After the cold, windy, and rainy day and night of Halloween, we experienced flickering of some of our overhead lights in the house. It was intermittent, but sometimes it was as intense as strobing. We talked to neighbors and discovered they had had something similar going on in their homes. I made a report using the website, figuring that perhaps Consumers Energy might like to see a pattern. But then these same lights cut out completely. My girl, doing the laundry in the basement, got caught in total black, but not being a scaredy cat, she found the fuse box and said to me, "It's buzzing. I don't think it should do that." I found a flashlight and made my way to the panel. Clicking on and off each fuse, I found the one that was buzzing. I kept it off. But it was crying water. Now well after 5 on a Friday, we talked to an electrician who said that as long as we didn't mind not having certain lights - we could adapt, we decided - they'd be out Monday. Otherwise, the after hours costs would be formidable. The appliances, the furnace, etc., were all working, so we decided to wait. After 7, a troubleshooter arrived unexpectedly from Consumer's Energy. He thought the presence of water from a fusebox suggestive and disturbing. He looked and checked and assessed the outside lines and equipment - though our fingers were crossed that he'd find where the water was coming from - the numbers on his devices were within the normal range, and the insides of the meter were bone dry. So he ruled some things out, but left questions to be answered later. He was professional and thorough, and we found his counsel helpful. As I said to him, my girl and I are of a mind that when you run into solid service, you say so, preferably by communicating to the boss of the person who provided you such good service, about your satisfaction. The Consumers Energy website makes that impossible. So I made a phone call instead. read more

Random bill spikes, rude and dishonest CSRs, outage restoration nightmares, tried to start a fire near my house because they replaced a line but didn't disconnect the old one that they just left in the brush, before powering back on (morons), and constant messaging about how wonderful they are (no, you aren't). read more

Wish there were negative stars above- at least there is a place to vent about the terrible relationship they have with customers-I am not even calling it service. That's what happens with a monopoly This company has held up our build and final installation since August and it is now after Christmas.....resulted in finishing our build, costing us rental income and many trips and phone calls to get incorrect (false) deadlines, dates, etc. We will likely end up suing them-you can you know? if this last promised date does not come through. The MPSC takes and responds to Michigan complaints and tries to help, but has not changed anything for us. Worth a complaint though if you have not contacted them. read more

Was forced to use consumers when I had an apartment at pine knoll. A year later, I get a call from collections for a payment of $16 That's a lot of work on your end!! But enjoy the $16 read more

It's obnoxious not have power from Thursday may 15th and receiving over 6 updates that our power will be restored within 8 hours. I would rather be told our power won't be restored until Monday may 19th which is most likely when our power will be restored. Stop lying about the update time of when power will be restored to a certain area. read more

Electrical service is horrendous. Very unreliable. Frequent outages and always lie about when service will be restored.

We should be able to have another option in electricity coverage. If you are looking to get solar DISCONNECT COMPLETELY. get 2 or 3 backup battery systems so that 1 or 2 can charge as the last one works your home. If you stay connected to the grid consumers will punish you. Our breaker got turned off last winter somehow, we think it happened when the well people put in a new well but anyway for 2 months we had no solar coming in before we noticed. The bill got up to over 3000 because we were on a payment plan when they said they wanted to redo the plan. When we realized we were floored. We have been on the payment plan since until they just told me they wanted to up the payment plan again yet it was almost paid off...... they said they were estimating payments based on the past years usage. I said no you're not, you don't get to just ASSUME what we are going to use first off. Second off it's almost paid off. And we have been cutting the usage down because last month was like 885. When the actual usage only came to 445...... so here's what they do to solar users. They put a cap on your solar. So in summer if you produce over 103 percent they steal it and don't pay you for it and then they charge you to get your solar value given to you.....oh and they cut your actual solar value. So let's say you have 40 percent solar that came in, well you only get 30 percent. They decide what it's worth. And they also charge you double the fees as normal users that don't have solar. So your distribution fees are WAY higher. So jokes on them we shut the breakers off to the barn and the garage and every other breaker I found to be unnecessary, we barely use the lights, we only have one fan going on our woodstove, one heater in a room that can't get heat and we use one tv at a time as well as make sure we barely use anything else. The goal is to starve them of the money they are trying to grape from us. We will save that money over the next year and get 2 backup batteries and have consumers completely disconnected from this property. Oh yeah and I paid off that last amount and with all the severely reduced usage the bar on the bill plummeted. Next year consumers will have one less customer and I suggest anyone who wants to be rid of the increasing rates get solar and make sure you have backup batteries!!!! We are going completely solar and wind powered and consumers can kiss our you know whats. DONE WITH YALL.​ read more

All the trucks sitting around town, could have documented all of the tree limbs laying on the power lines, but instead they wait for our power to go out in a gentle wind so they can get easy overtime pay. Unacceptable! read more

Why do 60mph winds take down their outdated lines for days when those are normal wind speeds for so many other places? Because they have no competition, no incentive to innovate, and minimal oversight. This leads to a lack of much needed infrastructure upgrades, more outages, and their workers being forced in to dangerous situations at all hours of the night. There are power lines leaning over the streets of Kalamazoo about to fall but Consumers Energy spent over $43 million dollars on political contributions in the last couple years? Living out of state I lost power once in 10 years and it was because of a hurricane. I've owned a home in Michigan for four months and have lost power 6 times. It's unfortunate to be living in the negative effects of allowing utility companies to hold legal monopolies. If you can pay your CEO a multi million dollar salary you can afford to keep the power on. read more

I just discovered the energy usage page I can log into on the internet, and see my usage for every individual day. (I expect this is available because I recently got one of the new meters.) This is the coolest thing ever. For the first time, I have some chance of actually understanding why my bill is higher or lower, and maybe trying some changes to lower it -- ***and being able to see the results the next day***. AND I signed up for text notifications when there is a power outage, so if I am not at home I will know. Pretty nice. I could never *do* anything with my power company before except receive the bill once a month, cuss, and pay it. read more

Come on Consumers Energy. Get your stuff together! I don't want to talk to Every single person you employ and all your supervisors to get my power back on. If one person tells me it will be on within the hour then turn it back on within the hour. I don't want to talk to anyone else the next day while you explain to me why your staff enjoys getting paid but not doing what they are paid to do.... Unless "what they are paid to do" is shut the customer up. Your supervisors must make so much money since they are the only ones who can do Anything yet they are never at their desks. Just give me a realistic expectation of what my time frame is. Called at 8:40am was told 15 mins and power would be back on, 5 people and 10 hours later (with no status updates other than when I called to check) the power was apparently turned back on while I was at work. Congrats consumers you did it! :) read more

I Work for a management company, we deal with Consumers on a weekly basis, I call them to switch over billing addresses or when accounts seem to be messed up for a number of reasons etc. I have never had a company where every single customer service rep that answers the phones acts like I am an inconvenience to their day. I have been in customer service for 10+ years and I can tell you right now not one employer I have worked for would allow me to treat people the way I am treated EVERY SINGLE time I call. Its your job to answer the phone and help me with these issues in a pleasant manner yet I am always treated like an annoyance, you get paid to be nice and yet you cant seem to even do that so consumers I ask you, what are you even paying these people for?! Get them training or hire people who are more positive and upbeat and are willing to work for their pay check because right now you do not have that. Do better. read more

This company has a monopoly in the kalamazoo area. They don't read meters and then send you a $700 bill saying your usage has been estimated and you owe an astronomical amount even though you pay what they bill you for every month. They never notified me that I needed a meter read and did not conduct one for over a year. My monthly bill is usually $200 and they sent me a bill for $700. Apon calling customer service representatives just tell you that is owed and offer you a payment plan with no proof of estimated bills or consider this detrimental to your normal budget. The real problem is in my area you cannot get another power company and can not close out the account without consumers sending you to collections if you don't pay supposively owed amount. I have used this company because I have to have power and gas for over 10 years and even though I have paid my bill in full for over 10 years every month they are just slapping me with this ridiculous bill. I'm very disappointed and upset by this and nobody at this company can offer any help. read more