Core Transport Agent Complaint Tracking

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) tracks complaints received about Core Transport Agents (CTA) on a monthly basis as a service to natural gas consumers and in response to consumer requests for this information. The CTA complaint tracking reports reflect both the number of complaints as well as general questions about CTAs received by the CPUC during the most recent 12 months. The complaints and questions are grouped into three categories: Billing, Service and Abusive Marketing. The categories of the complaints are open, and the listing of a complaint does not implicate the CTA in any wrongdoing.

Please be aware that the CTAs may not be at fault for some of these complaints. Since many of the claims are still being investigated, the CPUC does not know whether the complaints are legitimate at this time. For this reason, you should use this information in combination with other resources available to you in deciding which CTA will best serve your needs. As California consumers are better informed, the CTA competitive natural gas market will be stronger, and abusive marketing will occur less frequently.

Explanation of Types of Contact:

Categories:

  • Abusive Marketing: This category includes contacts related to deceptive marketing practices and unauthorized changes in service. These practices may involve misleading customers by not delivering the promised service or price, failing to provide necessary disclosures, or adding services or features without the customer's consent.
  • Billing: Contacts related to disputed items appearing on the consumer’s utility bill, the bill amount, early termination fees, and other billing concerns.
  • Service: Consumer contacts related to the service provided to the consumer by the utility including the responsiveness of the Core Transport Agent and service quality issues.

Subcategories

  • Abusive Marketing:
  1. Unauthorized Enrollment: Complaints about customers being enrolled without their knowledge or consent.
  1. Misrepresentation: Complaints about CTAs falsely representing themselves as Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs) and/or making misleading claims about lowering customer bills and/or quoting a lower billing statement to the customer during sales.
  1. Deceptive Sales Tactics: Complaints about CTAs failing to clearly explain that CTA charges maybe in addition to IOU charges, falsely claiming a gas leak to gain access to the meter, pressuring customers to sign up quickly, or using misleading statements such as saying a neighbor has already enrolled.
  • Billing:
  1. High Bill: High Bill refers to situations where a customer is told their bill will be lower than what they would pay with the Investor-Owned Utility (IOU) or is promised a rebate or refund for past bills during sign-up, which does not materialize. It can also refer to cases where the customer perceives that their bill is significantly higher than when they were previously served by the IOU.
  1. Unexpected Charges: Complaints about unexpected fees, such as high early termination fees or customers being billed after canceling service with a CTA.
  1. Billing Adjustment: Agreeing to provide a credit or coupon to a customer, then failing to deliver or becoming unresponsive after making the promise.
  • Service:
  1. Customer Service Inadequacies: Complaints about:
  • CTAs failing to answer calls or having voicemail boxes that are full or unavailable.  
  • CTAs listing incorrect or non-functional customer service numbers on their websites (e.g., out-of-service phone lines).
  • CTAs not providing a customer service number when soliciting customers.
  • CTAs not offering language support for customers, such as Spanish-language services.
  • CTAs directing clients to the CPUC Consumer Affairs number instead of their own.
  1. Tedious Cancellation Process: Complaints about:
    • CTAs promising at the least a 24-hour cancellation windows but being unreachable by phone when customers try to cancel.
    • CTAs confirming cancellations but still charging customers, then becoming unavailable when the customer follows up.
  1. Unauthorized Termination: Terminating the service without the customer’s consent

 

Complaint Tracking

Click the appropriate to view results.

Utility Enforcement Branch Citations

On October 25, 2018, the CPUC enacted Resolution UEB-003 adopting a Core Transport Agent Citation Program, delegating authority to the Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division (CPED) to issue citations of $1,000 per incident to CTAs that fail to comply with the standards for verification of change in provider requirements described in D.18-02-002.

 

To see a list of CTAs who have received citations from the CPUC’s Utility Enforcement Branch, visit Energy Citation Programs and scroll to the bottom of the page to view a list of recent citations

 

Related Programs

Related Divisions