Rob Gibson

Got a call from a collections company today saying that I broke a contract with Direct Energy for my electricity service at my former house. Apparently I moved and didn’t sign back up with them. Back in May of 2007 (so I’m told today by DE’s customer service) DE called me to sign up for their Energy Saving Program and I agreed verbally and that was fine. I was told on the phone that the electricity rates would be going up and by locking in now I would save a lot of money. I was also told that I had a certain period of time to cancel the contract without penalty. After Googling “Direct Energy reviews” I found that many people had not been happy with their service and in many cases ended up paying more for Electricity with them than they would have with their local utility company. SO….I phoned up to cancel and they told me they needed written confirmation of the cancellation (funny they only needed verbal to sign me up). The lady I spoke with at Direct Energy today told me they had a record of both phone conversations but no letter or fax from me (go figure). Even though they have a record of my phone conversation in which I state I want to cancel they want to charge me $900.00 in cancellation fees. My option is to sign up with them again at 3 cents per kw more than I am paying now. They gave me the same speech on the phone today that the rates will go up!!! Same speech they gave me 2 years ago and I'm still paying less. Off to the lawyers I go. UPDATE -- After speaking with Crystal in Public Relations she got my case to the appropriate department where it was resolved to my satisfaction!!!