First Choice Power's newest way to screw you

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Back in 1999, Texas Governor George W. Bush signed the bill that deregulated the electric power industry
in Texas. At that time, Texas-New Mexico Power Company formed a subsidiary they named First Choice Power to act as their retail service provider in Texas. First Choice currently has about a quarter million subscribers in Texas.

As we have documented in previous stories, many Texans are stuck with First Choice, and they often refer to the company as “Worst Choice”.

During the past few months First Choice has had an enormous amount of complaints filed against them with the Public Utilities Commission. There are numerous cases of customers who complain that they were double-charged on their credit card payments; people whose meters were read incorrectly; whose electricity was disconnected even though their bill had been paid on time, customers whose due dates and rates fluctuated wildly from one month to the next (as much as 300% in one month).

The Seabreeze has documented the following local cases: A First Choice customer had power disconnected because she paid an even dollar amount and was 59 cents past due. Power was restored after 4 days, and the customer was charged a reconnect fee. A First Choice customer made a $260 payment on his credit card. The card was charged twice, and the customer was forced to wait two weeks to get his money refunded. This was followed by a disconnection notice – even though the bill was current. A First Choice customer paid their current bill of $222.97 but their power was disconnected anyway. When they asked why, First Choice told them they were applying the $222 as a deposit, although they had never sent a bill requesting any such deposit. The customer had to pay again, plus a reconnect fee.

Whenever a customer complains about the service or the meters, First Choice says it’s not their fault – blame the provider – often Texas New Mexico Power. What they don’t admit is that it is the same company. When a customer complains about billing issues, they point the finger at the third-party company that handles their billing. Essentially, since they closed all of their payment offices, First Choice does nothing except rake in money. They do not own any power plants, trucks, wires, or equipment. They do not even operate the payment process. Everything is outsourced.

Yet they make a fat cut of electric bills while avoiding all responsibility for anything.

Now they have introduced a new type of meter that charges for the entire month based on peak usage. An example would be if a business has one hour during the month in which they fire up a lot of equipment (like a printing press), they will be billed for the entire month as if they kept the equipment running all month. It’s called a “demand meter”, and apparently it’s legal under the deregulated Texas power laws.

You have not experienced the lower utility prices that our lawmakers promised us when they deregulated the electric utilities in Texas. Nobody has, because the whole thing was a large fraud perpetrated on the entire state of Texas.

If the Attorney General of this state had any balls at all, he would indict these racketeers and put some of them in jail. Their rapacious profiteering is a disgrace to the State of Texas.