cesco.g

Trying to decipher: Did the AA miles post? if yes, how long from sign-up?

ORD-TGU

I also have EP, got the 12,500 bonus and have been getting a ($0.071/kWh) these past months, ok during low use months, now that summer is coming up I was going to change back to Comed, but this offer that you mention at a fixed rate of $0.0594/kWh in return for a 1 year contract with a $50 early termination fee is very good. I will call to change and see what happens.

i will also try to negotiate 3X AA vs the 2X AA that I am getting.

dhammer53

I cancelled.

My rates went through the roof in the NY area. Switched back to Con Edison.
Even if you figure the value of my Starwood points sign up bonus, I still came out on the short end of the stick.

y2chen

Ooh, I didn't know that part of it was negotiable at all. Perhaps I'll give that a try when I call back to switch.

I'm also curious about this 1 year contract though. Say at the end of it you want to cancel. It takes 2 months for service to switch over, so that's two months you're potentially on their variable rate, and who knows what rate that'll be. So do you need to call to cancel 2 months before your contract is up? That's a question I'll have to remember to ask.

y2chen

Called back, decided it was worth it to switch to the fixed rate plan for 12 months.

First, no go on the extra miles for the supply portion of the bill every month, still the standard 2x / $.

Second, you can't initiate a cancellation until the 12 months are up. If you do, the system automatically bills the termination fee. You can, however, renew the fixed rate plan towards the end of your contract period.

And finally, it takes 1-2 billing cycles to switch from the variable to fixed rate plan.

LRD

Per a snail-mailing received yesterday, this offer is now up to 20,000 miles!

I'm not sure if this is a targetted URL, but here it is:

energyplusrewards.com/aal5729 or 877-770-3373

"Your offer code is aal-5729-133", "Offer valid for Texas residents..." after two months of service.

yoyo

I got a quote from Energy Plus. To switch they offer $25 off and then 2% rebate. First month for CT customers will be 7.451 cents/KW but after that they will use variable market rate. For Feb their rate was 12.31 cents/KW but my current rate for Feb was 8.9 cents/KW so it doesn't make sense for me to switch to them.

diaspora04

Energy Plus's CT rates are not remotely competitive in my experience.

AndrewUVM

They're not, but they are not unreasonable either. Especially during this time of year when electrical usage is low.

UserMark

I got an offer for 7500 miles in MA.
http://www.energypluscompany.com/com...pc=071&pcb=071
If you have a better offer for MA, please share your link.

MissMiles

Just a word of warning to you guys about EnergyPlus. I signed up for this promo last year, and before I did I called to ask if their rates are different than ConEd. They said the rates are variable and said they can fluctuate. But they kind of alluded to their rates not being too far off from ConEd. I’m a young professional working in finance, living in NYC and manage all my finances and bills well so I figured I would give them a try and if anything is fishy I would cancel. So I signed up, got my miles and just paid my bills as normal. As the summer came up, my electric bills went up but I didn't think anything of it since I live in an apt in NYC and know that rates go up in the summer due to AC use. In the winter though, my rates were unusually high, so I became suspicious. And lo and behold, I found that what EnergyPlus was charging me was significantly higher than ConEd. I put together a spreadsheet starting from the first month (Feb 2011) that I joined EnergyPlus, which I compared the rates between EnergyPlus and ConEd.

The electric bill has 2 components: delivery and supply. The delivery doesn't change and is provided by ConEd. The provider for your supply charges is what you are able to chose (so EnergyPlus or ConEd). I found that in the first 3 months, the supply charges were almost identical, varying from $0.08 - $0.09 per kWh (although the EnergyPlus was about a penny more than ConEd). Then, in the 4th month, EnergyPlus charged me $0.23/kWh. At this point, the ConEd rate was only $0.11/kWh, but EnergyPlus rates are "variable," so this wouldn’t have been a big deal if in the following months the EnergyPlus rates went down. THEN, from the 5th month on (and until I cancelled in Feb 2012), EnergyPlus charged me $.23/kWh, while the ConEd rate ranged from $.06 - $0.11/kWh. I was really pissed off (first at myself for not checking my bills carefully but then at EnergyPlus because they were ripping me off). I totaled all my charges ConEd vs. Energy plus, and calculated that EnergyPlus overcharged me by ~$200 in the year I had them.

I called them and explained the situation and was really upset (but still polite). The lady that I spoke with explained that EnergyPlus has variable rates that can fluctuate and bla bla bla. Then I very nicely explained that from month 5 – 12, EnergyPlus was charging me $0.23/kWh, which was fixed rate, while the ConEd rate fluctuated from $0.06 - $0.11/kWh. She really didn’t have a proper reply and just repeated that their rates can vary. I escalated the issue and just said what EnergyPlus did is wrong and she was able to get me a refund for a portion of the overcharges (EnergyPlus sent me a check for a little over $100). But she repeated many times that this is not their ordinary course of business and just wanted to do it as a token of goodwill. So at the end of the day, after getting a portion refunded, EnergyPlus overcharged me by about $100 (~$200 total overcharges less the ~$100 refund). I think they gave me the credit because they didn’t want bad publicity or me possibly suing them (and although I’m sure in their TOS they have language that would get them out of a lawsuit, they probably just would rather throw some money at the problem than deal with an unhappy customer). So just a word of warning to you guys, they are shady. I would just join, get the points, and afterwards, switch back to your old service provider. It’s not worth the points that you get per month.

yojimbo

missmiles......many thanks for the detailed explanation of your experience.

I live in NYC also, and I appreciate the heads-up. I will not be switching to Energy Plus.

MissMiles

if you do, just make sure to cancel right after you get the points (after 2 months), bc at that point EnergryPlus was still charging me the same rate (give or take a few pennies) as ConEd

dhammer53

I received a PM from someone that's looking at a class action lawsuit regarding the very high prices. I'm not sure if this is for NY or the entire country. Stay tuned.

dh

MissMiles

Not surprised at all to hear this. EnergyPlus deserves it. I cannot wait to hear more from you on this.