The following is a letter I sent to Global TV's "Troubleshooter":
Good Afternoon,
My name is Shawn Pallier, and I am writing you because I would like to help inform the public about a troubling way Direct Energy is conducting business.
In February, I was contacted by a Direct Energy telemarketer. They said that they were giving me the opportunity to put both my gas and electricity on the same bill, seeing that the market had become de-regulated. There was a casual and no-risk, cancel-at-any time offer made, so I took the bait.
I decided I would try their budget program. In mid-April, I was greeted with what I thought was my first bill; A whopping $541.74.
I immediately contacted Direct Energy to let them know I didn't feel this was a very good budget plan. I was hoping they would tell me that this was simply an opening bill, and that future payments would be much smaller. I was still upset, but would have swallowed that. Instead, I was informed my account was closed, and that I would have to settle my "Debits" due to the fact that I was moving on to a different company (I imagine she meant "Debts").
I said that I understood that if I was moving to a different company, that would be fine, but I was staying with Direct Energy and I was simply adding my Electricity. I was then informed that I had, in fact, moved on to a different company: Direct Energy(?).
Turns out that there is a difference between Direct Energy Regulated Services and Direct Energy. Maybe the more savvy bill-payer knows this, but they have the same logo and parent-company. They even have the same letterhead (with a much smaller "Regulated Services" under the bold Direct Energy).
I then had to call Direct Energy (you know, the other Direct Energy... not confusing at all, is it) to ask them to perhaps merge this closing-account payment with the opening of my new account to take away the sting. A supervisor at Direct Energy told me that this would be illegal, seeing that this would be 2 different companies sharing information. The government would never allow that, she said.
Even if it was unintentional (or is it?) I feel Direct Energy (the parent company) should be more responsible than to offer such a deal in February, knowing that anybody on a budget plan would be in debt to Direct Energy at that time. All those winter-months, I was underpaying, but during the spring and summer, I'd be over-paying to compensate. I will not be allowed to do that.
In a frustrated moment, the supervisor admitted to me that this type of marketing is being done to "phase out" Direct Energy Regulated Services. I thank her for confessing on behalf of her company, but I'd appreciate a formal apology and for them to forgive my "closing balance", which they are totally unwilling to cooperate on.
I feel they should forgive the closing balance of anyone who was a victim of this marketing.
I am getting married in a very short time, in early June in fact, and they might feel that this is a small price to pay and that maybe next time I should "know what I'm getting into". But their marketing techniques could mean a lack of funds on what should be the happiest day of my life.
I appreciate the time it took to read this, and look forward to your response.
Regards,
Shawn Pallier
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3 comments:
I worked for Direct Energy Regulated / ATCO-I-tek / Manpower- all while sitting at the same desk! Your confounded experience is certainly not unique, hell, as an employee I had difficulty grasping the interrelationships between a seeming endless labyrinth of titles- Direct Energy: Retail/Regulated/Marketing/etc.
What a crock! The parent company of Direct Energy is British Petroleum, though they never did mention that in our five day indoctrination before throwing us into the fire. Regardless of which supplier/marketer/transporter/retailer/bullywanker you pay for your gas in Alberta, it's all physically supplied by ATCO Gas who essentially dictate to the Energy Utilities Board what the price per gigajoule will be for any given month.
I was sacked after seven months of calling customers to argue with them over billing discrepancies.
I'm not sure what the situation is like now, as my heating is included with my rent, but it would seem to me, here in Edmonton, your best bet would be to begrudgingly go with Direct Energy Regulated Services for your Gas, and Epcor for your Electricity.
I had a similar experience in April 2008. Direct Energy (the non-regulated) was sending salespeople around to get people to sign a new contract. We of course didn't realize that the person that visited us was a salesperson when they first came to our door. They introduced themselves as being from Direct Energy, and since we had been dealing with Direct Enegy Regulated Services (we had just bought the house a few months earlier), we thought it was a person from our current provider. The person indicated that our contract was changing to have our electricity/gas on the same bill and we had to sign a new contract for when the change took effect in June of 2008. He also indicated to us that the Direct Energy was also having the rest of our condo complex switch to the same billing system. In the end, he led us to believe that we had to sign the new contract to continue services and that the purpose was only to have our electricity and natural gas on the same bill. We later found out when visited by several more people who we later discovered were salespeople that we did have the option of staying on our current plan with Direct Energy Regulated Services. Had we known that we could have stayed on our existing plan we wouldn't have changed, but instead we were led to believe that we had to sign the new contract as part of a billing change for the combined electricity/natural gas bill. Of course with the contract rate being a fixed rate, we're now paying 3x what the value of natural gas is currently, and even at the time of the contract taking effect it was at a higher rate than the floating rate from our previous contract. We're now in the process of remedying this situation and switching back to our old provider, and hopefully finding some remedy to the severe overpayments we were making due to the deception of this salesperson.
This is all so confusing. I signed on with Direct Energy Essential Services (DEES for short) about a year ago. I have just received my second bill from Direct Energy (not DEES), for what, I am not sure! There is no indication on the bill the date of services they are charging for either. And it is more than my monthly bill from DEES, which includes gas and electric. This is ridiculous.
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