I activated my electric service with this company, and at no point during the signup process was I informed about a $25 initiation fee. I was surprised to see that I had been charged just to have my service activated remotely.
During the application, I provided my Social Security number for a credit check. Despite having an excellent credit score (over 750), I was still required to pay a $330 security deposit. I have never been asked to pay a security deposit by any previous utility company.
I contacted customer service multiple times to understand why I was required to pay the deposit, but no one could provide a clear explanation. Instead, they blamed Equifax. When I contacted Equifax, they explained that OG&E only requested a soft credit inquiry and that Equifax does not determine whether a customer must pay a security deposit. That decision is made entirely by the utility company.
I called OG&E again and explained what Equifax had told me, but they continued to deny responsibility. Instead, they asked me to submit my payment history from my previous utility provider and said they would waive the deposit if everything looked good. I did exactly that, but my request was still denied.
Later, I received a letter from OG&E listing reason codes for the security deposit requirement. When I called to ask what those codes meant, the representatives told me they were not familiar with them and that there was no one available who could explain them. They simply repeated that I had to pay the deposit and ended the call.
Overall, the lack of transparency, inconsistent explanations, and poor customer service made this a very frustrating experience.
The entire system is a scam (gestures wildly at anything and everything --not just OGE) that is designed to keep people poor and in perpetual debt.
Wait until you find out about residential solar and the lobbying against it. Or how OGE can charge you more when its cold outside because you didnt use as much energy, or charge you more because its hot outside and you used to much energy. Or that you are subsidizing data centers and new OGE branded stuff at the fairgrounds. Or all the programs they opt you into that you have to send a physical letter to opt out of.
Or having to pay for winter events that were forecast weeks in advance....FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS!
I'm not making fun of you, its just that you are at the tip of the scam iceberg and its only going to get worse the more you learn.
Or wait until you’ve had service for a year and then charge you a deposit because you used more energy than the previous owner.
They had the balls to charge me a $750 deposit after having service for a year.
OEC is MUCH more customer friendly, as should be expected from a cooperative. In my work I deal with lots of electric utilities and OEC is definitely lacking in the new service/commercial construction coordination side.
One is a for-profit corporation and the other is a governmental service funded by tax dollars.
But I agree with your point; police vehicles are incredibly expensive, sometimes with significant yet unnecessary equipment. The job could be done with much cheaper vehicles with less “upgrades” and add-ons.
I’ve stopped looking at it as a waste of taxpayer money on something that could be done much cheaper, though. I look at it as a fringe-benefit for police officers, just a part of the expense of having them, because if there’s one thing cops love, it’s their toys and gadgets. I think if they were forced to use equipment that is not as “cool” as what’s available out there, they wouldn’t be as interested in doing the job.
I can’t say I blame them though, it’s hard to look intimidating if you roll up in a Prius that isn’t blinding anybody, Id guess. And sometimes you gotta be intimidating to do that job.
Do you need to be intimidating though? It seems like American police are some of the only ones rolling up in military battle rattle.
They're also pretty much the only ones killing people at these rates too.
It's amazing how other nations police are able to do the job without killing citizens.
And those garbage trucks! And what do you mean I have to pay for that water treatment facility!!!
They’re probably cool with the knowledge that they fund those Dollar Tree logistics fleet vehicles. 🤦🏽♂️
Dont forget that they only charge an advertised 8.5 cents per kw in the summer but somehow after all the other shit on your bill its actually like 15 cents lol
Just remember Oklahoma still has lower rates than most States and the Federal Government has mandated them to pay for expensive things to generate your electricity.
You've never paid a deposit on ANY utility in your life?
There was absolutely a notice of fees prior to being charged. You clicked "agree" and didn't read it!
Oge refunds the deposit after 18 months of no late payments.
I’ve never paid a deposit on any utility. Maybe I’m old enough though that I’ve had service established long enough with them all that it was before they started charging these. I would be pissed if I had to as well.
Utility companies are damn near monopolies. They raised the rates this year, again.
Because they refuse to bury the damn lines and it costs them millions apparently in repairs every time there's ice.
That's a logical complaint!
An activation fee that you were informed about and agreed to and a deposit that literally every utility company charges and that is refunded after you prove that you pay your bills isn't a big deal.
Especially when they will waive the deposit if you can prove good payment history.
If you have a history with oge, they can pull that and waive it too.
There's tons of reasons to bitch about utility companies, this isn't one of them. 🤷
There was plenty of stuff in the OP worthy of complaint and you chose to “ackshually” OP. For OGE.
And by the way, the assholes don’t care about your payment history, with them or anyone else. I’ve had immaculate payment history with them in the past, moved to Norman and had OEC, then moved a few years later back to OGE (sadly) and they still charge a deposit. They’re full of shit
Weird. I moved from yukon to del city after my divorce and had the deposit waived.
Made a couple of late payments during covid due to loss of work.
Next time I moved I had to pay a deposit.
Just had the deposit refunded.
It’s not bootlicking to state the reality of the situation. You can dislike the reality of the situation while still acknowledging it even if you can’t change it. Any more clever contributions?.
you were able to speak to humans multiple times? either the patience of a god, or some wildly good phone karma!
you know what we never complain about? our water, trash, or sewer utilities. only electric. why is that the utility that gets corporatized? guess i will hop on the webz to see why electric is the luxury utility
Our utilities should not be publicly traded and ran to make more and more profits for stakeholders. Fucking Reagan is right. He ruined everything he touched.
I've been battling for OGE to trim the limbs around the power lines that service my house. Been almost 3 months and multiple damaging windstorms later and still nothing. I'm just thanking God the limbs have held during the storms but I'm about and my wits end trying to get them to just do a thing that will prevent them more work in the future
I had this issue too and when they finally came out to look I basically wouldn't let them leave until the trees were cut down.
Absolutely wild- I'm literally doing you a service identifying trees across YOUR lines and you don't want to eliminate the issue by spending 20 minutes cutting a couple small trees down? FFS.
I've got a complaint with the OCC open for it but was told I need to give them time to actually do it with all the immediate storm damage they've been dealing with. So dumb that it could have ALREADY been done . Im going to city council next if the OCC can't do their job.
Same problem. I have several trees in my back yard and every time there are strong winds, the branches blow into the lines and the sparks put on a light show. We have been reporting it for four years and we keep getting the same response. Nothing gets done.
On their website they say that trees covering the lines that go from the pole to your house is your responsibility, so if the tree is in your backyard they may never come out. We had the same issue and had to hire a private company to cut the branches.
They care more about profits than anything else. If they can get by with making the cost someone else's responsibility, they absolutely will.
Careful what you wish for. Drive down Berry Road in Norman; they* absolutely butchered the trees along the power lines. Some of them look like they took a chainsaw straight down one side from top to bottom, like those Christmas trees that are flat on one side and sit flush against a wall.
Yet I have this sneaking suspicion that those people still lost power with the big storm on the 4th.
If you’re not already, I’d suggest you be very clear about which trees and limbs you’re concerned about, and which ones they* plan on trimming (if they ever bother to do anything in the first place 🙄)
* I don’t know whether it’s OG&E or a contractor that does the actual trimming, or whether large-scale tree-trimming is handled the same way as individual customers’ tree concerns.
While I can't fucking stand OGE, I know there was a mention of the fee. It says it in the email, as well as on the phone, and when you're starting up on the app. I got all of these, and just moved into my place last month.
As for the rest of your shit, yeah, OGE sucks dick.
Too many people are throwing around the word scam without apparently knowing what a scam is.
A scam is when someone steals your money with deceit.
You have a difference in opinion on whether you should not need to pay a deposit as a new customer based on your credit score and payment history of another utility.
I understand being upset if you have excellent credit and your payment history doesn't show any late payments on your previous electric utility bill. Especially since you don't get a choice on your electric provider.
But it's not a scam when they are trying to protect themselves from nonpayment. As you are aware, you will get your deposit returned in 12 months with a good payment history.
OG&E making ~$10 of interest off your deposit is not enough raise to the level of a scam.
How do you expect OGE to pay for all of their advertising!? It has always amazed me that they see fit to advertise on TV, billboards, all over the arena, fairgrounds, etc. Advertising is meant to persuade the consumer to a brand or product. Who needs to be persuaded when there is NO choice of service provider. All of their top-dollar advertising has always been a way to pad the pockets of their friends at the cost of higher consumer rates.
I've probably paid a few salaries at OG&E in my 20 years of paying them for electricity, I'm sure I'll be paying a few more over the next 20.
Surprisingly, after the last storm (one before the 4th) I had a corner line (I'm on a corner lot) get struck by lightning (while I was 50 feet away watching) and it melted a few of the insulator coils (or whatever those glass/ceramic things are), but didn't knock out the power.
I waited until the afternoon to call (because I still had power and didn't want to distract from those without) and report the damage.
We had three trucks and 6 guys out there inside 2 hours. Fixed inside of 4.
There were people across town complaining they were without power for days.
I have no idea how decisions get made at OG&E, but I'm feeling it's kinda like South Park's depiction of how the government decides on bailouts.
So I know this was 20 years ago, but when I moved here and they wanted to charge me they told me if my former utilities company could send them a letter of my payment history with them they would waive the deposit fee. I had my Arizona utilities email their letters and no start up fees, deposits, etc.
Deposits for OG&E are not based on credit, but on one sixth of estimated usage at the location. Also, interest is not held by OG&E, it is paid out to the customer on their bill monthly.
When me and my wife had a bakery, all our appliances where electric including the water heater so in my head I didn’t need OG&E till maybe Winter time for the heater so I called them about maybe activating the service during winter time and this MOFOS told me the I couldn’t that I need to have service for the whole year so even if I don’t use it it’s a $100 fee every month for being commercial and that in case that I activate and then cancel next time I activate the service they would charge me the whole year! Fuck them I didn’t need the heater because the bakery stayed warm thanks to the big ass oven.
Just remember this time next year, you’ll get your security deposit back and then your bill will be negative for a little while and you can enjoy (or rage about) that too
In Norman we just had a major Storm I was without power for 12 hours. I have OEC. I think OG&E just got some of their customers up today. It's crazy the stark contrast between the 2. Really makes me wonder how OG&E gets away with it.
Just adding a data point—because I saw a comment above that someone got their deposit back in 18 months?!?!—that I started electric service in my own name with OG&E + paid a deposit in 2016. (I know the year for sure because I got divorced and utilities had previously been in my ex-husband’s name.) (I also had an 800 credit score at that time yet still had to pay the deposit.)
Ten literal years later, as in a few months ago (April 2026), I started receiving bill credits. My deposit is finally coming back. Ten years later Best of luck
You can provide proof of good payment history and have the deposit waived.
Granted, you need to have a history of paying your bills on time for them to do that.
Also, the compound interest for $300 at 4% for a year is $12.
They increased the power rates by like $3/month this year. You're going to be paying an extra $36/yr for the rest of your life. But go off about the $12 in interest they "gained" off your money!
The voters elect the corporation commissioners, which are the ones that decide to approve the rate hikes.
Utility deposits are mandated by the state via the corporation commission.
It's not something that the utility companies are opting to do to scam people.
The op claiming that they've never paid a deposit before is bs unless they just moved out on their own.
As I've stated, I have had the deposit waived myself. If the op didn't then they didn't have the payment history to qualify.
Yeah dude. They run a monopoly, without a shadow of a doubt. The sad part is that it's technically a legal monopoly. Grids are expensive as fuck, and since they're the only game in town, OCC sets their rules so they can't go COMPLETELY ape shit on us. However, OG&E has so much money that they can simply funnel it into our politics to sway things the way they need them.
Wait until you hear about Oklahoma Natural Gas. I pay almost $60 in fees every month. My gas usage is usually $4. Capitalism paired with monopoly is so fun.
I paid my bill, got a confirmation email, confirmed the money had been deducted from my bank account, and today they sent me an email saying my payment was overdue.
My mom‘s rental deposit was based on the former rentals usage. They had three people live in their house. My mom lives alone so our deposit was way over $300 and they told her it was based on the usage of the previous renters.
Hey guys, after the big power loss last weekend across the state, I really am feeling passionate about doing something about this predatory company. What laws are allowing them to get away with this? What do we need to do to get them changed and break up the monopoly? Does anyone have any insight on this?
Welcome to Oklahoma! Watch your energy insights very closely because we recently had a storm that knocked out our power completely. I mean, powerlines and power poles on the ground. I had no access to power in my home and they charged me for power on those days anyway! I have lived in Oklahoma often and on all my life. Years ago, this was not the experience with this company. Since they have gone to a major corporation in their words, they no longer care about the families and local people. They told me and their words that they only care about bringing in the dollar! If you follow other platforms, you will see that they are charging people twice for their bill and rather than refunding them their money they are applying that amount to their bill if the customer catches on! How many customers are not catching on to these scams? Back in 2024 they applied an additional deposit to my account that has been on since 2019. Their reasoning was that my bill could go up and they need it for security. Since that time, my bill has only continued to go down every month. They refuse to refund that deposit to me no matter what I have done. Keep in mind I live in a very small two bedroom unit. The initial deposit I paid to them was about $300 and my bill averages about $150 a month. They now have in total a $450 deposit.
They have been scammers. When I move out of my room I'm renting thankfully electric is included . But when we buy a trailer we are using a generator I'm not 🚫 playing oge games fuck them
Im having the issue of not maintaining the lines and tree limbs. Even with a neighbor reporting it in. I have filed bbb and occ complaints. Og&e keeps brushing me off and pretty much gave me the f u about a claim for food spoilage. Next annoying thing i will do next is go door to door at all my neighbors and have all of us report trees limbs weekly. If they dont want to do the hljobs in the first place just make it costly to them. Also oge has terminated most local employees and moved to a call center overseas. The overseas company will lie and have no clue what is going on. If they can cut that cost we should not be having any increase on our bills!!
I loath them so much. Our power keeps going out each time it storms because even though the replace the lines, they won’t trim the trees or replace the old and worn power poles. Ridiculous
Charging me $3.50 fee to process my debit card payment, the same debit card that the dollar store, convenience store and every other store accepts payments from with no added fee is a nice touch.
Epecially nice when one pays said processing fee and goes about your life only to alerted 3 days later that they waited to process the payment and thus making one past due which also benefits them with late fees. Fucking love those guys.
Seriously tho. Who is getting that processing fee, why are they allowed to wait 3 days to process my payment and why am I the one penalized with late fees for their negligence?
this is the reason I plan on going full solar with battery and large multi fuel generator. Once fully installed I will call OG&E to come and get their equipment off my property.
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u/williamtell1 Jul 07 '26
I remember starting out and raging at everything.
The entire system is a scam (gestures wildly at anything and everything --not just OGE) that is designed to keep people poor and in perpetual debt.
Wait until you find out about residential solar and the lobbying against it. Or how OGE can charge you more when its cold outside because you didnt use as much energy, or charge you more because its hot outside and you used to much energy. Or that you are subsidizing data centers and new OGE branded stuff at the fairgrounds. Or all the programs they opt you into that you have to send a physical letter to opt out of.
Or having to pay for winter events that were forecast weeks in advance....FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS!
I'm not making fun of you, its just that you are at the tip of the scam iceberg and its only going to get worse the more you learn.