Alberta Energy Savings?

[SilverDoctor]

Had this guy form Alberta Energy Savings at my door tonight. Said he was from "the energy company" and needed to see our energy bills. He said that he was from the government energy. His shirt with logo looked like Enmax at first. Promised huge energy savings to my gas and electrical bill. The wife got excited (bills been high lately). A lock in for 5 years at a certain rate. looked good I signed the contract, he then phoned in my order. Something didn't smack quite right call it gut feel. I started giving my info on the phone asked what kind of company they where and she said they where a small company. OOps not a good answer. I decided to back out and told the gal on the phone so. Grabbed my signed contract from him and said I wanted to think about it for the day. He was quite agitated and said I would loose money not sighing up, too much pressure for my taste.

 

I plugged in their local phone number with the better Business Bureau (from a business card with a poor logo) no such place.

Got on line and checked them out at the BBB site. result This organization is not a BBB Accredited business.

Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record

BBB Definition:

 

unsatisfactory record - A company has an "unsatisfactory business performance record" with the BBB is based on the experiences reflected in BBB files. This file condition results when the company has failed to resolve or respond to complaints, repeatedly failed to respond or resolve issues in a timely manner, failed to resolve the underlying issues etc.

 

This my be an OK company but after searching the internet for more info and reading most peoples energy bill goes up and it takes $1,000 to buy out of the contract. I thanked my stars that I have the origninal contract in my hands.

 

any other experiences out there? Let the buyer beware and reasearch.

[admin]

We had similar experiences with companies like this right after the de-regulation and did some digging around. If we had signed with them we would have been paying a lot more. They also used the high pressure, "Your gonna lose money" and "don't be an itdiot, just sign it" kind of thing. When they asked to see my bill, that just didn't sit right with me. We have had quite a few different companies come knocking offering these great rates. When you read the contract it was higher than the current rates. They would have to increase quite a bit in order to make it worth while.

[Pythagoras]

Had a guy at my door last week...listened to the pitch for about 3 seconds before I said no thanks....he proceeded to fish out a 2/3rds smoked butt from his shirt pocket and tried to launch into the rebuttle...door closed before he could.

[SanJuanWorm]

He came by my place too. I said. I don't do business after 6pm. When he started talking again I closed the door.

 

Use this as a guideline...................DONT DO BUSINESS AT YOUR HOME UNLESS THE PERSON IS INVITED. EVER

[reevesr1]

Stay AWAY!!!!

They came to our door while I was out. Wife answered. They had her talked into signing up. I came home and asked what was up. Dude told me that we had just signed up for a gas/electric package. I told him I was already in a contract. He said no problem since we had a contract, it wouldn't go through. I did not realize my wife had signed until after he left, but took him at his word that nothing would happen. The stupid mistake was letting him go without taking the paperwork and ripping it up.

 

2 wks later I get a cancellation bill from Direct Energy. To make a LONG story short, it took several weeks and some strongly worded calls to get them to cancel. Did not seem ethical to me. But I bullied them in to doing what I wanted, which was cancel. They did threaten to charge me cancellation. I think I convinced them their sales guy had a serious ethics issue. My call would be to just say no!

[loyaleddie]

He he he…People like that, who come to my house or call my phone, trigger quick onset dementia with me. I thank them for coming by, or calling. I then proceed to tell them that it’s been fairly lonely since the Great War, and my dog likes to sing Dixie tunes while in the shower. You know things like that. That usually ends the conversations right away.

 

[navigud]

Alberta Energy an Savings is an Ont. based company that bought out Epcors contracts when the got out of the retail side of contracting commodities.

When de-regulation arose in alberta I signed a gas contract and for 3.89 pr gj when atco was retailing it at about 2.25. For the 1st little while I was paying more but then gas skyrocketed to over 9.00 gj and i was still paying 3.89 all those rebates we got that year i also qualified for infact, I never even payed a gas bill for about 11 months.

All they are doing is buying the commodity on the futures market adding a retail mark up and then flogging it to you and I the consumer.contracting commodities is a good idea however the rate must be reasonable , the rates they are offering now are completely out of whack.

BTW I did also sign an electrical contract also for 5.9cents a kwh and then it went to over 10 cents a kwh.

I never renewed either of those contracts because the rates were way to high to lock in the price.

 

DI

[Flytyer]

Here's a heads up if you are already an Alberta Energy Savings client: If you are close to the end ofyour contract and they send you a refund check.....DON'T CASH IT!!!!!!! CASHING IT IS IMPLYING YOU AGREE TO RENEW YOUR CONTRACT WITH THEM

We were with Epcor prior to the buy out and they sent us 3 of these so called refund checks. Around the same time CTV Calgary ran a consumer alert on this very matter. If you have already done this you still may have an out....contact the consumer reporter at CTV and ask about the past incidents they covered.

 

contact info:

Lea Williams-Doherty

e-mail:

lwdoherty@ctv.ca

[SanJuanWorm]

I flat out asked the guy "why do you always come around when the prices are high?"

 

He had no answer..

[Pythagoras]

Alberta Energy an Savings is an Ont. based company that bought out Epcors contracts when the got out of the retail side of contracting commodities.

When de-regulation arose in alberta I signed a gas contract and for 3.89 pr gj when atco was retailing it at about 2.25. For the 1st little while I was paying more but then gas skyrocketed to over 9.00 gj and i was still paying 3.89 all those rebates we got that year i also qualified for infact, I never even payed a gas bill for about 11 months.

All they are doing is buying the commodity on the futures market adding a retail mark up and then flogging it to you and I the consumer.contracting commodities is a good idea however the rate must be reasonable , the rates they are offering now are completely out of whack.

BTW I did also sign an electrical contract also for 5.9cents a kwh and then it went to over 10 cents a kwh.

I never renewed either of those contracts because the rates were way to high to lock in the price.

 

DI

 

 

Zactly.

 

The concept is sound but it's the markups and commissions etc you have to watch for . It's a way to play the futures market for the retail consumer.

[reevesr1]

Here's a heads up if you are already an Alberta Energy Savings client: If you are close to the end ofyour contract and they send you a refund check.....DON'T CASH IT!!!!!!! CASHING IT IS IMPLYING YOU AGREE TO RENEW YOUR CONTRACT WITH THEM

We were with Epcor prior to the buy out and they sent us 3 of these so called refund checks. Around the same time CTV Calgary ran a consumer alert on this very matter. If you have already done this you still may have an out....contact the consumer reporter at CTV and ask about the past incidents they covered.

 

contact info:

Lea Williams-Doherty

e-mail:

lwdoherty@ctv.ca

 

Isn't that the same as negative option billing? Ie, your cable company sends you an option to increase your plan, with a line in the text that says if you don't reply, they will switch you to the higher plan. That used to happen in the states, and it is now illegal. This refund check thing sounds like a variation on that theme. Illegal? Don't know. But again, it speaks directly to their unethical nature.

 

I have no issue with the concept of locking in a rate. In fact, it's good business for them to market more aggressively when rates are high. That said, you can be aggressive (send out lots of people in this case) without being unethical.

[Flytyer]

Isn't that the same as negative option billing? Ie, your cable company sends you an option to increase your plan, with a line in the text that says if you don't reply, they will switch you to the higher plan. That used to happen in the states, and it is now illegal. This refund check thing sounds like a variation on that theme. Illegal? Don't know. But again, it speaks directly to their unethical nature.

 

I have no issue with the concept of locking in a rate. In fact, it's good business for them to market more aggressively when rates are high. That said, you can be aggressive (send out lots of people in this case) without being unethical.

 

Not sure if it would be considered negative billing but it is in my opinion a very underhanded way of doing business knowing that most people would cash that check without hesitation. We actually had them contact us as to why we didn't cash the rebate stating that it was messing up their books....... told them we knew what kind of a scam it was and we weren't interested in doing any form of business with them.

[SamIam]

DONT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My neighbor signed up a few years ago. Made out very well. We signed up about a year after he did. Has been killng us ever since. Gas prices went down instead of up as I had envisioned. We have looked into getting out of it, but the only way to do it is to pay them out for the remainder of the contract based on what they think you would be paying anyways. The other way out of it is to sell your house and move somewhere that they (or one of their affiliates) don't serve. She sure was a smooth talking saleswoman.

[cuttbow]

DONT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My neighbor signed up a few years ago. Made out very well. We signed up about a year after he did. Has been killng us ever since. Gas prices went down instead of up as I had envisioned. We have looked into getting out of it, but the only way to do it is to pay them out for the remainder of the contract based on what they think you would be paying anyways. The other way out of it is to sell your house and move somewhere that they (or one of their affiliates) don't serve. She sure was a smooth talking saleswoman.

Signed up a couple of years ago as well as my neigbor. Couple months ago he received a cheque from them saying if he cashed it he was locked in for another 5 years.Very sad part is we signed up 20 minutes apart. I photo copied his contract and other documents and phoned them up to see why they cancelled his contract early after one year.. Was told by an extremely rude person on the other end that i was full of s... and they would never do that. I even offered to send them copies of both contracts that are identical, and was greated with a click. Phoned back the next day and talked to the supervisor was told i had to pay a penalty if i backed out. Complete BS.