Several months back, I was approached at home by a lady with a clipboard requesting to see my family’s electricity bill, she stated that she worked for US Energy Savings Group. Something in my mind immediately registered SCAM, I denied her request and explained that she’ll need to have someone with proper credentials(other than an employee id and a clipboard) contact me for that information. She persisted and stated that the information was necessary for the house to sign up with their program in order to save money on electricity bills. Now I knew it was a SCAM, if she were a government official I would’ve been notified by mail and contacted via phone. Only a fake company(and Mormons, girl scout cookies don’t usually sell around my neck of the woods for some reason) would send “employees” knocking on houses one by one to inform home owners of any so-called “deals”. I told her “No means no!”, she laughed and tried to push the issue some more. To her credit, she’s a good sales person unfortunately the product was rubbish. She left me with a supposedly, “official” document of notification.
The document, turned out to be some sort of flier. What’s really disturbing is that it addresses the recipient of the flier as “Customer”. Here’s a picture of it:
*Note that she used someone else’s name(Michael) as the point of contact. What’s even funnier is that “Michael” is listed on the flier as an Independent Contractor(which would imply he has no official affiliation to the SCAM company.
I went online to google the legitimacy of this company. And found that while they do have a semi-professional looking website. Almost all of the other search results indicated that US Energy & Savings was a scam.
Here’s the kicker, today again I hear the doorbell ring and yet another “official” employee of US Energy & Savings requests to see the electricity bill. Armed with a clipboard and employee id(one that almost anyone can make with the correct resources). Here’s how the conversation went:
Him: “I NEED to see your electricity bill.”
Me: “No, and I don’t think we’ll ever be handing over information to scammers.”
I don’t think he took that comment very well and rebutted
Him: “oh but we’ve been around for 10 years.”
Me: “That’s fine, but no your not getting my electricity bill. I’m not obligated to provide it to you.”
Him: “yeah you don’t have to give it to me but, we’ve been around for 10 years”
Me: “Again, no and stop trying. Just leave.”
Off he went to my neighbor’s house asking the same thing. As I was closing the door, I hear one of my neighbor’s shout “You’ve been coming around a lot lately even on Easter Sunday! We ain’t buying it!” And that’s when I remembered on their first attempt it was stupid of me to have even answered the door. It was on a weekend.
How the SCAM works
Apparently the way they scam people is by having the home owner provide them with a copy of the electricity bill, in which they copy all the information down. It’s like handing a car burglar your car keys. Once the information has been jotted down on their $0.99 clipboard, the home owner is automatically locked into a contract that guarantees an exorbitant amount of monthly fees and gibberish charges.
It’s quite clear from reading about this scam on various websites, that the victims are usually easy targets. People who don’t speak fluent English fall prey to their aggressive sales tactics. The elderly, the non-English speakers, and new homeowners who have little knowledge of the scam will trustingly provide their electricity bill only to realize a month or two later that instead of saving money, they are in fact losing it at a pretty high rate. Be careful, and never provide private information to people without proper credentials.
As someone cleverly mentioned on Consumerist.com: “Simple solution here and in many places - don’t ever respond to an unsolicited offer. Period.”
Additional Reading:
As mentioned in my links section, Consumerist.com is a great resource to find out consumer related information:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/videos/want-to-cancel-your-energy-savings-thatll-be-1800-265844.php
Another blog known as the Marshfield Tattler discusses the scam as well:
http://marshfieldtattler.blogspot.com/2008/02/us-energy-savings-gas-scam-beware.html
Rip-off Report is where I had initially read about the US Energy Savings Scam:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/312/RipOff0312281.htm
My3cents.com is another interesting resource where consumers provide feedback:
http://www.my3cents.com/showComment.cgi?cid=176195&id=23816&type=C
http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=23816
Even CBS has a brief article on the scam:
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Citizens.Utlity.Board.2.327349.html
Popularity: 13% [?]
Wow am I glad I read this. I recently got ‘head hunted’ by this company to go work for them. Initial searches on the name only came up with stellar employer reviews in Canada, but there were so many job postings by this company–all of them paying a big hourly wage–I became a little suspicious. Digging a bit deeper has made it clear that this company would be one I could never be proud to work for. I have a feeling many of the employees start off really believing they’re offering a great service.
Thanks for posting this page.
Two girls came by last night and got us to sign up. I’ll cancel on Monday. Thanks!
If you get a nock on your door and they talk to you I wish i had done two things:
1) how does your company make money?
2) how much money would they make per customer
Also, I felt like I had to share our conEd bill with the girls. They told me they used the service- which i believed. I almost felt like I had to sign up because it was in my best interest. Gosh- what a sucker. I’ve just spent some time researching it and I feel even more dumb.
Thanks for the site!
m
Ok- you guys are way off the track here.
Most residential customers are not aware that the electricity market has deregulated
This means that you have a choice as to who your SUPPLIER is. The utility (in the Houston area, Centerpoint) is the same regardless of who you choose to go with.
The reason they are asking for the electric bill is to see what rate you are paying. In the Houston area, for example, residential Reliant customers are paying close to 18 cents per kilowatt hour for their home energy.
Competitors can offer you from 11 to 12 cents per kwh. Roughly translated you can save $100 - $200 a month on your bill for an average 3 bedroom house.
It is NOT as SCAM. There are 80 plus registered suppliers. These suppliers typically will use independent contractors to market their product.
One of the true benefits they offer is they give you the ability to “lock” your price of electricity- therefore you secure a fixed price for your electric for 12 - 48 months and avoid any rate increases.
Commercial business owners are very aware of deregulation and the benefits it has. I work with over 3000 business owners. We had looked at the residential market but misinformation and trying to explain the way this works to the average paranoid homeowner is too much trouble.
It is sad because savings are there. If you are in Texas in a deregulated area, you should go to powertochoose.org which is a non-profit group that lists all the available offers.
To put things into perspective. I have 10 months left on a 3 year contract and am paying 8 cents per kwh- 10 cents a month lower than what I would have been paying with Reliant.
Ignorance of what is available is sad- they are not a scam and are really just trying to save you money- they look at the bill to see how much you pay, what your address is to make sure you are deregulated, and need your ESI ID number in case you decide to transfer.
Hope this helps everyone- don’t throw away a good opportunity to save money on your home and get the facts with your Public Utility Commission if you have any doubts.