Dozens of Xcel customers share their customer service & billing issues

October 22, 2026

State regulators have opened an investigation into Xcel Energy to figure out why billing and credit complaints from customers have risen substantially over the past few years, and to identify ways to fix it. Over 60 comments have already been submitted describing issues with Xcel’s customer service and billing departments. If you have experienced a problem yourself, you can submit a comment using CUB’s form.

From residents to businesses, schools to churches, government agencies and cities, Xcel customers report pervasive billing errors, incorrect rate information, issues with solar programs, and more. CUB believes that these many issues are symptoms of systemic issues at Xcel Energy. We are calling for an independent, third-party audit of Xcel to address the root causes and ensure transparency and accountability moving forward.

Keep reading to learn more about what Xcel customers are experiencing, what CUB is calling for, and how you can make your voice heard.

Investigation into Xcel Energy

Who has submitted stories?

Alongside 37 comments from residential customers, below are some of the entities that submitted comments outlining their experience with Xcel billing and customer service.

Local Governments	Schools & Churches	Other Commercial Customers
City of St. Louis Park City of St. Paul City of Northfield City of Minneapolis City of Roseville	Osseo Area Schools ISD 729 Bloomington Public Schools White Bear Lake Area Schools Augustana Lutheran Church Grace University Lutheran Church	Relfrut Properties LLC Ideal Energies Road Machinery & Supplies Co All Energy Solar Electric Motor Supply Upstream Exhibits

Local Governments

Schools & Churches

Other Commercial Customers

City of St. Louis Park

City of St. Paul

City of Northfield

City of Minneapolis

City of Roseville

Osseo Area Schools ISD 729

Bloomington Public Schools

White Bear Lake Area Schools

Augustana Lutheran Church

Grace University Lutheran Church

Relfrut Properties LLC

Ideal Energies

Road Machinery & Supplies Co

All Energy Solar

Electric Motor Supply

Upstream Exhibits

What are customers saying?

Customers say Xcel representatives are unable to provide clear answers or direction to address billing questions and other concerns.

“Xcel is always making billing errors, this time last year they screwed up my account when they accepted my request for "space heater winter rates"….That took 3 months to straighten out and every[ ]time I called Xcel I got a different story from customer service reps.”
Mical C

“I have had so many issues with my bills over the last 2 years, and I have spoken to many friends and neighbors who have experienced this too! Xcel has sent me bills claiming I owed thousands of dollars out of nowhere. When I call, I get rude and dismiss[i]ve customer service people who have no idea what's going on, nor can explain what happened. They just keep telling me repeatedly I need to pay what they say I owe or I'll be disconnected.”
Sheena G

“The website is difficult to navigate, no one responds to requests for help, and the instructions they have posted don't work. There are no contacts listed besides a generic one for Solar. It can take weeks to get a response, which frequently does not answer every question.”
David S

Some customers share that it took months, or even years, to work through issues with Xcel…

“I have been dealing with Xcel regarding a billing complaint since 4/14/25 and it still isn’t resolved….As of the writing of this letter, 11/25/25, I continue to receive Xcel bills with 0 kilowatt hours on the bill and just a basic $9.33 invoice for the month. This is absolutely crazy. The longer this goes on the more difficult it becomes to clean up this mess.”
Mary B

“These issues have persisted for more than four years, despite repeated attempts on our part to obtain corrections, explanations, and follow-up. Xcel’s failure to provide accurate bills, consistent communication, or timely resolution has created significant financial confusion, unnecessary stress, and a complete lack of confidence in their billing systems.”
Joseph H and Julie M-H

…and many eventually gave up on addressing potential billing errors because of the amount of time it took and how difficult it was to work with customer service.

“I’ve done that math, and know that we over paid by thousands of dollars….I raised this with Xcel’s customer support, but after a frustrating conversation I decided to drop it because I don’t have time to deal with their inconsiderate support.”
Micha S

“Xcel probably owes me a hundred bucks but its so hard to squeeze that out of them I eventually gave up.”
Andrew W

“I did not follow up on getting the bill recalculated due to the amount of time and stress it takes to resolve anything with Xcel.”
Donna S

Customers shared challenges enrolling in different rates, such as Xcel’s time-of-day rate or electric space heating rate.

“My story unfolded over the course of 3 years — we updated our home heating to an electric service, and called to ask Xcel to switch our rate. The first person I talked to told me it didn’t exist. I did my own research, then called back and had to literally tell the customer support person where to click on their website to find the information. They were surprised by the information… I called back multiple times, to hear ‘“it’s still under review’” and over the course of two winters my electric bill was $800-1200 a month.”
Micah S

“Last year, it took several months for Xcel to apply the electric heat rate to my account. Once applied, Xcel should've retroactively applied the new rate back to October 2025. It took several phone calls to make a recalculation happen….I made another attempt to get a proper recalculation done but the process is so obtuse I was unsuccessful and eventually gave up.”
Andrew W

“I contacted Xcel Energy to request a rate change from the Standard rate to the Time-of-Day (TOD) rate schedule.... After observing that my monthly bills continued to display and charge the Standard rate, I called Xcel Energy on multiple occasions to inquire why the TOD rate was not active.... [then] Xcel Energy issued an adjusted backbill exceeding $1,000 for the first iteration of the bill (that I cannot access anymore), adjusted that bill a few days after to $798.03, claiming that TOD had been active behind the scenes for the past 12 months and that I was underbilled.”
Juliane S

Further, customers report receiving incorrect information from customer service representatives.

“Last week I called Xcel because I had [a] somewhat wonky question about a particular rate. I decided to call because I thought that talking to someone was going to be easier. Anyway the hold time wasn’t too bad and the representative was definitely nice/friendly but I’m 95% they told me incorrect information. I double checked Xcel’s website/rate card and it contradicted what I was told over the phone.”
Bryn S

“I recently moved into an ap[artmen]t with an electric furnace. When I called to sign up for the electric space heating rate, the person on the phone told me that my ap[artmen]t didn't qualify. I had to inform the person on the phone about the requirements for this program and insist to be signed up. This experience would deter someone not familiar with this rate from signing up.”
Cas F

Customers who fell behind on their bills report difficulty setting up an affordable payment plan.

While Xcel relies on a rubric to determine the downpayments requested as part of these payment plans, the company’s policy and state law require Xcel to offer each customer flexibility if those terms are unaffordable.

“When trying to set up a payment plan Xcel will not work with me on an amount I can afford, they want me to pay half on like a 2000-dollar bill instead of a reasonable amount. customer service is very rude must of the time and will not work with you in any kind of way.”
Tammy P

“I also find it ridiculous that anytime you have to set up a payment arrangement you have to put down a ridiculous amount of money first, why do these payment arrangements even exist if we have to do that? people set up payment arrangements because they are struggling with income as is….”
Nicole H

What are the cities saying?

The cities of St. Paul, St. Louis Park, Northfield, Roseville, and Minneapolis likewise report numerous problems with Xcel’s billing, remittance processing, and customer communications, which have required extensive time from city staff to correct. Below highlights just some of the concerns raised by these cities—all of which call for a deeper investigation or third-party audit of Xcel:

The City of St. Paul states that Xcel routinely misapplies payments, leading to late fees and disconnection notices on some city accounts and balances as large as $20,000 on others. City staff have needed to contact their Xcel account manager or the Business Solution Center hundreds of times in the last two years.
The City of Roseville reports staff spend an extra 30-40 hours per year resolving Xcel billing issues, but that the city simply overlooks many issues because it “does not feel worth the effort to address each issue.”
The City of Northfield reports receiving two or three bill statements for any given month, and that staff must take the time to determine which bill reflects the correct charge, process the bill, and reconcile it.
The City of Minneapolis reports difficulties with Xcel’s Renewable*Connect program and Solar Garden billing issues. These errors have impacted the “City’s ability to meet its renewable energy goals and ensure that billing data matches progress reporting on external facing dashboards and communications.”
The City of St. Louis Park reports incurring at least $6,500 in late fees due to Xcel’s misapplication of payments. The City reports continuing to receive bills for a property that has been demolished and its utility meter removed.

“Taken together, these issues have required substantial and ongoing staff time to identify, escalate, and resolve, and have created real risk to City operations, including the threat of disconnection for accounts in good-faith dispute. The City has raised many of these concerns directly with Xcel, with only partial and inconsistent resolution. Xcel representatives have generally been responsive and appear to be making good-faith efforts, but even they have often been unable to fully explain the root causes of these errors, which suggests the issues may lie deeper within Xcel's billing systems and processes than individual staff are equipped to address…A third-party investigation would provide the Commission, Xcel's customers, and Xcel itself with an objective account of what has gone wrong and what changes are needed to prevent recurrence.”
Mayor Koahly Her, City of St. Paul

Issues specific to solar customers

Customers, including many commercial customers, report issues receiving accurate or timely credits and incentive payments for the energy generated by their solar panels.

Xcel’s Solar*Rewards program provides annual solar production-based payments to participants based on the electricity generated by their panels. However, hundreds of customers received overpayments, underpayments, or no payment at all, equating to tens of thousands of dollars in underpayments in 2024 and 2025 alone.

Xcel attributes some of these issues to billing system errors, but others appear to result from program shortfalls resulting in missing meter equipment and contract assignment issues.

Separate from the Solar*Rewards issues, this past April, more than 31,000 community solar garden subscribers received inaccurate solar production credits due to an Xcel software update error, although Xcel was able to rectify those errors the following month.

“We have contacted Xcel every 4-6 weeks since purchasing the building in November 2025. We completed the paperwork to transfer the Assignment of Solar Rewards from the previous building owner.…No credits have yet to be reflected on our monthly bill and we have continued to contact Xcel every 4-6 weeks to inquire about the issue. Each time, the person at Xcel is unable to provide an answer as to why we haven’t been receiving our credits and it will be several weeks for them to respond. Still have never received a response."
Relfrut Properties LLC

“We installed a large set of solar panels in fall of 2024….It was not until the following spring -- 18 months after our solar panels were metered -- that we finally received updated billing. By that point the updates were so complex it was nearly impossible to tell if it was correct or whether our solar production as performing as planned.”
Pamela F

“New Horizon Academy has considered incorporating solar energy into additional locations, but unresolved billing issues and prolonged delays reduce confidence in the reliability and effectiveness of the current utility processes supporting commercial solar customers.”
New Horizon Academy

What has Xcel done? What will Xcel do?

CUB acknowledges and appreciates the proactive efforts Xcel has made to address these serious concerns, including but not limited to:

Hiring 98 new billing staff members, an approximately 60 percent increase over 2024 staff levels
Developing additional training requirements and quality assurance checks
Directly addressing the issues raised by residential customers who submitted a comment in this docket

However, CUB believes that these actions alone are not enough to address the underlying issues causing these consistent errors. As part of the Commission’s order launching the investigation, Xcel must report monthly metrics on its progress towards addressing a variety of issues already raised in this docket. While some of the data appears to show improvements over the last several months, customers continue to report significant concerns, and overall billing error rates continue to be elevated compared to years preceding 2023, when the significant rise in issues began.

CUB, the Public Utilities Commission Consumer Affairs Office, the Office of the Attorney General, the Minnesota Department of Commerce, and others have all concluded, after analyzing Xcel’s reporting, that the issues within Xcel’s billing and customer service department persist.

“While Xcel reports progress reducing its remarkable backlog of unresolved billing errors, a substantial number of new billing errors continue to occur every month with no indication that root causes have been identified or addressed.”
Office of Attorney General

“The Department does not find Xcel’s progress toward reducing billing errors to be as strong as the Company represents….Xcel has been filing monthly reports on its efforts to improve its billing practices for nearly a year (at the time of filing), and the Department is unable to determine whether the Company has made significant progress in resolving the systemic billing issues identified by the Commission’s Investigation.”
Department of Commerce

“CAO notes that if the high number of billing complaints from Xcel customers were caused by economic challenges, then other Minnesota utilities would have seen similar increases in the number of billing complaints over a similar period. However, the increase in billing complaints is unique to Xcel.”
PUC’s Consumer Affairs Office

What is CUB recommending?

Alongside many of the commenters in this docket, CUB is calling for an independent third-party audit to get to the bottom of these issues.

CUB also recommends immediate steps Xcel should take to address some of problems raised by customers:

Xcel should provide written communications to customers regarding significant events related to their account, to ensure that customers have a record of their enrollment in different rates or programs.
Xcel should develop and use a script for communications with customers regarding disconnection notices or past-due bills. This will ensure that customers understand their right to affordable payment plans as well as assistance programs available to them.
Xcel should be required to provide written confirmation of payment plan arrangements and terms. Customers should be able to easily track how many payments they have made towards their plan and should know how many plans they may have broken in the past. This will help customers understand their billing situation and navigate conversations with Xcel representatives.
Xcel should screen customer’s winter-time energy use to identify households who likely use electric heat and proactively reach out to those customers with information about Xcel’s electric space heating rate. This will save those customers hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars in winter heating costs.

What’s next?

The PUC expects to address the question of a third-party audit at a hearing in late November in PUC docket numbers 02-2034/12-383. They will continue to collect comments related to Xcel’s billing and customer service through November 19 in docket number 25-341. CUB is participating in both proceedings and will share updates as both progress.

If you have been affected by issues related to Xcel billing, customer service, or customer communications, we encourage you to share your experience with the PUC. Public comments are helping these decisionmakers understand what customers are dealing with, and they help CUB advocate for solutions. Click the button below to share your story.

Investigation into Xcel Energy