I have over a $600 electric bill. No big deal. I owed the money, it is my bill. I set up payment arrangements with OGE to pay the balance over 6 months knowing that I would have it paid off sooner than the 6 months. My first payment was due on the 9th of September. I went to the same place I have always have gone to, Sooner Money Tree, to make my payment. I made the payment on my lunch break and decided to call them after I got off of work to verify that they did receive it. It has been the only location in Midwest City, OK to make payments on your electric bill. That excludes the PaySite machines inside of Crest Foods, which has stolen my money from me before so I do not like to use them. Well when I got off of work I went to make the call to verify and give them my receipt information because this is the way OG&E had done it for as long as I can remember. I went through the automated system and it did not show that they had received payment so I needed to speak with the customer service representative and give my receipt information to show that I paid the amount that I was supposed. To my amazement, when I started speaking with the customer service representative, she informed me that they had not done this procedure in a very long time and that Sooner Money Tree is no longer an authorized payment center and they would not accept payment from them any longer. She also informed me that if I did not make another payment, and made sure it was posted before midnight on September 9th, I would be in default of the agreement and subject to disconnect. I was very upset because I did not have the money to make another payment so I asked to speak with a supervisor. When the supervisor called me back, he informed me of the same thing. He told me that Sooner Money Tree, Wal-Mart, Buy for Less, and several other places were no longer authorized payment centers and that I should never make a payment at any of these sites. I told the supervisor that I knew Sooner Money Tree and Wal-Mart both state that they are authorized payment centers all over their walls and that I am supposed to be able to make payments at these centers. He told me that they were lying to me. He told me that what they do is accept my money put it in money order form and mailed it to the company and that that was the reason why OG&E will no longer accept the payments from them and several other businesses. I asked him why the customers were not informed of such a drastic change in payment options, because like I stated before this has been the only way to take care of your electric bill in person in the Midwest City/Del City area. He never answered my question directly. He told me that the only place that I can make payment and OG&E would accept it is online, through U.S. Payments using a credit card/debit card, or in the mail. After I got off of the phone with OG&E the first place I called was Sooner Money Tree. The woman that I spoke with assured me that they were an authorized payment center and that OG&E was just being hard-nosed about accepting payment plans but that I could not get a refund on my payment and that my payment should be posted first thing Monday morning. OG&E says that it still has not posted. So I had to find some other way to make a payment. Luckily I had a friend who was able to make a credit card payment for me and it was posted in time. I had to call them back first just to verify that a credit card payment would post in enough time and they told me that it would. Now I called OG&E on my lunch break today, Monday the 12th, just to verify that payment went through and to see if the payment went through from Sooner Money Tree. The credit card payment went through but the Sooner Money Tree payment has not gone through as of yet. The representative on the phone for OG&E told me that I could go to several different places to make my payment, including Buy for Less, and that they were authorized payment centers. The representative also informed me that the wait time on the phone is because of the same issue with other customers. I asked her as well why, knowing that it is such a big problem, would they not contact their customers and let them know of the changes. She did not have an answer for me but said that she would put it in as a suggestion from her and not as a complaint from a customer because a complaint from a customer would be ignored.
This is just the very short version to what has happened in my own situation. I have gotten nothing but the run around from both of these companies. Sooner Money Tree and OG&E. I have not gotten complete answers and I have gotten different answers on both ends. No one can tell me anything or where my money is at. Why is OG&E allowed to hold a monopoly and treat their customers like they do? Why are they not regulated better? I have never had any of these problems with the gas company, the water company, or even the phone company. I am low income so this is not the first time I have had to make arrangements on my bills, but I have tried to always make sure that they are paid. To top it all off the customer service representative informed me that all she has been doing is taking phone calls all day because of these exact same complaints from other customers and that is why the phone lines are so bogged down and so many customers are being disconnected, yet OG&E does nothing about it. Something needs to be done.
Please if you have a complaint regarding a situation like this contact the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Make your voice heard and do not keep allowing them to do this.
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