Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/04/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I returned home from work one day to find my electric cut off. I went online to check my account and there was a past due balance. However, I've had automatic payments set up for the entire time I've lived at this address (~2 years). I reached out to the company and they informed me that there was an issue with a payment two months prior and the automatic payment had been removed. However, no notification was made to inform me that there was an issue with the payment, that automatic payment had been removed OR that there was a past due amount. The only way I was informed was when I returned home and the electric was cut-off. I set up automatic payments so I do not have to worry about constantly checking the account or worrying about setting up payments. So why would the automatic payment be removed with no notification, nor provide any notification of an issue with the payment? Furthermore, I was informed that a $250 deposit charge would be added to my account due to the disconnect. I'm 37 years old and have a near perfect credit rating and I am a military officer. I am very meticulous about paying bills and making sure finances are squared away. However, this is the SECOND time I've had this type of issue with the named company and the first time in my lifetime that I have experienced these issues. I would request that the company remove the $250 dollar deposit charge and immediately improve their communication techniques and website functionality, or don't offer automatic payment.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/14/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/11/08) */ This is the second instance of a deposit being added to this member's account due to disconnection for nonpayment. Both occurred after his auto-pay payment failed. Mr. *****'s claim that he was never notified of the impending disconnection or incomplete payment is inaccurate. When the payment was unsuccessful on 9/1/2022, Mr. ***** was sent an email with that information. When his next bill was issued on 9/9/2022, the email notification did not indicate that the payment would be drafted as his previous emails did when he was on auto-pay. He was made aware in February of 2022 with the previous nonpayment incident that if an auto-pay payment was unsuccessful, the account is automatically removed from auto-pay. He also received an email regarding a past due balance being owed on 10/11/2022 and received a courtesy call regarding the past due balance and impeding disconnection on 10/17/2022. At no point did Mr. ***** respond to any of those notifications or contact us regarding the past-due balance. Since the deposit has already been removed once as a courtesy in February of 2022, we will not be removing the deposit again. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/11/08) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I never received any of the emails or notifications of any problem with my account. These are both false claims. Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/11/09) */ The screenshots of all notifications were provided in the previous response. All screenshots show successful delivery. The deposit will not be refunded unless the member goes on prepaid.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/29/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  the electric bill is in my grandmothers name, ******* ******. we received a notice on our door yesterday , 9/28/22, saying to call them, we need a new meter. i called but was told i could not schedule asn appointment for them to come install a new meter because i am not my grandmother. i told her my grandmother has dementia/alzheimers and is now living in ohio. i was told she would have to call them to schedule the appointment. was the lady i spoke with not smart enough to know what alzheimers is? my grandmother might not be able to tell you her name. so if you want to come install a new meter, you will have to speak with me or someone else at the house to get access to the backyard, which i do not see the problem doing as it has nothing to do with the bill, it is just giving access to the electric company equipment.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/13/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/10/04) */ We have strict privacy polices that limit what we can say to those who call in about accounts that don't belong to them. The issue with this one was the caller originally pretended to be the customer until we asked for verification. The granddaughter will need to apply to have service in her own name or provide a power of attorney for the grandmother in order to conduct business for her.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/05/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have been a customer of BEC without problem since 2019. For the past 3 weeks there has been a problem with KWH usage for my home not displaying in the BEC app. I have made multiple phone calls to customer ser. The issue has been referred to their IT dept several times without resolution. I spoke with a supervisor last week who asked me to send a screen shot of the blank KWH daily panels in the app( this was done), walked me through upgrading the app on my phone to the correct version, then told me (after almost 2 hours) that the app still wouldn't work until after 7/4 when a scheduled system upgrade was completed. She had tried to get me to come to the office so they could look at my phone, but with the screenshot I sent and the upgraded app, she admitted this was not necessary and acknowledged it was a system issue. As of this morning 7/6, there is no KWH data displayed in the app since Thurs 6/30, the day after my call with the supervisor. I again called Customer Service this morning, was greeted by a rude rep who kept interrupting me from the start of the call. I advised of the problem, was given the same suggestions I had already tried along with an acknowledgement early in the call that they were aware of problems with multiple accounts. She spoke with someone in billing, said the data would be manually added, and when that didn't work said. "There's nothing else we can do" and told me I could come to the office, a solution which had already been identified as unnecessary and which contradicted her statement that the company was aware of the issue. This has been incredibly poor customer service.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/07/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/07/05) */ Mrs. ****** was asked to visit our office so we can see what she sees on her mobile device when viewing her usage. On our end, the data is there and we can see it, so we are unsure why it is not visible on her end. We reported her issues to our third-party software vender, but they have been unable to duplicate or troubleshoot the issue. At this time, there is nothing more we can do to troubleshoot since she is unwilling to visit our office to let us view it from her mobile device. The attached screenshot shows her electric usage viewed on our SmartHub website in a Google Chrome browser as proof that the data exists on her account and can be viewed from the SmartHub website. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/07/06) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Between July 28-30, I sent a screenshot of the blank panels I was seeing regarding daily KWH usage at my house on the BEC app in response to a request via a BEC email from THE SUPERVISOR WITH WHOM I WAS DEALING.(Lana or Lara?) SHE CONFIRMED SHE RECEIVED THE EMAIL WITH THE ATTACHED SCREENSHOT. She advised she could see the issue I was describing. She also walked me through upgrading my phone to the newest version of the app. ALL of this info is included in the original complaint, which it appears no one read. That documentation should be in the BEC system. It is interesting to note on my first 2 calls the week of 6/22 regarding this issue, I was told that the complaint would be forwarded to the IT dept. Both times it was corrected in less than 24 hours. To now say that no one can see the problem is concerning, given what transpired then and what is being said now. And this info is ALSO included in the initial complaint. To request that I drive from Johns Island to Moncks Corner so someone can look my PHONE with gas prices what they are and given the fact that I have already provided a screenshot of the issue which has been documented is not only poor customer service but absurd. And as a reminder, I was initially told that BEC was aware of the same problem across multiple accounts IN THEIR SYSTEM, so it is obviously not just my account. Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/07/07) */ We have received the screenshot and acknowledge that Mrs. ****** is having issues accessing the information through the SmartHub app. The issues are persisting because our third-party software provider cannot duplicate the issues she is having to troubleshoot on their end. We advised Mrs. ****** to visit one of our offices (we have one in Johns Island where she resides) so we can confirm phone model, software version, app version, update status, etc. to provide to our software provider for further troubleshooting. Her issues have been reported to them again, but there is nothing more we can do internally outside of continually reporting her issue to our provider, which we have done. We recommend that she utilize the SmartHub website to access her data instead of the SmartHub app, as the website contains the data she keeps requesting. The issue seems to be contained solely to the SmartHub app on her device.