Reviews

Review Details

• Review fromDeja J

  Date: 07/16/2025

  1 star
  I am filing this complaint because Payless power continued to charge my prepaid electricity balance even after they themselves issued a disconnect order on my account.On 7/15 the company turned off my service at their own order. Despite this, my prepaid balance continued to decline, with charges applied while I had no electricity service.When I contacted the company for an explanation, I received [no satisfactory answer / was told daily fees still applied / was given unclear reasons]. I do not believe it is appropriate or fair to charge customers for service that was officially *************************** by the company.I am requesting:A full investigation into these charges.An itemized statement clearly explaining the deductions after disconnection.A refund or credit for any improper or unjustified charges applied after the disconnect order.This practice appears to be deceptive and unfair to consumers who cannot use electricity but are still charged as if they had service.
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 07/17/2025

   Hello and thank you for the opportunity to address this issue.  To recap your complaint, you are concerned that funds continue to be deducted from your account while your service is disconnected due to non payment. It can be especially frustrating  if you don't have an full understanding of how the billing works on your account however I can assist with this. 

   As a pre-paid power customer, you are of course billed daily for usage, taxes and applicable fees. It is also important to note that you are billed 2 days in arrears. For example, the daily invoice you receive on Monday morning is for usage consumed on Saturday. This is because Payless Power would not receive the meter read for Saturday until Sunday evening. Our system then calculates the charges for all of our customers Sunday night through early Monday and sends out the daily invoice text message Monday morning around 9:00 AM. Because of this you will always have 2 more days of usage applied to the account even if you remain disconnected for a couple of days If you are disconnected more than 2 days no additional energy charges should come in unless there is an account adjustment. 

   There are other charges that would come in daily even if an account is ***************************. The first would be non-recurring fees such as a payment processing fee or reconnection fee. Payless Power has 2 main non-recurring fees that may be applied to an account . The first is a reconnection fee of $30 and the second is a payment process fee of $4.95 for payments posted that are less than $75. If you have a reconnection fee, it will be divided up into installments of $3.00 for 10 days. If you have a payment processing fee, it is set as installments of $.99 for 5 days. We do this to ease the impact of the fees to a customers account balance. Most customers find it easier to pay $3.00 extra days for 10 days vs having $30.00 deducted from their account all at once. These installments would be deducted every day the account is open whether the service was active or not and stop after all installments have been applied. 

   In addition, a customer could have a deferred payment plan which is usually set up  to be repaid at the rate of $1.00 per day . If you have an open DPP installments would be deducted every day the account is open whether the service was active or not.

   Finally, every customer in ***** is required to pay a monthly TDSP charge every month. This is outlined on the Electricity facts Label  portion of your service agreement. You can review your specific documents on your Payless Power MyAccount Portal under the section called "Important  Documents." This month fee is charged by your local Power Utility and passed through to you. If you had monthly post-paid service, the whole amount would be applied at once. Since we **** ***** we prorate that fee daily as well. It averages about $.17 per day for most customers but will be applied even on days the service is disconnected.   

   Since I have been able to look up your account, I will request that a supervisor contact you about your daily charges. They can send you a Statement of Usage and Payments  that will break down the daily charges for you. If you access the MyAccount Portal you be able to see your itemized daily invoices and itemized monthly billing statements as well.    

  Kind regards,

  Customer Care

• Review fromVee T

  Date: 05/28/2025

  1 star
  My sister switched to this company and in less than a week she regretted it! They dont tell you about all of the additional fees. My sister received an email stating that her usage is 13 dollars a day, thats $390 a month!! Thats outrageous! The bill should not be more than $175 for a small apartment! Also, they promise to remove the switch hold and the next day its still there preventing you from going to a different company. Meaning you have to continue to pay them until you can switch or you get disconnected again! When my sister called they were very rude and making smart remarks because she asked for a manager- the lady said you still have to pay pushed hold so that my sister couldnt respond. This company is very unprofessional and needs to be investigated. I will be submitting the info to attorney general and consumer relations for the state of Texas! This company is sneaky, they are scammers and they are out to hurt people instead of help! I will email the CEO as well and see how that response goes, hopefully they are more professional than the people representing them.

• Review fromSean C

  Date: 02/04/2025

  2 stars
  First, the good.The company makes it pretty darn easy to setup electric service, and quickly too. They allow prepaid, so no credit check, and it was a great help to me when I bought my house (cause that puts a dent in your credit...). No issues during the term, and the price was reasonable at the ********, the not so good.I received a reminder to "renew my contract" with them four months into a six month contract. Ok, so I go to look at their rates for renewal, and I see prices 4-5 cents/kWh higher than what I'm currently paying! That would mean I'm paying ***** extra a month for power! So I go shopping, and find a different company that is significantly less (depending on time utilization). Ok, good for me, so I wait a month and a half or so and switch over. Well, at the time I didn't realize that they sent the alerts that early (two months before the contract is up), and they didn't disclose the official "end date" where they would swap me over to a pay-as-you-go rate. I would have had to go back to the contract, look at the start date, and do some quick math. My fault for not doing it, and I got slapped with a $100 early termination fee! What in the...That's just what happened today. A couple weeks into my initial month of service, I look at the itemized bill, broken down by day. Turns out they were charging me an extra $1.15/day, regardless of usage! Note here that that's not to pay my grid provider, which are the bigger companies (like *****) that handle the power infrastructure for entire states. The fees that go to them are baked into what you pay and added naturally based on usage, and this reoccurring fee is a fixed amount! Where is it coming from???So, your call if you want to go with these guys. I like that they help people to just *get* power. I don't like that they don't readily tell people "hey if you quit before X date you'll be hit with a massive fine," and I especially don't like the daily fee with no explanation.
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 02/06/2025

   Hi, ******************* you for sharing your experience. I  was able to locate your account by using your name.  You have a couple of concerns so I will try my best to address them one at a time.  The first concern involves the renewal offer for your plan.  Your comments state that the renewal offer did not show the expiration date of the plan and since we  sent the renewal offer so early , it prompted you to switch and this resulted in an Early Termination Fee.  I can understand why this would have been upsetting  but please let me address the issue.  The first paragraph on the first page of your renewal letter contains the following verbiage including the expiration date .

  "Its time to renew your electric service with Payless Power!
  We certainly appreciate your business and want to continue to provide you with great savings. Previously, you chose Payless Power as
  your *************** Provider and selected 6 Month - prepaid, a fixed-rate product that will soon expire. We have arranged for two options
  to choose from once your current contract expires on 3/6/2025."

   Also please note that the *************************** regulates how often and how far in advance these renewal offer letters must be sent out.  Still, I can understand the issue and a supervisor will contact you to discuss  the matter. 

   In regards to the renewal rate, in some cases rates on the renewal offer may be higher than the original plan. There are a number of factors that could  affect this but one thing to consider is your usage. As you pointed out, Your original plan also has a daily customer fee of $1.00, The renewal plan had a customer fee of $.33 per day or a saving of $.77 per day.  So in your case, if you use 15 KWH per day  its the same price.  If you used 17 KWH per day its around $.10 more per day  or $3.00 more per month... all with the ease of use you liked and no qualifiers based on usage, time of day targets and other gimmicks.   I hope this helps and down the road please consider coming back and giving Payless Power another try.    

   

• Review fromTony W

  Date: 12/16/2024

  1 star
  They survive off of fees to customers. They gauge. This is not the best company that you can get. Please do more research before signing up.
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 12/17/2024

  Hi ****-  Your review states that  Payless Power gauges its customers with fees and because of this is not the best Company. I regret to here that this is your primary experience with us. We agree though that all customers should research potential electric providers in advance of signing up. A customer that does this with ********************** will find that our KWH rate is comparable in price to all major competitors. We also only have 2 non recurring fees.... One is a reconnection fee and the other is a payment processing fee for payments under $75. In both cases we give customers multiple options in how to avoid these fees.  For example, were you aware that you can avoid the payment processing fee by enrolling in autopay and you can set your autopayment as low as $40.00?  We also lessen the immediate impact of applied fees by recouping them in small daily deductions instead of in a lump sum. However, if you don't want to do this just call us and we can help you pay a fee off all at once. Research with our competitors will reveal Payless Power's has fewer and smaller fees than our competitors.  We would be happy to discuss these topics with you  at ************.       

• Review fromMichelle C

  Date: 09/18/2023

  1 star
  Payless power will not allow you to disconnect. This is a prepaid service. And they require for you to pretty much have a balance at all times over $25 more like $50. So with that being said when your account gets down to $25 they hit your automatic payment for $50 which that is what they require. I forgot they require a $75 deposit at all times meaning thats the least amount of payment you can make. so this is prepaid right? So getting ready to transfer Services relocate move out. Each day they would provide a daily summary of how many days they estimate you have left so we calculated it perfectly and sure enough Services got disconnected on 31st of August which is perfect or was perfect I thought. Online theres not an option, well there is an option to disconnect, but it wont let you disconnect. unless you push it out A week or two I think September 11, 2023. What is the date we were receiving online But I called around August 4 to speak to someone to make sure they understood that we moved out would no longer be needing their services oh by the way when trying to disconnect on September, **********, it kept telling us we could not in service or transfer service or get another provider because we were on a switch how old and how is that possible on Free pay? You paid before you use it right? So anyway here they were hit My Account for about $50 every week. If not twice yeah! By the way, there is no paper documents whatsoever and you cant even open up their documents online to see what your usage is or was. Anyway, lo and behold can you believe that yesterday they hit my account for $143? They never close the account when I spoke to the person on the phone. They never did anything except daily kept trying to hit my account for $143 balance for what? They are not authorized and I dont appreciate it. I looked everything up online on their website and yes, indeed my Bank what is linked in for auto pay A requirement from now, or at least an option to save money.
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 09/19/2023

  Hello- We are not able to locate an account for you using  the name or email address on the review. It it clear that you are very frustrated  about certain aspects of the service so please contact us at ************ so we can clarify and resolve these issues for you. Based on the information you have provided I will do my best to address your concerns. Payless Power does not require a balance of $25 to $50 at all times. If you have autopay activated, an autopayment will be triggered when you drop under your threshold but autopay is optional. The benefit is that a customer with auto does not have to worry about disconnection and smaller payments can be processed without having the $4.95 minimum payment fee  accessed. There is a fee of $4.95 applied to payments under $75 (unless they are autopayments) but you can make payments under $75 and have a balance under $25. The only stipulation regarding payments is that our systems cannot process a payment less than $20. This is listed in the terms of service.

  A customer may cancel at any time with a couple of exceptions however there may be an early termination penalty. The first exception would be if you wish to cancel on a weekend or holiday. You local utility will not perform those orders on those days but will on their next working day. The 2nd is if you have an unpaid Deferred Payment Plan (***). A *** is a payment arrangement that you agree to when you contact the company to try to avoid disconnection for non payment or seek to reconnect service without a payment.  We defer the past due charges and recoup the money in installments (usually $1 per day)  from your balance. Until the amount is repaid, a switch-hold is placed on the account meaning that another company cannot provide service at the address until the hold is lifted. You can pay off the *** at anytime without penalty. If an account has been *************************** for an extended period of time our system will eventually close it . If this occurs within your contract period an early termination fee may be applied and if you have autopay then the final balance due is charged to the card. This settles your account and allows you to avoid collections efforts. I hope this sheds light on your situation but since I cannot locate your account I would encourage you to reach out at ************ for more information.             

• Review fromJuanita V

  Date: 09/06/2023

  1 star
  The worst company I have ever dealt with over exaggerated price I am a single mother and had to pay $530 so they can take off my switch hold to change to another company I would not recommend this company at all that was my savings money
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 12/12/2023

   *********************- As someone raised by a single mother, I have some idea of how hard it can be to keep up financially, During the summer ( the 3rd hottest on record) your home was consuming large amounts of electricity. The extreme heat also resulted in length weather moratoriums that prevented disconnections. This resulted in many customers  accruing very large past due pre-paid balances. Once the heat advisories were lifted, these customers faced disconnection with no real way to pay off the past due balances at once. Payless Power would then allow these customers to take a deferred payment plan which allowed the past due amounts to be repaid in small increments while keeping up with the current charges. That is a difficult task  but we committed to giving you these options . Please note that we do not exaggerate or inflate the amount of power reported by your meter. You can check your usage and billing by enrolling at www.smartmetertexas.com . This is a free site operated by the  ************** and allows you to see what your meter reports at the same time we can . You can use this with whichever company you are currently using.       .  

• Review fromShauntee B

  Date: 09/05/2023

  1 star
  I used their service a total of 5 days. They removed a disconnect fee from my account to which they said they would refund because I was under the 30 day limit. They told me it would be **** days. This was a month ago. I am going to blast on EVERY ONE of my social media sights to stay very clear if Payless power! They are frauds!
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 12/12/2023

  *************- Your review states that you have concerns about a disconnect fee and refund. To clarify, you were never disconnected so there was never a fee of that type applied. There was an early termination but this would credited back.  A refund check was issued and your accounts notes show that you contacted us on 9/7/23 stating that you had not received it . At that time you were advised that you would have to wait for 60 days for a replacement check to be issued. We have not heard back from you so we assume that you in fact received your check. If not please call us at ************ so we can check the status of the check with our bank.    

• Review fromWilbert G

  Date: 08/09/2023

  1 star
  Easily one of the WORST power companies I have ever used. They lie about your usage and charge your account more and more with the less you use. 50$ last less than 2 days and when I put $100 it last the exact amount of time. Truly terrible customer service and fraudulent claims. STAY CLEAR
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 12/12/2023

  Hi *************- Your review states that  you feel that Payless Power falsifies your usage. You cited an instance where you consumed $50 in 2 days.  The only account I can find under your name or email was from 2021. Feel free to contact us to discuss any billing questions you may have. I also urge you to register your meter at www.smartmetertexas.com. Payless Power do e not estimate or inflate your charges. You are billed based off your specific usage has measured by your meter.  We will be happy to go over this with you even though its been seemingly several years since you've done business with us.    

• Review fromMar B

  Date: 06/22/2023

  1 star
  If I could give 0 stars I would. Anyone wanting to switch beware that the first month will be low rates after then they will charge you more than any company Ive seen. When you deposit large amounts of money they take even more. Also beware that even if you unplug EVERYTHING they will charge you even more. I turned off all electric items except my bedroom during a few hours of the night and seen an outstanding increase in my bill, over $15 for 1 day! Just for 1 light being on. They will lie just read all reviews and NOT the ones on their actual site, they hand pick those. Rude customer service and management as well. First chance I get Im out. Beware this is not a joke!!
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 12/12/2023

  Hello- we are unfortunately unable to locate your account under your name /email address. We would like to hear more about your concerns so please call us at ************. Please note though that we do not hand pick reviews to post. The only ones that are not posted contain competitor adds or profanity and threats.  Please keep in mid that Payless Power does not estimate or inflate your usage. Your daily billing is based on what is reported by your meter. During a record summer that could be a lot  but you can always audit this at www.smartmetertexas.com .  

• Review fromMike H

  Date: 05/04/2023

  1 star
  Absolutely the worst. They dropped me though i had 50$ in my acct had to fight to get it back on. The reps laughed at me then lied. This is not a professional buisness at all
  

  Payless Power

  Date: 12/12/2023

  ***********- I would like to hear more about your issue- Unfortunately I cannot locate your account via your name or email address. Please email me at the address below.