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Great article and good follow up comments and concerns. For full discolsure I represent Major energy. As we all know, there are always two sides to every topic. I thought I'd jump in and share the "Major Energy" side:
First let me explain the nature of our business. Thanks to the deregulation of the Energy Markets back in the 90's, NY Gas and Electricity customers have a choice to pick an alternative supplier on their current energy bills. In other words, their utility for the most part does everything it has been doing such as billing, reading meters and responding to emergency bills. What we are talking about here is lowering the supply portion of customers' energy bills, typically making up 60% of the total energy bill.
Despite the efforts of the government and utilities to inform customers that there are saving they could realize on their energy bills, still many remain uninformed. Our company has tried several methods of reaching customers to educate them about their options. We've found the most cost efficient and effective way to reach customers is through canvassing (Door To Door) because we are able to better to reach consumers and illustrate the program with a diagram that we use.
It is true that ESCO's are "for profit" companies. As one member noted, you should choose carefully. There are a couple of important things to know if you are looking to save money on your energy bills:
1) Most ESCO's primarily offer FIXED rates and LONG TERM contracts (with cancellation fees attached). This could be bad because recently huge natural gas reserves have been uncovered in the US so gas prices are falling sharply (like mortgage rates did). This means that customers could find themselves paying more than their neighbors do because they got locked in too high with with a fixed rate not knowing that prices are dropping.
2) Major Energy is unique in that it offers a VARIABLE RATE (with historical savings of up to 10% based on average annual savings) with NO TERMINATION FEES. As market prices come down Major Energy works diligently to compete with the utility price (which in effect sets the bar for price each month) and stay below the utility rates.
3) Major Energy is also working on other unique service features to assist customers with managing their energy consumption and further lower their bills.
Re: "Scam, Scam, Scam" comments, one needs to be careful when making such broad allegations without a deeper dive into how search engines like Google work. When you Google ANYTHING the search engine pulls by the key words you use. So the words "scam" and "energy" and "major" in various combinations will pull a ton of results (3,320,000 in fact). However, if yo9u look closely "Major Energy Scam" pulls up no legitimate or "vetted out" articles from any established sources. Out of 3,320,000 only these 3 pop up:
1) A disgruntled recruit who only worked with Major Energy for 2 days. We rebuttled his complaint.
2) A blog for fire fighters in Long Island that seems to be more intended for online bantor and humor than anything serious.
3) This article that simply sheds some light on our permitting procedures/issues. It also acknowledges that we have an "A" rating with the Better Business Bureau. It does not cite ANY misrepresentation or slamming complaints at all. In fact there are no specific complaints aside from permitting.
As stated in the article Major Energy does have an "A" credit rating with the BBB for a reason. We work very hard to do right by our customers. We do not have "cozy" relationship with the BBB. In fact we do not know anyone there. With the BBB you simply register and that's it. I have to respectfully disagree with one of the comments "anybody still bothers to complain to the BBB, since the Internet is faster and more all-inclusive as a consumer medium." The truth is that like anything else, people complain when they are unhappy but very few rave when they are satisfied. In other words, if there are 5 complaints against any one company, where are the million rave reviews to match from existing and satisfied customers??? That is why the internet is not "all-inclusive." That is why someone like myself needs to take the time to provide a more "all inclusive" and balanced response so readers get a fair shake.
It is true that we employ "salespeople". However unlike other salespeople we do not "sell things" that intend to raise someone's monthly expenses. To the contrary, our goal is to reduce what people pay on their energy bills. Our salespeople are extensively trained to be polite and passionate about educating people as to the savings that they may be entitled to.
In regards to the solicitor's license that is really a "catch 22" if there ever was one. Again, we feel it our responsibility to inform every NY customer about the savings that they may be missing on their energy bills. There are thousands of towns and villages in the State of NY. If we could get a solicitors' permit for a town we do and have done so. However, many more towns make it either time or cost prohibitive to obtain such a permit. In one area for example we spent countless of hours and over $2K just to permit two agents with a solicitor's license. We later found out that the "local government employee" responsible for processing such permits was "diabolically opposed" to canvassing as a medium of communication. This came from one of her co-workers. The bottom line is that anytime we are asked to leave a township we do so willingly and quickly.
Thanks,
Shai
posted by Shai Fishman on 02/13/10 at 9:13 PM
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