HOUSTON -- Some electricity companies are charging big fees that customers probably don't even know they're paying.
Each time a family is disconnected, whether it’s because they got behind on a payment or because they moved to a new place, it costs to re-connect.
Bonifacio Martinez said he's seen it happen to his friends over and over.
"And you call back and they're still hitting you with another fee. What choice do you have but to pay the fee," Martinez said.
People whose credit is a problem end up paying more money for the same electricity. And it's getting worse according to a consumer group in Austin.
"This is the situation that we predicted would happen and wanted to prevent," said Carol Biedrycki, with Texas Ratepayers Organization to Save Energy.
The ratepayers group blames a lack of regulation allowing confusing offers from among the dozens of electricity marketers.
"It's very difficult to track all these hidden costs," she said.
The group said after days of reading the fine print, it uncovered hidden fees in many of the offers.
For example:
$150 for re-connecting your service
-$19.95 if you pay electronically
-$5.95 if you pay by phone
-$5 for a phone call reminding you to pay
And even a fee for not using enough electricity, as much as $12.95 a month for using less than about $65 worth.
But beside those hidden fees, consumer advocates said what also concerns them is a new innovation: prepaid electricity. It is kind of like pre-paid cell phones -- you pay first then get so many days worth of electricity.
Ads for it are popping up in newspapers, but there's already been trouble. For example, a small electricity marketer, like a now-defunct company called Pre-Buy Electric. It sold pre-paid electricity to thousands of Texas customers but suddenly went out of business.
The state's public utility commission fined it $1,866,000 for violating customer protection rules.
But the commission tells us it never collected a dime. It says it has no idea where to find the company's owners or determine how many customers lost money.
The same story is with another company, National Power, which was also fined $1.8 million, none of which was ever collected.
In what may seem a shocking revelation, the commission says the two companies quote "went out of business without any contact information. We could never locate them...We referred it to the Attorney General. They had similar results."
The state regulators had no idea who was running companies it licensed to sell electricity?
"The Commission should be investigating before they allow these companies to go into business," said Biedrzycki.
So what is the commission doing?
"We should investigate those companies," said Donna Nelson, with PUC.
Last month, commission members acknowledged what that consumer group found.
"There are a lot of charges in there I find pretty offensive," said Kenneth Anderson, with PUC.
But while some members seemed concerned that fees could be exploiting hard-working people, one said fees for things like reconnecting service could be justified.
"There's paperwork and their staff time," Nelson said.
Nelson also defended pre-paid plans as generally a good thing.
"I don't want to drive companies out of business when they're offering customers products that they want," she said.
But maybe that's the question: is it what people want, or simply the only way some can get electricity.
"I work hard for my money, and I don't want them taking it from me," Martinez said.
The consumer group is asking the utility commission to stop electricity providers from charging excessive fees.
