Pepco

Like a third word country. Pepco sucks. You can’t avoid them in dc but they should be shut down and everyone should be fired.

I called Pepco because, when logging in online to view my bill, it only shows one of three pages. The rep who answered did not know how I could access the other two pages. I asked her to email it to me. She couldn’t. She said she would mail via the post office but I needed it today. I told her that if I cannot view my bill online to cancel ebills and revert to mailed paper copies. She then implied that the problem was at my end. I asked for tech support. She said they don’t have it. I rated them with 2 stars instead of one because the rep apologized. Clearly, there is much room for improvement.

Since moving to the DMV area I have found this company nearly impossible to deal with. Their customer service is crap; no one has ever actually answered my questions or solved any problems I have had with my service. I have submitted online requests for assistance, which are a joke. I received an automated reply months later with generic info they have on their website. Even if you are given the chance to speak to an actual human, they have no power or knowledge of how to troubleshoot online issues regarding accounts and bill-​pay. I truly wish there was another electricity option. They can get away with being awful because there is no alternative for many families in the DMV area. I’m sure the employees wish they could help more and do better, but the entire company is unorganized and ineffective from the top down. Even if the customer service employees and technicians know it’s bad, they have no power because their role is near the bottom of the totem pole. Just sad. All around. The CEO of this company should go on undercover boss so he/​she and the rest of the public can understand how truly ineffective and frustrating this corporation is.

Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad company. How are they allowed to operate the way they do? Moving into a new apartment and taking over the electric bill from the previous tenant… I call on Wednesday morning to put the account in my name as the service was just scheduled by him to be suspended on that Friday. The woman tells me it’ll be 3 business days and they don’t work weekends (totally absurd) so the apartment will have no power over the weekend. Why didn’t anyone tell the previous account holder that when he called? I don’t know because he would have extended the termination date… which they couldn’t guarantee they could do after they already scheduled the turn off. Friday rolls around and I realize I haven’t gotten a confirmation email. So I give them a call… sure enough, no record at all of my Wednesday call. Fantastic. This woman was very pleasant, however, and wasn’t sure why I was told that there would any delay. She assured me that it would put in my name the following day and there would be no interruption in service. Same night… roommate calls to say the power has been shut off. It gets better because I’m traveling out of town to get my stuff so I can move in the next day… now in the dark. And we’ll be without power until at least until the weekend is over… maybe longer. Who knows?! What a joke! A really sh*tty joke.

I moved away from my prior residence on ⁹⁄₁ and Pepco continues to bill — despite numerous lengthy phone calls with customer service! There is a current tenant there who the company is billing — thereby double billing and collecting revenue like a true scam artist. I’ve called on numerous occasions to request that they update their accounts, credit me the monies auto-​drafted after 9/​1, and stop double charging both myself and the current tenant. I am extremely frustrated at how dysfunctional Pepco is as a company and the blatant disregard they have for your consumers — despite having called on numerous occasions to have the matter resolved. It’s a real scam operation and frankly, at this point, you are knowingly committing fraud.

That’s it, I’m leaving the state of Maryland once my lease is up. I’m a former Alexandria resident, who recently moved to Rockville. I just received my first Pepco bill, totaling $ 123 for a month’s worth of electricity, plus a $ 300 DEPOSIT.
In Virginia, my Dominion bills never averaged more than $ 60 for the same size 1-​BR apartment. Also, Dominion NEVER charged me a deposit.
Pepco provides a blue customer rights booklet with your 1^st bill. There is absolutely ZERO mention in this booklet of how (or if) you will ever get your deposit back.
Their office in Rockville has the oh-​so-​useful business hours of 10:00AM — 2:00PM. What kind of public utility business is only open for 4 hours?
I am counting down the days until I can disengage myself from this incompetent corporation. I also cannot create an online account to view my electricity usage — again, something that was never an issue with Dominion’s website. Hmm… I wonder why that is? Obviously, they don’t want their customers to see their deceptive billing methods.
If possible, I encourage you to vote with your feet and your dollars (state taxes, utility bills and last but not least, that wonderful deposit), and move far, far away from Pepco’s service area.

PEPCO is quite possibly THE WORST company I have ever had to deal with in my life.
— I’ve moved a couple of times in the past year and have gone through nightmarish experiences trying to get my account transferred to the new addresses. You would think that this is a smooth process, but absolutely is not.
— Their website is honestly the biggest piece of garbage on the internet. It is 100% dysfunctional and I can’t even believe they haven’t hired real, competent software engineers to solve this problem. It has literally been the most terrible website for YEARS now. Nobody wants to fix it, and quite honestly, I don’t think anyone at PEPCO even CARES. WTF. Want to register for a new account online? Too bad, this is the error message you’ll receive: «We are unable to process your request at this time, please try again later.» Want to pay your bill online after you’ve managed to somehow successfully register with a new account after a THOUSAND attempts? Too bad, this is the error message you’ll receive: «We are unable to process your request at this time, please try again later.» Worst web app EVER.
It makes me so angry that a company that is so important and so vital to the DC area is run by so many incompetent people. What’s worse is that it has been like this now for over 10 years. I’m so sick of it.

Just spent 1.5 hours on hold and still did not get to a customer service rep.

–1 stars
First, the online service is utterly useless. Tried to set up new account /​service online, went through all the menus and after waiting a week or two realized it wasn’t happening. No error message, nothing. You still have to call them to get anything done, they are stuck in the year 1993.
Second, i have been a Pepco customer for 7+ years and they still make me do an ever-​increasing deposit every time I move. Last time it was $ 165, now it is 195. Was up to date with my payments for 7 years, no balance, and get this treatment.
Third, since you cannot get anything done online, you have to call them and wait for 1.5−2 hours to speak a «representative», while the phone system tries to hang up on your and «call you later». You have to keep hitting a button to remain on hold. You need a lot of nerves to deal with Pepco.

Repent for your sins, the devil has come and he has taken the form of Pepco’s customer service. Accept Christ or you will be torture with an eternity of being on hold for customer service and false promise of call backs. You try to escape, but there will be no where to run for the devil holds the mighty power of monopoly. My friends, I have seen this fiery pit of damnation, it is not a place you want to be, save yourself while you can!

My power goes out all the time. I lived in the developing world for ten years and had better service. I had surgery this morning and now my power is out, again. It’s too hot and I’m too sick for this nonsense. It should be illegal to monopolize the power industry. I wish I had the choice to switch to another company. I also would like to know why there isn’t even an option to speak to a human on the phone. Although, from prior experience, the automated voice is probably more helpful than any human this company employs

There is nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said… Pepco should be SHOT!

If I could I would give them –5 stars. Typical story… Awful customer service. Inconsistent information. Too damn expensive. Just, overall… UGH. That should sum it up.

I wish we had an alternative. We don’t and they know it.
I’ve lived in the same apartment for 2.5 years. My bills have ranged between $ 20 — $ 50 this whole time. Suddenly, this January, I get a bill for $ 335! Obviously there’s a mistake, right? I call and they open up an «investigation». Then I get too more bills with late fees on them. By now, I owe them $ 457! The snotty customer service rep today told me that ALL of my old bills were just «estimates», and this was an actual reading. So… why for 2 years were they just estimating my bill? She couldn’t answer that. If I was used to $ 80-​$ 100 bills, this wouldn’t be such a shock, but now to owe Pepco more than 10x my normal bill and it just doesn’t sit well with me. And, I just gotta love how the little customer service chick defended her company to the bone and had absolutely no sympathy, and offered no solutions… really? Pepco should give her a raise. Clearly they value this kind of customer service.
Stuff like this makes me really hate living here. I love DC, but I’m about to not be able to afford it anymore.

Wow, terrible, HORRIBLE, AWFUL, THE WORST. If I could give you NEGATIVE 5 I would! TERRIBLE. For the past month I have not been able to log into my account?! I have tried Mozilla, Safari, Chrome, EVEN INTERNET EXPLODER. What are you doing Pepco? It is almost 2015, absolutely unacceptable not to be able to pay my bill online! I emailed them about this and they replied saying to provide them with some information. Okay great, but they sent that from a DO NOT REPLY email address! Pepco and Comcast are two companies I hate the most and I will truly be popping champage bottles WHEN they go out of business.
They still suck. APPARENTLY you can only have one email address tied to one account. So when I moved from my last place to this one it screwed my new account. Fine, but rather than the online system telling you that it just gives you a basic error. I was on the phone with a CS Rep for 30ish minutes and yes I was angry, but she was not understanding. She explained I had to use a different email. I asked: «So if I had 10 properties in the district I’d need 10 different email addresses?» She said yes! Then we tried to troubleshoot my account and after 10 tries it didn’t work she says: «Sorry, but no one else has this problem.» Okay? Yeah they do because it’s in the reviews and even if they didn’t what kind of customer service is that? Truly terrible!

I came into PEPCO this morning to sort my electric bill since I had received a letter over the weekend saying that they were going to disconnect my service. This was because no one at my residence had put the account in their name.
A young customer service representative helped me and reassured me that my power would not be shut off. She helped me put the account in my name and said that I would not have to pay for the past year of service.
Thank you PEPCO!!!

So when I first moved to the district PEPCO was the prototypical over inflated monopoly with customer care quality somewhere between comcast and Torquemada, however the since I bought my new place in April PEPCO has stepped their game up.
The robot on the call line is annoying but the auto call back is great since you don’t have to wait on hold to talk to customer service. The customer service department has been very helpful in addressing a couple issues I have had. And today I had to have a meter swapped out and the tech showed up right on time and was very helpful and efficient.
TL/​DR: PEPCO had a reputation for poor service but in the last year has made a substantial improvement.

An Ode to Pepco:
The way it goes dark whenever it rains out –
You make me want to blow my brains out.
I simply don’t know what I did
To deserve this terrible power grid.
Have you no small sense of compunction
For wrongly billing me for over-​consumption?
If only your agents answered my call!
If only your agents knew anything at all!
I’ve been fighting you over a year and a half
For your inability to do simple math.
My meter is broken — please, let’s face it
it’s time for you to f***ing replace it.
I know your «account investigators» all by name;
their abundant incompetence is such a shame.
You’ve caused me nothing but frustration
and to pray for public utility deregulation.

DO NOT. I REPEAT DO NOT. Get the Pepco Energywise (wise ha!) web programmable thermostat. Sure its FREE and they give you some credits over the year BUT CONSIDER THIS:
1) My energy usage in March spiked to the highest in 2 years right after this Piece OC was installed and I did nothing different.
2) It’s digital but still not intuitive
3) the Energywise program seems to managed by a company outside of Pepco. It often takes 30mins to get them on the line.

I live in a densely populated enough bit of DC that my power lines are underground, so I don’t experience the troubles that other Pepco users have with outages. So until recently, I didn’t hate Pepco quite as much as everyone else in the DC metro area does.
But then I got suckered into the EnergyWise program, thinking it would be great to have a programmable thermostat. If you’re considering it, in a word, don’t.
Basically, you let them install a free programmable thermostat (that supposedly is operable from the internet) and they will cycle your AC off during peak usage times to conserve power and give you credits on your bill for letting them do that. I was a little nervous about the cycling, worrying my apartment would get too hot while it cycled off, but it turns out if you don’t like the program you can opt out and keep the thermostat at no charge. Awesome, I think. I sign up.
It’s not even summer yet, so I don’t know if the energy cycling is going to be an issue, but I already hate it. The programmable thermostat is the worst designed piece of crap electronics I have ever encountered. It’s totally not intuitive. They left a manual that is completely incomprehensible and I’m left swearing at the thing trying to figure out how the hell to get my heat to go off. The manual does not appear to match the model of thermostat they installed. I’ve had more geeky friends look at it, and no one has been able to figure out what the hell it’s doing. I appear to have succeeded in programming it to do what I want, but then it does something entirely different.
Also, the internet option is total garbage. I can’t use it at all. I can’t even log in. I have a Pepco account, and it has a link on the home page to my new thermostat. But when I click on the link, I am directed to a second sign in page with an error message. I apparently need to create another account because my login information for Pepco doesn’t work on this second sign in page. But there’s no link that lets me actually do that.
If you own your own home and you want a programmable thermostat, just go out and buy one. I would’ve done that, except I’m in an apartment and don’t have the option. When my building started participating, I stupidly assumed that even the cheap programmable thermostats from Pepco will be fine. That’s been my experience with similar programs in two other cites. Nope. Guess I should’ve known better than to trust Pepco to get anything right.