Illinois Gas & Electric

crooks

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Sep 30, 2012
3,917
2,271
Elgin IL
Two weeks ago I had a younger guy come to my door and try to get me to switch electric providers. He was a good salesman but I didnt do it.

His angle was clean energy vs coal energy and he know about a delivery fee on the back of my bill that he said shouldnt be there.
 

SMRTSS1

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Jan 12, 2010
5,140
7,574
Elgin
Ask them if they install and maintain their own lines. If they say yes (they will) they’re lying. All these “cheaper” utility companies are nothing more than a third party billing company that do nothing other than collect your money then jack your rates higher than if you stayed with the actual company that installs and maintains the equipment. If you have a problem that needs to be fixed who do you think comes out then or the actual utility company?
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
26,172
31,307
Elgin
3rd party brokers like above. However even muncipalities are doing the same. I seem to recall Elgin has brokered with one of these companies. ComEd still owns/maintains the lines, but these 3rd party brokers buy it in bulk (I know that's hard with electricity) and at a certain rate (which is obviously lower than what you will get from ComEd), then turn around and sell it to you for more than what they pay but still much less than what CommyEd charges.

But believe it or not, it's not the rates that ComEd or even Nicor charge for their product. It's the stupid shit like "Delivery fee". Or "ComfortGuard" (or whatever Nicor calls it), line monitoring fees and other stupid fees they tack on that kill your bill.
 

SMRTSS1

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Jan 12, 2010
5,140
7,574
Elgin
Part of the problem is that the owning company is forced to sell off its product at a loss to these third party billing companies that literally do nothing but collect your money and make a profit on the backs of the people doing the work. Add to it that if there is an issue or outage you call the billing company, they call the owning company and the owning company sends out its workers to essentially work for free. Imagine Target takes over a few aisles in a WalMart, sells Walmart’s product, uses Walmart employees and charges Walmart employees for it then eventually raise the price to more than Walmart originally charged for it and when profits go down a certain amount they just close up shop and walk away. That is essentially what these billing companies do.
I’d rather pay the people actually doing the work.
 

Chet Donnelly

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Aug 19, 2004
18,383
38,893
It is a scam. Mt Prospect automatically put us on one of these shitty third party billers and locked in our rate for 2 years...the rate ended up being higher than the straight up ComEd bill. I had to actually call up to get out of it, and go back to just regular ComEd.
 

Kensington

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Aug 14, 2017
11,317
5,369
You CAN end up saving money brokering your electric. Just have to do your research. I broker my electric for work, and we end up saving $1000's over ComEd. But then again, we are going with a reputable power company. For the home, it doesn't seem worth the hassle.
 

pbdevastator

Regular
Aug 3, 2010
321
308
I switched my gas and yes the price was better at the time. Where they get you is once your contract ends, then the rate skyrockets. I went back to the supplier from nicor really fast. I remember that day my gas bill was $120 on a month its usually $70. So yea I don't ever switch, its all a sales pitch for them.
 

kyesburrell

*It's Totally Kyle*
Mar 25, 2018
70
18
NW Burbs
Thanks for all your input, guys. Yeah once he left, I did some research. And I came across a bunch of negative articles about them. And that was when I had my, "oh fuck." moment.

From what I can tell they just act as a third party between me and ComEd.

Next time theyre getting the "get off my lawn". I called this morning to cancel it.

Sale's guys cell number: 989-323-0581 in case any of you wanna spam him.
 

boostedguy05

not well known
TCG Premium
Dec 18, 2010
34,181
25,511
I have a no soliciting sticker on my door. Any time one of those people come to my door I tell them I don’t trust companies that send out employees that can’t read. One month they came by every weekend SAT and SUN. I told them if they knocked on my door again I was calling the cops.

Threatening to point a gun or pointing a gun at these people is just asking for trouble, especially now. and if you do so you are an idiot.
 

FESTER665

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Apr 13, 2008
39,959
66,094
Streamwood
I have a no soliciting sticker on my door. Any time one of those people come to my door I tell them I don’t trust companies that send out employees that can’t read. One month they came by every weekend SAT and SUN. I told them if they knocked on my door again I was calling the cops.

Threatening to point a gun or pointing a gun at these people is just asking for trouble, especially now. and if you do so you are an idiot.

I love when they say "Im not trying to sell anything.." but then continue on about ways for you to give them money. :bowrofl:
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
26,172
31,307
Elgin
I also have a "No Solicitation" sign but it simply gets ignored. I wish Elgin wouldn't let them do it. Every friggen day there are door to door people or shit being stuffed in my door, mailbox, or the ever so popular bag with a rock in it for a landscape company. All this shit gets thrown right in the garbage without even a look at it.

One day a few summers ago, we had people coming through the neighborhood with an 18 wheeler full of furniture from some factory in the south "Factory direct to you..." Sales pitch... My wife called the cops on them.
 
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