Puget Sound Energy [PSE]
Reviews and Complaints

In December 2018, we moved to a new home. I moved our PSE service dutifully. After we moved into the new home, I received our a PSE bill which I eventually noticed that it had the right mailing address but the wrong service address meaning I was being billed for another residence location. I called PSE to resolve the issue. They fixed the blunder, I thought.

I don't know the exact time when I set up bill-pay through my bank, however, I eventually set it to pay PSE. I was paying my power bill every month. When I saw the bills, I checked the balance, I sent a payment. This went for about two or three months. Last week my power was turned off. When I called PSE to figure out why our power was turned off and they said it was for non-payment, I was super surprised. When I spoke to the customer service guy who was really rude a conversationally short until he figured out that the account to which I was sending money through bill pay was not the right account. That account had $539.00 in it. Apparently, PSE gave us two active account numbers and the account to which I was sending money was in excess of the balance owed on the active account.

The guy stated that since I was receiving mail warnings, which I eventually saw after the fact, that our power was going to be turned off and the fact that I never called PSE to figure out why the power was about to get turned off in spite of paying our bill being paid removed all culpability from PSE. OK. I get that perspective. We just missed the mailings. I am married with 5 kids, so we get a ton of mail. I knew PSE was paid up though, so when I received PSE mail, I didn't open it immediately to my dismay.

So, the customer service rep, now seeing that I had money in their account, said he would transfer the $539.00 from the erroneous account to a new account that they had to create because when power is disconnected they have to create a new account, which incurs a new deposit and a reconnection fee. Since I missed the mailing, and placed the culpability all on me, there was no way around them creating a new account and incurring a deposit and reconnection fee. The guy said he'd put the $539.00 toward the payment and reconnect the power and put the excess in the new account where I then expected to have a negative balance for the next billing period. They turned the power back on eventually.

So a week later, I received 4 mail parcels from PSE. One of them is a bill for $600.00! When I called them today they said that I did indeed owe them $600.00!

PSE created the new account for me. They charged me the +$300.00 deposit and $37.00 reconnection fee. They did NOT put $539.00 toward the $499.00 balance which got the power turned off. They took it and I don't have any idea where it is! There's a negative $194.00 balance in the newly created account, so there's a missing delta of $345.00!

When I contacted PSE about this, they took the $345.00 and put it toward the new account deposit and reconnection fee! They never put anything toward the $499.00 bill, which is now $599.00.

PSE is ripping me off!

If more details are required, I'll provide them, but I'm leery of what I post on the Internet.

Puget Sound energy service is very inconsistent, but they really reach a new standard on Whidbey island. Our power has always been "shaky" and even a gust will cause us to go without power for quite sometime. Recently there was a bad windstorm, that did some damage. I absolutely understand that it takes some time to get everything up and running after a storm; however, it is the fact that I am 1 of 6 house on my street that doesn't have power, but the rest of the neighborhood (and from driving around the main parts of the island) does have power. I have contacted the customer service line and was told, "you just need to be patient!" By the customer service woman on the phone who was clearly frustrated and that a service crew would be out in our area sometime soon. Didn't see anyone working at all during any of my drives down the island, so they must be...elsewhere? Really hard to be a customer when the service is so unreliable and we keep having to throw away food. Would rather find somewhere else to live where PSE doesn't offer services, than to buy a generator for those extremely consistent times our power goes out.

Update: PSE is posting that they have crews working "around the clock" on their website. However, based on their outage map, there has been a "repair crew onsite" in our neighborhood since 7:40pm last night. That was exactly 12 hours ago. I drove the entire neighborhood at 8:00pm last night to see if I could find them and there was not anyone working that I could find. It is my opinion that PSE should not directly lie to their customers to try and save face, this does nothing but make them more angry. If PSE is not going to have their crews work "around the clock", then they should not advertise that they do. If they only have "some" or "a few" working that much, then that's what they should advertise. It is also of my opinion that PSE should not have a notification that there is a crew working in an area if there is not.

PSE placed conduits underground long 106th Ave NE in front of my residence with address 10603 NE 58th Street, Kirkland, WA. Under-grounding is complete but left the following undesirable conditions:
1. The marking on the sidewalk showing the conduit depth was made with, what
looks like, regular white paint that has not faded over the last two months. I
want the marking removed. They are an eyesore.
2. The Flags used to mark existing utilities are still present 2 months after the
work was finished. I want them removed. Also an eyesore.
3. The concrete sidewalk panels that were replaced were marked with graffiti
when the concrete was green and has not been repaired to date. A teen was
apprehended by the Kirkland Police Department immediately after the
marking, admitting the act. I want the etched graffiti removed and the proper
sidewalk surface restored.

So, i've had a business account as well as a personal account with pse for 21 years. And they have messed up those 2 accts multiple times, with a huge credit on one and a big bill on the other. Today, even though they cashed our check, they say we were "sent a warning to disconnect" that we never received. So they shut off our power, and can't do anything for 24 hours even though they have now been paid twice for this account. Oh, and it's 93 degrees today. I despise the crap humans they have working there. Not one single person is able to actually complete a task, and the "supervisors" are a f'ing joke. Despicable treatment of anyone.

Rebecca walsh-dodd
Submit a complaint

Pse has joined the ranks of punishing people. True.

I have lived in the same house for 20 years. We have been late too, but always caught up.
We moved here in 1998, I had lots of elderly neighbors and I was, back then, comfortable and happy about the fact thet pse.. Wouldn't turn power off on people that were elderly or had to use electric power to power their only source of water. Their well pumps. Also we in south king county have livestock that are also dependent on water!
Well, things have changed they no longer respect a customers rights to have water, or the elderly to have heat.
I feel afraid now for my elderly neighbors and myself.
We always pay our bills late or not!
Pse needs to have empathy for their customer back. My view of this company has changed... They are thugs and gangsters all for themselves.
I'm not saying we shouldn't pay them, we all do.
They should observe age & water wells as an only source for water, as human rights.

Shame on you pse for these human rights violations!😔

PSE has joined the ranks of punishing people who are working hard to pay their bills by asking them to pay even more. I was surprised at the amount of a bill I recently received, and dug deeper to discover they added a security deposit to my bill. Because I paid late a couple of times they say. I'm sure I've paid late a few times over the past nine years, but I've always paid, including the late fees, and my bill is current. Not cool at all for a company who has a monopoly on a necessity to suddenly hit people with surprise deposit requests, and then refuse to budget on it. I'm still fighting it but I want everyone to know how PSE is treating us honest, hard-working people.

A major power line broke underground in my front yard, causing a power outage to myself and neighbors. They came out at 3pm the same day to repair the problem. They were here until almost midnight, digging up my yard with heavy equipment and bright lights. Power restored in 8hrs.

Next morning, go to turn on the TV and nothing. Power surged and fried my entertainment units (TV, stereo receiver, and Comcast DVR box). Comast was awesome, came out, and helped. Turns out when the PSE cable blew, it actually burned the Comcast cable underground. You should have see it, totally fried and burned up. Comcast then had to replace that underground cable. Finally get that all back up and running, but no TV or stereo still.

Filed a claim against PSE, only to be informed 2 weeks later that they will NOT reimburse me in any way, shape or form. Some BS form letter indicating that while they maintain their equipment, they aren't responsible for these types of actions. I've lived in my home for 23yrs and they have NEVER maintained my power lines.

So, now because they didn't maintain their part, I have to pay for a new TV and stereo. Let alone the dirt and grass seed and watering for the area in my yard that was destroyed. They won't even compensate me anything on my bill. What do I do? It's not like I have a choice to use another electric company. They have you cornered. If you don't pay your bill, they'll shut off your power. You are at their mercy, and it's just not right. I wasn't even asking for a top of the line replacement, just something that is reasonable to replace what I had.

They really suck! I'm so distraught over this and angry that they are allowed to get away with this action and behavior.

PSE has been my power company for many years and is the only available power company in the area where I live. Occasionally I am a couple weeks late on my bill because I am poor. I work, but barely make a livable wage. However, I am not complaining about being poor and I have always paid my bill before the end of the month.

After moving to a new house, PSE charged me a ~400 dollar setup fee to change the power bill for the house into my name. The previous occupants had PSE, so there was no actual setup required. 400 dollars to change a string of text in a software. We elected to pay that fee over the course of 4 months, with a payment plan. At the 5th month, the first month free of this "robbery" I received a bill for 300 dollars due by the end of this month.

A PSE representative explained that this was a secondary setup deposit due to having too many late payments.

So I suppose being two weeks late is wrong, but I can't make ends meet any other way. There used to be a grace period for late payments and it appears that they have discontinued that amenity. I was never notified of this change in policy, until recieving a bill I cannot afford on my own.

I saw others with this problem. if you are one, look up the community action council. They have an energy assistance program. They helped me years ago, hopefully they can help again. I understand the assistance is first come, first serve beginning in the fall.

Puget Sound Energy is the devil. ; )

We have been having rougher than usual weather and the heating bills were very high. My husband is self employed and was experiencing some tougher times finding jobs and I am unemployed and a full time student so when the high bills came for the electricity from Puget Sound Energy we were tight on the money and have made a few late payments. As we have made late payments we were paying the late charges as well. Now Puget Sound Energy is charging us a $477 deposit, which the company will hold until we make 12 consecutive on time payments. If we do not pay this payment they are threatening to shot off our power. we are having hard times so they are punishing us by making us find more money that we do not have. It is a vicious circle we are stuck in. We payed late because we had no money, now are charged more money for not having money in the first place. So in 3 days we might be in the dark... What are we to do? Is there any way to dispute these charges/deposits?

Misleading, untrustworthy manipulation. This company promotes health and wellness for Woman in the Kent and Federal Way area of Washington, but their numerous inconsistencies and false information proves otherwise. I joined these boot camp months ago and loved the training I was provided by the Kent Trainer that just recently left in April 2008. However, every interaction with the owners Clemence and Alfred proved to be uncomfortable and something that I and MANY other campers avoided all cost. The owners would push multilevel marketing products on a bunch of unhealthy overweight woman telling them the products were the only way to be successful. The company was unorganized and inconsistent. They would ask us campers to provide food for their events, not to mention they were all ran out of their home. The company offered discounts and then would not uphold them, lied to campers about costs and refund policies that were not published on the web.

Like I said, I stayed with the training because I loved the trainer in Kent at the time, and still do, but when she quit MANY of us did not return and will stay as far away from Puget Sound Boot Camp or anything Clemence and Alfred do. Their character has always been questionable and their integrity very lacking, but recently I just saw a new sign they are advertising with claiming to be Kent's #1 Boot Camp. I find this a pathetic way to try to save their company when the best things they had going for them was the Kent Trainer. There is actually a new boot camp in Kent where the ladies are safe from manipulation, have a great time and reaching their fitness goals. Check out www.triplethreatbootcamp.com