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Pinnacle West Capital

Utilities

39

out of 100. Number 310 of 512, counting from the worst.

  • Arbitration 0 of 20, good
  • Renewals 0 of 20, good
  • Data sharing 13 of 20
  • Price & terms 12 of 15, bad
  • Data retention 6 of 15
  • Other findings 8 of 10, bad

Where Pinnacle West Capital does well

  • Arbitration 0 of 20. Nothing found.
  • Renewals 0 of 20. Nothing found.
  • No forced arbitration or class-action waiver exists in any PNW/APS document reviewed — disputes go to state and federal courts in Maricopa County, Arizona, which is unusually customer-friendly by 2026 corporate standards.
  • No auto-renew or cancellation traps anywhere; APS is a regulated utility whose rates are approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission, not by fine print.
  • The SMS program terms promise APS 'will never directly market to you any services for which you have not opted in' and give every text-alert program its own STOP short code.
  • The privacy policy states Hotjar (its session-recording analytics vendor) is 'contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf.' The California Privacy Notice honors opt-out of sale/sharing, access, deletion, correction, and portability requests with a non-discrimination pledge.
  • Location tracking in the app is opt-in only.

APS can rewrite its website terms whenever it wants without telling you.

The fine print

6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.

  1. APS can rewrite its website terms whenever it wants without telling you. Just visiting the site again afterward means you automatically agree to the new version. The privacy policy adds that a revised version 'will be effective immediately when it is posted.'

    APS reserves the right to change this Agreement at any time, without notice or liability, by updating the posting of this Agreement on this Site. By using this Site, you agree to be legally bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement current at the time of your use.

    APS Terms of Use (revision August 13, 2019)

  2. PNW hands your IP address and browsing activity to ad companies, ad networks, analytics firms, and social media networks for targeted advertising — and admits in its own notice that this may legally count as 'selling' or 'sharing' your personal data. You can opt out, but only if you go find the mechanism yourself.

    PNW may disclose Identifiers, such as IP address, and Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity to the following categories of third parties, and such disclosures may be 'sales' or 'sharing' under certain laws: Advertising companies; Advertising networks and servers; Analytics providers; Social media networks. PNW may disclose this Personal Information to third parties so that they can provide analytics and targeted advertising and marketing services.

    PNW California Privacy Notice (last updated June 5, 2024)

  3. Even if you turn on your browser's Do Not Track setting, APS ignores it and keeps tracking you exactly as before. The policy also names third-party trackers (Google Analytics, Hotjar session recording, ad networks) that collect your activity 'over time and across different websites.'

    The Sites do not respond to 'Do Not Track' signals, and as such we do not alter our data practices upon receipt of such a signal.

    APS Privacy Policy (effective March 14, 2023)

  4. The app license quietly shortens the normal statute of limitations: if you don't sue within one year of a problem arising, you lose the right forever — even though Arizona law would normally give you more time. (The website Terms of Use contain the same one-year bar.)

    ANY CAUSE OF ACTION OR CLAIM YOU MAY HAVE ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT OR THE APPLICATION MUST BE COMMENCED WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER THE CAUSE OF ACTION ACCRUES; OTHERWISE, SUCH CAUSE OF ACTION OR CLAIM IS PERMANENTLY BARRED.

    APS Mobile Application End User License Agreement, Section 19 (last updated March 1, 2016)

  5. Anything you send APS through its website — suggestions, comments, ideas — becomes APS's property to use for any purpose, with no payment to you and no confidentiality owed. You email them an idea; it's theirs now.

    All information submitted to APS via this Site shall be deemed and remain the property of APS, and APS shall be free to use, for any purpose, any idea, concept, know-how or technique contained in information a visitor to this Site provides APS through this Site. APS shall not be subject to any obligations of confidentiality regarding submitted information except as may be expressly agreed in writing by APS or as otherwise specifically required by law.

    APS Terms of Use (revision August 13, 2019), 'Email and other information submissions'

  6. No matter what goes wrong through your use of the site — including negligence — the most APS can ever owe you is $100, total. Paired with the one-year claim bar, this makes recovering real damages practically impossible.

    IN NO EVENT SHALL THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF APS, ITS PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, INSURERS, LICENSORS, OR THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS OF CONTENT, GOODS OR SERVICES FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES AND CAUSES OF ACTION ARISING OUT OF USE OF THIS SITE ... EXCEED THE DOLLAR AMOUNT OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).

    APS Terms of Use (revision August 13, 2019), 'Disclaimers and limitation of damages'

How these were found

Documents read directly via browser_open on official domains. APS Terms of Use — revision August 13, 2019 (https://www.aps.com/en/utility/regulatory-and-legal/terms-of-use). APS Privacy Policy — effective March 14, 2023 (https://www.aps.com/en/Utility/Regulatory-and-Legal/Privacy-Policy). APS Mobile App End User License Agreement — last updated March 1, 2016 (https://www.aps.com/en/Utility/Regulatory-and-Legal/End-User-License-Agreement). PNW Terms of Use — revision February 2015 (https://www.pinnaclewest.com/footer/terms-of-use/default.aspx). PNW California Privacy Notice — last updated June 5, 2024 (https://www.pinnaclewest.com/footer/California-Privacy-Notice/default.aspx). My guessed URL for an APS-branded CA notice returned 404; the PNW-branded notice (above) was used instead and is the operative one. APS SMS Terms and Conditions PDF was located but not parsed; its STOP/privacy provisions are cited from search-result snippets, so SMS-specific claims are lower-confidence. Utility-specific documents (ACC-approved rate schedules, service tariffs, paper-bill insert terms, online-payment checkout terms) were NOT individually reviewed. No mirrors were needed; no site blocked automated fetching.

These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.