City of Austin Utilities - North Branch - Austin, Texas

Ernesto Enmanuel

Excellent, very professional service. The person who took care of us was friendly, bilingual. They open exactly on time. The very clean offices only accept cash payments. No credit cards. Or debit. Take your cash for the first time, grabbing electricity service until now. Everything is fine. We'll see how about the service, the shipment of the bills and the billing…….

BN Omondi

Worst experience ever. Don’t even try. Their payment system and method is a scamming scheme. They’ll make sure you suffer. Wdym I have to make cash payments in this time and age? And your offices are closed over the weekend. Horribly ridiculous. I am tempted to say “do your worst” and let them cut off their services if they want. Rubbish service.

Lexi Chantel

10/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND, if you can find another company to get your electricity through, please do it. I asked the company to remove my auto pay and paid the bill online via card. I was still charged by auto pay and I am now required to make in person only payments. I have never seen a company not allow a debit card payment, especially after a mistake on their end. Will 100% be lodging a formal complaint with the Utility Commission of Texas and I recommend you do as well.

Seth White

They will force you to pay in cash only if your bank doesn't have the funds more than once. I thought this was extremely weird, so i asked them directly why they'd restrict people's method of payments, this was their word for word response:

"Thank you for contacting Austin Energy. We received inquiry regarding your cash only status. Unfortunately, the cash only status is based off the number of return payments that have been received on your account. Regardless of the reason for the return payments the cash status will remain on your account for one year pending no additional return payments are received."

Unfortunately, I was in the process of switching bank accounts which led me to not having enough money in the account I signed up with, and now, I have to take time out of my day to go to a bank, withdraw cash, then show up at their dirty store in person, waiting in a long line, just so I can pay them an overcharged power bill in cash.

This makes zero sense, and is completely stupid. If you want money for services, why are you restricting people's method of payments? Unless you're doing something nefarious, which at this point, I'm quite confident is what this trashy little company is doing.

Haley Caruso

Horrible customer service and not helpful at all unless you’re having a major emergency. They closed off our access to the city water shutoff valve without notice and refuse to provide help with the broken residential valve. Their only solution is to have someone “in the next 48 hours” come turn the city water off and then leave us without water until we call back to schedule them to turn it back on. They are creating major problems by limiting access to water and claiming it’s a liability issue. Wish we could avoid using them.

oeillet et etoile

City of Austin makes paying one's utility bill incredibly aggravating. My paper bill often arrives only four or five days before it is due. If I happen to be going out of town, there is no way to pay it before I leave, and I am forced to pay an excessive late fee.

I am sure they want everyone to sign up for automatic debits, but they have massively overbilled me before. If I had let them take the money directly from my account, I would have had to wait a long time to get it back. What about paying the bill online? Well, that won't work because their website is so flaky it won't let me set up an account despite having been a customer for fifteen years.

If the insane billing situation isn't enough, several houses on my street could have burned down due to the inadequacy of CoA's tree-trimming program. They went over a dozen years without addressing the trees growing into the power lines in my neighborhood. Despite calls, they didn't come out until the trees were sparking in the lines and making massive popping sounds. It makes me wonder why my bills are so high. I pay over $500 a month for electric, water, and trash, and my usage rates are no more than average.

Addz

Dirty rotten scamming company. I could write several pages about the hell they put me through, but I'll truncate it instead. They will send you notifications for the following:

+Online activity
+Bill due
+Bill overdue
+Bill payment
+Bill ready

Notice how they could easily fit in 'Payment Declined' onto that notification list? The reason they don't is so they can charge you fees by time you find out there's a problem. Additionally, if you change payment methods they will still try to charge the old bank account, thereby intentionally generating a declined payment. Just from reading the other comments here it is a miracle this company isn't involved in a crippling amount of litigation against them. What a joke organizations are these days...

Lia

I just moved to the Balcones area from Wells Branch a month ago and just got my first bill. Please do your research before moving, when I called to transfer services the rep on the phone said there would only be 2 fees included in the monthly billing, NOT 7! I use to pay AT MOST $70 for electric and now I'm being billed $125 where the majority of the cost comes from fees alone? COA DO BETTER.