I live in Essex County in NJ. I have Jersey Central as my Energy Distribution company, but i have Fairview, NJ based Systrum energy as my electric generation company. Through their advertising, i switched to Systrum hoping to get favorable electric generation rates. For the first few months, they were lower by a cent but in January 2014, their scam has come to life as they sent me a bill charging 27.8 cents per kh while the regular price to compare is about 9 to 10 cents. The company has not provided any explanation. this has spiked my electricity bill by 300% . Total scam. read more

TOTAL SCAM, WATCH YOUR BILL, just got my bill for February 2014, $500 for electric. seach google about this company and their practices.

This company is a scam. Don't trust them. You will get hit later with an astronomical bill towards the end of your contract. My bill went up $343 in one month. No, my usage did not change. read more

Say it ain't so.....six months of excellent prices, usually 3-10% saving from PSEG rates on gas and electric. Well the bill came this month (for January 2014) and the rate is TRIPLE (.288 per KwH) the rate of PSEG (.11032 per KWH). That means they charged me $277 for what PSEG was going to charge $105. Called now for 4 days, and you only get a machine that states "All reps are busy" and directs you to go to their website to e-mail them and then disconnects the call! Can't get anyone on the phone to discuss this. Filing a complaint with the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs! read more

Absolute ripoff! Charging us (senior citizens) .30 cents per KWH, won't answer the phone, utility company can't help. Report them to the State of NJ Board of Public Utilities. You should not have to check a star to get this on line! There should be a minus star! read more

Don't go near them! I can echo what others have said. After almost a year of saving tiny amounts each month, they lowered the boom a few days ago and charged triple PSE&G's rate, eating up all savings to date and a lot more besides. read more

My rate has gone up so much for the electric bill in jan when practically only one person was home.instead of $143 it went up to $ 455. Nobody will answer when I tried to contact. They r closing down on march 12th, beware read more

Unethical company stay way. My gas bill tripled. No one will answer the phone or call back. I am sure they'll go down soon.

My first bill with them was $400.00 higher than PSE&G would have been. Stay way FAR AWAY FROM THEM !!!!!

Hello, my name is Anthony Marucci, I am an attorney in NJ, a former Systrum Energy customer and am interested in securing the assistance of other Systrum Electric customers whose monthly bills just doubled or tripled last month. I require a sufficient number of potential plaintiffs in order to commence a class action lawsuit against Systrum seeking compensation for those damaged by this fraudulent behavior. If you are interested please email me at amarucci@verizon.net, thank you. read more

What everybody said here about 300% increase, no customer service and total rip off are all true. I called Jcp&l and found out I'll have pay this ridiculous rate one more month before I can be transferred back to Jcp&l. If anyone knows how we can file an effective complaint. PLEASE SHARE!!! read more

i should have seen this coming but i really thought these people were on the level. through the previous eight months with systrum energy my electric bill averaged 1 to 2 cents per kwh less than jcp&l. this was the company i left for systrum energy. the december bill was about 1.5 cents more than jcp&l. then on 01/31/2014 i got the email stating how hard it was to compete with the weather conditions and the wholesale market. well now the bill for january got here and their rate went to 28 cents per kwh. my electric bill went from the average of $200 to $300 to $817 a month. i can only say two things: "i am sorry jcp&l for leaving after all these years you serviced my home" and, "i am so mad at myself for not seeing this coming". so, i guess we are going to have some kind of a legal fight, i am 74 retired on a fixed income, there is noway i can pay this bill on time. read more

I agree with these reviews of Systrum Energy. My Jan. bill was a normal $213 and then the Feb. bill came and it was an amazing $528, with the generation charge jacked up to 29 cents/KH. No warning, no explanation, just an incredible price hike. When I tried calling their number, there was no way to reach a human voice, only a recording that said to email them (I did - no response) and nowhere to even leave a message. The whole thing seems like a scam. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT get involved with this company. read more

I wish that I would have NEVER went with these criminals. They screwed me for a second month, after claiming that they would return my service to my existing energy provider. My electric bill was $310 in Jan. They sent me a letter telling me that they were switching me back to JCP&L. However, they didn't do it and I got a $374 for electricity in Feb... I am beyond... read more

I got hit by the Systrum scam: Beware of Systrum: they may give you a few percent off every month but then one month they will increase rates so much that it will outweigh all the savings - in fact there is no cap on how much they can increase and it will take you 2 months to switch out from them. By that time they would have made the money off you to cover the savings they provided in the past as well as enough for their staff to retire if at all they go out of business. This happened to me. My very first bill with them was 70% more than PSEG rates (in dollar terms I have to pay about $200+ more) and they are saying its the market to blame. They notify me only 2 days before my bill arrives that they are facing tough market. If what they are saying is really true, that they are seeing a tough market they should inform before the start of the month and not at the end of the month because electric contracts need to be signed before the actual supply occurs and not after. Even in a really bad market, a good company will stand up for their customers - they will do everything to make the rate increase to be reasonable and even absorb the increase to a certain extent in order to keep their customers happy. Being in the electricity supply market they should be in the best position to negotiate the best rates for their customer as well as get advance warning about market rates and they have not done so. They have either failed miserably to do their job of negotiating the best prices for their customers or they are just lying and making the best for themselves in a bad situation. Very incompetent or very greedy. There is also poor customer service - very poor handling of the situation as in they have nothing to offer other than to switch you back. read more

I got hit by the Systrum scam : Beware of Systrum: they may give you a few percent off every month but then one month they will increase rates so much that it will outweigh all the savings - in fact there is no cap on how much they can increase and it will take you 2 months to switch out from them. By that time they would have made the money off you to cover the savings they provided in the past as well as enough for their staff to retire if at all they go out of business. This happened to me. My very first bill with them was 70% more than PSEG rates (in dollar terms I have to pay about $200+ more) and they are saying its the market to blame. They notify me only 2 days before my bill arrives that they are facing tough market. If what they are saying is really true, that they are seeing a tough market they should inform before the start of the month and not at the end of the month because electric contracts need to be signed before the actual supply occurs and not after. Even in a really bad market, a good company will stand up for their customers - they will do everything to make the rate increase to be reasonable and even absorb the increase to a certain extent in order to keep their customers happy. Being in the electricity supply market they should be in the best position to negotiate the best rates for their customer as well as get advance warning about market rates and they have not done so. They have either failed miserably to do their job of negotiating the best prices for their customers or they are just lying and making the best for themselves in a bad situation. Very incompetent or very greedy. There is also poor customer service - very poor handling of the situation as in they have nothing to offer other than to switch you back.less read more

Horrible experience with a deceptive energy supplier! I just filed a complaint online with the Board of Public Utilities in NJ at http://www.state.nj.us/bpu/assistance/complaints/inquiry.html As they apparently did to so many others, Systrum Energy ambushed me by taking their rates up from $0.093925 in December 2013 to $0.2238 in January 2014(JCP&L's tariff is $0.10485625 as a comparison) WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTICE WHATSOEVER! I called them in January and challenged them; I received verbal confirmation from Alex Trullo of the cancellation of our contract and the review of the outstanding bill. Nothing has happened yet over a month later. I left a voice mail for them (they do not even respond to the telephone anymore) and also sent them an email message requesting to follow up on their promises. Of course, I have kept JCP&L in the loop all along this process. If I do not hear from Systrum within the next 24 hours, I plan to act in good faith by recalculating my outstanding bill with the rate previously agreed with Systrum and to send a check with that amount along with a written explanation as to why I had to do this (I also plan to attach a copy of my formal complaint to the NJ Board of Public Utilities). read more

I signed up with Systrum Energy last Spring for both my electric and gas service after doing what I felt was good homework. I had thought about switching to an alternate energy provider for years and when my husband retired we found ourselves on a tighter budget we decided to sign up with Systrum Energy. We truly regret that decision. Systrum promised savings of 10-15% on electric and far more on gas. Their sales representative promised that they would never charge above the price of the major utilities. Their website states that they are under the umbrella of the Board of Public Utilities which implies that they are regulated. They in fact do not answer to the BPU as does the major utilities and they are completely unregulated - which means they can charge you whatever they want - no questions asked! I was also impressed initially that they required no contract, which I now believe is part of the scam. Putting something in writing would have made it more difficult for them to perpetrate the lies that they put forward to the public. Since I signed up with them there has been little to no savings. The past two months my gas bill has exceeded what I would have paid through NJNG. My January 2014 electric bill supplied by Sysytrum Energy was over twice the generation charge from JCP&L. When we called them their lines were flooded by other irate consumers and when we finally got through to them all we heard was a litany of out right lies. They said that their gas prices were higher because they were not notified in time of a price reduction from NJNG and that they would be much lower the following month to make up for the difference. I just received a new bill and they are still higher. Two more lies. I called the gas company to confirm what they had told me and was told that what they said was not true. There seems to be two class action suits that may be filed against them as well. In the mean time it takes several months to transfer back to the main utility companies which gives Systrum Energy ample time to continue to rob their customers. It must be apparent to them that they will loose most of their customer base but if they lie low for awhile, temporarily lower their rates, and prep their sales staff with sufficient lies and omissions, they will be able to draw in a fresh batch of customers to take advantage of the next time around. Stay as far away as you can from Systrum Energy! My advice is to stay with the major utilities and try as hard as you can to conserve your gas and electric usage. read more