Refund Rate by Informal Complaint Category (2024 - Oct 2025)
This dataset reports refund rates by complaint category in the Texas retail electricity market, measuring how often customer complaints result in a monetary refund. Refund rates are calculated by category and represent the share of complaints that resulted in refunded dollars for issues such as billing disputes, service provision, discontinuance of service, slamming, and cramming. All values are expressed as percentages.
Last updated: October 2025
How to Read This Chart
This table shows the percentage of informal PUCT complaints that resulted in a customer refund, grouped by complaint category. Each row represents a specific type of complaint and includes the total number of complaints and the corresponding refund rate, expressed as a percentage. The refund rate indicates the share of complaints in each category that led to a monetary refund, allowing comparison of how often different types of issues result in customer compensation.
Why This Matters
Refund rates provide insight into how frequently consumer complaints lead to financial remediation, not just how many complaints are filed. Categories with higher refund rates, such as cramming and billing issues, suggest clearer or more direct financial harm to customers, while lower rates may reflect complaints that are resolved without monetary compensation. This perspective helps regulators, policymakers, and market participants assess which types of consumer issues are most likely to warrant refunds and where enforcement or consumer education efforts may have the greatest impact. For consumers and researchers, it adds important context to complaint volumes by showing how often complaints translate into tangible financial outcomes.
Key Insights
The following highlights are derived directly from the most recent available data in this dataset using standardized calculations. Metrics reflect refund outcomes across all reported complaint categories and are computed from the underlying data. Unless otherwise noted, figures refer to totals within the available reporting period. These highlights provide a concise snapshot of where refunds are most frequently awarded.
Highest refund rate by category: Cramming complaints had a refund rate of 41.2%, the highest among all reported categories.
Most common complaint category: Billing disputes accounted for 3,985 complaints, the largest volume across categories, with a refund rate of 27.6%.
Average refund rate across categories: approximately 14.4%, calculated as the mean refund rate across all reported complaint categories.
Definitions
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Refund rate | The percentage of complaints within a category that resulted in a monetary refund to the customer. |
| Complaint category | Classification of customer complaints, such as billing, slamming, cramming, service provision, or service discontinuance. |
| Refunded complaint | A complaint that resulted in refunded dollars following resolution. |