Duke Energy
Reviews and Complaints

To whom it may concern:

There have been calls that have been made to some elderly residents in our neighborhood, stating that someone would need to come out from Duke to enter their homes to read the meters inside for the electric and gas...For THEY fear that they are not getting the correct information: This should not be happening and if there is a incorrect reading then that would be on DUKE, not the consumer and especially the elderly who is the easiest to approach without there being an question or concern...I Demand this to be checked into by Duke and find out who and why these call or being made. There is too many things going on as IT IS! and to have to deal with this is OUTRAGES...So PLEASE look into this ASAP...

Duke Energy will not remove "dangling shoes", a known gang symbol to mark a drug sales location, gang killing and gang turf from power lines. In addition they will not let any other entity remove the symbol from their lines. They have chosen to do so in other towns, such as Durham, NC but chose not to use resources for that purpose in Charlotte. A minor investment in removal of the symbol could make a difference in the war on violence and drugs, as well as create a positive communal influence. Why wouldn't Duke Energy commit a minor effort to the community they power?

First of all I had my service transferred from one unit to another one, been living in my place for about a wk1/2 thinkin they had transfer my service over, they turned my power off Monday mornin I haven't got any letter or call from Duke Energy letting me about the cut off, so they tell me I got a 100.00 deposit on my new service that needs to be paid, not only that because power was already on when I move into my unit there's a bill of 145.00 that's got to be paid no fault of mine, so we get all of that mess work out from my landlord and here it is 6pm Tuesday. And I am still without power me and my kids. What a nightmare for any person to go threw when u got kids in your household.

I've repeated tried to work with PGN to obtain answers to my questions. As of today (more than a year later), they have not yet responded to them all.

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December 29, 2010

Dear Mr. McArthur:

Please allow me to make you aware of poor service provided from and inaccurate statements made by your Associate General Counsel, Mr. David. T. Conley.

When he and I spoke on December 8, 2010, I informed him four (4) times that my concern was not regarding the email I received on 8/27/10 (copy, below)…which was generated from my using the website

Mr. Conley kept repeating the incorrect information, cutting me off in mid-sentence; and his letter of December 17, 2010, does not correctly reflect the concern that I tried to share with him, but that he was wholly unwilling to hear. My concern is that he, Ms. Hood and M. Barrett all promised me that I would receive no more unsolicited emails. Notwithstanding, I did receive an additional email, below:

[LETTER CONTINUES ON PAGE 2]

Mr. Conley states that made a request through ‘activities on the website, ’ however this is not true. He also incorrectly states that am not registered to access my Progress Energy account on the external website, but you can see from the enclosed document that I’ve had access back to at least 9/29/08. I pointed out to him on the telephone that my questions and concerns had not been answered, yet he incorrectly states that they have.

To give you another example of how he did not listen to my concerns, he asked me four (4) times if I wanted him to research why I received this email, and I had to answer four (4) times that I did … each time stressing to him that he had already asked me that question. Yet, when he responded, he did not provide me an answer to my concern…but he also tried to ‘dun’ me by telling me not to contact him by telephone or email…even though I’d only sent him one letter and left him one message. This type of extraordinarily poor service is shameful from a world-class company such as Progress Energy. I believe he owes me an apology, and that Progress Energy should make a sincere effort to address my concerns.

My concerns are: (1) why did I receive this email when I was promised no additional email would be sent? To repeat, I did not interact with your website and do not have any idea why I received it; (2) why did it say I had a “Secure Message, ” yet when I logged in to check, it stated the were no secure messages. My point to Mr. Conley was that there may be a problem with your computer and/or email system. As a Progress Energy shareholder, I believe this is something that should definitely be reviewed to ensure that other customers are not similarly impacted.; (3) your customer service manager, Ms. Hood, failed to answer several of my email requests, and so did your customer service email department. I requested copies of all my previous communications (something I’d been provided previously) and I requested to speak with her manager/supervisor; and, as of today, neither of these requests has ever been answered. I should receive an apology from her and copies of information I’ve requested.

As I expect that Mr. Conley reports to you and part of my complaint is about his rudeness and poor service, I’m sending this letter to your attention and asking for your kind assistance. As to the errant email issue, I would appreciate you requesting a review of and a response to me on how this matter occurred. I hope we can close this matter without legal intervention and/or escalation to the NC Utilities Commission, et al.

Sincerely,
S M Latta, PhD
Progress Energy stockholder
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I am seeking PGN to provide written answers to each of the questions that I have asked. I am also seeking copies of the documents that I have requested -- documents that at previous occasions they previous provided quickly and fully. I am finally requesting an investigation into why PGN has swept this matter under the rug, provided such dismally poor service, and allowed this matter to have dragged on for over a year.

My husband & i bought a house in Fruitlan Park in April 2011. Mind you we drive a truck for a living. So we are rarely home. Our second bill with progress was $99 & we were only home 2 days during the billing cycle. This month our bill was $172.58 & we were only home for 6 days in the billing cycle. My air is up on 80 and the only other things running are the freezer & fridge. Is this crazy or what? They are the biggest rip off I have ever seen. Is there nothing we can do to stop this?

This the most worst company, I think they are ripoffs they made up these security deposit I first said to them my deposit was 150.00 and I was late paying my light bill one month so they cut it off and told me I had to pay 270.00 deposit plus 85.00 my pass due amount to have it turn back on. And when I told them to show me that on my light bill statement they was reading something that I do not have o my statement nor was never send out to me in the past. I told the customer service that she is lying that it is not on my statement and why are you guys making up deposit? I think they are pocketing the seecurity deposit. So I said let me talk to the owner she said he is at home and he does not talk to clients. They need to know how much we are being charge and why. I think it is a law for fraud on billing statement.

I am a retired caregiver, My own home is now a rental property across town. The mortgage is a giant sucking sound that is not even covered by the rent.
[ASIDE: TO all you OTHER Mecklenburg County homeowners who are (still) gasping over the recent insane "Revaluation" of our property and preparing to fight a battle with the Board of Equalization here in Charlotte, I'm right there with you.

I got a callback from County Comm. Chair Jennifer Roberts last week over a heavy-handed letter I got from the Tax Collector in the mail about my past due auto tax and the THREATENED LEVY AND SEIZURE OF MY 15 YEAR OLD CAR, just to let her know what I thought about the bullying tone of the letter, and that the letter was dated 5/2/11, received 5/7/11 with payment demanded by the following Monday --5/9/11 or risk having the car seized by the Sheriff's department. TRULY bad form. She made nice comforting noises about the delayed mailing and tone of the letter and promised to look into it. We moved on to other topics. But she revealed that she didn't know Wachovia Services was an outsourced mailing service for the Tax Collector's office. --maybe for the entire county, I don't know..and apparently she didn't either.
She thought the reason "Wachovia Services" was involved at all in the mailing was that they were a lienholder on my (15 year old, paid for) car, . I mentally stepped back a bit from that lack of knowledge on her part and thought hmm..."What ELSE doesn't she know about that is outsourced?"
We discussed briefly the recent humongous and absurd "property appraisal done in Dreamland" by the County Dreamed Up Appraisal Fairies. I told her I was really concerned that rumor had it she was going to raise tax rates and NOT adopt "revenue neutral" tax rate adjustment like the City is (supposed to do), explaining that as a caregiver on fixed income I might be forced to sell my house because an extra $150 a month tacked on my mortgage payment was an impossibility for me AND my elderly mother, that HER property value increased by 35+ % while MY tax appraisal went up over 66 per cent! In a blue collar neighborhood that has had homes listed for months and months going nowhere. It's a good neighborhood, but "buyers" want to pay NOTHING for the houses now...they are simply investor sharks trolling, for the most part, not real people. Banks not lending to ORDINARY people, you know...
I also reminded her that I had campaigned for her since we first met in MY neighborhood at a bar-b-q when she ran for the first time for county commissioner. She seemed a decent sort then and still is I'm sure. But I'm not sure she has a finger on the GENERAL pulse of things, which I believe a County Chairperson should have.

Oddly enough, I don't think Jennifer actually understands that tax values do NOT technically and directly affect the property's actual "equity" (She mentioned that many people were angry because their "equity went down" when some of the tax values went down. I tried to explain that a house's "equity" didn't directly have anything to do with its tax value in an existing mortgage per se. She argued that it did. Well, it doesn't, except tangentially.
Anybody who is paying a mortgage and/or has bought and sold a house knows that MARKET PRICES are what drive INTRINSIC equity up or down, NOT "tax appraisal values". Tax values are taken into account when a home is placed on the market, yes, but overall it's the market values in a particular neighborhood, sales comps, that affect equity that is realized out of a home SALE.
If you are living in a home with an outstanding mortgage, the MARKET value (and subsequent equity that might be realized out of a sale) is separate and distinct from the tax value. Tax value might impact the refinance appraisal --sometimes MORE than a bit if the bank doesn't REALLY want to lend any money, as they have been reluctant to do (greedy ### sitting on 1/2 % borrowing rate...argh...)
but by and large comps, condition of the property, and the seller's motivation are the major factors in realizing equity from a property.
If *I* were a buyer in the Charlotte market, I'd look at comparable market prices in the neighborhood, the condition of the house, and look at a LOWER than normal tax value and say "YAY! That much less I have to pay in taxes until the next revaluation"...lol.

Anyway, Ms Roberts couldn't seem to grasp that, clearly believed that tax values alone were directly affecting people's equity.
Again I thought, "Hmmm..."
I'm a little worried about what else she might not know...]

ANYWAY...back to DUKE ENERGY.
Recently, there was a heavy storm here in Charlotte and a transformer located in the right rear corner of my property blew, causing outages in the neighborhood.
A Duke Energy truck was seen on my property, evidently doing repairs. In the process, they managed to add a lot of cut wood to my yard randomly, and a LOT of brush was tossed into a dog run at the rear of the property, where I had temporarily stacked cut wood from volunteer trees I had removed from the backyard, put in the pen to season so I could recycle it, give the wood to folks with wood stoves and fpls who might need it.
The brushpile that was ORIGINALLY there had been doubled by "someone" I discovered after the storm. Dozens of sectioned limbs had been cut and thrown into the pen and the yard.
I noticed new cuts on trees bordering my yard in the area of the pole, in the line of access.
Duke Energy's post-storm repairs had resulted in a major "CLEAN UP" for me, the property owner.
HISTORY:
A month or so prior to the storm in question, some limbs dropped on the direct line to my house and high winds were blowing the limbs, causing the lights to flicker on and off, threatening to rip the line off the house.
After denying any responsibility initially, telling me they would only DROP the line so I could remove the limbs myself ---?---
I finally was able to talk with a gentleman in the repair department who had some common sense and he made arrangements to correct this dangerous situation, dispatching a team to remove the limbs. He was careful to advise me that they would cut the limbs in manageable pieces and cut them up for me to take care of, which I understood, since that was on MY line and was MY responsibility. I could accept that. After all it was MY fallen tree that was directly causing the problem.

What I found difficult to accept, however, is that in the course of this SUBSEQUENT post-storm maintenance and repair of THEIR EQUIPMENT a couple of months later, repair that was not directly impacting (laying on) MY line, they left a GREAT DEAL of brush and debris willy-nilly in the back yard.
In true Alice's Restaurant fashion, had simply dumped cut brush and debris to an existing pile of sectioned logs, etc., DEBRIS THAT HAD TO BE CUT TO REACH THEIR EQUIPMENT AND REPLACE IT, leaving ME to do THEIR maintenance cleanup.
I had issues with that.
I can't remember signing anything that says *I* as property owner am required to do general cleanup for Duke Power when they are doing routine maintenance repair and replacement of equipment.
THAT, IMHO, is simply part and parcel of the "cost of doing business".
I had only entered a claim for $50, the amount I figured was fair and reasonable for THEIR part of my cleanup. (I paid a total of $270)
My claim was summarily dismissed by a third party intermediary company named "SRS" -Specialty Risk Services out of Tennessee. In their response letter, SRS (deliberately?) misstated my entire concern and denied my request, alleging that a) I was asking for the ENTIRE cost of cleanup of my backyard to be paid for by Duke Energy (NOT) and b) they referred only to the previous removal of the limbs from MY line in justifying their denial, making no reference to the storm repairs that had added the (contested) debris left by Duke Energy.
In other words, they did not address my ACTUAL grievance at all.

Ignoring the ACTUAL claim for $50 for cleanup of the limbs, brush and debris that was tossed into my yard by Duke Energy employees doing maintenance repairs, they "respectfully denied" the claim of "$200" the said I had entered. Wrong on all counts.

I think the term appropriate for that kind of response are "stonewalling by obfuscating" --deliberately trying to confuse the issue to be ABLE to justify denying my claim after misstating it in every way possible.

Their response simply caused me to focus my attention on a situation that needs to be fixed: that property owners are currently held financially responsible GENERALLY---and picking up the tab for --- DukeEnergy's maintenance and repair expenses.

I consider this completely unacceptable.

DukeEnergy shareholders have long been paid at or near the maximum allowable dividend of 10% annually, and part of that dividend is thanks to property owners like me who are forced into paying for DUKE ENERGY's BUSINESS EXPENSES.

I then contacted ATT, who also shares the use of these poles with DukeEnergy for their service.
Their representative advised me that, should ATT need to clear out trees that are impacting their services or their lines ATT DOES ITS OWN CLEANUP.
SO why is Duke Energy getting a pass on this?
I then spoke with a woman named "Jessica" with the NC Utilities Commission. After several days of silence and a second call to her, she responded (essentially) that the storm was "an act of God" and that was not Duke Energy's fault and that Duke didn't "own" the trees they had trimmed to get to their equipment, so Duke was not responsible for the cleanup.
An "act of God" that damaged Duke Energy's equipment that *I* am responsible for cleaning up after the COMPANY EMPLOYEES when they have to cut trees to replace said equipment?
I THINK NOT.
Furthermore, if they replaced the transformer, were only MY trees trimmed? Or was my yard the most convenient one to throw the limbs in, since I seriously doubt they carefully noted which limb came from whose tree and designated it to the appropriate yard.

My neighbor to the rear said he hadn't noticed any cut limbs thrown in his yard, but he could see where trees had been cut,
and the neighbor to my right has a tall fence that might have posed a problem, so hmmm.. Guess what probably happened?
My house was the one where nobody was home. AND there was this convenient pen full of wood, plus several cut limbs on the ground from the 1st trip Duke Energy had made to clear fallen limbs off the house line. Sooo...(I can imagine their thought processes...
" If we just throw all the limbs into this yard, nobody's home anyway...Problem solved. We can walk away and go to lunch."

You see, my driveway was the one accessible to a cherrypicker which would be needed to reach the equipment.
My neighbors both had fences or boats in the way. That's a situation that I will fix this week via Home Depot ;>

So after Ms. Jessica of the mighty Utilities Commission generally asserted that it WAS my responsibility to clean up after Duke Energy's "Act of God" problem and then summarily hung up on me when I refused to accept her decision, I called BACK and asked to speak to HER supervisor, a MUCH more pleasant speaking person.
He listened to my concern carefully, apologized for Ms Jessica of the smart mouth and expressed surprise (I suggested he start recording her contacts with customers calling in to hear the "real" Jessica in action) and he promised to contact the SRS company and Duke Energy again on my behalf and explain the CORRECTED claim after I explained the situation one more time.
Jessica had missed all the salient points beautifully in her determination to defend Duke Energy and thwart me. She also accusingly told me she had tried to call me TWICE the day before and gotten a "Circuits busy" signal (sounding for all the world that she felt that was MY fault) . I replied the problem was the DEPARTMENT's phone lines, not mine, that I had received other incoming calls yesterday with no problems, and that my calls TO teh NCUC had been staticky, had weird whooshing sounds in the background, I had been dropped twice, and and that she should take it up with her carrier. (Ha!)

Jury is still out as to final outcome.
But I think it's time people got together and FIXED this situation of relegating the cleanup costs for DUKE ENERGY to property owners. After all, DUKE ENERGY KNEW when they installed aerial lines that trees were there and had to be dealt with when repair and maintenance were required. They chose to wire the homes and provide electrical services with that FOREKNOWLEDGE ANYWAY.
COST OF DOING BUSINESS.
It's time their FREE RIDE at the expense of the property owners IS ENDED.

I'll post again to let you know the outcome.
Like all of you, I'm interested in "fair and equitable". No more, No less.

In the meantime, I suggest that people start calling the NC Utility Commission ( or your particular state Utilities oversight department) and express STRONG belief that tree removal/trimming to access equipment is simply a COST OF DOING BUSINESS for DUKE ENERGY, not an expense they can continue to foist off on homeowners. After all and God knows, they charge ENOUGH for their service.

Duke Energy is the devil of utility companies. We had a bill that didn't get paid back in February. I made a check payment through their automated system and thought I was good to go. Unfortunately the payment never hit my bank account, so Duke came out and disconnected us. Since I thought it was my error, I went ahead and paid the $250 bill plus a reconnect fee and a deposit. Then that payment once again did not hit my bank. I called my bank every day for three weeks and they said nothing had come through at all from Duke, and certainly nothing had been returned. Again, Duke came out and disconnected us without so much as a courtesy phone call and told me it was because my payment was returned. Now with all the fees from this mess they are telling me I owe them $950 to be reconnected! Never ONCE did my check bounce, they just didn't process my payment properly, but now I don't have the money to pay this outrageous bill and we need electricity with a baby in the house. They care not one bit, and refuse to work anything out with us. It is sad and wrong that we have no other options for energy in New Albany, IN! They are a monopoly of the worst kind, and nothing is being done about it. NOTHING.

It's companies like progress energy that make it hard for americans. Progress energy is a monoply overcharging and scamming customers and in my word "extortion". Progress energy takes advantage of the people. They know there the only power company in the area so they over charge an bull customers. They know you dont have any choice you have to pay the outragous price's or get your power turned off. One person cannot run up a 400 dollar light bill. Not to mention hidden fee's, and over charges. I and alot of cutomers realize this. As soon as one of their cometitors comes to my area iam switching. They are trifling, con artist and this i can prove this is not my thoughts. When you only have one power company in the area, you dont have a choice and they exploit this. In the long run they will end up loosing buisness. The american people will not take abuse forever. I will not be used and i will continue to fight this, til the end! ps iam on radio and tv all the time i will make this known.

I was disconnected due to a loss bill. Called to make the payment, paid $196.00 but after the payment was accepted they said that didn't include the reconnect fee of $25, and I would have to make the payment again. This time for $221. THEY told me the $196 payment would not process, but both payments were charged to my account, effectively charging me twice. I called to get the $196 refunded, and they told me I have to wait 3 weeks before they could even mail a refund check, essentially I have to 1 MONTH get money back that they told STOLE from me and lied to me about.

My wife and I recently purchased our home on August 26, 2010 and did notice that there was a utility pole (which we do not have any service from) located beside of the driveway. The pole is on the opposite side of the driveway from the property line towards the center of our property/yard. I assumed that the utility company would move the pole if requested to the property line (either side of my 90’ wide lot) and did not realize that it would be a difficult request to have the utility company accommodate.
What I didn’t notice is that there is a guide wire from this pole crossing my driveway and during our remodeling efforts realized that this guide wire impedes our access with taller vehicles. I have a large truck which I have to maneuver by the guide wire when backing into my drive. One of the main purposes of my truck is to tow our travel trailer which we can’t get into our drive due to the clearances of the guide wire. Currently we have our travel trailer located at one of our relatives because we can’t get it into our drive.
I contacted Duke Energy about having the utility pole re-located to one of the property lines and was contacted by one of their engineers: Tim Payne. The engineer came out and looked at the pole/guide wire and gave me numerous reasons/excuses about re-locating the pole and I inquired if there were no regulations for clearances crossing a driveway regardless of utility right of ways? The engineer stated that the pole was very old before noticing a tag on the pole to which he quickly informed me that the utility pole belonged to BellSouth and that is who I would need to contact for any resolution.
I began trying to contact AT&T (BellSouth) to request that the pole be re-located and was never able to get any help from any representative by phone. On three different occasions I spent an hour or more on the phone getting transferred back to a phone tree. On one of the occasions I was transferred to the same representative 3 different times and then transferred back to the phone tree. I submitted several online repair requests through different departments and was finally contacted by an AT&T outside field technician: Bill who stated that the pole was old and in need of replacing however this would not be his department. He informed me that he was going to transfer the request to another AT&T engineer who should be able to help me with my request. I was then contacted by the engineer on 1/11/2011 who informed me that due to the weather it may be several days before he can get out and look at the situation and he would contact me after he had looked at the utility pole. I asked if there were regulations for height clearances across property/driveways and he stated that he couldn’t say at that time but would know more after he was able to view the utility pole.
I also spoke to a Duke Energy sub-contractor technician/repair man that was in my neighbor hood about the best way to get some real information concerning getting this pole re-located and upon his un-official examination he believed the pole to be deteriorated in the ground which is probably why the guide wire was needed in the first place. While I realize that this was an un-official opinion there have been engineers from two different utility suppliers view this pole already in my effort to get an answer as to what can be done and neither have said anything in regards to the integrity or safety of this pole other than it was old. I certainly hope that it doesn’t take an accident or outage whether with or without personal injury or property damage for someone to take ownership of this pole.
I am very displeased with the lack of communication from both of these utility providers as well as the difficulty that I’ve experienced with just trying to make contact with either of them. Neither have provided any kind of solution or response as to what my options are nor answered my question concerning if there are any height clearance regulations to protect a homeowner. I fully understand the need for utility right of ways and their purpose but do not understand how the utility companies can place poles anywhere they wish without regards to the affects it will have on the property owner. In addition how they can seemingly be satisfied with giving the consumer/citizen the run-around and never give an answer to my question or attempt to address my concerns. I feel that everyone with these two utility companies that I have dealt with is just waiting on me to just give up on getting an answer.

Extremely Frustrated,

On Nov.3rd I called Duke Energy to start gas heat service. I even paid the $170 deposit that day, ahead of time. They are quick to take my $$ but not start service yesterday between 8-4 as promised. They should waive my deposit.
I called several times yesterday & today and all they do is "apologize" claiming they're behind on orders & on the way. They said they'd be here by 2 and now it's after 6 P.M. It's 46 degrees now and will be lower tonight.
They have all year to anticipate consumer demand and should be prepared accordingly.
At least have the courtesy to call us or have an automated call inform us of the delay. I shouldn't have to call to keep getting the run-around.
There is a lack of communication between customer service and the dispatch center. They claim they called me twice(lie)I was home all day & my caller i.d. proves they did not. They claimed they came by last night but the outdoor box was locked. We told them we have the key, to call us or knock on our door.
They claim fixing dangerous gas leaks takes precedence over starting service. What if there was a blizzard and my 2 yr old son dies of hypothermia? That is death on their hands either way and Duke Energy would be to blame.
I have SSDI disability & my husband's on unemployment. I don't have $$ for a motel as a Duke Energy "customer service" rep so unprofessionally suggested. Are they going to foot the bill & transportation? Or re-imburse Medicaid the hospital bill if my 2 yr old boy falls ill due to very cold weather?
Another rep claimed that none of the techs carry cell phones w/ them, that they have a computer screen in their truck. Did they ever relay a msg. to the tech inquiring about the status (time) of our order? They claim they're not that advanced. Well, let's see how advanced their communication is when they are sued for (possible) wrongful death.
I did my part to prevent this possible tragedy in starting service and they are not living up to their end of the bargain, greedy, callous, inefficient, unknowledgeable Duke Energy.

Duke Energy Inc. charges enormously outrageous prices for their electricity service! They charge enormously too much! They have already been sued before. They charge however much they want to because their the only competitor/provider in the area (Winston-Salem, North Carolina). They don't work with people on low incomes. Their monthly arrangement agreements/installments should be, to where you pay a certain amount each week or every two weeks and; as long as you pay the amount within that month it is due, they should allow you that whole month to pay. Since the state of Texas has many electricity providers/competitors then Winston-Salem, North Carolina and cities and states nationwide should have different electricity/competitors to choose from. I have already reported Duke Energy to the better business bureau, the North Carolina Energy Commission, the consumer complaints board and to U.S. president Barack Obama and his administration. I am going to write him and his administration personally by mail and by email through the internet.

I recently called Progress energy customer service to get an extension on an electric bill. The reason for this is because of an oversight by my wife who used the wrong account and method of payment. She used the regular account which is my account and that account is currently tapped out due to the fact that I am out on FMLA. (Had hip surgery). The payment returned unpaid. They added to my deposit $240 due to that incident making it $240 plus the original deposit of $195 bringing it to $435 plus the bill. I called progress energy to explain. The general feed back that I got, is that they are unable to help. I asked to speak to a supervisor and basically got the same answer. I asked to speak to amanager and was told that there is none available. They said that someone would call me back and I am still waiting. It is my belief that this is Progress Energy ploicy since all the customer service people are saying the same thing. The impression that I got is that the company just dont care. Progress energy bid for the contract to service this area and people do not have a choice. I believe that I am not the only one who is experiencing that attitude from progress energy and I am about to start a petition to the area representatives to do something about it.

I have never had such an outrageous electric bill. I thought last month's was bad at $269. I called in and apparently, it's the same canned response given to anyone that calls in to question about their bill. From reading other complaints on other websites, I guess they say "this winter is colder than last". Your furnace has to work harder to run the heat to keep it the same temperature. That is complete BS! This winter I've been setting my thermostat 2 - 3 degrees cooler than last, and I still have much higher electric bills. We don't have any other additional appliances than what we've had the previous 2 years. We aren't using our electric any differently than the previous 2 years. Now, I just got an online notification that my bill for this month is $334. My highest electric bill all last winter was $225. Then, most of my bills last winter were below $200, and I was running the temp 2-3 degrees higher. Something doesn't add up, and something needs to be done about this monopoly. We need to oust Duke Energy out of the Cincinnati area, and bring in a more reasonably priced competitor. OH, the other thing I find suspicious is reading other people's claims that they don't come out and actually read your meter.

Duke energy had my tenant wait all day to get her electric turn on. When he finally got there he broke the glass off of the meter.
He went to get new meter. Told tenant he would be back that day. He said don't worry I'll take care it today! My tenant is 8 months pregnate and has a 2 year old. It was about 30 degrees out during the day and headed toward the teens latter that day.
About 7 pm we call Duke energy for our tenant. First thing they said was nobody was there. When we said they were
lying Duke energy said meter was unsafe and maintenance had to deal with it. We told them yes because Duke Energy broke it!
After over 40 mins of arguring with the most nasty lying ### talking person on the face of the earth they said we could give them our cell numbers and they would call. Waited the rest of night but no calls. Next day no electric yet. I quess our crappy goverment lets them treat people like crap.