go over the rates charged for the past 12 months, and the rates that they were going to charge for the next few months. They said that they cannot even tell me what the rates will be in October, therefore pretty much validating the fact that this company can charge whatever they feel like charging. I think that they realize people are afraid of other utility companies charging a deposit.

We switched to Stream Energy today, locked in for 6 months at less than .15 cents a kilowatt hour. I can tell you right now that our credit is far from perfect, and they did not require a deposit. Hopefully they are a more honest and dependable provider. I would tell everyone who feels as if they have been taken advantage of by First Choice Power to research their options. Not every company is raping their customers like this. Please be educated.

We entered into a 2 year agreement and also arranged for them to be paid electronically by their debit. Our bills like others varied upon the season. The rate agreed was $0.142 /kWh. The agreement terminated in June 2008 and we received no reminder to ask if we wish to continue with a plan. As known, prices would not be the same as all energy costs have escalated. But we were expecting First Power to make some consideration and renew the contract with existing customers with some preference.
None of this happened, we received a bill electronically and in hard copy where the rate had jumped to $0.25 /kWH. In essence 50 percent increase. After contacting and discussing with "customer service" was informed we had been mailed a notice (Not received) but although we work with them electronically, nothing was posted on our account?

So we reviewed their new offers on line and if we are willing to accept their current packages then roughly the same $0.225 /kWh would be the annual rate. Investigated TXU and found $0.16/kWH available... "No brainer"

So switched... The next 2 bills from First Choice jumped to 0.253 /kWH? They did not debit electronically and send us a $1, 005. bill without explanation. Ignore usage and seasonal differences I know the TXU bill will average $250.00 per month. First Choice(No pun intended) will charge at least $85.00/$100.0 more and remember they are only administrator providers Contacted First Power "Customer Service" who explains that I was missing a bill for July service period, how can I...Its an electronic account? "I don't know, I can see you are set up for automatic billing."

If you want to know more on this rip off, post it on this site... My recommendation... USE the alternatives like TXU etc... be careful of the safety net you think you have with electronic billing and write down on your Outlook Calendar when contracts like these are terminating. As they knew they had terminated the contracted "Price Gouging" at it's most obvious.

I am so pissed a first choice power (last choice power now). Their rates are unpredictable and high so i switched companies. Of course fcp gets back at me by doubling the rate. If i used that much power it wouldn't be half as bad. I work all day, so the a/c doesn't run until the middle of the night. Just two of us living in the house with no kids. Laundry is done once a week and at night (not in the heat of the day). I am not going to take this, even if i have to complain to everyone i see.

Having been with First Choice for 4 years and a small business. 3 months ago they starting raising prices and last month was a double of previous bills. When I called them they were no help - said there were no plans available for small business. They were at $.242 / KW. They have lost my business forever and I will being paying $.118 per KW for the next 3 yrs fixed. Farewell 1st choice hope everyone switches to someone else - why wouldn't they? The customer service rep was in a bad mood and was no help. I guess they have been getting many calls just like mine.