The Empire District Electric Company Review

Unbelievable, I received a bill for almost $900 most for a vacant rental which was switched on simply to preform a home inspection prior to selling. I've done this multiple times in the past between tenants and bills would not exceed $30.00. Everyone complained about empire and now look what we have. I will fight this till the end for myself and every other person experiencing similar issues with this company.

I absolutely hate Empire! Greedy and uncaring and rude!

Very Poor operation.Several people living with no electric at all.Non Digital Meters.They can easily be tampered with.They refuse to send me a regular bill.Always send a disconnect.I think it's an embezelment problem they have.

Quick and easy way to pay the electric bill. They are always willing to accept my money :).

I am a single mom and barely make ends meet. I am now in danger of shut off even though i pay on my bill every month. My electric bill has tripled over the past few months and i havent run my AC!! I am so fed up with this company...i have had problems since i moved here...looks like i will be moving again. How the heck can this be good for the community?

Wow.....those millions you make can feed all of us that aren't eating because we can't afford to buy food to have electricity. I hope you take a hike, that rates well on my list. GREED. Good on ya ZERO STARS.

The staff here are always incredible. Now, raising prices in a community already struggling? That s just bad business. When you hold a monopoly, who cares? Right?

So just a heads up, If empire finds out you lived with someone who owes a bill to Empire they can legally charge you that bill also. I did not sign anything and they still charged me my aunt's bill cause i lived their for a month, without power mind you.

They don t care about any customer they keep raising prices

Robot claims my account # is invalid, and no humans at 3pm on a Saturday. Why are we giving these greedy people a guaranteed 120% return again? Oh, so the top guys can "earn" 450k/year while paying their reps $10/hr part-time.

Just food for thought, as a company you shouldn't have your customers pay a convenience fee to pay their bills online or over the phone. That's a cost that needs to be figured into your companies operation cost. It's ridiculous , especially when we have been ordered to stay home to help stop the spread of COVID-19. I will pay my bill on time lesser the amount of your online convenience fee.

I understand that the electrical utilities are actually worse in South Sudan, and Nigeria, so I gave them a two compared to the worst in the world. They like to push their weight around sending out Turn off notices within days of due date, when you have never missed a payment (25+ yes), and have proof it was sent early. POS service.

They need go back to empire they are extremely unprofessional hung up on me when my power is out I have people with oxygen in my house really

So far every Worker I've dealt with is very professional and pleasant.

Heather was very nice and helped me set up a payment plan. She also set me up on a average payment plan. It's going to help me alot. She didn't talk down to me or treat me like I was below her, like some of the girls there do. If they are bored with their jobs, maybe they need to be doing something else. They need some empathy to work there. When they lose that, it's hard on the customers. I feel embarrassed enough coming in there to set up payments. I want to pay my bill, but being on a limited income makes it hard. So thank you Heather in the Joplin office. You treated me like I mattered. You made my day! God bless you.

Very poor customer service, estimates meters and milks customers for money.

High price utility. But it's the only choice we have

I have nothing but good to say about staff. We encounted problems befANDore we moved and after and they did everything to make it easier. I say THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN

Ok I know we all hate high bills. My comment is on the prompt after hours emergency response and the amazing customer care that was given. Maybe sometimes those dollars go to pay for some employees that know they are cared for and in turn show extra care to the customers. Or maybe I just got extremely lucky on a quarantined Monday night...either way I'm very thankful and feel cared for..5 stars!!

Usage has not changed and yet bill is now over $200 a month instead of the $75 a month that it has been for the last year.
So glad they sold. Welcoming their replacement.

Crookedness light company You'll ever be with. Don't do it.

Two weeks ago I was paid ahead positive $200 now when I go to turn on new service at my new place, somehow they re saying I owe $500 .... scam artists

Awful customer service and who else gets to estimate how much a customer owes them?! Ridiculous

This company is horrible. I live alone and hardly ever home because I work alot. I dont believe you read our meters. There is no way my bill should be so high. Believe me if I could use a different company I would. Worst company ever. To many othet charges on my bill besides what I used for electric. Sure wosh Empire was back

To sum up Liberty utilities in on sentence. More outages than a third world country at triple the cost. Bill's are always outrageous I understand that in a older house you'll loose a lot of energy in your heating and cooling. I'm saying after new windows and adding insulation anytime we get our bill close to manageable they have a rate increase atleast 3 times in the last few years. NEVER EVER buy a house if it's hooked up to Liberty Utilities. You'd be better off with a generator. In the art of full disclosure I'm typing this while sweating out the third outage in less than a month.

Horrible company . I tried to get electricity in my name and my 8 month pregnant girlfriend was going to move in with me . She owed 600 dollars and they wanted to put her on the accountant but then we would have to pay it in full which is just ridiculous.they refused to do payments .she decided to move in with a friend to make things less complicated but they still won't let me put it in my name.she luckily has a place to live but they say I'm linked to her and refuse to let me open up an account. I'm barred from moving into a place and turning on electricity for a debt that I don't owe . How is the right or even legal?

Liberty is saying our solar system produces 20% of our usage. Sun Solar reporting shows well over 100% of our usage being produced. When I call I get bounced around and then hung up on. Service reps become very defensive and rude upon hearing the word solar , still waiting for a call back, on my second week there. So here s the final numbers:

$350 a month before solar
$600 a month after solar

Terrible service since they were bought out, not that it was much more than Walmart greeter service level before. You would think they would be more helpful considering they buy a kwh from me for 3 cents and sell it to all of you for over 17 cents per kwh.

Typical big guy that stands on small guy to make his living. All the more reason to go completely off grid and get away from these companies that have zero values and even less ethics.

They did respond quickly but very, very poorly trained and not at all helpful. Wanted something clarified. Employee was surly and vocabulary limited to "I don't know." I asked to have a customer service supervisor contact me during business hours the next day and the reply was "you will have to call back." Extremely unpleasant and frustrating experience. But you have no choice in my area and they are well aware of the fact. They can provide poor service with no consequences.

Service has improved over the years. Customer service seems a little incompetent but stayed on the line and helped until my issue was resolved.

Easy to deal with. Easy to pay bills. They make it simple.

I don't normally give bad reviews. However, this utility service provider seems to have gotten much more difficult to work with and more likely to make mistakes ever since the were purchased by Liberty and stopped being Empire.

Liberty utilities doesn't even deserve one star. Extremely high bills, HORRIBLE customer service, and outages take way too long to get fixed. I have had nothing but issues since I've moved to Missouri and delt with Liberty utilities.

Customer service is great, except for Dana. Ryan & Nikkie are phenomenal. The cost of electricity is insane, fees are super high and deposits are absurd. #goingsolar

Quick friendly service along with options for kiosk pay.

We and 3,800 other people are out of power supposedly for the next three days. Yet my friends on the other side of town have Carroll Electric and never have power outages when we do. Sick of this company s poor service. There needs to be a prorated bill as well as a gift card given to all the customers you disappointed who lost the groceries in their fridge due to this.

Empire is a total scam! My last bill from them was $470 for a month and a half. They don't go out and check people's usage gage, especially in the winter. And on top of that if you pay your bill late but never have a balance still owed they will charge you a turn on fee for a new address! I don't know what kind of world they live in but when a college student has a $200+ electric bill it's probably going to be paid late. I wish they didn't have a monopoly here in Joplin. Newmac is amazing and I wish they serviced my area.

Their employees are very rude I wish there was other electric companies to go through it's kind of a monopoly for our town

Great if just dropping off something in a slot in the door. Wasn't happy when we found out there wasn't anyone there. Just information on the door about where to go to make payments&a phone number to call. What really irritated us was,a lady who answered the phone said we could go there to take care of a problem. When we got there we found that to be a lie. It was very hot that day&we had our puppy with us&no air conditioning in our vehicle. They really need to hire people that know what they're doing.

AWFUL corporation, awful humans who work there. We live in a 1500 square foot house and received a bill in September for $460 and October for $625. Obviously there is an issue, so we called several times before they finally sent someone out to "investigate." They came back saying there was nothing wrong, but after he came out our usage went down from reading over 100 a day to 10-40 a day... We have been calling for the entire month trying to speak with someone about this, they said they would call us back 5 times, never did. So we called again today and they said too bad basically. If anyone else has had an issue like this, please reach out to me!

I had heard a lot of bad stuff about empire, I just moved here and when I went to cut my electricity. Someone had used my name as a kid and was an outstanding bill. They had it cleared up at 8am on the dot the next morning. I talked to 3 different ladies. One on the phone two at the office. They were all very polite very helpful, professional & very fast I have no complaints. Thanks y'all

I wished I could give this place a negative 5 star. This is an extremely crooked company and absolutely poor customer service in the office or on the phone. They are declining me service because of my daughters ex boyfriend of over two years ago who owes a bill. I have to pay his $985 debt off plus a $400 security deposit even though I am a returning customer that left in good standings. I am a type one diabetic that is insulin dependant and I have to buy ice to keep my insulin cold because we have no power. I can pay my deposit but I refuse to pay my daughters ex boyfriends past due balance at a place I never even visited before. This company has a monopoly and they are well aware of that fact. Good luck if you have to do business with them.

Customer service representatives are not very polite and our meter is never read correctly

Big place for an electric company, definitely a noticeable building in downtown Joplin.

This is not where you pay your bills. The main office is at 602 South Joplin Avenue
Joplin, MO.

Poor accounting skills. They don't articulate correctly on the printed bill. It's like reading Greek! Terribly expensive! 500.00 per month for a small mobile home with only 2 occupants, my husband and myself.
What a monopoly I'm disgusted!

Update to previous review: After contacting Liberty for over estimating my usage, they made adjustments and installed a radio meter so they would not have to come into my yard with my dog to get a meter reading. The dog is why they were estimating my usage.

$13 fee to process plastic card payments online is wild.

They are so rude can't get a statement in the mail and when I called to see when it was mailed the lady acted as if I was stupid . Which I am not . Okay and then she wants to know the number on the bill which I haven't gotten yet so I do not know it ... They are the worst

Rude and She acted like i was stupid.But There is some i have talked to that is very nice also.

Never had a problem coming here. Staff is always polite and helpful. The only complaint I've ever had (minor one actually) is Liberty getting with me times along with other utility companies and get an online payment system going where there is no surcharge for doing it online or by phone. Once that is in place, I have no other issues.

My bills have been decent and it's nice I don't have to worry about paying my bill because it automatically comes out. You can't go in anywhere to pay your bill in Joplin.... Only use an account to have it taken from or mail money order. Staff is just ok.

Bad over the phone experience with Liberty Utilities customer service. Very unhelpful, company policies are ridiculous! Worlds worst power company! If business could be done elsewhere life would be a whole lot simpler!

They have made so difficult. You used to be able to pull up pay with your card and move on. Now it's either a check at the outside window cash at the counter or the kiosk from hell. Why so complicated. Everyone takes plastic. It takes your check ten days to process. Madding

They estimate your bill and won't admit it. I was gone for half a month and they still charged me over $100 for a one bedroom apartment. Scam.

Sends me 2 Bill's every month. Charges double usage. Paid bill off, got another bill for huge amount days later. If I could afford solar panels I would have them. F all this other bs.

Empire/Liberty whatever they call their selves these days. The bills are very high. People are going without medicine and food to pay the electric bill!

Wanting to increase rates charge 2.25 to pay a bill, went to my local grocery store to pay my bill now I have to use a kiosk, they make it so hard for the customer to pay there bill, not very good customer service and not making it easy for the customer.

TERRIBLE!!! The worst scam artists I have ever seen! My usage magically doubled the month i moved and didn't receive my final bill until after my first bill at my new house. They tried to blame it on cold weather for 35 days?!?!?! Tried to use past occupants numbers and they were a lot lower then ours and couldn't explain why so KATHY said oh it was colder this year too. I've lived in 5 different cities in two state and Empire is the worst electric company I have ever dealt with in my life.

Empire should really check to make sure their employees aren t doing ILLEGAL AND FRAUDULENT activity on their customers accounts.

An employee of Empire (who still works there & yes empire IS AWARE) ILLEGALLY AND FRAUDULENTLY entered into a payment promise/contract of a customer who didn t give consent nor was told about the contract so they could get FREE utilities at THE CUSTOMERS EXPENSE!!

(They {Empire Employee} STOLE someone else s information to enter a legally binding contract so they didn t have to pay their own bills! -PATHETIC-)

How a business can operate like this with employees like that is DISGUSTING!!

IT SPEAKS VOLUMES OF A COMPANY WHO WILLINGLY DO NOTHING WHEN THEIR OWN EMPLOYEES COMMIT FRAUD!

empire refuses to do anything in hopes that the ongoing lawsuit will work itself out and they don t have to get their hands dirty.

They are always slow it a guess who you get. Never see anybody a second time.

Setting up my account was easy & customer service was great. But now that I have an account with them , they decided to transfer my diseased mothers to mine telling me my name was on here account, lto which I know it wasn't. I was that called and told them to turn off her service. From other reviews I've read, I feel this company anybody or anything except making a profit.!

THEY ARE THE WORST!!!! I payed $300 to get electric put in my name in NOVEMBER and they still haven t done there job we keep calling back and all the girl has to say is oh it looks like you payed but they didn t put the order through are you kidding me! Absolutely hate this company!

I had the same issue as others. Called to check on a bill and the lady was very rude ...

This place is a sad excuse of a business. A business that has completely and utterly monopolized our market and leaves no choice but to deal with these incompetent jackasses. Rude, hard to deal with, ZERO customer service experience. I would give less than 1 star if possible

I liked empire never had any problems, and the transition to liberty has been smooth with no problems. Customer service is kind and quick, haven t had any long hold times unless there s a really bad outage. Rates have been reasonable

Not easy to work with, no communication, makes it extremely hard to pay the bill and when they shut off your electricity due to their incompetence, they make you jump through hoops just to get it back on.

hate going in there to pay your bill people are hateful in the there.

My bill has been outrageous. Im nearly paying for two monthly rent payments. My rent and my electric.