Monday, April 24, 2006

No Gas from You!

I really don't like door-to-door salesmen of any stripe. I should stop answering the bell, but sometimes you get suckered. A few times, at least 3, in the last two years I have had my doorbell rung by reps from company peddling natural gas. Each time, I saw someone with a badge and something that said Nicor. Thinking that there may be an emergency, a gas leak or something, I opened my door to talk to the guy.

Each encounter I had with these folks was unpleasant, leaving me feeling bullied. One kept calling me, "Stupid, Stupid" loud enough to for neighbors to hear, when I refused to sign-up. Another told me that gas prices were not subject to supply and demand, so prices would only go up if I didn't lock in prices. The scary thing besides the name calling and the lies, is their tactic of passing themselves off as utility employees and trying very hard to enter my house. These were big guys, pushy guys who when I refused the offer demanded to talk to my husband about it and tried to push past me. As a single, fully competent, female homeowner, it really pissed me off.

So I was really happy to see that the Illinois Citizens' Utility Board has issued an alert about them. I'm not absolutely sure this is the same organization I dealt with, but if you read the article, you will see the similarities.

It looks like a similar scam is documented at the Consumerist --- my favorite blog. See here.

2 Comments:

At 8:26 AM, Blogger ms. purity said...

One of these people came to my house a few months ago trying to push the sqame thing. He had an "official" badge, tons of paperwork, and was very aggressive in having me sign papers "right on the spot". Needless to say, right away I smelled bullshit. What's sad is that they focus on predominaately poorer neighborhoods (mostly hispanic) and hope that due to the language barrier, they can scam people out of their money.

It's a damn shame!!!

 
At 8:47 AM, Blogger Nancy said...

I hear a brief story on this outfit on the radio. I hope it gets into the Spanish Language Media as well.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home