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My son is trying to get out of the Simple Bills service as he moved out of the shared apartment. Simple Bills will not release him until the roommate sends confirmation. Not even releasing him with a letter from the leasing mgr. Roommate is refusing to comply. Problem with roommate is reason for leaving. Simple Bills is basically charging my son for utilities even though he no longer lives there.
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I HAVE A DIFFERENT ISSUE BUT THE MORE I LEARN ABOUT THIS COMPANY, THE MORE I AM CONCERNED. I AM GOING TO ASK FOR A FORMAL MEETING WITH THE UTILITY COMPANY INVOLVED IN THE FIASCO BELOW AND I AM GOING TO MAKE IT MY MISSION TO TRY TO HELP OTHERS... I HATE IT WHEN A PERSON TRIES TO GET RICH IN AN UNETHICAL WAY. BELOW IS WHAT I SUBMITTED TO THE BBB AND I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO DO THE SAME.
This company charges a monthly fee to pay tenants' utility bills. This would be fine if there were several room-mates (and I guess they charge each roommate the fee...which would really add up for them) and simplebills would divide the charges for each tenant. However, I have a student who lives in a single room with one single utility bill. He has lived there for a year and a half and I have the utility company just draft my checking account each billing cycle. Easy, right? . In August, without any notification to me, simplebills removed my name from the account and gave the utility company their information. I contacted simplebills and they informed me that OF COURSE I would not pay them the monthly fee for just one student in a single apartment and they apologized and told me to re-establish my account. I have all of this in writing. SO, I call the utility company back (I had to call them to ask them why they removed my name..so after about 30 minutes of waiting and investigating on their part, they let me know that simplebills removed my name) and I REestablish the account in my name and pay the $40 fee to do so. Low and behold, last month, simplebills did it AGAIN. They removed my name and put the account in their name. After many emails and phone calls, I am told that OF COURSE I COULD KEEP THE UTILITY IN MY NAME...after all---SIMPLE BILLS PROVIDES ZERO VALUE ADD TO A SINGLE TENANT !...So, I RE-establish my account...$40 again. I then tell them that I want it in writing that they will stop doing this to me. And after almost two weeks of them telling me that they had to get more information from their account exec (?) before they could put it in writing, they email yesterday and say that they told me incorrectly all of the times before and that they really do have to charge me every month to pay my son's one electric bill. In my mind, this is total extortion. They want to charge me a fee each month to pay my single utility bill...and they have caused me nothing but the suffering of time and money. Oh, and I can't see the actual utility bill anywhere...have tried on my account on their website...just has the charge and date. So, I just have to trust this company that clearly is clueless that my utility charge is correct. They do zero work. They allow the utility co to draft from my checking and they charge me a fee to do this! And several people from their company have told me that Ohhhh, noooo...simplebills won't charge you unless you miss a payment. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I have copious notes and many emails with names and dates. They say that they won't pay the bill unless I miss paying it. Well, how could I pay a bill FOR WHICH THEY HAVE REMOVED MY NAME? Even the utility company can't believe this. The CEO of this company needs to RE-think how they charge single tenants in one bedroom apartments with one utility.
Hello. Are all the complaints associated with The Retreat residency?
Is your Simple bill associated with the Retreat. Because I have problems with them as well. I do know a great lawyer that can do a great job against the Simple bill and THE RETREAT, which is a university student's accommodation ... Morgan and Morgan law office, they are the ones who legalized medicinal marijuana in the state of Florida.
No. I lived in Waco where the corporate office is headquartered.
I completely agree. It sickens me that this company conducts business in such an unethical way. They make up rules as they go and don't follow the ones they said to begin with. When you give them the information they asked for, they still refuse to refund the money they charged you for services you never used nor authorized to be charged for. They also send text messages to my cell phone unauthorized as well. There should be a class action suit brought against them.
I completely agree. A lawsuit is warranted. They wont deal with us on an individual basis, but they will have to if we ban together. Strength in numbers. If anyone knows a lawyer, im more than willing to oblige. Im filing a civil suit in small claims court, but dont know how much of an impact it will have.
Email me at ajaylahstudent@yahoo.com
I speak to an attorney tomorrow
Agreed. I asked them to reimburse me the $80 paid to my utility company to re-establish my account (per their direction) and they are now completely ignoring me. It is unreal. Pls go to BBB and file a complaint as well. I guess we have no recourse here. And the horrible thing for me is that they FOR THE THIRD TIME have removed my name from the electric bill and added theirs. I hope that karma gets them back for their extortion and ways of doing business. They sure are generating a lot of ill will by not caring about their customers. Pls go to BBB (I think they are based in Waco, TX) and rate them! Good luck!
I live in waco. I had no choice but to sign up with them. I have already filed with the BBB and the tx attorney general office. Ive posted on their facebook page. The local news even put a story about simplebills on facebook. I commented on that post. The newspaper is my next stop. This company is not conducting proper business. They are not even abiding by their own terms and services. They must be stopped. Im all for a class action lawsuit if someone knows hoe to get started.
OMG! Please email me I will be glad to help you confirm their poor business practices. They did the same thing to me and said that the NEW roommates needed to prove my daughter didn't live in her apartment any more either. They billed us for charges that we were not responsible for. Fast forward a year and they made unauthorized charges on my account billing us again for those charges from 2016 Plus billing us twice for current services. Of course they don't take your word or explanation for it so I send proof and they still have not resolved the issue. They are extremely unethical in every way possible . They take advantage of students also! dkbook@verizon.net
This company is terrible! How are they still in business. Someone needs to do a large class action lawsuit that will put them out of business.
I moved into my rental house I acquired through Conrex on 5/11/22 & the power was shut off 5/24/22 due to Simple Bills having a past due balance at the electric company for the property I moved in. I paid $3300 to move in this house & am living in a hotel that I am paying for. I am expected to pay rent for a house I’m not living in. File every complaint you can if you have been wronged as I have. File with the BBB, contact your state’s attorney general, contact HUD, contact your local news stations. The employees that work for both companies should be FORCED as I have to use Simple Bills. I had 6 family members drive from out of state to visit for the Memorial holiday & they all turned around & went home. I’m now spending the holiday alone in a motel room. The folks at Simple Bills & Conrex have advised me “this isn’t their problem” WOW. I told Conrex I will not use Simple Bills after this & was told I can move out after she laughed at me. I do not cuss, yell or abuse when I’m speaking to these folks so I don’t understand why they feel it necessary to laugh & condescend & threaten. I’m the one that has been wronged. I hope everyone at Conrex & Simple Bills is made to use Simple Bills - may you be humiliated, laughed at, and threatened with eviction. May you have to pay rent for a house you can’t live in & have to pay out of your own pocket to live in a motel. Bet that smile will be turned upside down. If consumers can afford attorneys to fight these people, please do it. I myself cannot as I’m paying to live 2 places. Simple Bills & Conrex should be shut down & sued. You’re ruining lives.
Wow. I'm glad my experience with Simple Bills sucked, but I learned a lot easier than that to never ever use them. I will never pay them a cent again after my experience, but I was able to have my bank take back my money they stole. I'm so sorry that you had to deal with that. Thank you for sharing your experience publicly so others can know they're not alone.
Hi, may I please ask how you were able to do that? I am currently having a terrible experience and now I have a true-up bill due of $50 and nothing makes sense. Thanks so much!
Long arm statutes would allow filing a lawsuit in any state where Simple Bills does business, be it TX, FL, or anywhere else, and I've a mind to do it if they do not respond. On move out, this company just charged my daugther 4X what her median utility bill was over the past 10 months and then they make it impossible to request a reconciliation (which must be done w/i 14 days of lease end or you lose it, and/or charge a fee for that as well!), saying it will take 8-12 weeks, yada, yada, yada, you have to pay the bill before the form will be sent, etc. Basically a scam to keep the overage paid by unsuspecting students IMHO. I was told by customer service that if you do not request a reconciliation, then none will occur, and thus, they keep the money even if there is a huge overage (No mention of an automatic refund) of course. Interestingly enough, their website does not permit printing the chat record, nor does it allow printing of emails sent. I guess they do not want a record of proceedings.. That's always interesting..
Have you filed a lawsuit? If so I want to join in.
I am Sherri L Gordon. I have had nothing but problems and double / triple billing. I moved out 2/1/23 and they have billed me every month to date. My email is wtrldy1@gmail.com
If you are a resident at The Retreat or at any other rental complex where the property management company is trying to make you think you have to accept Simple Bills' version of the truth which is illegal and unethical in any case, I would suggest you consider the following:
Simple Bills is NOT a public utility provider according to the Public Utilities Commission. They acknowledge this on their website which states that they are merely a billing and collection company subcontracted by property management companies, and possibly in the business of data mining information about utility use in high-density properties owned by property management companies. As a debt collector they have specific responsibilities under the Fair Credit and Collections Act for one, and are also not exempt from State Attorney General Office's Consumer complaint process, as well as other resolution alternatives like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and any other applicable State and Federal laws.
Consumers have a right to obtain from the public utility provider an exact breakdown of usage for electricity, gas, and/or water for consumption within the unit that they are consuming the utility, or if your unit is unmetered and there's a master meter that the property management company uses you have a right to the exact methodology and again the exact usage data for your unit. A recycled version from Simple Bills does not satisfy they're responsibilities under the Fair Credit Collections Act. They may not report you to a credit bureau or try to collect in any other manner unless you have been given an exact breakdown of usage from the utility source and for your individual unit that you rent. This supercedes any attempt to unlawfully get you to sign away your rights in some hidden language in a rental agreement, because it's not only a violation of Federal Law but it is also of violation of consumer utility and financial protection regulations within each state usually handled by your State Attorney General's office complaint process.
After reading several accounts all over the internet, this reminds me of deceptive practices utilized during the telecommunications company wars in the 1990's. To create confusion among uninformed consumers and to create dysfunctional operational practices to abscond from responsibility and take and keep money that creates a perception of helplessness and where people give up trying to get their money back or to fight for what's due to them.
If you have been targeted with deceptive consumer utility and financial practices, you need to file complaints with your local attorney general's office, the Consumer Financial Protection bureau, the Public Utilities Commission, as well as write a demand letter but also informs simple bills that you are withholding payment in accordance with the Fair Credit Collections Act until they either resolve the problem and or return your money due and only if they provide you with an exact breakdown from the public utility provider and not a recycled version and if they make any attempt to ruin your credit or otherwise try to collect money from you, or in any way think they're going to turn off or cut off your utilities, that they will also be libel for further damages in double and triple amount in Court and that could be a small claims court in your local community depending on the amount, your State County Court, and or your Federal District Court. You should also create a drop-down phone alert and contact system that includes all of the neighbors and residents at your property who are going to do the same thing.
Apparently simple bills like Uber, AirBnB, and other companies into "apps" and other items like circumventing local state and federal laws and regulations, think that they can be and are exempt from regulation and oversight. Simple bills has another thing coming, that they may not even realize: a Nationwide Class action suit, since these illegal and deceptive as well as lack of good faith and fair dealing, appear to try and set another National trend that is not only illegal but also circumvents good faith and fair dealing regulations and other unethical practices that are implicitly regulated and a part of any contract law.
Note: most credit card companies have a 60-day cutoff limit to challenge or dispute a charge, so if you are going to withhold any further payment or you are waiting for a refund you should also send certified a dispute of charges to your credit card company otherwise simple bills will try to outsmart you and delay and delay and delay until you have exhausted the 60-day dispute clause in your credit card agreement. So in addition to a certified letter to both registered agents you should also dispute the charge with your credit card company at that very time.
The following is the contact information of where you need to serve your certified letter and demand and intention to withhold payment:
The Retreat's Registered agent details:
Registered Agent
Agent Name:
CORPORATION SERVICE COMPANY
Agent Address:
300 DESCHUTES WAY SW STE 208 MC-CSC1, TUMWATER, WA 98501
Strangely, they claim to be a Delaware based Corporation and then they claim to be a Foreign LLC, with a mailing address in Chicago; and then a registered agent in Tumwater Washington to try to confuse everyone.
SIMPLE BILLS INC
Texas Taxpayer ID#[protected] Zip76706
SIMPLE BILLS INC.
Texas Taxpayer Number: [protected]
Mailing Address:
422 BAGBY AVE WACO, TX [protected]
Right to Transact Business in Texas
FRANCHISE TAX ENDED
State of FormationTX
Effective SOS Registration Date06/29/2009Texas
SOS File Number0801140394
Registered Agent Name:
RYAN GIBSON
Registered Office Street Address:
422 BAGBY WACO, TX 76706
You have to send your certified mail to the registered agent as well as the registered agent of your property management company owners which is on file with your County Assessor's Office, as to who owns the property.
Then you have to go to your State department of license corporations search engine and or your Tax and Revenue Department Corporation search engine to find the registered agent.
It's really not complicated however it's a good practice to learn because you're going to come into contact with cheaters like this your whole life and if you don't fight them nothing's ever going to change and you are not a helpless victim, especially if Simple Bills is targeting college educated students, who are not the run of the mill uninformed citizen, and who are leading the Starbucks and Amazon union movement.
The Washington State Tenants Right's Union may want to get involved with an organized group to squash attempts to try and make this an acceptable National trend or practice:
Even if there is no third party utility billing ordinance where you live, you can still challenge deceptive practices and the venues I've listed above because those are entities that serve and defend consumer protection against deceptive and fraudulent practices:
http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/search/results?s1=&s2=&s3=114691&s4=&s5=&Sect4=AND&l=20&Sect1=IMAGE&Sect2=THESON&Sect3=PLURON&Sect5=CBOR1&Sect6=HITOFF&d=CBOR&p=1&u=/~public/cbor1.htm&r=1&f=G
That is so wrong!
Yep sounds right. Even if the roommate complied they'd definitely 100% for sure still charge him. Using simple bills is basically signing up to have them on your credit score for not paying. I reported them to the BBB but that did nothing. Please don't waste any more of your time on them. Move on and live happy.