con-ed
—>ConEd has just what you need in the middle of recession: a rate hike! Monthly bills are set to rise between $6-$8 as the energy monster tries to recoup a half a billion dollars to cover the cost of higher property taxes and the usual infrastructure maintenance that utilities never budget for in advance. The perennial optimists at the New York Post still somehow think you'll still end up with a lower bill... More »
—>Sick of their neighborhood getting overrun by ESCO Slammers, salesmen who pretend to be from your energy provider and trick people into signing over to their energy resale service, some Brooklyn citizens put together this flyer. The Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights posted it in their 'hood and put it online for other people to use too. The flyer talks about IDT Energy and Con Ed, but you could edit it to be for your locality if you wanted to, too. Cool to see people banding together to fight the ESCO-slamming scourge. More »
—>I've got a new article in Reader's Digest about 9 scams that exploit national trends and how to avoid them. Flimflammers use the same basic scams over and over again, they just use the strips newspaper headlines to layer on like papermache on their chickenwire schemes. My article points out nine recent iterations and how to avoid them. Thanks to all the readers who sent in their stories to help out with the article. Loyal blog readers will enjoy that we splashed longstanding Consumerist nemesis IDT Energy's skanky sales practices in national print. Gotcha, suckers. More »
Energy scammers are still stalking the good people of Brooklyn, according to the Gowanus Lounge. Not only are they going door-to-door, but now they're calling, too. Remember: if some stranger calls claiming that they are from a company you do business with and asks you to "confirm you account information," tell them you'll call them back at their usual number and hang up. [Gowanus Lounge] (Thanks, Chris!) More »
—>Reader Fiona wants to know if the people calling from "Con Ed" offering "free light bulbs" are running a scam. More »
—>Graham says:
I heard a Con Ed commercial today on the radio, in the NY area. Thankfully, you may now report that you have no electricity, online. More »
—>New York state law requires that requires that the energy company ConEd accept the lowest bids possible for its manhole covers, which probably explains why they're made by nearly naked men in India paid only a handful of dollars a day. When ConEd officials were shown images of the shirtless workers toiling with molten metal, they said (emphasis added):
We were disturbed by the photos...We take worker safety very seriously.This is as good a time as any to introduce you folks to the phrase, "taking it seriously." You will note, as we have, that in statements by company spokesmen made to newspapers regarding their employer's wrongdoing, the phrase, "taking it seriously" appears again and again, so often, in fact, that we have trouble taking seriously that all these companies are really taking their ne'er-do-welling as seriously as they would have us think. To this end, The Consumerist has begun documenting the utterances of the phrase with eye towards a roundup post some day cataloging sightings of this well-polished piece of public relation glibbery. Keep an eye out. More »
—>Staffers at the New York State Public Service Commission have signed off on ConEd's plan to impose the largest rate hike in the company's history. ConEd asked for $1.2 billion, but PSC staffers think the utility is entitled to only $618 million. New Yorkers already pay some of the highest electricity bills in the nation.
"This is all part of the sham that goes on with every rate hike request," said Assemblyman Michael N. Gianaris, a Queens Democrat who sits on the Assembly's power committee and who has criticized the utility for its response to the 2006 power failure in his borough. "Con Edison asks for more than it expects to get," he said. "The P.S.C. rides in on its white horse and takes credit for slashing the request. But the end result is still what Con Edison wanted all along."More »
—>In case you missed any of 7-part undercover report on IDT-Energy, Midtown Promotions, and the fabulous worlds of energy resale and multi-level-marketing, here's a recap: More »
—>After only three days with Midtown Promotions, I could already tell that I'd wait weeks, maybe months or a full year before coming upon hard evidence of fraud, if I found any evidence at all. After leaving James and Doreen in the Bronx, I took the afternoon off and went to work on these diaries. More »
—>From the moment I met up with James, and Doreen, who was going our way, things began to fall apart. Eric told me to follow James, not Carl, who was going solo. I was to listen to James' instructions, follow his example, and go to wherever he decided we should spend the day. Today was Mt. Vernon, NY, almost 90 minutes from the offices of Midtown Promotions. More »
—>If you're just now tuning in, we've been doling out daily pieces of our multi-part investigation into IDT-Energy. They're an energy reseller in the New York area and we've received multiple complaints about their salesperson's dressing as ConEd workers and doing other funny stuff at the door to get people to sign over. So we sent in Brian Fairbanks undercover to get hired at Midtown Promotions, a direct-sales marketing company IDT-Energy contracted to get subscribers. More »
—>Before the morning meeting started, I left my man-purse on a set of boxes right by the blackboard, with the microphone discreetly poking out of the pocket. More »
—>A guy may come to your door pitching the fabulous savings you'll get by switching to an energy reseller. But before you sign on the line which is dotted, ask these questions: More »
—>I staggered into Midtown Promotions at 10am on Wednesday. Seeing as how people were only trickling in for the morning meeting, the receptionist and another office assistant gave me some papers to fill out and sign. (Note: all spelling errors/typos are as they appeared...) More »
