Reach Energy

Ryan G.

I recently began renting a home and needed to choose an electric provider. After searching for the best rate in the area (Fort Worth Metroplex), I found Reach Energy, LLC. They are a fairly new energy provider, and were offering great introductory rates, presumably to expand their customer base. On April 20th, 2012, I signed a three month contract with Reach for $0.059/ kilowatt hour with usage exceeding 1000 kilowatt hours, and less than 1000 kilowatt hours of usage incurring a base charge of $24.95. My service began that day, and after attempting to find out when my billing cycle would be, I was led to believe that the first meter read would occur on or around May 20th, approximately one month from the initial provision of service. I was surprised to receive a statement on April 24th, 2012 for a three day billing cycle. During those three days, I obviously did not meet the requisite 1000 kwh to eliminate the base charge, and my bill was $25.93. I contacted Reach and disputed the assessment. The company agreed that the base charge was unreasonable, did not bill me for the base charge and rolled over the kilowatt hours to my next bill. My statement received on 5/23/12 was correct, with the credit included. My statement received on 6/22/12 was also correct. After remitting payment for the third billing cycle, I was notified that my contract would be expiring on July 19th. I was given the options to either continue service month to month, where I would be automatically switched to a variable rate plan, establish a new contract with Reach Energy at a fixed rate, or cancel service. After establishing that I would not be able to receive the best possible per kilowatt hour rate through Reach any longer, I opted to cancel service. I found a new provider with a satisfactory fixed rate who would both begin my new service with them on July 23rd and cancel my service with Reach at the same time. On July 24th, 2012, I received my fourth and final bill from Reach for the third month of service. It was for a 32 day bill cycle. Reach charged me a variable rate AND a base charge of $19.95, not only for the three days I was provided service after the expiration of my contract, but charged the first 29 days of the billing cycle at the variable per kilowatt hour rate as well. This means that in breach of contract, Reach Energy, LLC only provided me with two months and four days of service at my contracted rate. Irate, I contacted the company to dispute this assessment and was met with an unhelpful and incompetent employee who refused to remediate the charge. When I asked point blank if it was the company's policy to break contracted rates with consumers and fail to fulfill the terms of their contracts, the employee finally replied, after dancing around the point and avoiding answering, ""Yes. That's our policy."" I thanked her for reassuring me that my choice to switch energy providers was absolutely correct and hung up the phone. Reach Energy, LLC owes me a little less than one hundred dollars for my incorrectly billed last cycle, and while it's not enough to justify small claims court or legal action, I'd like other potential customers of this company to be aware of their incredibly poor and unscrupulous business practices. The company is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau. They are no where near up to par, and potential customers need be aware that it isn't worth their seemingly unbeatable introductory rates for the hassle and underhanded billing practices you will endure if you elect to go with this provider. If you have had a similar experience with this company, please post it here. Together we can insure that they never become BBB accredited.