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    ComplaintsforCenterPoint Energy

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    Complaint Details

    Note that complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. See details.

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    Complaint Status
    Complaint Type
    • Complaint Type:
      Billing Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      This company has made it very difficult to pay our bills. The website is totally broken. The website doesn’t let you login.

      Business response

      08/21/2024

      Thank you for reaching out to CenterPoint. We are not aware of any online issues at this time. If you continue to have issues, please contact Customer Service at ************** with the specific error message you are receiving. 

      You should be able to access your online account via the following link: Sign In (centerpointenergy.com). Payments can also be mailed, via our automated phone system, at a local authorized pay site or we also offer an Auto Pay option.

      Best regards,

      CenterPoint Energy

    • Complaint Type:
      Billing Issues
      Status:
      Resolved
      I made a request to start residential service with natural gas provider CenterPoint Energy. In their online form I entered the start date of August 21, 2024 (the day I will receive keys to a new rental house). I received an email receipt of my answers, with date to begin service: 08/21/24 for *** * ***** ******* ************ ** *****. Unfortunately they began billing me starting on July 21, 2024. I don't live there yet, so am certainly not using the natural gas there. I have contacted the business three times (once by phone with a representative who agreed to fix the issue but did not, and twice by email, with no reply). I hope very much to receive a correct bill for natural gas. My account number with CenterPoint is ************ - *.  Thank you very much for your time and assistance.

      Business response

      08/21/2024

      Thank you for reaching out to CenterPoint Energy. The date the service was transferred into your name has been corrected; we have changed the move in date to 8/21/24 per your original request and removed the billed charges prior to 8/21/24.

      We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

      If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Customer Service at **************.

      Best regards,

      CenterPoint Energy

      Customer response

      08/22/2024

       
      Better Business Bureau:

      I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

      Sincerely,

      **** **********
    • Complaint Type:
      Billing Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      I moved address called center point engery and had everything switched called several times to confirm this. I never received a bill for july i have called 3 times to report that my meter isn't getting read and i need my meter read so i can turn my bill in fir my health insurance! Im loosing my health insurance at the end of month bc of this problem! I have ******** ********* and can't loose my insurance but bc center point don't want to their job and fix/find the problem im loosing my insurance! They have documented that i have repeatedly called about this problem. All they tell me is its under review and its all documented. I shouldn't have to deal with this! Sad that no one can seem to help me or fix my problem!

      Business response

      08/15/2024

      Thank you for reaching out to CenterPoint. We recently went through a system change at the beginning of July. When the changeover occurred, the order you had scheduled to transfer the service into your name was worked but there was an issue that caused the account to not start billing. This has been corrected and the service is showing active in your name as of the 6/28/24 date. We have attached a copy of the bill that generated on 8/14/24 and was mailed to your home address. 

      We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

      Best regards,

      CenterPoint Energy

    • Complaint Type:
      Billing Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      We mailed our payment check to CenterPoint on June 21 2024 ( due July 1 2024 } and it has not been cashed and now we are overdue . Cannot get a reply from the online message center. The new website does not show our previous history. My neighbor has the same issue. Evidently the new account numbers and old account numbers were not matched . We have never been overdue at the same address over 37 years. Please correct the problem and please let me know what is the problem ?

      Business response

      07/18/2024

      Thank you for reaching out to CenterPoint Energy. We checked our records and do not show that we have received the check that you sent in June for your account. If we were to receive the check, we would apply it to your account.

      There was not a late payment fee assessed to your account from last month. 

      If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Customer Service at **************.

      Best regards,

      CenterPoint Energy

      Customer response

      07/20/2024

       
      Complaint: ********
        Our check , # **** , in the name of ****** * ******** was mailed on June 21 2024 with the old account number. .  Other checks mailed at the same time reached their vendors and were cashed. My account with Center Point was converted on June 28 2024 along with changing our account number.   This is around the same time period that our checks have been previously cashed by Center Point.

      We feel that when the change was made it affected our payment.

      I am rejecting this response because:  

      Sincerely,

      **** ********

      Business response

      07/23/2024

      The payment of $99.90 due on 7/1/2024 and mailed on 6/21/2024 still has not been received. CenterPoint Energy did receive your online payment of $250.33 made on 7/22/24. Your account is paid in full. 
    • Complaint Type:
      Service or Repair Issues
      Status:
      Resolved
      Center point energy has let us go approximately 7 days without turning our gas service on. They claim to have come to the house on multiple occasions, all of which someone was present, and nothing has happened. They have claimed to have turned the gas on two occasions as well, and the lock remains on the gas meter.

      Business response

      07/16/2024

      Thank you for allowing us to address your concern. We understand that a lot of people have been without power for several days and are counting on us to restore power. We remain committed to our plans to ensure power is restored throughout our service territory. Restoring power effectively and as safe as possible is our top priority. Based upon the company’s progress since severe weather impacted our service area, CenterPoint Energy has confidence in its customer restoration expectations. Thank you for your continued patience as we complete repairs and work to restore power.

      Customer response

      07/25/2024

       
      Better Business Bureau:

      I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

      Sincerely,

      ****** **********
    • Complaint Type:
      Customer Service Issues
      Status:
      Resolved
      We recently moved from our previous home to a new home within ******, IN. During this time we submitted a notice to discontinue service at the previous home and open a new account at the new home. Centerpoint mistakenly transferred the discontinue notice to our new home the day they began a new CRM/accounting system implementation and shut our service off on June 26th, 2024. We contacted them the same day and the next two days after numerous times explaining to numerous people what happened. They said they are not reconnecting services for 6 days and we will not have it restored until July 2nd. We even reported that we smelled gas on June 27th out of desperation and the tech who came couldn't restore service-nor could his field supervisor. I am very concerned how many other people or suffering from their poor implementation execution and monopoly on our access to this vital resource. They offered no solution and this is 100% their issue. We cannot cook food and have no hot water. Why did they not have a lapse in service shut off built into their implementation plan? Why is there no responsibility on their end. Many of their employees didn't even know that they are not doing service calls for 6 days during this time and we spent an entire day off work waiting for them to show up because we were told they were going to be out the following day by more than one person.

      Business response

      07/02/2024

      Thank you for reaching out to CenterPoint Energy. In review of the account, the gas service was turned off in error on June 26th; we will ensure this error is addressed. Due to a system change we recently went through, certain orders were not able to be scheduled at the end of that week as the changeover was in process. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this caused. We reached out to Mr. ******** by phone on 7/1/24 and scheduled an order to have the service turned back on the same day. The service was successfully turned back on that day. 

      If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at **************.

      Best regards,

      CenterPoint Energy

      Customer response

      07/07/2024


      Better Business Bureau:

      I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory.  However, they didn't address the original issue regarding their process during their system change.  If they were not able to turn gas on Thursday and Friday why would they be turning gas off on Wednesday, the day they started the system change?

      Sincerely,

      ******** * ****** ********
    • Complaint Type:
      Product Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      Paid deposit called 2 months ago they said it would be mailed the 24th same last month still waiting they sure didnt wait for the deposit

      Business response

      06/07/2024

      Thank you for reaching out to CenterPoint. Deposits can be requested for refund after 9 consecutive months of on-time payments. We show your deposit was paid on 8/24/23, making it eligible for refund after 5/24/24. The credit check was processed on 6/3/24 and mailed to the billing address on file so you should receive soon.

      Best regards,

      CenterPoint Energy

    • Complaint Type:
      Billing Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      On May 16th 2024 Centerpoint Energy shut my electric off with out every sending a bill which in turn made all our refrigerated food and my wife's insulin go bad.. So we recently moved and had our mail forwarded to our new address while we contacted all our creditors and changed our address. I have four properties with centerpoint that are paid in full every month and since the forwarded mail the stoped sending me bills. None of the four locations received bills after February and I found this out when the showed up to cut the power at our carlot. I was able to pay by phone as I do ever month but only after I got them to give me the account number which is on the bill because you can not pay without the account number over the phone. They told me they mailed the bill to our vacant property which does not even receive mail. I went over to the mail box and no mail. Then I went to the post office where they instructed me there was no mail being held at any one of the three zip codes I deal with. So a few days later they shut my home off again after not receiving any bill in which all our food and insulin went bad. This cost us approximately $500 . I again called and got the information and paid in full and was charged approximately $400 in the form of a deposit and reconnect and again explained I did not receive a bill at any of my four locations. They would not turn it back on until the next day. So because I told them they did send a bill they mail out a disconnect notice which I received 2 days later on Saturday at 3pm, to late to avoid disconnect. I would like a reimbursement or the $900 they costed me in their premature disconnect without ever sending me a bill. I also have email showing every piece of mail that is delivered to me each day to prove that no bill was ever sent

      Business response

      05/24/2024

      Thank you for reaching out to CenterPoint Energy. In review of your account, it appears that the post office may have been forwarding your bills to you because the billing address we had on file was incorrect due to a typo. The billing address we had on file was *** ***** *** ********* IN. Once the post office stopped forwarding your mail is when you may have stopped receiving your bills. However, if you do not receive your bill, please contact Customer Service as soon as possible so the account can be researched to determine the possible cause and we can provide you your bill. We show the billing address was corrected in early May. We have credited back the security deposits that you were charged when you were disconnected in addition to the reconnect fee. At this time, your account has a credit of $345.46.

      If you have any questions, please contact Customer Service at **************.

      Best regards,

      CenterPoint Energy

    • Complaint Type:
      Billing Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      Centerpoint turned off the gas to my house and my requests to have a supervisor call me were ignored. Despite being told 2 different times I would get a call back to discuss. The company then said that they have no record of me asking to speak to a supervisor. I was denied the opportunity to speak with a supervisor to and told I must pay several fees and a deposit to get my gas turned back on. I experienced identity theft, and my bank account was frozen during the initial bank draft. Centerpoint never tried to draft any funds after that. I advised the associate that I would even provide a police report. But no, Centerpoint is a monopoly that allows their consumers to accumulate a debt, pay outrageous fees/deposits, and denying the right to speak with anyone at a higher level.

      Business response

      05/16/2024

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We apologize that the agent did not acknowledge your requests to speak with a supervisor and the agent provided incorrect information regarding the auto draft notification. CenterPoint Energy’s system automatically mails a letter to the address on file explaining why we removed from autopay. The system removes the bank information to prevent another draft from processing against your account. After reviewing the account, we do not show a deposit charged to your account. We only show the standard reconnect charges to restore service, along with the optional same-day fee. However, as a one-time courtesy, we will waive the same-day fee along with the NSF fees charged to your account. While we cannot correct our past mistakes, we hope you accept these credits toward your account in a good-faith effort to acknowledge our faults. Please log into your online account to view the account. 

      Kind regards, 

      CenterPoint Energy

    • Complaint Type:
      Sales and Advertising Issues
      Status:
      Answered
      Center point has a monopoly on gas service here. They are sending out misleading advertising for a third party insurance on utility lines. The letter reads as an urgent and immediate danger that needs resolution. Please stop them from sending these letters because I know many older people and those who do not understand are falling into this scam.

      Business response

      03/27/2024

      Thank you for reaching out. HomeServe offers customers a number of home repair solutions; CenterPoint participants are offered Exterior Electrical and Gas Line plans from HomeServe, covering customer-owned exterior electrical equipment that connect their home to our electrical grid and natural gas lines from the outlet of our gas meter to appliances inside or outside of the home that are not covered by CenterPoint or basic homeowner insurance plans. This is an optional, voluntary program. This program is being offered from HomeServe to our customers for their convenience. Customers are under no obligation to purchase any service plans, and customers’ utility service will not be affected in any way if they choose not to participate in this program.

      If you have any additional questions about HomeServe, please feel free to contact Customer Service at **************.

      Best regards,

      CenterPoint Energy

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