NorthWestern Energy Reviews (11)
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NorthWestern Energy Rating
Description: Electric Companies, Public Utility Consultants
Address: 313 Cedar, Yankton, South Dakota, United States, 57078
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I have not had to deal with Northwestern Energy for a while now and have been so happy! Now I am back to Northwestern and can tell you they are the same, they have a MONOPOLY on most area's and they need to be stopped! They are WAY overpriced, compared to other power companies I have been with. When are people like me going to take a stand in this matter! They are hard to deal with, they do not work with customers as you can see from previous reviews and are about 50% higher then any other Electric Co. I have been with, it is truly disgusting how they get away with what they do!
Review: I currently have a past due bill and when I called to offer to pay half of the past due amount tomorrow and the remaining by the 20th of the month I was told I have to pay the full amount tomorrow or my electricity will be shut off by Monday. I have two small children in my home and this is ridiculousDesired Settlement: I think its ridiculous and a monopoly that u have to have services w them and there is no choice to cgange companies. I want my services to remain on
Business
Response:
Please note that this email went to Mr. [redacted] that resides in another office and does not deal with thiese situations directly. Please forward all Revdex.com inquiries to mey attention and I will either responsd directly or get with persons most knowledgeable of situations and I will coordinate a response back to you.
In Ms. [redacted]s situation, I have found that a Ms. [redacted] responded on June 10. It noted that the cusomter had already had an agreement in 2013 and that along with an extension had not been kept. on June 6, the customer reached a supervisor and a new arrangement was entered into calling for two payments to bring the account current. I see the first installment was makde and the second is due on June 24.
Thank you,
NorthWestern Energy
This is horrible customer service. We moved into our new home in April. Our location does not support door to door service for mail. When setting up service I gave BOTH our physical address so services could be turned on and our mailing address for the bill to be sent to. We went two and a half months without receiving a bill. I called in May and June asking for our bill. I was told that they would send out duplicates. I finally received our bill the end of June. Three weeks later I received a disconnect notice. I made arrangements that equaled $400 approx. a month (I am on disability) and was not able to make it for a lesser amount. I was then given until the end of August to make the payments or we will be shut off. I have four children and my husband just started a full time job. I called to see if there was anything we could do to keep it on. They said "Sorry but you were not able to meet your arrangement and there is nothing I can do"~Supervisor. How is this even possible? I have to come up with $804 plus a reconnect fee and a deposit now. If they could have at least made the payment arrangements affordable I could have taken care of this. This is horrible business!
Review: *There was a street light out on our street at (address), and some men came out to fix it today. They came in my yard without me knowing and he said he knocked but I'm not sure. He came in and they had already dug a hole by the time I noticed anyone was in my yard and they were looking for the power for the light, which I understand they need to find it. Well I asked them to be careful of my trees and bushes as I just planted some of them. I went out to check when they were done and there were broken branches ripped off of the tree I instructed him to take care of and he trampled my raspberry bushes. I even found a very large branch pushed back and set as if he were trying to hide what he did.I am irritated that I wasn't given notice that they would be digging in our yard and I do understand why but they were just in my yard digging. I think this warrants some notice. They also said they "broke into" my neighbors yard where the light power is supposed to be. They said it has been out for a while and honestly I don't remember it working. I feel that this warrants a discount or some kind of compensation as I feel violated. The men were here about 1pm-4pm on 6/06/13.Desired Settlement: I desire a discount and a written apology. The men said they would be careful and they weren't.
Business
Response:
[redacted], I am responding in email form rather than the normal method as I was not able to get the attachments to forward that I was trying to send you. I assumed the volume of information may have been too large. I worked with our Billings operations group to formulate this response. In the course of our work, we often need to access our utility easement to trouble shoot issues and make repairs. We will normally attempt to contact the customer affected, as was done on 6/6/13 by one of our working foreman. Upon getting no response, we moved forward with our work in order to repair the streetlight circuit. The utility easement in question is filed under Sahara Sands Subdivision 2nd Filing Book 1194, pages 950-952 in Yellowstone County, MT (attached) granting utilities, including NEW, a twelve foot wide utility easement consisting of six feet either side of the centerline for all lots within the subdivision and granting utilities ingress and egress in order for us to construct and maintain our systems. Pictures taken of the affected area at 5[redacted] (also attached) shows the area surrounding our transformer revealing no apparent damage and is within our legal easement area. The same working foreman who did the work has attempted two more visits to the property to talk to Mrs. [redacted], but has so far been unsuccessful. In summary, we strive to communicate with customers when these situations occur as we did in this situation. In the pictures, you will also notice that the customer’s fence and the tree in question may be an encroachment in the easement and if future work needs to be done at this address, the tree may have to be removed and temporarily remove a portion of the fence to access our equipment. We would, of course, contact the customer if this becomes necessary. In troubleshooting electrical issues it is often not possible to give notice to the customers in advance, as we need to follow the problem as it presents itself in order to affect repairs. We regret the customers concerns, but hope they understand the nature of easements and a utilities right to access their facilities and from the photos, we believe that the crew took appropriate measures to disturb as little of the area around our equipment as possible. We are sorry for the customer feeling the way she does, but our crews were only doing their job. Secondly, regarding the customer’s request for a discount or some form of compensation, we must decline as tariffs in effect prohibit providing free or discounted service to anyone. Sincerely, [redacted]NorthWestern Energy
Consumer
Response:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 9576914, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Review: On Tuesday 8/20/2013 I called North Western Energy to pay my bill, and to have my services turned back on. So I paid my bill but they wanted a 250.00 deposit to turn my services back on. I told them I do not have 250.00. So they gave me another option. This is what NWE said "Have a friend,relative who has been with NWE for 2 years and is in good standings, have them call us with your account number and then we will turn your services back on." So I said I will see what I can do. So on Wednesday I called NWE to double check to make sure what they told me was correct, but the lady said I had to pay the remaining of 70.00. I told her why did they not tell me this on Tuesday when I made a payment? She was rude and told me I had to pay the 70.00. I hung up the phone. I waited a while and called NWE again to make sure what they told me was correct and I asked do I have to pay the 70.00 and they said no either the 250.00 or have some call with my account number who is in good standings. So I had a friend call who has NWE he has been with NWE for 5 years but moved with in the last month. He called NWE and they told him they could not use him because he had moved with in the last month.Desired Settlement: It is discrimination and poor communication from NWE. They need to be very clear in helping people understand there choices and it is discrimination that I can not use someone to co-sign on my account who is not a NWE customer. Today is 8/21/2013 and I am still with out electricity no food no hot water. But I have paid my balance up to date but I have no electricity.
Business
Response:
First, a little background on this one.
This customer has been a credit issue for some time and has
been disconnected for nonpay twice in 2013, most recently on August 15,
2013. No Payment had been made on the account
since she paid to have the account reestablished on April 25, 2013.
When an account is shut off for this reason, we normally allow
three days for the customer to pay the delinquent balance, in this case $149.43,
and the account is turned back on. In
this case, more than three days had elapsed, so the entire amount shown on the
account should have been required to be paid.
In looking at the account notes, it does look like she was told once
that the $149.4e was what needed to be paid and another told her she needed to pay
the additional $60.93 as well. In both
cases she was told she would also have to pay a $260.00 deposit or provide an
acceptable guarantor to receive service. An acceptable guarantor is defined in our tariffs
Guarantee in Lieu of Deposit-
In lieu of a cash deposit required by these rules (Establishment of Credit),
the Utility shall accept the written guarantee of a responsible party as surety
for a customer service account. For the
purpose of this Rule, a “responsible party” shall mean:
Any individual or business entity
which has maintained service with the Utility for the previous 24 months, has
not had service disconnected for failure to pay, and has received no more than
two delinquency notices.
We did receive a contact from a party that wanted to be a
guarantor for [redacted]’s account, but was not qualified due to only having been
at their location for about a short time and previous poor credit history at a
former account.
As noted, a guarantor must be a customer of our utility,
NorthWestern Energy. I must also point out
that when a potential guarantor contacts us to inquire about guaranteeing an account
for someone else and they are qualified, we explain exactly what that
means. It is not just signing for an
account, but they will be responsible for the account balance should the customer
not pay.
In review, we should require payment of the $60.93 per
policy, but she has been told most recently that this would not be required. Providing the deposit or acceptable guarantor
would be to establish service.
Consumer
Response:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 9677915, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
I WAS NOT told about the 250.00 till I paid the 153.93. Last Tuesday or Wednesday 8/13 or 14 when some lady called me and told me I was going to be disconnected she NEVER told me about the 250.00 and she should have told me. Poor Communication and very discriminating because of the poor communication.
I lost my full time job with in the 2 month, because they said "I spent to much time at a funeral" I lost a brother.
So because I was out of work for a while I got behind on bills. I do not want your sympathy.
NWE is being discriminating because there is no flexibility. I do not have family that lives in MT. So this is what I am willing to do. I can get a co-signer or you can spread the 250.00 over the next 2 months. Because I have already paid the 153.93 I want my services turned back on today. It is discriminating that you are making me go thru another weekend with out hot water or electricity. And I can pay HALF of the 250.00 or 125.00 plus the 70.00 on or before 9/2/2013. That is what I am willing to do.
NWE is being discriminating against me, if you do not work with me. Remember this is not my fault.
Business
Response:
I am sorry that I was not able to respond on Friday, but was out of the office much of the day. I jsut looked at the account and see that the accoutn was reconnected over the weekend after the deposit payment of $260.00 was paid.
It is appropriate to add that there is nothing discriminatory about this situation. The electric service was disconnected for non pay on August 15 and procedure calls for payment of the arrears within three days to restore service or that amount plus a deposit or guarantor is required to establish service. We were not contacted until August 20th. And, the customers history is such that protection for payment is appropriate and necessary. We also od not allow deposits to be paid over time.
Review: see Attached documentDesired Settlement: see Attached document
Business
Response:
We can certainly understand Mr. [redacted]'s concerns, but we have been to his location and there is no indication that there is a metering issue. The customer's electric usage historically has been pretty constant, but the month prior to the high bills beginning was an exception. There was a flag on January 15th to check the meter because the usage for December was considerably less than previoius years. Iit was checked out and the meter was found to be ok. Then on March 5 the customer called with concerns about the high bill he had jsut received. A technician wnet to the customers location on the 7th and checked the meter and compoared the usage on the ERT device (remote reading) and the reading on the metre itself. They were the same.
It is worthy to note that meters do not work fine, then act up and then again return to normal. The usage registration on the meter is accumulative and to obtain a current billing months usage,the ending reading is obtained and the prior months reading is subtracted from it and the result is the current months usage that is billed. There are three months of higher usage (Janaury, February and March) and then all bills since are again "normal" . Also, regarding the comment that we hmay have read the mines meters behind his place, that is impossible as each device has its own frequency id.
We have no way of knowing what occurred here, but the meter is working properly. As a result, we are not in a position to offer any refund.
Review: I have moved to Bozeman MT. Signed up to N.W.E. and was not aware that I needed to make a deposit to have my services turned into my name. N.W.E. WILL NOT work with me on this deposit. I wanted them to spread the deposit out over 3 months. I am aware that I have a past due account of 174. And that will be paid off before the end of July. N.W.E. needs to work with me!! Service needs to start 6/23/2015.Desired Settlement: I want services put in my name starting 6/23/2015 and I want N.W.E. to work with me on this deposit.
Business
Response:
it is the policy of this Company to require any legally collectible wirte offs owed to the Company by a former customer be paid as well as a paying a monetary deposit equal to two months of estimated average billing at the new location OR providing an acceptable guarantor (current customer of the Company and possessing excellent payment history) prior to establishing service in that person's name. This former customer had utility service with NorthWestern Energy in Helena, MT until December 6, 2013. Prior to that, her electric and natural gas has been turned off for nonpay on August 15, 2013 and was restablished asfter she paid the outstanding balance plus a deposit a week later. From that time, until service ended on December 6, 2013 nothing was paid on the account. That write off (total owed less the deposit) was $174.90 and remains unpaid. Due to these factors, we are not willing to consider Ms. [redacted]'s request. This had been explained to her on June 30, 2015 as well. Thank you,[redacted]NorthWestern Energy
Review: I was instructed to pay an amount of money to Northwestern Energy or they would disconnect my electricity service. I was told if I paid the full amount before the date specified, my electricity would NOT be cut off. Only the full amount would be accepted to prevent disconnect. Despite the fact I did pay the exact amount demanded before the deadline, this company did indeed cut off the electricity. When I phoned them to have them come back out and turn it back on, because the bill had been paid on their website, they informed me that it had not posted yet so it was my fault for not having called them with the confirmation number I received when making the payment. Ridiculously, I was never instructed to phone them with a confirmation number unless I ended up making the payment on Saturday. Again, I made the payment on Friday on their website before end-of-business that day. At no time did any of the representatives of this company acknowledge any error or responsibility but rather attempted to shift any and all blame onto me. They were blatantly spiteful and carelessly obvious that the more I spoke to them and expressed my anger regarding the situation, the longer the estimated time of reconnect became. They also attempted to blackmail me into paying them an additional $150.00 to have someone come out to turn the electricity back on, when it should never have been turned off in the first place. Unfortunately, this company has a monopoly on supplying electricity to Great Falls, MT and other areas, so they evidently feel they can conduct business in this manner and suffer no consequences. It would seem it would and should be illegal for them to withhold electricity services out of spite and I know blackmail is illegal - particularly with regard to these necessary services.Desired Settlement: NorthWestern Energy should be brought to task for their deplorable behavior in dealing with those having difficulties paying their astronomical electric bills. Whatever agencies govern the consumer energy business should be informed and at the very least they should be severely reprimanded and advised to change the way they do business in these type of instances. It would be appropriate they be fined for such heinous business practices as well.
Business
Response:
I did respond on July 30 with the response I had forwarded to the [redacted] who also had received a complaint from this person. I have included it again below.
Interestingly, I got a complaint from the Revdex.com
for this customer today as well. In looking at the account, I see
only one comment where she said she was disabled and didn’t mention that in her
Revdex.com complaint. As far as being a Senior Citizen she also did not mention
that in her Revdex.com complaint either. Truth is, she is 59 years old
(birthday [redacted]).
Review: The heat in my house got shut off last night due to non payment of a bill I didn't even know existed. I have 2 small boys who where very cold considering they didn't come back and turn it on until this morning after I paid for something I didn't know about. Turns out that this money I owed was for the furnace in my garage that has never worked. I had called and asked to have the gas line turned on and thought I said to only leave it on for a day as the furnace was so old I just wanted to test it. I am told I didn't clearly state that so they left it on. Not once though have I received a bill for the garage furnace or I would have known to shut it off. I was also told they were unable to reach me by mail.....well I was getting my house bills so not sure how I was not getting the garage bill. They also have my phone # and could have called when they noticed no use or activity on the meter. This also never happened either. They said they sent certified mail which I never got notice to pick up and was returned to them to. I wasn't asking for a full credit but I do believe I shouldn't have to pay the 170 some dollars they are wanting for something I never used. I am a single mother who works hard to take care of her kids and I feel this company is steeling money from my children.Desired Settlement: For the way I have been treated in this situation now I would like my money back fully. I was willing to compromise until they pretty much told me it wasn't there fault for me not receiving any of their notices. I didn't use any of their product so I don't see how it is my fault for them not being able to properly notify me that I had an outstanding bill with them and if it would have been taken care of correctly I would have cancelled the service when I received the bill.
Business
Response:
Response to [redacted] Inquiry. Upon reciept of this inquiry, I pulled up the account information and spoke with manager of the Billing area. Together we listened to the call Ms. [redacted] made to NorthWestern Energy on November 18, 2013 to have the gas service in question activated. At no time during the call was there any mention of having it turned on for only a short time just to check the furnace and then planning to shut it off again. Had this been the case, she would have been informed that she would have had to call back in at such time she wanted it turned back off. Additionally, regarding not receiving the bills in question, there appears to have been some confusion. Both this bill and her home billing are/were generated the same day and when this happens, both bills are inserted into the same mailing envelope. This bill would have been behind the home account bill. So it was received, but the customer may not have realized there were two separate bills inside. At the time the account balance from the account in question was transferred to the home account and appeared on the December 18 billing, the customer was actively participating in a bill payment assistance program and the last payment made personally by her was in October. Saying this is in no way a negative reflection on the customer,but it is intended as a possibility explaining why she did not realize what had occurred. Concerning notices being sent on the account, it did not have a large enough balance to have notices created and sent for much of the time the account was in existance. On September 17, 2014, a certified letter was mailed to the customer's Post Office box (the same address her home utility account is mailed to). The post office placed a notice in the box indicating there was a certified piece of mail waiting for the owner of the box and to come to the post office counter presenting the notice and the clerk then retirieves it and has the customer sign for it. On November 7, 2014 the letter was returned to NorthWestern with a designation of being unclaimed. This truly is an unfortunate situation. Because of the considerable expense that was incurred in shutting the meter off and then going to turn it back on after payment, we are not able to waive the monthly service charges incurred over the life of the account, but I have instructed that the late payment charges assessed each month in the total amount of $24.91 be credited back to the customer. Thank you,[redacted]NorthWestern Energy
Consumer
Response:
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received, your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
Revdex.com,
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.] If they would have called my phone # that was listed on my account all the disconnection and hook up could have been avoided. A simple phone call could have made things so much easier and not cost them as much money as they say.
Review: When we recieved our monthly elec. bill for March - 2014 it was higher then it ever has been with nothing changed on our end. I call and asked if there could be a problem with the meter. They said we should waite another month before we checked it, when we recieved Aprils bill it was allmost as high and still the second highest we had ever had in 10 years with this company. I called again and this time they said they would send out a repair man. He was here on the 26th of April, we just recieved our May -14 bill and it is back to normal. I asked the energy company to adjust our bill for the faulty readings we hd in March and April. They have said the repairman found no fault so no adjustment.We had no extra useage on our part but now have a $381.00 elec. bill that we feel is not our fault, if there was compition and not a Monopoly things would be differant.Desired Settlement: Adjust our billing for March and April to a push to what we normally have.
Business
Response:
After receiving the information regarding the [redacted]s concern about their electric charges for March and April 2014, I looked at their account and now offer the following.
All of their meter readings were "ACTUAL" meaning the meter was read each of these months and there were no estimated meter readings for at least the last two years. On April 21st, the customer called noting that their usage was very high and they had done nothing different. A serviceman responded to the location several days after this and checked the meter, compared the reading on the face of the meter with the ERT (internal transmitter device for meter reading) and the two reads were the same. He took a reading on the meter that day and found no issue with the meter at all.
A three year historical usage comparison is provided to show monthly kWh usage and dollars. It is true that the usage and bills for the two months noted are higher than normal, but the usage registration on meters is not reset each month. Rather, the dials (or electronic readings on digital meters) increase in value each month. At the time of the monthly meter reading, a reading is taken and then at time of billing, this value less the last month reading determines how much energy was used during that meter reading period. The usage has returned in May to what is more "normal" for them. Based on this, one has to concur that there was something during the two meter reading periods that caused the usage to increase. Meters do not malfunction for a period of time and then return to normal. Once bad, they continue that way and rarely do they speed up. If that would have been the case here, the usage each month would continue to be high.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond.
Sincerely,
NorthWestern Energy
File would not attach. Will Fax to number provided.
Consumer
Response:
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received, your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
Since Northwestern energy has thr records for the last 3 years I give them my permission to send a copy of those useage graphs to you, and a copy of all phone convesations, if not in it's entirety then just the dates. You will see that they lied about one phone call when there is three on record. You will see that they also lied about a slight differance for two months in a month to month comparison. When for those two months were the HIGHEST EVER. So then why would they not lie when they tell you that a meter just doesnt change, it did not change until their serviceman worked on it. They were supposed to call and set up an oppointment so someone could be there to ee what went on.
Ahain this is how a MONOPOLY operates.
Revdex.com,
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]
Regards,
Business
Response:
Thank you for forwarding the follow-up to the [redacted]s inquiry. While I can certainly understand their concern about the increased usage they experienced the two months referenced, there is nothing to indicate it was the result of the meter malfunctioning. I will try to address the assertions one at a time below.
>There was not a reference to a "slight difference" in usage the two months the electric usage was higher. One can readily see those two months were substantially higher than prior and post months and prior years, same time.
>Concerning the number of phone calls received from the customer, I only made reference to the call that prompted the representative to create an order to have a service person visit the location. This was on April 21. There were a total of three calls as the customer stated (March 17, April 21 and May 16).
>As a matter of note, I did forward by separate email the usage and accompanying billing histrory for the account as I was unable to attach it to the original response.
>The serviceman's visit had nothing to do with the meter returning to "normal". He only verified that the ERT device and the meter face index matched (which they did) and he looked to see if he could see if the meter installation was intact and operating correctly. There is no change that the person can make to a meter in the field to make it return to "normal" . I see a call back number was obtained at the time of the April 21 call, but the technican happened to be in the area the day he stopped at the customers location and it is unfortunate that the customer was not home at that time.
if there had been any irregularity with the meter's functioning, we would certainly have changed the meter out and notified the customer that an issue was found and a corrected bill forthcoming. This, as stated however, was not the case.
Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions.
Sincerly,
NorthWestern Energy
Consumer
Response:
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received, your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]
As usual [redacted] has givern the slant of a MONOPOLY, it lookd funny that as soon as the service man comes out that the problem was solved!!!!!!!!!!!
Revdex.com,
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]
Regards,