Xcel Energy
Reviews and Complaints

My bill was 4 times the amount as the previous average for the past 2 years. I complained about it and Xcel sent "Jorge", so he said that was his name.
He entered my residence when unnecessary the told me my water heater was electric when it is obviously only gas.
I asked him to leave, he proceeded to become vile and unprofessional. Xcel backed this employee.
Now I have contacted police for the threats by Xcel employe, and attorneys for the civil side.
Xcel monopolized the panhandle so they can raise rates and hold it over our head and turn off electricity when their 16-year-old meter fails.
SEE YOU IN COURT!

I have had Xcel for years now and have had no issues until 2019. I have had the power go out 4 different times in less than 6 months. Each time it takes over an hour to restore power. My city went through a blizzard and I was lucky enough to restore power and yet when it is a perfectly clear day an outage happens. They wont tell you why, their updates are slow, and they refuse to acknowledge that this is a huge problem. It's not like I moved recently either, I've been at my apartment for three years and this just started happening.

I called today to ask about my bill and why it was at $267 when it was at $30 previously they said our meter was out since March and that we are being charged for the use of electricity averaged from previous years which I don't understand why it took them seven months to realize our meter was broken when they should notice it in their billing hey this isn't reading right we need to let them know but they waited until October to come out and supposedly replace the meter and now we have to pay all this extra money right before Thanksgiving and Christmas for this Xcel bill that they say we owe for previous electricity use because the meter was broken... but no one bothered to call us to say what was going on and why we had this extra charge no one even told me that they came on our property to mess with the meter this overall is just poor customer service. the customer service representative I talked to i believe his name was Brian he said he has been with the company for 10yrs he was very inconsiderate and didn't sound compassionate at all he didnt seem to care about the situation. From a customer standpoint this should be resolved quicker with a notice or shouldnt happen at all. Also for providing a service to the community it should be your due diligence to make sure things are working and accurate and if something should arise to where there is a problem you guys should make it a priority to let the consumer know that there is a problem with their bill or service and not just send them a bill without any inquiring information of why we're being charged with this extra fee is just criminal.

First off...Xcel's customer service blows.

Last month their system was 'down' but did they send out an email notifying its customers of this? No. They expect you to get that update from thin air or hope that you looked online. I found out that the system was down when they not only charged one of my bank accounts that I had previously deleted off of my account because I am in the process of closing it, they also charged the new account that I had listed on my file. They blamed this error on their system malfunctioning and being down for over a week. When I asked how I could get the duplicate payment refunded, they stated that it has been credited back to my Xcel account...cool...did they ever ask if that is how I wanted the refund to be issued? Nope.

When I told them that wouldn't work with me because I am out that money that I had not anticipated to be taken. They then told me they could issue me a check but it would be sent in mail and I would have to wait 5 business days before I got it back. I was also told I would have to dispute the charge with my bank. As much of a headache this process already was I then went ahead and waited for the check while also disputing the charge with my bank...this all took place at the beginning of October.

Now here we are at the end of October and I received a notification that my bill was only $29 which is roughly around what it should be. Today, I went to make sure that all of my previous banking information was taken off of my account so this would not happen again, only to find that now my bill is $111 which is including my previous bill that was PAID already.

I spent my breaks at work calling and got told one thing after another until I finally got a 'supervisor' who should probably not have that title considering he was the least helpful person out of everyone I talked too and the rudest. Long story short, he said that because they issued me a check and I disuputed the charge with my bank that it cancelled everything out and that I technically never paid my balance for last month...I was told directly by them to do both...and now I shouldn't have?

I HIGHLY recommend going with an alternative energy company (PG&E is amazing) as Xcel lacks basic customer service and educated knowledge of the service and its payment system. I never once heard anyone of their employees take responsibility for the mix-up or duplicate payment which would have gone a long way in my book. Instead, I was treated like I was uneducated and talked down to. I am currently in the works with my legal team to see what else can be done since I got nowhere with Xcel themselves. If you have the option to choose which energy company to go with BY ALL MEANS RUN FROM EXCEL. They try and have you sign up for autopay and tell you that you will receive a discount but the reality is, you will get double charges and not see anything back to make up for their mistake...I was not asking for a million dollars back, I was looking for basic care in customer service.

I had placed a request to reconnect my gas two days ago. They promised a 24 hour turn around. Of course it is now the weekend and I still have not had any luck getting my services reconnected. I have called multiple times and they have all said they'd "follow up" and that I would be serviced "as soon as possible." I even spoke with a supervisor who was unable to tell me a time frame even after being promised it would be done within 24 hours. So frustrating!

My account # is [protected]

I have recently moved into this address and I got a bill that I did not expect. On the bill is has a former balance of $138.42 from years ago. I was asked to prove I paid it but I'm unable to do so because I have a different bank now than I did then.

I'd like to you to remove it as I have no doubt it was paid either to Xcel or the collection agency it was sent to.
Thank you
Grant
[protected]
[protected]@hotmail.com

Our power was shut off on thursday the 26th of september(we were behind but had just made a huge payment 2 weeks prior). We paid the outstanding on the 27th of september. The supervisor we asked to talk to on the 26th finally calls us on the 31st(still no power). He credited our disconnect/reconnect fee which is great but when he put the new order in it put us back at the bottom of the list cause oldest orders first. So here it is the first of october and I have spent 300 dollars alone in just the gas for a generator not to mention all the food i had to throw away and the food i had to buy from restaurants to give my kids a warm meal. How much longer will it take. If we had to wait five days for power before he put the order in how long do we have to wait now. Mind you my bill has been paid for 6 days. Funny how you guys can turn it off but cant figure out how to turn it on.

We paid our power 2 days ago to have it turned on. They told us by 10pm on thursday it would be on. It's now saturday and they still haven't turned it back on. There was an excel guy here yesterday to check the gas but he said he couldn't do the electric do they needed to dispatch another. He was supposed to be here by 10pm last night. Woke up this morning with, yet again, no power. There are 4 children living in my house and we are all still sitting in the dark. No heat, no power, and it's starting to get cold. I explained this to them, but they don't seem to give a [censored]. I just want my power back on especially since I paid almost $1000 to get it turned back on, when that money could have gone to other things.

I was just sent my monthly invoice from Excel and it showed a MASSIVE increase (almost 85%) in electricity usage. I called to speak with a representative from your company and was informed that the overuse of electricity was MOST LIKELY coming from a home appliance that was, "going out." I was then instructed to do a "self-diagnostic, " on my breaker box. I followed your instructions and determined that it was NOT any appliances drawing excess electricity and called back.

Before I get to the heart of the matter I would like to pre-empt this by saying that I do NOT work for XCEL energy. I am NOT certified in electrical system diagnoses nor am I competent in discerning WHAT if ANY data can be derived from such activities. It really seems like something YOUR company can handle. Also, your customer NON-service could be much more efficiently operated by simply putting a recording up on the customer service line that just repeats the phrase, "Your problem is irrelevant! Just shut up and pay whatever the number on the bill says...we are unconcerned with your particular issue and NOTHING can be done by you to solve your issue OTHER than paying whatever we tell you..." It seems this is the only conflict resolution your people are capable of!

Now to the matter at hand. I called back a second time to relay the results of my non professional diagnostic checkup and was THEN informed that, YEP! As it turned out the ACTUAL issue was YOU folks were in error and MISREAD my meter...alledgedly, and LOOK OUT! The resolution to YOUR error is for ME to just PAY THE BILL.

I don't understand how you misreading YOUR OWN meter somehow validates an 80% INCREASE in my overall power usage...it sounds quite unbelievable...how often do you read the meters? Every Fall? As soon as I told the representative the results revealed nothing she all of a sudden comes up with the "mis-read, " portion of the deflect and deny responsibility.

I am EXTREMELY upset about this. Not only have you guys now put my holiday budget INTO FRIGGIN SHAMBLES but your incredibly coarse and cavalier attitude about my predicament is so infuriating I want to scream. My energy usage HAS NEVER reached anywhere near these levels...first you tell me its an appliance and when I say I need someone to come out and read the meter you then say OOPS! We read it wrong and you can just pay the difference over a few months. I AM NOT paying for your mistake. I DO NOT accept that you will not send someone professional out here to ascertain the issue definitively, and I DO NOT accept that your "SERVICE" personnel couldn't CARE LESS about the customer and resolving their unique issues.

I am contacting the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the NM BBB, the Federal fraud hotline, and any other regulatory agency with dominion over your company and complain until SOMEBODY can accept some responsibility for this issue OTHER than the victim. You're SO lucky you don't have to COMPETE for my business...because your utility company is ran like a pyramid scheming grifter!

Sincerely upset,

Amanda Davis

This was months ago but my family has been going through alot my family had to take care of my grandma for months after my grandpa died and they turned off the power when we called explained what happened they literally had no sympathy the bill was even payed the same day it was shut off and they took 3 days to turn it on something is seriously wrong with these people they treat the customers like animals and they can't even show any decency. Then a month later they did it again without warning even though we had the bill payed but just because it wasn't payed the exact time it was shut off we even payed it before it was shut off just didnt go through yet we talked too the person that disconnected and told them we payed for it and if they'd wait to turn it back on since it gone through he just said they couldn't do anything about it and to call then left. They really need too give a week or 2 notice it's just a disgrace how they treat people. No wonder everyone hates this company too bad they're the only power company in most areas we don't have a option they're literally so rich its sick they're employees are just cruel and they only care about money and not how they get it.

I fell behind on my bill due to being out of work because of a car accident, I am working with emergency assistance to pay my bill but the process has taken far longer than expected. My husband started a new job so we will be able to pay once we are caught up but we are so far behind that we need a bit of help. Even though I am literally just waiting for the paperwork to finish processing for assistance, our power was shut off yesterday. I was in the emergency room just over a week ago for severe high blood pressure, 202/140, and was told to monitor my blood pressure every 2 hours for the next few weeks becausr I could have a stroke if it is too high and does not go back down. For whatever reason, a blood pressure monitor does not qualify as a medical device even though I could end up dead or disabled if I have a stroke. Even if the paperwork is finished processing by the end of today, I was told it would be another 2 days until our power was turned on again. I have a 1 year old and an 8 year old, our food is spoiled, and now I cant even continue to check my blood pressure to make sure I don't end up hospitalized. Stress raises blood pressure and this is an extremely stressful situation. Somebody needs to have this looked into because anybody that has a blood pressure monitor NEEDS it. I am supposed to check every 2 hours and every 15 minutes if I end up with a high read so that I can know if I need to go to the hospital ASAP.

I Was Told Bye 5 Different Employees They Would Be At My House To Hook My Electricity Its 10 PM At Night Still Noone Here I Have No Family Or Don't Know Anyone Here I Have A 3 Month Old Baby & 8 Year Old Daughter That Has School Tomorrow I Had Just Stocked My Fridge And Freezer With Food Its Pitch Black In My House Right Now! Us Customers Aren't A Priority To Them All They Care About Is Get Their Money I'm So Frustrated My Poor Kids Are Crying I'm Crying This Is A Terrible Feeling! I Got Nowhere With Customer Service Besides them giving me a time frame of them being at my house anywhere from 3:30 to 11:30 PM

My name is Shannion Ferrell, my address is 827 S Mississippi street, Amarillo, Tx 79106. My account number is [protected]. I am a disabled Verteran and have been doing business with this company for years with no problems. I got a bill 08/26/19 for the amount of $261.16. I have never had a bill in the last two years that has been over around $155.00. I called Xcel to find out why it was so high and they said it was because they didn't read my meter in July and it was moved over from that bill. I asked them how much my bill was in July and they said they didn't have that infrmation. I asked them why they didn't read my meter and they said they didn't have that information. I called corporate who sent me back to customer service and told me I would be talking to an advocate and Xcel told me they didn't have advocates who talked to customers. I told them I wanted to know how much my bill should have been in July sine I only paid what it said which was $81.00 and some change and they refused to give me this information. They sent a guy out to check my line and he said my meter was very old and that my meter box wasn't updated enough to handle the upgrade they did on their grid. He put in a new meter. I do not feel like I should be paying this bill or at least the overages on this bill unless Xcel Energy can explain how much got moved over from July 2019. They should not be able to charge me this money unless they can tell me where it came from. Do they think I am stupid? The guy who put in my new meter said my line was only set up to pull 100 watts at a time and that I needed an upgrade. Xcel never informed any consumer that this would happen if they an older home or meter box. I am sick and tired of trying to talk to these people and they won't tell me how much was moved over from the July bill. The guy who put in my meter said it could be because my meter was very old and my meter box was old and the new upgrade Xcel did would not work right because of it because it is only set up to pull 100 watts at a time. It sure is strange to me that last year Xcel ran over my fence next door and kept on going. He is the father of my neighbors next door and I have had nothing but vandalism and harassment from those boys since they moved in a year and a half ago. I had to call Xcel at that time and tell them to tell this man not to get into the middle of this or I would file charges against them for the same harassment that I was filing on these boys next door. I didn't ask for any money to pay for my fence, I just asked that they tell him to stay out of it because he was laughing over there when they were tearing up my back fence and I was yelling at them. Instead, the excel guy built them a wall so I could not see with my camera's who was vandalizing my property. I have it all on video. Now there is another Xcel energy employee staying next door with these boys and I get this bill that no one will explain. I have a mind to seek legal counseling over this matter. I have never had a company charge me for anything they couldn't explain and I have never had to pay for anything that could not be explained to me by any company in my life. I have proof that these boys stole my internet for over a year and half until I finally just had it turned off. Now I believe they were hooked up to my electricity. If not, then why are they setting in the dark right now with nothing but a porch light on and no one is hardly ever home? Something is wrong with this picture and I will get to the bottom of it if it takes me getting a lawyer. There needs to be a full investigation into this matter. My church friends came over the other day while I was gone and said that Xcel was at my door and they talked to him. He said he was here to read my meter. I am going to file a harassment suite on Xcel if they don't find out what is going on and have Xcel investigated. They don't need to come to my door and read my meter. I had already told them I would call in every month and give them the reading if that is what it takes to get an accurate reading and an accurate bill. This is gross negligence and harassment. I am not going to tolerate it any longer. I also want to know how many watts I used the four days before the guy put in my new meter because they won't tell me that either. They don't have that information and I don't have the money to pay for their mistakes.

She is verbally abusive, manipulative, condescending, and is a master at escalating situations and making customers feel like nothing. Quite honestly, I've had a few of the regular workers there give me incorrect information from time to time, and they're way more qualified for her position than she is. You can help someone learn information, but you can't undo someone whose entire interaction is abusive. She does literally everything wrong in her interactions. I could use her phone calls as examples of what *not* to do. I won't go into every single thing she said here just because this is already getting long, but someone who is actually competent at being on a customer service phone line.

If you don't fire her, you're saying that your managers are there to abuse and bully customers.

I also work in customer service, and if I said or did any one of the many things she did and said, I'd be fired on the *spot*. Hire someone who won't verbally abuse the customers, who actually knows the first thing about talking to people, and who won't say the exact things that will make everything 10 times worse than it needs to be.

I recently rented a home. I called X-Cel on thursday of last week to have service turned on. The representative told me that I would have to send in my lease agreement and photo id before they could do this. I was a little annoyed (I'd never had to do this before) but if this was their policy then there was nothing I could do. They told me that it would take 2 full business days to review and since I called mid day on thursday they couldn't guaranty service till monday. So I take off work for the day expecting to have electricity and be able to finally move my things into my new home. I called X-Cel this morning to make sure everything was good. The lady that answered informed me that my rental agreement had not been viewed yet and X-Cel would call me when they were Ready to turn on my power. I explained that I had been guaranteed service today, and she said we don't guarantee anything. I called again at 1:00 pm because I was tired of waiting for a call, and I didn't want to waist an entire day. The man I spoke to this time informed me that I never had to send a copy of my rental agreement or id in the first place. Seems this policy is for accounts that have been shut off due to non-payment. He told me sometimes the Reps get confused. Of course I was Very annoyed knowing I could have had Electricity this entire time, but I was nice because at least I was now talking to someone who was going to fix the problem. He apologized and told me he would start service today. I asked twice just to make sure. "So I will have service today?" and both times he said "yes", and I wouldn't have to be there. So I got busy doing other things, and when I noticed it was 20 till 5 I headed to my new place. Excited to finally turn on the air conditioner in this 100+ weather. When I got there I wasn't completely shocked to find there was still no electricity. So I called again. The girl I talked to this time must have been the same as the first because she kept repeating the same thing "We don't guarantee service" Getting annoyed I got off the phone and literally prayed I'd see the X-Cel truck pulling up any minute. At 10 till I called again. This time I spoke to a woman who sounded as if she'd had the same day I'd had. She was Very rude from the very beginning. When I told her that I'd been guaranteed service today she gave me the same answer as the others. I told her about all the hassle I'd gone through trying to get electricity turned on, and how hot it was. I told her I'd been waiting to move into a house for 5 days because their people didn't know what they were doing. When I was done, and in the deadest voice you can imagine she says "I'm sorry you had to go through that, but it doesn't change anything." Then I asked to speak to her supervisor. She says "Ma'am I've been working here for 13 yrs". I said "That's nice, but I'd still like to speak to your supervisor" In a overly sweet voice she says "Sure thing ma'am I'll have them call you tomorrow." If there was ANY other electric company in this area They would have my business!

Daily the electricity goes out forcing resets of all devices on a daily basis. Being rural should not mean rhat you have to deal with poor quality service. If the lines are that bad fix them. This has happened for years now and the excuse is always they are working on it. Security systems rely on consistent electric service as well as household functions. Excel should be ashamed of this type of service. It matters not how nice the people are that work there. Poor quality is poor quality.

TO THE MAN,
Reading all of these comments it's just a shame that there are NEVER any replies to them. I mean I realize it would be a pack of lies but at least add a PR person to your staff to at least respond to us bottom feeders who mean nothing to you. We KNOW you have enough of our money to hire one! Then again, I'm not one bit surprised as I lye here in triple digits sweating my a!s off bc they are so busy they can't ever get anyone out here to turn my electricity back on although they had no issues turning it off bright & early this morning! I paid the extra $67 due to their mistake they won't admit to not even an hour after it was turned off & noone at this place gives 2 dueces about any customer. Xcel is a monopoly in this town & to my knowledge I thought a monopoly was illegal! I'm sure MR. CORPORATE GURU GUY isn't sick sitting in the heat or freezing to death with several autoimmune disorders. I'm sure his children don't go without electricity & have to sit in a hundred degree home just waiting for the electric guy to come so he can open the fridge & eat the $400 of groceries that were bought last night that will be ruined. I'm sure his animals aren't suffering. Come on people learn how to treat customers like human beings instead of a number. How do you all stay in business running it like this? I read through these comments & it's just so sad what you all do to good people! You're time will come as I always say bc know this karma is a [censored] & you guys have a wave of it coming your way! I'll pray for each & every one of you!
Sincerely, forced XCEL energy customer aka noone that matters! Amarillo, TX 79121

I contacted Xcel to state I needed to cancel my account and also stated I didn't need my service transferred because I was moving to Colorado Springs and its a different service provider. I was billed for a month of service after my move. I called and stated this and Xcel doesn't care. They state they have no record of the call therefor they can not do anything. Because technical issues never occur, right? I called back to let them know I am not paying this and asked for my bill between 03/11 and 03/22. They stated they couldn't give me that info. They will not allow my landlord to call or provide documentation of my move either. I have tried to escalate the issue and they will not speak to upset customers. I also didn't receive any bills from them for the month of April. I received a bill at the beginning on June stating my account was overdue. When I looked they are charging me through the end of April but that was less than obvious by the one page bill I received so I had to hunt down the info in my account which is also not easy to read. I want to pay what I owe and move on. I would like to provide written proof from my landlord of my move date which is actually 03/24 (I mistakenly stated it was 03/22 as that was the date I closed on my property).

June 6, 2019

FROM: Peter Hanna
RE: Electric Service at 1331 S. Ave. I, Portales, NM
Acct# [protected]

Approximately two months ago, I tried to get electrical service started. When the Xcel Energy technician came out, he said that we needed to get all the equipment up-to-date. We had an electrician come out to do necessary repairs. When the job was completed, the electrician tried to contact Xcel Energy to get the service reconnected. He was unable to reach anyone that could help him. Since then, I have called Xcel Energy several times to try and set up service. I have spoken to many CSRs and been transferred many times. I have not spoken to anyone who could actually help me. And no one turns my calls. We still have no service, no call back, nothing. This is very frustrating, and there is no office here. Please contact me or my assistant to set up time.
Peter Hanna [protected]
Lynn Willhite [protected]
[protected]@gmail.com

Thank you.