StarTex Power

They are the very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very WORST ELECTRICAL SERVICE PROVIDER so far. They have the very very very very very very very very very BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. They are fraud. No integrity. Liers. Even knowing that I have a NEWBORN IN THE HOUSE! They don’t have a heart that’s all. They supposed to start the service in my address, all docs and welcome kit are received but when the service date came, we don’t have electricity. Called them and said they cancelled it (without notifying the consumer so how I supposed to know about that) and they tried to change my selected plan to their preferred HIGHER COST PLAN! I said no so they sticked with my original plan. Later on I called again to follow up they said there is was no pending application so I made a new one and ofcourse I HAVE TO APPLY FOR A NEW SERVICE AGAIN FOR THE SECOND TIME, and the cycle happen again until I applied for the FOURTH TIME AND THEY ARE STILL REALLY TRYING HARD TO CHANGE MY PLAN AND DOES NOT WANT TO PROCESS MY SERVICE. (I did everything they said including sending my ID TO
. How I wish to throw you guys up to the constellation because you don’t even know what compliance means! Well after the fourth application nothing happened. So it’s time for me to change to a better provider and after the day I have my electricity back thanks to the very good provider I have THAN THE EVIL STARTREKS ON THE STARTEX COMPANY!!! Afterall, all I can say is they are very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL EVILLLL!!! (Believe me guys, they worth and deserved to be called that as it suits them)

Just like pretty much any other electric company. Looks like ¾ of the one star reviews are just based on people that don’t know how the game works. Yes the jack up your rates when you contract expires. Just pay attention to when it expires and sign up with another provider. Yes they charge you a higher rate if use use less than 500 kwh. I never did, but pay attention when signing up. Sure their customer service isn’t the greatest. It’s not
and the majority of the other companies are just as crappy. I got a decent rate. Used them for 3 months and moved on to another company after three months.

If you are just moving to the area or changing energy companies I really urge you to look elsewhere. Like a few other people have said this company is the epitome of bait and switch. They promise you low energy costs but then tack on fees and «surcharges» which added up to twice my energy usage every single month! Every month I was charged $ 9.99 for not using enough electricity! For a ONE bedroom apartment my bill ranged from $ 102 at the lowest and $ 167 at the highest, and we do not run our A/​C or heat ²⁴⁄₇ like you would expect with those prices. If you don’t want to feel ripped off every month for paying twice your actual energy usage look for another company.

StarTex Power is perhaps one of the worst companies I have ever encountered. I’ve been a customer since 2011, but no more! Their customer service is absolutely appalling. It seems as if they use an antiquated system of pen and paper because no one can read the system well enough to answer questions. Every time I’ve called they’ve told me something different. And, on top of it, my service was cancelled and NO ONE contacted me to inform me. So when I called to find out why I hadn’t been receiving invoices, I was told that then that it was because my service was cancelled, due to a miscommunication on their part. I was told that my service would be cut off today so I tried to create a new account. Then, apparently that didn’t go through either, so when I spoke to customer service today, he had no idea what I was talking about, and had to transfer me immediately to a higher level of customer service. I am disgusted with this company and their services. Hopefully it’s not too late for me to switch to Reliant.
If you’re just moving to Houston, or are looking to switch companies, do NOT use StarTex Power. They are too much hassle and too much headache.

Not a great company at all! They do the old bait and switch and the customer service is completely laughable. I would recommend that people go on true cost instead and find a service provider.

They need to hire more customer care agents, I had to wait over 10 minutes to speak to an agent and was very disappointed with the lack of professionalism showed by the agent.

Update– I was contacted by their rep on here with an apology. I’ve also have another issue though since then just trying to view and pay my last bill. When I log into my online account it won’t let me go anywhere except to the renewal page. I do not want to renew, I just want to view my last bill and make my payment. I spent an HOUR on phone with customer service today and they still never got it figured out… 1 HOUR!!! I have paperless statements so I couldn’t get my account # or anything since I can’t use any of the features of the online account. I finally hung up, went through old e-​mails ect to find account # and paid on the phone. I don’t like that I couldn’t view my statement though and I told them that is illegal for me to not be able to view my bill. I just don’t understand how the customer service could have gone so downhill. Glad I switched even more now as this latest incident shows again what a lack of knowledge and customer support they are now providing.

This electric company has horrible customer service… Makes mistakes but takes no responsibility for them, nor makes any effort to expedite a resolution. I would give them NO stars if I had that option. Their price per kW /​hr is not any bargain compared to other carriers… so why use them? Don’t …I made the mistake of using them and continue to regret that decision… I will soon change when I move and I will NEVER use Startex power again.

WATCH OUT!!! These guys will HOSE you when you get off your fixed rate.
They bait you in with a low fixed rate, then when your contract expires the roll you to a variable rate and totally SCREW you!!! I went from an 8 cent rate to a 16 cent rate. It DOUBLED when I went from fixed to variable.
VERY deceptive!!!

Do not fall for their low prices. I used them for 3 years, was happy with their payment system, did not have any issues until I moved from that place and closed out my account. They sent me random charges after closing out my account and paying off my final outstanding balance.
Called their customer service # with 45 mins of wait each time, atleast twice. No one could explain those additional charges, they re directed me to the energy provider saying it was a bill correction, which the energy provider denied. I ended up paying the outstanding amount of over 300 $ just to get out this hassle. I still have no idea what I paid up for.

I have been a commercial user of StarTex Residential & Commercial for the past eight (8) years. I have stuck with this «Titanic» of a electric provider thru thick & thin (not exactly sure why) even as they were gobbled up by mega corporation Constellation Power.
Probably the main reason that I have stuck with StarTex was to keep my accounting/​billing simple, but since the sell-​out to mega corporation Constellation Power, StarTex no longer even offers consolidated billing of multiple accounts (I have a mix of 8 – 10 residential/​commercial accounts).
The final straw. A few months ago StarTex billed one of my brand new accounts 400 kW-​hr of electricity, for the 1^st month that this account was in place, StarTex called it «Estimated Usage», no basis for StarTex billing of 400 kW, said they had a «meter reading» issue, did not know what to charge, just figured a baseless guess of 400 kW-​hr would be appropriate. Never mind that the new electric meter was sitting in a cow pasture with no load connected whatsoever. I called StarTex, asked the StarTex rep what to do about this erroneous bill, she asked me to send in a «good faith payment» (which I did) and wait for the corrected bill to arrive. Well a few months later, I receive a letter from StarTex’s Bill Collector in Ohio. StarTex never bothered to send the promised Corrected Bill via US Postal, email or phone. What the f&@%k! I have once again stated to StarTex and the Bill Collector that they need to provide an accurate accounting of electric consumption in that cow pasture if they want to be paid, else my only option will be to start rolling my other StarTex accounts to a new electric provider as the StarTex contracts expire…
In the meantime I have researched the options for Texas Retail Electric providers, came up with a short list of: Reliant, TXU and Champion Power. Based upon my interview with reps from all three contenders, I will be rolling my StarTex accounts over to CHAMPION POWER as the StarTex contracts expire.
(I am also in process of drafting complaints against StarTex which will be lodged with the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Public Utilities Commission.)

DON’T EVEN CONSIDER USING STAR TEX POWER. They are deceptive with their pricing options and you’ll regret signing a contract. They have all kinds of hidden fees and I promise you, they will rip you off. DO NOT use other «unbiased» sites stating their prices are competitive. Star Tex pays for them. Check out ANY other company, you’ll be glad you did.

Hoo boy, regarding the last paragraph of my first review. Based on what I’m seeing online, they did in fact go downhill after the sale, and then downhill again during a website redesign.
Hoo boy again — Google «StarTex complaints.» (But, to be fair, Google for other companies — I have come to the conclusion that they are *all* pretty bad.)
I’d also recommend checking out the hidden reviews before making your decision. I haven’t had any of those issues, but I haven’t called customer service in years. I’m going to try it before I renew, that’s for sure.
(I did try three times on different days and times. Twice the phone was answered immediately, once I was on hold for about 15 minutes. I find this acceptable. I can’t say anything about the service afterward, as I did not actually need anything except to find out if they answered the phone in a timely manner. They did.)
I’m researching extensively and coming to the conclusion that there are no good power companies. At all. Thanks a lot, lege, for loosing «deregulation» upon the land. «Power to choose» doesn’t mean much if all the choices are bad. I sure wish I lived in a city with municipal electricity.
Piece of advice, for what it is worth. Don’t go with *any* company that does not belong to the BBB. Looking at complaints and bad reviews, it looks like going through the BBB is the only way anyone ever gets a problem resolved.
StarTex does belong to the BBB. I’m looking at the resolved complaints there, and I think they may still be the best of a bad lot. I hate change, so I’m probably going to renew, with fear and trembling.
Here are more places to research power companies besides just
— I have my doubts about that site’s statistics.
Be sure you do go through
, though. I saw the plan I wanted there, but it was not available on StarTex’s site unless I used the
coupon code. And I had to copy and paste the code, as just clicking the link sent me to sign up as a new customer.

Very frustrated with their customer service as of late. We have been with Startex for years… never an issue until recently. In February we never received a bill… I called them and found out the meter was never read… so after waiting a long time to get ahold of them for something that is their responsibility… they had to expedite a read and I quickly received calls and a bill to pay this bill. There was no shortage of people to call me with that info.
I transferred service when I moved last month and received an extra 150 on my bill… again after waiting a LONG time on hold… I was told I would have to pay that and later be credited because their new system does not allow them to credit. It is crazy that I would have to pay a penalty when I was doing something that was within my contract… I was NOT told this when I arranged this transfer. yet I was told I had to pay this and be credited later so I wouldn’t get late fees… ABSURD!
Too many mistakes. when I arranged the transfer I told them to send the bill to the same place… SURPRISE…it was Not and another mistake occurred. I have been trying for days to get ahold of someone. But each time they say there is a 45 to 1 hour wait time… who has the time for this… and their costs are not great anymore either!
So…after waiting 30 minutes… I finally talked with someone… hopefully the mistakes will be taken care on my next bill. The customer service rep told me that they are aware of the hold issues… due to the new system and website… I was told the same thing 2 months ago. Either they need to hire more employees or accept they are losing many new and old customers!

Used to be great company, after constellation takeover it’s the worst. I found out when I had to call them and they says it’s a 45 min wait to get a hold of someone. Needless to say they lost al long time customer. I haven’t even started on their raising rates. I’ve already contacted
a few days ago haven’t gotten a response so please don’t reply with that. So sorry this great company went south.

I called four times to cancel my service when moving, and emailed them three times. I left a message, and had someone call me late at night 3 days later, and I missed the call b/​c I was asleep. I held for FORTY MINUTES three times, and ended up hanging up. Then I left my fourth call on speaker phone, and SEVENTY minutes later, they pick up. No one was concerned about anything, and I very respectfully told them how horrible their customer service was (never received a reply to the emails btw… ever). They didn’t seem to care whatsoever. I mean not even a little bit.
If you run a business, you have to be available. Ten minute hold times are questionable. 40 – 70 minute hold times are out of the question.
Also, regarding rates, they should contact you via phone or in writing about being off contract. No one ever did. Not cool. Many, MANY other energy companies do this.
Stick with Reliant or TXU. As big as they are, you can actually get someone on the phone, believe it or not.

Cheap prices but terrible customer service, website never works right and nobody ever answers the phone, which makes it hard to know when your next bill is due and how much it is until you get the bill in the mail, you can pay by phone, I have used other electric providers just as cheap with good customer service so I will not be coming back

I’ve been using StarTex Power for about 5 years and was happy until recently. Their rates have been slowing going up in line with the other big boys. The one thing that worries me is their customer service has really gone downhill. I tried calling them about budget billing and was on hold for over 20 minutes before I hung up. I even tried calling them when they first opened at 7am. I got a recording about how busy they were. I waited 15 minutes before hanging up again. I emailed them, but didn’t receive a response until 7 days later. Even then, I don’t think the answer I got was correct (based on an information flyer a received in the mail). Since their rates are higher than others and their customer service is below average now, I’ll be looking around when my contract expires in March 2014.
The problem with switching providers is who to choose. Doing some research, all of them have bad reviews.

I have been a commercial customer for 5 years. I recently got a bill that seemed high and went back to review the last few statements. I discovered they read my meter 2 times in the month of October and billed me. The next month they charged me again for the same time period. I have called 5 – 6 times to get the $ 50+ credit on my account and no one ever returns my calls and or completes what they say they will do. They keep passing the buck and say that Centerpoint is responsible. Centerpoint says Startex is responsible and gives me the specific name of the person to contact. No one at Startex will connect me to this person (Janie)and she says (via instant messaging to the customer service rep) that she does not know what I am talking about.
Very frustrating. Therefore, they will be losing my business when my contract renews.

I was with StarTex for 6 months. The only reason I changed was for a much cheaper rate but I highly reccomend them.
It was very easy to sign up with StarTex. They performed as promised and each bill was exactly what I was expecting — no extra charges or other billing issues.
I never had to contact them for a problem so I can’t really rate their customer service..