Duke Energy
Reviews and Complaints

Our property in Avon Park, Florida was damaged by Hurricane Irma. It is understandable that we would be without power for over two weeks due to the severity of damages in our county (Highlands). I am, however, very disappointed with the way my elderly father's home was neglected for nearly three weeks now. Two weeks ago, I called to report down power lines all over my father's property. After this outage report, the lineman came out and restored power to our entire neighborhood. My father was informed, however, that they would not restore power to his property until we either cut down or hired someone to cut down all the trees which were covering the down power lines, which is extremely dangerous. Wanting to get power back as soon as possible, however, we went ahead and hired a contractor who was able to remove all the debris around the exposed wires and along the driveway and called Duke Energy back to have them come back out to restore power. The lineman came back out and are now stating that there is a bent wire that feeds electricity into the home and that they would prefer not to restore electricity until we hire an electrician to come in and fix the bent wire.
At this point, it is very frustrating to deal with this situation because there doesn't seem to be a clear solution to the problem. We simply wanted power restored and while I am very happy with the way the Duke customer service via phone has treated us, I am frankly appalled with the linemen's lack of sincerity towards my elderly father. They have not only put the contractors' lives in danger by having them trim trees around exposed wires but after completing what they asked of us, they are now giving us the run around once again and want us to pay out of pocket for an electrician to take care of an issue that Duke Energy could easily take care of themselves so that my father's home can have its power restored.
Not pleased, Duke Energy!

Today, 9-20-17, clerk Christina, unhelpful, could not care about my failed internet service that prevented my gaining access to pay the bill. She did attempt noting to assist. She charged me the convenience fee, though I was totally aghast and furious, to pay the bill. I have no resolution, no help, no complaint noted, nothing done by her but a mere number to signify I paid via her voice. And, who knows, she had better not have put my card on the system as it is forbidden by my bank. She was utterly useless, clueless, lacking in ethics, and of absolutely no use.

Name: Sal Militello, Duke Energy customer, Hendersonville NC, and no more info provided online for security sake.
I have no way to pay the bill online because there is a breach somewhere and she left it up to me to contact web support on my own as she said they were closed. If it had been me, I would have referred the customer to them, via an email, but no, she is not as prudent as I.
I, as well as many others, abhor this company and its lack of customer service and demand a recount of this call.

Progress Energy used to come out every year to check and trim trees close to the power lines and poles. If you called them with a tree issue, they came out to trim and thanked you for letting them know.

A neighbor's oak tree had a branch overhanging the power line. It should have been trimmed long ago. Last year a storm blew it into the power line, the branch broke and the end connected to the tree caught fire. Fire department put out fire, but glowing embers continued to come out of this broken limb. Duke was called by at least 2 people; never came out.

Tree limb connected with a power line again about a month ago. Again, caught fire, smoked a few days...

Hurricane Irma comes along; when the power is restored THEN the branch gets cut and trimmed. I had trees in my backyard that should have been trimmed long ago; they hit the line during Irma. Alot of the damage I saw in my neighborhood could have been avoided if Duke would do their job and maintain their lines. Also the wooden utility poles are many times very old, splintering, or no longer firm in the ground.

Thanks Duke for making us feel like we live in a third world country when storms affect us! You take our money, raise our rates, cheat us on our bills and provide absolutely no service at all.

We like many other people lost power during Hurricane Irma. The difference between us and many others however, is that two days later Duke Energy restore power to over half of our apartment complex and left the rest of us still in the dark. I called that day to find out what was going on and they said they had already decided to leave the area and we'll come back later. That day never came. It is now five days after that time and not only have we not received power, they won't give me any information as to if people are there to repair it or when they will come back to finish the job that they started. They told me I would be repaired by 11 p.m. Sunday night but now here it is 215 Monday afternoon and not only do I still not have power, but they shut off their customer service line that is supposed to be open and active until all people are restored with power. It is painfully obvious that Duke Energy Florida does not care about their customers and if they are happy. They don't care about putting our minds at ease during this difficult time. They know that they have a monopoly on the service, as we don't have the option to go with another Energy company. And that is a fundamental flaw with how utility companies work. We should have an option to go with other companies so that people like Duke Energy cannot perform these bad business practices against their customers with no recourse.

Hurricane Irma came through the Tampa/St Petersburg, FL area last Sunday the 10th. At 6:10pm that evening I lost all power to my house and property located at 800 50th Ave S, St Petersburg, FL 33705 in Pinellas County. I reported the power outage every day since last Wednesday the 13th to Duke. The response was that power would be restored by Friday the 15th at midnight, it wasn't. I was then told by midnight of Saturday the 16th, then midnight of Sunday the 17th, and today (Monday the 18th) that they don't have any estimated time for when the power will be restored. I work from a home office and have had zero productivity in 6 working/business days now and have had to burn personal and vacation time saved up because there is no power! I'm looking for answers on why this power restoration for my place is taking so long. My neighbors across the street have had power since the 12th. Other local neighbors have had power since Wed/Thu of last week. I have checked my breakers and they are not turned off. I do not see a downed power line on my property.

Like many others, I have been without power for over a week...I have called & spoke to an actual person 3 times...the last was to inform your company that the man below me is drinking rain water with dead toads in it...Maxine'sadvice? Call Fema or the Red Cross...the kicker is that everyone has power around us. We are on a main highway. I have explained this each time. Yesterday an employee in a regular truck saunters up my driveway, never looks at the power going in or out of my house or the neighbors and says we have trees that will have to be trimmed, and its 4 pm, so no time today. I explain to him about the water and the toads as well and he never bats an eyelash. He says we are off the main road (just me and 600 feet) and it just all takes time and he is tired. Still never looking to see what the actual problem is. No lines are down and while trees might have to be trimmed, the lines look exactly like they did BEFORE Irma.. I have horses and well water and could not get a generator until 3 days ago,
and thanks to you, as of this morning I have totally lost my food. My basement is flooded of which I can do nothing about until I get power. I realize there is alot of damage out there, but I certainly do not need the condescending attitude Duke has demonstrated. Its just "too bad". My next step is the Health Dept and a television station.

We have been without power for 8 days now. And this is completely unacceptable. Not everyone can afford to stay in a hotel room for up to two weeks waiting for the power to come back on . I've called plenty of times to see when our power will be getting restored and they said by 11pm the 17th of Sept and still no power! This is not a good look especially since everyone else with a different power company has had their power up and running. There is no excuse. I've been patient for as long as I can but this is highly unacceptable!

West Orlando, Florida Hurricane Irma - We, my neighbor and I, reported our power failure on Monday 7 around 4:17 am (the transformer in front of houses caught fire and the lights when off) . We understood that the hurricane Irma was just barely getting to our area and we had to wait for safer conditions before an assessment crew could be sent out. The assessment crew did a cameo appearance two days later, talked very briefly with a person at he beginning of our street and turned around despite me hailing them to come to where we where. We have been calling every day. Two of my neighbors ended needing medical attention . One is still in the hospital due to heat stroke. The power was restored to all the people in my street except the 4 of us that have been calling and login a complains for broken promises. Earlier today (September 17, 2017) I was told I would have power restored by tonight before midnight. No one showed up and midnight deadline is passed.

We have been without power since last Sunday. It has now been a week. We have been calling several times a day since last Wednesday morning. We continued to get different answers to when our power would be back on (we live near Haines City, FL, Polk county) . We were at a local eatery having a late lunch around 2pm today and a neighbor told us that she had just called Duke and was told midnight on Tuesday...we called immediately right then and told customer service what our neighbor said and they told us "midnight on Sunday". My wife just called at 9pm tonight, Sunday 7/17, and now we were told midnight on Tuesday! What the heck? Constant lies and misinformation. Get your crap together Duke! We are not idiots. We are hard working people who are tired of imposing on friends and relatives to put us up. We've been living out of suitcases and just want the truth, not a line of B.S. This is a poor way to run a business and I want you to know that I signed the on-line petition to bring your company to the Florida state congress for an official review. You are a horrible company to work with, and by looking at the other reviews on this page, I am not alone. I bet that we will call tomorrow and get a different answer altogether.

Pinellas county is without power and meanwhile your workers are hanging out in parking lots doing nothing. Your company is a scam, ripping people off and lying to your customers. Your service workers are overpaid, lazy, pieces of crap. All you do is lie, delay, and fix the electricity as it makes you the most money. I watched one of your workers in disston heights, a neighborhood with no power, accept $150.00 from a resident and his electricity was back on in 5 min. So the proof is in the pudding. Lies, scams, and a bunch of lazy, overpaid workers. Duke energy doesn't deserve to have any customers, but because we have no choice, we are forced to deal with a scam electric company that could care less about their customers, and rips people off daily.

As they did in Hurricane Mathew here we are in Hurricane Irma and they completely passed our street by. They claim they did not forget us. But I can walk in a 100 yard distance and my neighbors have power. They claim it's the sub station. But there is no substaition between us. My original call was for downed power lines. I called back and they said the original call was just for power outage. They don't listen to customers. This is very troublesome.

Duke energy's response to power outages in Pinellas County ... In particularly St Petersburg has been absolutely miserable. A failure at best. False promises of power restoration ... Deadlines that are not met ... Excuses ... More excuses. 7 days without power in my neighborhood and i have yet to see a truck anywhere in my neighborhood. When you call customer service there is just more excuses and referral to a website that offers some numerical values of people that have power? Really?
God forbid if someone needs special equipment for medical needs!
Horrible expensive service!

I have beeb trying to be patience since knowing a lot of people are out of power. But now its going on over a week and first it was 6 houses that are next to me thst are out and now its 2 houses mine an another. I understand they are working but when i have a child that has medical needs and all they do is well call back tomorroe if your powers not on. I have been calling the past 3 days and they say the same thing well if its not on call tomorrow. I was fine to give them to the Friday 15th that they said to have power to pasco now it went the 16th and same thing well call back tomorrow now its sunday i have 2 kids to go to school on monday i have no food or ice and its above 90 inside so im having to sleep in my car. So i dont understand what was wrong because i was given about 8 different excuses. Just very upset how thw whole situation is being handled.

A [censor]in week! Been trucks all over the damn neighborhood for the last couple days, everyone around us has had their power restored but my block has been waiting a week over a blown transformer & the damn trucks have moved on. I have a baby & animals dying in this geat. Wtf! You [censor] sent an email stating it may take up til friday midnight, friday's come & gone still no [censor]in power. But you sure af want your damn money for the bill don't you!? Charging us for a nuke power plant that was never & will never be built. This company was decent when progress energy owned it but has tanked in every way sense puke took over.

Just got off the phone with The Great Duke, revised estimate. Monday midnight in Volusia. I was the very first customer to call at 9pm on Sunday night, only to get a robot ask me, " you are the first to report an outage, please check you circuit breakers before reporting.

Like I can't look out my window and see the darkness.

I waited until today at 2pm to call and ask exactly when is power coming on at my address. You know it's down to the last 10% and they should definitely have a strategy.

Just answer my question.

Every other power company has managed to get their customers up and running after hurricane Irma but my power has been out for almost a week . I call the duke energy customer service line and their prediction was that it would take them until Sunday at midnight ?!?! Miami has more power than Seminole county at this point there is no excuse for the delay duke energy is the worst!

For years we have tried calling Duke Energy begging them to clear areas around their lines of tree limbs. One limb even caught fire and smouldered for days, several neighbors making repeated efforts asking them to take careof this,

Duke will not trim or maintain until storms come through.

Bet they get aid money when hurricanes do their trimming for them, putting us out of power for interminable time. We lost power Sept. 10 when Irma blew thru. Its been a week now. Maybe get power tomorrow.

Even little Eatonville had power after the first day. They trim their lines well.

We live on the north of Eatonville border in Winter Park. DUKE IF YOU WOULD MAINTAIN YOUR LINES WE WOULD NOT LIVE AS IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY AFTER STORMS.

Duke, do you get federal and/or state disaster money to get your trimming done that you neglect between storms? SHAME on you!

Am a resident of pinellas county, florida. We were told that power would be restored by this evening Friday midnight 9/15/17. Seems that Duke energy is completely not up to the task of keeping their word to its customers.. Our county was spared any major structural damages or loss of life yet many residents are sweltering in their homes this Friday night with another misthruth about having our power restored. Have lived in Florida over 30years & many storms. Have neve been mistreated & abused by any of our previous electric service providers... Dukes numbers, ' Damage Accesment'. & the rest of the misinformation needs to stop & Duke Energy needs to do their job now...Residents & customers deserve to be treated a whole lot better ... We demand service restoration in a resnable amount of time. Duke energy officials seem to be very incompetent ' numbering at about 500 office staffers we' ve been told'.

Guess I'll jump on the band wagon with the rest and agree that Duke Energy has so far proven they are inadequate to manage even a CAT 2 hurricane recovery. I can handle the heat but have animals that cannot and no open shelters to take them to even if that was an option. If you can't manage a CAT 2 hurricane, how could you do more? I have lived in Florid most of my life and not until now do I wish to get out of the state. When Progress Energy managed out grid, they would at least provide a live person to speak with but Duke has recoded lines and this crappy website to issue our complaints that will never be answered and tells us we re working in it. Duke, you signed up for a hurricane state, own it or leave it.

Irma comes through kills power, company says power restored by Friday 15th at midnight. No power yet, been 6 days. 3/4 of our block has power 38 out of 50 homes. No major damage on block. Linemen quit around 5, don't show up til mid morning. That's not around the clock. Customers will hold Duke to the PROMISED deadline. Don't write a check you can't cash. Also don't ask for a rate hike in 2 months for us to foot the bill.