Green Mountain Energy Company

It costs $100 a month. Everything has gone good. They've done everything we've needed.

We just send in our bill every month and we haven’t had any problems, so it has been going fine. One of the reasons why we were interested in their services is because they get 100% of their electricity from wind power, which is great. Texas is the largest provider of wind energy in the United States, so we thought of going with them instead of most other places in Texas, where electricity is generated from coal or natural gas. We have never had any problems with them. When we initially decided that they were going to be our energy provider, we had quite a bit of interaction with them in getting things worked out, in terms of how to pay their monthly bills and so on. Other than that, we haven’t had any issues for them to call us back on. They were knowledgeable and friendly. It is hard for me to get a handle on how their prices are, because electricity is so much different than buying a grill or something like that. I think it is a fair price; at least we are paying less than what we paid before we moved here. When we were setting it up, there were times when we called and left messages and they were prompt. They knew how to handle the situation for us.

I've been in service with them since December until now and I've had no issues with them. Any concerns that I have, when I did call, the representative would handle. I give them "A's" all the way.

We were not pleased with them. They came door to door and tried to sell inexpensive packages to us that were not feasible. They mistakenly cut our power off because the mail was delivered incorrectly. I will not use them again in the future.

I called and they informed me that I did not originally sign up for a yearly plan and rather, had signed up for a partial plan. I knew this was not the case but I had no written materials to prove it. One of the customer service representatives that I spoke with confirmed that they only offered the lower rates during a period at the end of the year when the summer/winter rates switch. I began service in November of 2006, when the lower rates are offered. They informed me that I had signed up for a short term, then signed up for the yearly rate in July, and which ended in June. The rep. said the yearly contracts were not offered EXCEPT at the end of the year. I spoke to a customer service representative and a supervisor during two calls to Green Mountain Energy and they twice I was told that they are not "REQUIRED BY LAW" to inform me when my rates are changing but that they had informed me anyway. The same "required by law" phrase made me wonder what they were concealing. I asked to be switched to a yearly plan so that I could lock in the lower rate without the $5-a-month service charge. They switched my service but said it might take two to three MONTHS for my bill to reflect the lower rate; yet as a new customer, they were able to sign me up immediately. With computers, I do not understand how it could take that long to make a change; it seems like a "bait and switch" ploy to squeeze more money out of a loyal customer who pays her bill in full and on time each and every month. I told the supervisor on the phone how dissatisfied I was but she didn't seem to care. On another occasion, I had received a promotional email that was signed by the Senior Vice President of Residential Services, Paul N. Markovich. On the previously mentioned call, I asked the supervisor how I might be in direct communication with this man. She gave me an email address of customerservice@greenmountain.com; not what I had asked for. My dilemma is that I want to participate in green energy but now I feel like I will have to watch my bill and regularly inquire after my account. I would not recommend them to anyone because they have broken trust with me. If there was a competitor that offered green energy at the same cost, I would switch companies. The company may be abiding by the letter of the law, but they have certainly violated the spirit of honest business dealings that I grew up with. They seem to have several different plans that are not easy to track by their customers. WARNING: Read every word of every bill that you receive, especially the extremely fine print found in "Important Information". It is almost exclusively very unimportant information; but this is where the important information might be found.