OGE is in total chaos, just in time for summer heat!

Consumer alert! Check your emails from OGE, even if you usually ignore them. They have messed up their data base, and you are in immediate danger of having your auto-payments declined.

Detailed story of my day-long saga on the phone with them yesterday (6/18/25)
1. I got an email, stating that I owe 497.31. Yikes, did we leave the door open overnight or what? I wondered.
2. I went to my online OGE account. Ominous message there:
"Payment Blocked: Online payment and Auto Pay are not currently available for any of your accounts due to two or more returned payments in the last 12 months. Please pay by cash at a kiosk or by sending a money order or cashier's check to OG&E, PO BOX 24990, Oklahoma City, OK 73124. Thank you."
WTF?
3. I went online to my bank account. As usual, my OGE payments have been going out, right on time, correctly, including a payment on June 10, for about 155.00 btw, NOT 497.31
Uh oh.

4. I called OGE, and the recorded voice kept giving me trouble, when I entered the last 4 of my social#. It kept rejecting it for some reason, and repeating that I really really DID need to enter my social for verification.
Uh oh.

Foreshadowing detail: the hold message referred to a "transition" that OGE has just finished. REMEMBER THAT.

5. Worst part of this story:
I disregarded the weird message about my social being wrong, and waited out a LONG hold, to talk to a human being.
It did not go well.
They basically REFUSED to discuss anything with me, because of the mismatch on my social security#. My drivers license did not match either.

I explained to the clerk that I have been a customer since 2012, and yes, those have ALWAYS been my id facts, and nothing has changed on my end. I also asked the clerk if this could have something to do with their recent "transition" project? They dismissed that idea. Silly notion, right?

6. So, they vaguely told me to "go online and re-upload my social". What does that mean, I asked. You want me to upload my social security card? (btw, how many people just happen to have that handy?) Yes, that is what they meant. And they did not give any sort of secure email address or anything, just general advice to "go upload it", so they would talk to me. Otherwise, NO CONVERSATION AT ALL.

7. While online, I happened to look at my payment options. Weird. My normal checking account is still there, but it's blocked for auto-pay.

Intermission: Guess what? We are far from done with this story. I am a pretty tech-savvy senior. Imagine all the folks who are not. This whole mess is gonna get somebody killed.

Blood pressure is astronomical, by this point. Gotta keep working this, since it's my power, and the summer is getting hotter by the minute.

8. I noticed that my email included this message:
" If you are not able to resolve an issue to your satisfaction, Oklahoma customers may contact the Oklahoma Corporation Commission Consumer Services Division at 405-521-2331 or toll free at 800-522-8154."

Anybody want to guess what happened when I called them to complain? Right. "We don't handle that kind of thing". I will call them again later, after this whole mess gets fixed.

9. So I got desperate and found a way to get through to them as follows.
I noticed a tab called "Your Documents", and under that was an option to "create a verification letter" (to state that I am indeed a paying customer). I tried it, and here's what happened:
I got a pdf, stating that I do have electric service, at my home address. And at the very bottom, lower left-hand corner, was an address for a "Holly Hunter" in Durant, OK. WTF?

10. So, armed with this information, I called them back and finally got someone who actually listened to me, and gave me a specific email address ([email protected]) to upload my IDs, to get me re-activated (which has not happened yet, btw, I'm still waiting for that, next day).

Conclusions:

A. Their "transition" project has apparently conflated customers with the same first and last names (I feel so sorry for the "Bob Jones" and "Mary Smith's" of Oklahoma).

B. As a result, they are sending "Durant Holly"s dun-letters to me (which means she won't even get a notice that she is behind on payments), and they refuse to even TALK to me yet, due to the social security and drivers license SNAFU.

No doubt they are also refusing to talk to HER, since she apparently has MY ID data attached to her, right now.

C. My auto-pay feature has been turned off (even though they MEANT to turn off "Holly Durant"s auto pay). So I would've missed my next payment, and heck, probably the next one too, since I don't usually check my emails.

D. Moral of the story: GO CHECK YOUR OGE accounts, now.

E. Second moral: somebody's gonna die, from this mess.

Will keep you posted.