Posted on 08/03/2012 9:18:45 PM PDT by grundle
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A door-to-door representative of Just Energy was videotaped by KDKA Producer Matt Regan after a confrontation with Regan at his home.
Last week Regan was home in Brookline and chose not to answer his door the first two times the man knocked.
“A third knock and finally I just shout out from my couch, ‘I’m not interesting in what you’re selling.’
“He says, ‘I’m not selling anything. I’m gonna save you some money.’”
That got Regan off the couch and at the front door he would learn as many are these days the man wanted him to sign up for Just Energy to become his electrical supplier and asked to see Regan’s Duquesne Light bill.
“I show it to him, he says, ‘Wow that’s a whole lot. I can get it for you a lot cheaper.’”
It was a hot day and Regan invited the man into his home, but after going online and calling a colleague, Regan got cautious, said he wasn’t interested and told the man to leave.
“He wouldn’t leave my house,” Regan said.
He finally did leave only to return with the paper work he’d started filling out with Regan’s information. The man only left the porch when Regan opened the door to get him to leave.
The Public Utility Commission says aggressive sales people aren’t just confined to door-to-door. They’re also robocalling cell phones in the region.
“Some of these marketers are implying they are partnering with Duquesne Light, it’s a Duquesne Light rebate center or we’re working in conjunction with Duquesne Light – none of that is in fact true,” Joe Vallarian, a Duquesne Light spokesman, said.
The calls are coming from untraceable numbers which when put in Google produces a litany of complaints from consumers being barraged with solicitations.
“One thing I want to make clear is we do not give out customer telephone numbers, we don’t do telemarking, we don’t do door-to-door sales,” he added.
The PUC recommends if you are interested in an offer, thoroughly check out the company on the PaPowerSwitch.com website and make an informed decision – not a decision forced by pressure on the phone, or by a door-to-door salesman in person.
I couldn’t do that for a living. I’d get tongue-tied saying “Duquesne” all the time
I play with the telemarketers...String ‘em along with stupid questions. “Are you a licensed contractor?”... “How much will it cost me?” As Many questions as I can think of...
Then I ask if they are reputable?? Of course they say “yes”. Then I ask if a reputable contractor would violate the “do not call list”?
The abrupt hang-ups thrill my loins.
I tell these solar con-men that my home and all the properties around me are part of an association and that I am on the board. Not only will I never waste a dime on solar panels, I won’t sign off on the necessary design plans that any of my neighbors wanting to install them would have to submit. I can usually see them driving down the hill and out of our neighborhood after leaving my house.
The simple fact is that if your electricity bill averages more than $150/month, solar panels will pay for themselves. Your bill would be about the same, but there would not be any increase from your electric company over the life of the lease, which would be typically 20% over 6 years. That can be substantial.
oops, last sentence was deleted
So if you want to get rid of them, just say “My bill is $100/month average, can you help me?”
They can’t.
But if you buy a solar powered attic ventilation fan from Home Depot for ~$300, you might lower your electric bills (for Air Conditioning) even further, or feel a 10-20 degree difference if you have no AC.
ping.
Doo-Kane. Not doo-kwess-nee.
Just one more reason why we sell to our friends and family.
No reason to be an obnoxious jerk and he really can’t promise anyone they will save money on a commodity whose price range changes daily.
The only thing one can say is they will have more control and choices over their pricing which may lead to savings. but you can’t guarantee it.
Have you ever played them to get their contact information and then called them. Also kinda fun to track them down to a line that actually rings into where they are. You have to do a bit of work to get enough info out of them to be able to locate them.
“The simple fact is that if your electricity bill averages more than $150/month, solar panels will pay for themselves.”
That’s a rather broad statement...with nothing backing it up.
That worked out real good for Solyndra didn’t it...
That’s a rather broad statement...with nothing backing it up.
***Just call up one of the solar installers such as sungevity or REC or solar city or whoever. Tell them your bill. If it’s more than the threshold, they’ll want to proceed forth with a lease. Home Depot is aligned with Solar City, and Lowe’s is aligned with Sungevity. Just ask.
“Just call up one of the solar installers such as sungevity or REC or solar city or whoever. Tell them your bill. If it’s more than the threshold, they’ll want to proceed forth with a lease. Home Depot is aligned with Solar City, and Lowe’s is aligned with Sungevity. Just ask.”
I’ll take your word on the above. I’ve seen what happens when you let these guys start nailing into one’s roof.
But what you say above isn’t quite what you implied, which is what I took issue with. You said “pay for themselves” - I still doubt that’s the case, because that implies that the power is being generated cheaply, relative to utility power. Not the case - but when utilities are forced to buy this power at inflated prices, and tons of subsidies are implied, then yes, eventually it can be made to work.
Maybe just a wording issue between us.
I’ve seen what happens when you let these guys start nailing into one’s roof.
***The company I was involved with had a strong warranty policy.
You said “pay for themselves” - I still doubt that’s the case, because that implies that the power is being generated cheaply, relative to utility power.
***I’m here in California. There’s a 5-tiered billing system in place, the higher the usage the higher the rate billing. The lower 2 tiers are subsidized, the upper tiers are where PG&E make their money. Solar panels compete with the upper tiers, but not the lower tiers. The way the panels pay for themselves is with future price protection against PG&E rate increases. Over the last 6 years, PG&E has raised their rates by 20%; there is currently a request to raise rates 10%. The future price protection for upper tier usage is significant enough to trigger all this activity.
Now that makes sense - with the tiered pricing. You’re probably pushing 25 cents for that last kWh. But it applies to your circumstance, in your location. Your posting implied that applies to anyone - including me.
Here in Texas we still have flat rates for power, so the economics are completely different. Even so, I did look into what it would take to put up panes, but wouldn’t you know, the neighbor has a huge tree blocking my best view.
I’d love to be independent of the grid, particularly with this “Smart Meter” crap.
Your posting implied that applies to anyone - including me.
***I’m sorry, please forgive me.
Here in Texas we still have flat rates for power, so the economics are completely different. Even so, I did look into what it would take to put up panes, but wouldn’t you know, the neighbor has a huge tree blocking my best view.
***I’m a renter. I’m looking into installing my own 500W single panel just to run air conditioning.
I’d love to be independent of the grid, particularly with this “Smart Meter” crap.
***Going completely off grid is very expensive. Most people are interested in Solar if it can save them a little money.
“I’m sorry, please forgive me.”
Forgiven...but remember that most people in this country cannot make the calculations like we can...so implying that solar is a good idea may cause them to go broke on something that doesn’t help them.
500W won’t buy you much in the way of air conditioning, but if the room is tiny, and well insulated, it will work.
Agree - going off-grid is pricy. But there are ways of using panels when the grid is down - although Big Electricity will not tell you that.
Forgiven...but remember that most people in this country cannot make the calculations like we can...so implying that solar is a good idea may cause them to go broke on something that doesn’t help them.
***I don’t think they even need to make the calculations. Just get your bill together and call one of those solar companies for a quote. If it makes sense to move forward, they’ll lease solar panels to you. If it doesn’t, they won’t risk their own assets on your rooftop.
Interestingly enough, this goes for ultra-greenyweenies as well. If someone’s bill averages $70 but they want solar panels anyways, the solar companies will not lease to them because the risk is that over the 20 year lease, the homeowner will change his mind about being greenyweenie and want to start saving money again. So greenyweenies need to buy the panels outright, which most customers are not doing — it does not make financial sense.
“Interestingly enough, this goes for ultra-greenyweenies as well. If someone’s bill averages $70 but they want solar panels anyways, the solar companies will not lease to them because the risk is that over the 20 year lease, the homeowner will change his mind about being greenyweenie and want to start saving money again. So greenyweenies need to buy the panels outright, which most customers are not doing — it does not make financial sense.”
...and Greenies don’t have much cash lying around. They go to college to get useless degrees...so they rarely make much money after that.
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