GRU — Local services in Gainesville

Thieves, Con Artist and Liars!!!

They stole my money!!! If I could give a negative star I would! We moved twice while in Gainesville. I ended up paying a double deposit due to “Their” errors. It got so bad that we moved to just GET AWAY from GRU! NO JOKE

First house we moved into was a rental. We paid a $560.00 deposit due to the fact that the prior people living in that house had a usage around that amount. It didn’t matter that we conserve energy we were told sorry can’t do anything about it. The house ended up flooded so we moved into another rental. I called and spoke with a GRU rep and asked for the deposit to be moved to the new account being that we have already paid a deposit and we are no longer under the deposit restrictions. We then find out another mistake was made. They instead supposedly “Refunded” the money and used the rest towards the last bill. Although our bill was not $560.00 and our bills were paid up to date. We received nothing back. We were again charged another $560.00 deposit!!!! We had to pay it again if we wanted electricity and we were also charged an $85.00 reconnect fee even though we moved only 1 mile away. We stayed there for a few months until we continued to get $500.00+ bills. There is NO WAY we were using that. We were hardly home!

Due to GRU we decided to move out of Gainesville! We left Gainesville solely to escape GRU. Again our bill was always paid never late. They told us that they would issue a refund as soon as they took the last bill out of it. It took over a month to get a refund. I was sent an email from GRU stating that the check was returned. I asked how when they had the right address. Frustrated again, I asked if I could come to GRU to pick up the check. I was told yes. I have the emails to prove this.

I took off from work on my lunch break and went to GRU. I was asked for my ID and then told you can’t pick up the check because you are not the account holder. I said I am the wife. I am an authorized user and the money comes out of my account when we pay you. The rep stated it doesn’t matter we can’t give it to you. I try to show her the emails that stated that I could in fact get the check. I explained that my husband can call and confirm but he is at the house in Waldo and I am already here. I was told sorry nothing we can do! Again another lie. I told them my husband would be extremely upset. My husband drove from Waldo to Gainesville to GRU. They handed him a check for $5 and some change. What a rip off. They stole my money and lied.

The company is horrific! Absolutely horrific! Out of $1000.00+ that I provided to them we got $5.00 back. My husband spent more driving to get the check!!! I may work in Gainesville but I WILL NEVER STAY IN A HOME THAT HAS GRU! I will make the drive and stay with Clay Electric. I don’t know how these crooks sleep at night! I am not a bot! Contact me and I will gladly share with anyone willing to listen!

Update** We have received two different bills from Clay Electric since moving away from GRU. This house is over 2200 square foot. Our Bill has been no more than $160.00 a month!!! We use the same amount of electricity and live in a much larger home. If that isn't proof I don't know what is. GRU needs to be stopped. They are stealing from hard working...

(This would be a negative star review if that were an option) I hope the utility board established by the state can fix the Trainwreck that is GRU, but I don't have high hopes. Hopefully they will be audited and the ones responsible for the blatant illegal business practices will be prosecuted:

*GRU is a monopoly, there are no other options for residents in certain areas of the Gainesville region where GRU has it's deathly grip. *GRU falsifies documentation. There are many examples of this; the main one is that they claim actual meter reads but this rarely, if ever, happens in most of Gainesville. They also state and document accounts as being "past due" which have, in fact never been so. Violating the fair credit billing act(1974) and the newer FCRA. *GRU stated in 2019 that older analog meters would be replaced by newer digital AMI meters for "accuracy" since they don't actually read the meters anything would be better than nothing. This was an explanation for some of the rate hike. This matter then was delayed and now, in 2024 the AMI meters still have not replaced the older analog meters. But GRU customers have been paying for this "upgrade". *When customers contact GRU about discrepancies in billing GRU places the onus on the customer to track usage using "photos" of the meter. Essentially making the customers do the work for a service they are billing for and not providing. *Based on the experience I have had a long with those shared by neighbors, family and friends these are experienced by customers across Gainesville of GRU. It's unknown how well they keep up with the IRS but if their accounting is this bad I can only hope an audit is in their future. *TLDR: GRU falsifies documentation. GRU bills for services not rendered. GRU violates the FCBA/FCRA

It is unknown GRUs standing with the IRS but hopefully a disgruntled employee can shed light on that with the IRS in the future.

I truly feel for the employees of GRU because they must get spoken to not nicely often and it's not their fault poor, illegal decisions were made by leadership. Hopefully some former employees will come forward to the government so those guilty can get justice for how much they have wronged the Gainesville area. And who knows, maybe a feisty attorney will someday want to take this on and have a pretty good class action case for all of those currently and previously...

Let's see... Where to begin? The trash collection "service" is mostly anything but. They seem to try to come up with any and every reason possible NOT to pick up your trash, and kindly leave a nice orange note in explanation. For the time and effort it takes to write up the explanation slip, get out of the truck and affix it to the offending refuse bin, they could've simply done what they get paid to do and actually collect the trash. After all, 80% of the effort involved in the process was done by the operator getting out of the cab. Power disconnects... No notice whatsoever, never received a bill, courtesy email or notice of any sort, and when I came home from work, no power... Not even anything on the meter. I had to go into detective mode to determine that of all the houses on my street, mine was the only one without power. Sure would've been nice to know when they turned it off so I could figure out what foods in the refrigerator and freezer were possibly still good. I tried to call, and was collectively on hold for over 2 hours because I don't have my account number memorized (required for the pay by phone service), and then got hit with a $53 reconnection fee which took the tech less than 30 seconds to accomplish. I never once spoke with anyone in "customer service" (seriously think that it doesn't exist, just a black hole for phone calls to be directed into) I actually did find an old email with my account number and made the payment over the phone. Water meters... I'm completely baffled here. How is it that I pay considerably more for wastewater than I do for actual water consumed? One would think that the regulations for, the testing of and the controls in place for a municipal potable water provider would make it the other way around, but not here.$14 and change for consumed water and $44 something for wastewater... Perplexing! I'm just glad that I opted out of their high speed internet service... If it's as reliable and accounted for the same way as everything else that they offer, I'm sure THAT must be a wonderful experience! On a positive note... I'm building a new house far from the reaches of the GRU monopoly's reaches, so hopefully soon, this will all be a bad memory! As a side note, there is a very large solar array at the VA hospital complex that is tied directly to the GRU grid... Wonder when we'll ever see the...