Centerpoint Energy No Recourse or Explainable Bill Increase Houston, Texas

A few years ago our rising electric bill caused us to switch our elctric service to Gexa. This really did not help reduce our monthly charge but we felt that this was our only alternative.

For the past five years we have been living in a new Energy Star rated home which we built in our same lot. The square footage is 2,800 SF. During this time, our monthly bill has averaged around $650. We have always felt that his was high but again, after many contacts to verify our electrical usage, we were told that this rate was due to increasing fuel costs. We both work and have a energy-savng automatic thermostat that keeps our house temperature higher during the day.

The past month's bill (October) we received was an unbelievable $1,250 for a month of moderate temperatures and in which we were able to turn off our air conditioning for many days at a time.

Calling Gexa Energy for an explanation, we were told that this was hard for them to believe as well, but in the end, found ourselves dealing with CenterPoint customer representatives. We informed the first representative that for the 5 past years our billed averaged half of the current charges.

We requested that our meter be read and were told they would schedule someone. Our gate is locked at all times and only unlocked when a serviceperson or other workers are scheduled. As far as we know, no one from Centerpoint ever came to our property. When we called Centerpoint again, they told  that someone came to our house and that the charges would stand. Additonally, they said that our readings have been off and they needed to make up for the diferrence on our future bills --- and sure enough, this month's bill is $733 (50% higher) for yet another moderate month.

The only thing the Centerpoint representative told us we could was to look into solar as an alternative - something he has already done!

We feel totally helpless and ripped off with no recourse.