Novec Energy Solutions

Beware. I did not want to renew my gas contract and requested to cancel a month before contract is over. 2 months later, still did not take effect. When I called, they said it may take 2 billing cycle. Now I receive a notice that the service will end after 2 months. That means I am stuck with them for 5 months after the contract ended. Meanwhile, they are overcharging every month. This has been a big scam that costed me more than $ 30 extra per month. So, when you see any special offers, run.

Not happy with NOVEC at all… no compassion and will make sure next place I live is not in their service area.
Below is the exchange.
Ms. Ringel
I appreciate your response. What has upset me is the lack of flexibility within your organization where a customer has an unusual circumstance and the implication by Mrs. Walls that I was somehow lying when she responded to my explanation by stating, «You’d be surprised by how many people say they will pay and they don’t.» Ignoring the fact that I can provide documentation from my bank that the payment has been sent. Additionally there is a deposit on the account and the history of the account is that it has always been paid on time.
Although the original error is my fault, I somehow overlooked my electric bill in October. Today is not a typical situation for me. I am in Canada right now visiting my father who is in the hospital and that is why I did not receive the phone call. I did however retrieve the voicemail alert and this is why I called your office immediately to rectify the situation. I travel for my job and I came straight to Toronto from business trip in Philadelphia last week to be with my parents. My college age son is at home and I was concerned that the power would be cut off on him before I get back on Wed. I explained this all to Mrs. Walls but apparently that didn’t matter.
I work in customer service myself and I do understand policy. I respect that there are repeat offenders out there who do not pay their bills. However, I also know that exceptions are made when there is a human element to a situation and there is sufficient proof that a customer is in need and shows documentation that they have paid their bill. If your policy is truly that inflexible that is a very poor state of affairs and is an indication to me of the «co-​op» that runs your organization. Very disappointing indeed.
Thank you again for responding to my concern and I will be sure to share this experience with all my friends and contacts via my social networking avenues. Needless to say when I look for my next home I’ll be sure to find one that is not in your service area.
Signed by Customer
On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 1:53 PM, Customer Service (NOVEC)
wrote:
Dear xx
I like to start out by confirming the payment you made this morning for $ 153.09 thru the Western Union Speedpay system. This payment is sufficient to remove your account from the collection process, and your account is no longer in danger of being disconnected for non-​payment.
Just as a note, NOVEC’s automatic telephone calling system did call you this morning at xxx-​xxx-​xxxx at 11:42 am to advise you that your account was past due. Since you made a payment this morning, you can safely ignore that call. As stated above, your account is now paid to date and is no longer in the collection process.
I am sorry that NOVEC collection policy was such a shock to you. It takes many of our customers by surprise. Unlike other companies who allow accounts to go 30, 60 or even 90 days past due before starting their collection process, NOVEC begins our collection process on the 11^th day after the due date indicated on the bill. If a payment is not received by the due date on the bill, all accounts are granted an automatic 10-​day grace period. However if the account is not paid by the end of the grace period, the account does become eligible to be disconnected for non-​payment at any time after the grace period expires. And yes, unfortunately, NOVEC’s policies do not allow for payment arrangements, extensions of the due date, or partial payments to satisfy the amount owed. Mrs. Walls and the two CSR representatives you spoke with all informed you of the same policy; that since the grace period had expired, they could note the account that a payment was scheduled for November 6^th, but that note would not be sufficient to prevent the account from being disconnected if a collections disconnect order was written.
I don’t know if they also informed you that part of the financial policy is that accounts are not considered paid until the payment posts to the account. If you had sent in bank statements proving that your online payment was scheduled for November 6^th, since the payment hadn’t posted to your account yet, the account was not yet «paid» and therefore was still eligible for disconnect.
The amount in question was the September bill for $ 153.09 which was due for payment on October 17^th. The grace period expired on November 1^st which is why you received the phone call today that the account was past due (those calls are made the day after the grace period expires).
Again, I apologize that we were unable to accommodate your request today within the policies and procedures that we have to operate within. Although NOVEC is not as flexible as some companies you may deal with, we are more accommodating that some of the utilities in the area

Beware. If you sign up for this service, it will be clear you have a one-​year contract. What will be LESS CLEAR is that the contract will AUTOMATICALLY RENEW for a FULL YEAR unless you cancel within days of the renewal date. AND they will seek to enforce this. And the customer service agents are either snippy or unavailable.