Dominion Virginia Power

Once again our house is without power. We have lived here for about 45 years and losing power has always been a problem. Every time the wind blows the power goes out.
What is particularly frustrating is that it is only in our tiny area that we are left without electricity. The neighbors across the street haven’t lost power since Hurricane Isabel left most of the city without power for a couple of weeks in 2003. Since this is a small area (only about 4 – 5 blocks), the problem should have been fixed 40 years ago, yet here we sit once again without power.
Last year we finally bit the bullet and put in a generator since Dominion could not seem to generate power consistently for us. We are getting too old to sit for days (or even hours for that matter) in sweltering heat or freezing cold. Our next door neighbor followed suit a few months later. Perhaps Dominion should just issue generators to all of its customers in this area since they seem incapable of consistently supplying the electricity we pay exorbitant rates for each month. That would save each household about $ 20,000 that we have had to shell out because Dominion Power can’t (or won’t) do the job we pay them for.

Awful. They shut my service due to an error and I still don’t have power after 3 days. I have small children and am now paying for a hotel, all food needs to be thrown away and I can’t get ANYONE on the phone!!! They said they would turn my service same day. NOPE. It’s now Saturday and the office is closed.

I’ve dealt with numerous electric companies, but this one wins the all-​time shady award (if they had one). I received a notification indicating that my bill was ready. But — when I saw the actual bill, it showed that there was a credit. After further inspection, it looked like my original deposit — paid about a year ago — was now being credited to my account. But why? I don’t understand… or maybe it’s because I’ve never had to pay a deposit to establish any utility accounts. So I called them this morning. They indicated that after I have paid 12 months on time, they refund the deposit to the account. Well — this means I will have 2 months paid in full. While this is a nice surprise, it really isn’t. First, I shouldn’t have had to pay a deposit. Secondly, I was always under the impression that deposits were refunded after service was terminated (or you could contact the utility company and have your deposit pay your last bill). So basically what you’re telling people is that you have to pay 2 months in advance to have service. What kind of crap is this?
And secondly, there’s a «biennial review credit» on my account as well. Looks like they overcharged everyone in the past… but what do they do? Instead of putting the full amount of the credit on the next bill — they split the credit into 6 payments — that will be on your next 6 bills. Why? Can someone explain the reason why they are doing this? I heard that the credits are less than $ 4…why in the hell would you spread those out in 6 payments?
I will be moving in a couple of months (hopefully out of state). I hope I will never have to deal with them again.

Easy to sign up with Virginia Power. However, as an existing customer they have terrible customer service. I tried calling about my initial auto draft service which I completed using their website. I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be late on a payment (being proactive). I was stuck in the automatic phone loop for 5 – 10 minutes. The only way I was able to talk to a human was by hitting «new customer» and it was magic, I was finally able to talk to someone. They also have no e-​mail or chat system to talk to customer service. They do this for two reasons:
1) They are a monopoly and do not have to play by the rules of most businesses.
2) More money for their stockholders since they don’t have to pay employees wages to provide customer service.

Outrageous rates, bills constantly going up even when you take proactive measures to reduce them and no alternatives. Dominion is a monopoly and a blight on this state. I’ve lived all over this country and never have had bills that were as expensive as my cheapest month here in Virginia. And they always want to raise rates on you.

Words cannot express the frustration I have felt in dealing with this company. I moved and spoke to someone about having my service cut off. They did NOT do it. I had to call and wait on hold for almost 2 hours as I got switched around. I called and finally someone said they would take care of it. THEN… they tried to take money out of my bank account even though I had ALREADY PAID. They claim that you cannot pay ahead because they will automatically try to take it out on the date they have scheduled. So, I had paid early, but it didn’t matter. I called and waited for another two hours. Once again, the person apologized and said they would fix it. Today, I received another bill for a late fee. I don’t have time for another 2 hour call. This company is the worst. I plan on contacting the BBB.

Unwarranted 30% increase in my bill when it should have decreased from being forced to switch to the horrible fluorescent light bulbs.
Took days to get in touch w them and was told they «had no records» of past wattage to prove and compare more than 18 months.
Dirty shady business; they have been caught in decades past overcharging customers.

I have lived in Virginia for 3 years, and unfortunately, I’ve been cursed with Dominion’s service for all of them. For those of you considering contracting with Dominion, allow me to tell you what your bills will look like:
Spring and Summer: Your bills will be reasonable. You will be tricked into thinking they are a reasonable company. Do not be fooled.
November: Your bill will go up. Not enough to make you sit on hold with their Customer Service Department for their standard 60+ minute wait, but high enough to make you question whether you left the oven on for a week.
December: Your bill will be high. You will be confused. You will pay it anyway.
January: You will ask your spouse or roommate whether they began operating a clandestine nuclear power plant in your shared basement. Your bill will be so high that you won’t be able to afford your groceries this month. Or next.
February: You will decide to turn off your breakers while you go away on weekend trips. You will sleep in several layers every night while you keep your apartment at a balmy 55 degrees. Your winter parka will permanently replace your bathrobe. You will assume that your bill will go down because of all of your energy conservation techniques. You are wrong. Your bill will be higher than last month. You will cry.
March: Your bill becomes more reasonable. You’ve spent so many hours on the phone with Dominion Customer Service that their number appears between «Mom» and «Home» on the «favorites» list on your phone. You have the personal cell phone number of the technician who came out to «check your meter» several times. You will cry as you pay your bill.
In all seriousness, I know the winter gets cold. I know my bill will go up because it gets cold. But I live in a pretty small apartment, and my bill was much higher in January than my landlord’s was. This might not seem so unreasonable, but consider this: I did not live in my apartment in January. All of my breakers were off. My landlord lives with 2 other people, using hot water to shower, and has a washer and dryer in her apartment.
I know what you’re thinking: something must be wrong with my apartment. This must be an anomaly. Wrong. My neighbors experience the same patterns. Friends who live across town and have Dominion’s services experience the same patterns. Clearly, something is going on at Dominion, and every time they send someone to check my meter or my neighbors’ meters, they find nothing. They leave with nothing solved, and they do not show any desire to problem solve or troubleshoot with me.
All in all, I’d say having Dominion Power is only marginally preferable to adopting a power-​less Amish lifestyle.

NEVER NEVER NEVER move to VA if you are considering Dominion Power and dont NEVER NEVER NEVER make a payment with your account always get a money order because they processed my payment twice and took $ 600 out my account and that money was my rent money and I got charged a $ 100 late fee from my landlord. they held my money even though I faxed them a statement proving the payment had been processed already through the bank and everytime I call and check the status they claim its being sent out and then when I dont receive it and call back to check the status they say its being processes to be sent out LIES after LIES after LIES they just taking their dear time so they can just wait til another payment is due and they can apply the $ 300 I talked to a supervisor that was yelling at me and when I asked to speak her manager she put me on hold for more than thirty minutes until the office was closed TERRIBLE customer service BEWARE dont give them your account information

Terrible customer service. After spending one hour on the phone with Rachel and the supervisor, Sonia, they were not able to waive late charges posted on my account, which was most likely caused by their systems. Very disappointing.
Have been a customer of Dominion for over 17 years; but I guess a monopoly doesn’t really care about customer satisfaction. I love to see competition is brought to this marketplace.

I programmed my electric bill to be deducted from my checking account on April 30, 2013 through
. The result was a double deduction from my checking account. Two people at Dom.com’s customer service department lied about this occurrence over the phone — «Brandon» and «Sonya». If my account was debited twice, then their ACH records should so two deductions. These f_​cking liars said their was only one deduction. I had to use company printers and fax to make my case. I am at a loss of $ 59.00 for four to six weeks until a refund can be processed. Dom.com’s monopoly is unconscionable. They wield too much power and constantly lie when performing customer service. From now on, I am writing a damn check and mailing my payment.
cannot be trusted to have an Internet platform that works and honest customer service.

Well they are something we can hardly do with out these days. As we all have come upon to depend on electricity for our every day lives. I think they do a out standing job of keeping the lights on. And wnen we have storms roll through and knock out the power. It isn’t long before they have us up and running again. And yes there have been times when it took much longer to get lights back on. But that is when we’ve had a major storm come through the whole state. When something of this magnitude hits I don’t expect to have lights right away. So when I lose power I know they are going to be back on fairly quickly. And there rates are quite reasonable compared to some other locations around the country.

Dominion Power has given us consistent, great service during the last 3 years we’ve lived in Virginia. I just called the South Boston location and spoke with Dashanna and she was very friendly, helpful, and a complete joy to work with. I’m not sure if there’s many other options for power in the VA area, but luckily Dominion has been a great provider to us.