U.S. Energy Savings — Savior or Scam?
After every major utility outage in Chicago, a company called U.S. Energy Savings sends squads of young kids door to door, possibly hoping to catch homeowners and business owners at a vulnerable time.
For strangers who just show up at one’s door without an appointment, they’re just a little too eager to look at residents’ utility bills, and that’s not info I share with just anyone.
Have any of you have any dealings with these people, and if so, have you seen the enormous savings they claim consumers will enjoy?
Duration : 0:4:59
Tagged with: agreement • AT&T • Bell • Chicago • ComEd • Commonwealth • ConEd • Consolidated • DSL • Edison • electric • electricity • energy • Gas • Pac • People's • PG&E • phone • savings • U.S.
Filed under: budget living
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I am very skeptical …
I am very skeptical of strange people going door to door. Had a bad experience. About 6 years ago, some young ids were going door to door selling candy for a group that did not exist. Tursn out they were casing out cars to steal and I was one of the lucky ones to have his stolen…a word to the wise :}
There is nothing …
There is nothing you could have done to stop that to my knowledge. That’s simply because they will always own thie lines. So anything concerning the lines is their priority. Taxes arethe govenment, and then the gas itself is the concern of the suppier. I am quite sure that those things may show up on your bill in one form or another if not already…
Yes. This summer, …
Yes. This summer, People’s Gas rampaged through our neighborhood replacing gas lines and putting meters outside. As a part of this, they inspected everyone’s gas stoves, and condemned mine because it didn’t have a pressure regulator or a coated connector. (It had been operating 36 years just fine without either.) If I’d signed with a competing gas supplier, would I have been able to keep People’s Gas from coming in my house, which I really wanted to do? As you’ve said, they own the lines.
If you don’t like …
If you don’t like the prices please do something. If not with USESC then research someone. Doing nothing is the worse thing you can do. One more thing. On the back of your bill you will find discriptions of each portion of your bill. Their wording can be tricky because they use a lot of technical terms, but it does explain your bill, and where the money goes. Most costomers have not needed to be educated on this because our bills weren’t this pricey, but now things are different. Anything else?
Understand this… …
Understand this…the price does not determine the quality of a product or service. Does it make since to pay more for something that does the same thing? It does not work any better or worse. It’s the same. So why not get a fixed rate to protect yourself from price increases like these. I didn’t make any of this up. You can look at your bills under the gas charge/cost portion, and see that the price always changes. This is your privilge, and it is not up to your utility company.
(I need to make a …
(I need to make a correction to the example. It was 125 therms which would have put you bill at 187.50 not 160 which is worse. Then you would figure in the taxes + the delivery charge from you utility company. You bill would easily go over 200 with this example.) Now if you had signed up with energy savings you would have gotten 1.09 per therm, and you gas portion of the bill would have been 119.90. That’s 67.60 difference. Where else could that money be useful?
At that same time …
At that same time the rate for energy savings was 1.09 per therm. That was a little higher that the going rate, but that covers the costs of doing business. What has happened since then? A couple of months ago the gas rate incresed to 1.49 to 1.50 per therm(all-time high). This was without doing anything, and it had not even been a full year yet. If you had used the same amount of therms we used in the first example(110), which BTW is low, your gas portion alone would have been $165.
Great question. It …
Great question. It varies from costomer to costomer because of usage. Your gas is measured in Therms, and you are charged per therm. This time last year the rate was about .88 per therm. We will assume you may have used 125 therms in that particular month which would put you at $110 for that portion of the bill(gas charge/cost). If you fugure in taxes and delivery charge(which is the only portion where the Utility company profits) that bill would probably come to about $160.
All right then, …
All right then, maybe you would know: how much are U.S. Energy customers saving on average compared to People’s Gas and ComEd? Their door-to-door reps should be able to tell me that without looking at copies of my gas and electric bills.
Peoples Gas owns …
Peoples Gas owns the gas lines, but they don’t own the gas itself. The gas is owned by supplier. Peoples gas gets the gas from them and charge you cent for cent. I am not giving you any hype. Go read you bill. I used to work in this same industry with this same company. So I do understnd how people may feel about it at first, but I just think that peopl just need to get the cold hard facts. At the end of the day that’s what matters…
Did you know that …
Did you know that right after Lisa Madigan filed these lawsuits, and whoever else, that your rates went to an all time high. You could have stopped that with Energy Savings. Peaples, Nicor, and NorthShore are utility companies that are responsible for the delivery portion(avg. 15-20%) of your bill. The gas charge(avg. 70%) comes from a supplier. If you don’t select a supplier then you opt for your utility to do so, and they are not affected by the price of the gas itself. Get a fixed price.
Didn’t seem to make …
Didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense that they could offer those fantastic savings, since they’d have to use the same underground gas lines as People’s Gas.
They don’t come to …
They don’t come to the door here (I have way too many firearms for that) but they used to send a lot of publications. Much too much like a scam for my taste.
Illinois Attorney …
Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan has filed a lawsuit in the Cook County Circuit Court against US Energy Savings Corp allegedly selling fix-gas rates using deceptive sales tactics that falsely promise savings.