Complaints

This profile includes complaints for BC Hydro's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  BC Hydro

  333 Dunsmuir St Vancouver, BC V6B 5R4

  
• 

  BC Hydro

  PO Box 8910 Vancouver, BC V6B 4N1

  
• 

  BC Hydro

  4320 Wallace St Port Alberni, BC V9Y 7M9

• 

  BC Hydro

  6494 Norcross Rd Duncan, BC V9L 6C1

• 

  BC Hydro

  1105 Evergreen Rd Campbell River, BC V9W 3S1

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:13/12/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have been a BC hydro customer for many years. I recently moved and my service was cut off as of Dec 3. When i heard about the cost of living credit in November, i called BC hydro to see if i should extend my service date to Dec 4 to qualify for the credit. The person i spoke to said no, you had an active account as of Oct 1, so you qualify. **** ****** ** ********* ********* ** ** ** ** * ****** *** *** **** **** * ******** ******** ********** 
  
  Now i come to find out that the person i spoke to was "wrong" and i won't get the credit. This is completely unacceptable and insulting. I took the time to call BC hydro to confirm i was eligible. I kept my service on from Nov 1 - Dec 3 so i would qualify, despite moving most of my things into my new place by mid november. My new place has hydro included, although my rent went from ***** ** ****** ** * ****** **** *** *** ********** *** ***** **** ** *** *** I paid my BC hydro bills on time for my entire account history. It is not my fault that i should not qualify for the credit because your staff made an officially induced error. Please be advised I am just seeking my $81 final bill to be paid off. I dont need an additional credit paid out to me.
  
  This cost of living credit was designed for people in my economic situation. **** * ***** * ** * ****** ******* * **** **** ***** ***** ** ** *** *** **** * ****** ********** Please do the right thing and stand by what YOUR employee told me. This has stressed me out so much and it is not fair! Please do the right thing!

  

  Business Response

  Date: 20/12/2022

  We acknowledge and respond to
  the BBB’s Case for the customer regarding the cost-of-living credit.
  
  We’ve spoken with the
  customer to discuss their account concerns further.  Upon review and investigation, we have
  resolved this customer’s complaint.
  
  We trust that the information provided
  addresses the concerns raised by the customer to the Better Business Bureau.
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:27/10/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We called BC hydro for removal of services and a temporary line. They send in a crew that looks at the box and turns around and says it's not clean we have to get a crew to clean it, a weak and a half later another crew comes in and say the neutral is lose we can clean. Now waiting on another crew to fix the neutral. Now BC hydro calls and says the wire might need to be changed we will charge more, still not a single minute of work done so far over a month has gone by.
  BC Hydro is doing this on purpose, they need 3-4 crews to maintain a single box? no they don't, this is a way for them to calk up more appointments for a simple temp line and end up charging thousands of dollars more for a service that should be easy to complete.
  These boxes are BC Hydro owned and maintained so to keep them clean is their job and on top of it, they know when they last cleaned them. So, why send in a crew to look at something you already know isn't clean just so you can give another appt for cleaning?
  
  There is no record kept of when any job is done at BC hydro? they don't know 'hey we sent out 70 crews and 60 of them need cleaning' maybe we send out cleaning crew first? NO, they do not do this because these are "planned inefficiencies" in place to make the utility more money at cost of citizens time and money.
  
  These guys have wasted over a month of good weather because they just do 'planned', 'ineffective' service calls to lengthen the time of a call and to increase the number of calls they make per household for a job.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 04/11/2022

  We acknowledge and respond to
  the BBB’s Case for the customer in regards to an installation for temporary
  service.
  
  Homes that are built pre-1980
  often have issues with infrastructure on public property (such as direct-buried
  wires) so we send crews out prior to the upgrade to identify any complexities. In
  this instance, a site check was required as the home was built in the 1970s.
  
  We received the initial
  request for a service change on September 22, 2022.
  
  This work involved civil
  crews, line crews and a designer to ensure safety standards were met. It took
  multiple steps due to the complexities that were identified and needed to be
  addressed as the job proceeded. This is not out of the ordinary for underground
  upgrades and for age the of the property and infrastructure.
  
  We acknowledge that the
  timeline did get pushed out multiple times. There are standard turnaround times
  for this type of work and, as the work was progressing, we communicated to the
  customer at each phase of the process what the timeline was for the next step.
  When the customer expressed frustration, a supervisor contacted the customer to
  let them know that we would put a rush on the order.  
  
  Our electrical contractor let
  the customer’s electrician know we were ready to complete work on October 27.
  This was not convenient for the customer’s electrician, so it was scheduled for
  completion on November 3, 2022 and we understand work was completed on that
  date.
  
  In total, had the work
  occurred on the date identified by our electrical contractor, October 27, the job would
  have taken 23 business days to complete from the date of the initial request to BC Hydro. 
  
  We trust that the information
  provided addresses the concerns raised by the customer to the Better Business
  Bureau.
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/11/2022

  
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me as the work was completed. BUT again for a business that has monopoly on providing this service a turnaround time of 21 days is abhorrent. For them to say it got pushed back is easy when they aren’t the one’s separated from families or paying a mortgage. There is absolutely no reason for this type of work to take as long as it did. It’s done this way cuz it lines someone’s pockets. Shame on you BC HYDRO take BC out your name if you think you are a private for profit company.
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  *** *****

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/10/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On the beginning of September I received a letter from BC Hydro telling me They were gonna disconnect. upon receiving this letter I went online to the website and set up a payment plan which came out to 170.80 over three months to catch up. I opted to pay online and was directed to BChydro Third party CC system.. there was a set day on Sept 26th the money was to be taking out of my account.. when the 26th hit the money was still there.. I assumed it was because of the 2 new holidays that everything was kinda wonky for dates. October 3 hits and my power gets turned off.. the money is still in my account.. I called BC hydro and spoke with the supervisor who told me that I have to pay in full and my power will get turned on.. I explained to her the situation. And she didn’t care she was rude and unwilling to see the fault in there system and or screw up on my end.. I have 200$ worth of food in the fridge and she said she couldn’t do anything. The money is in my account I don’t her and I set up the plan.. to no avail.. I don’t know what to do..

  

  Business Response

  Date: 28/10/2022

  We acknowledge and respond to
  the BBB’s Case for the customer in regards to their catch-up installment plan
  and credit card payments.
  
  On Sept 15, 2022 the customer
  was disconnected for nonpayment.  On September 21, 2022 the customer
  created a catch-up installment plan online for their past due
  balance.  An email notification was sent to the customer advising the
  arrangement was created successfully and explained that the payments will need
  to be made for the catch-up payment plan and the current charges. It was also
  explained in the notification that failure to keep these arrangements would
  result in the total amount becoming due immediately.
  
  Please note that BC Hydro
  does not accept credit card payments and all customers inquiring about this are
  referred to a third-party payment company to send credit card payment.
  
  The first catch up payment
  was not made on the agreed-upon date thus causing the catch-up payment plan to
  go into a default status, triggering full payment of arrears becoming due immediately.
  As the customer did not pay immediately, they were subsequently disconnected
  for nonpayment on October 4, 2022. 
  
  On October 4, 2022 the
  customer contacted BC Hydro, and a representative explained that BC Hydro uses
  a third party service to take credit card payments. During this conversation
  the customer was directed to the third party for any issues or concerns
  regarding their credit card payment.
  
  The customer was given a one-time
  exception to re-establish the catch-up plan and was reconnected. 
  
  We trust that the information provided
  addresses the concerns raised by the customer to the Better Business Bureau.