[conspire] SFE Energy and other third-party natural gas semi-scams

[Rick Moen]

I was busy in the back yard, but suddenly mother-in-law Cheryl calls me
in, saying there's someone at the front door needing to talk to me about
something involving PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric).  I figured this
probably was a visiting PG&E representative just telling us they're
visiting my side yard to inspect a gas line or something like that.  It
wasn't.

This was some young guy named Gabriel B. who was wearing a uniform for
a firm named 'SFE' and had an apparent employee badge to that effect,
and a clipboard.  He said (something like that) he was visiting a list
of homes that hadn't indicated their option whether to accept SFE Energy
California, Inc. as a natural gas vendor or not.  He said it would have
been included as an insert in my PG&E bill in the last couple of months,
and perhaps I discarded it.  I said maybe.  (I discard a lot of junk
literature that come with invoices.)   

I fell back on basic personal policy, and probably _should_ have gone no
further than that;  I said 'Hey, tell you what, just give me your firm's
literature and I'll consider it.'  But he said he could take care of my
making the necessary opting right then and there, taking down some
records and making a telephone call.  I still wanted to know what this
involved, so I was carried along for a bit. 

At his suggestion, I fetched one my most recent PG&E bill.  He said for
lack of my having opted for his firm as provider, I had certain 'gas
procurement costs' on my bill (that he pointed out) that would not have
been there.  Opting SFE would have instead limited my monthly gas charge
to $29.99 per month (for up to 700 therms of gas per year) over the
length of a 3-year plan.  (The household gas bill is quite bit higher
than that, especially in the winter.)  He needed one item, my PG&E
customer account number, and I was willing to let him copy that down
because it didn't seem too security-sensitive.  Based on that, my name,
and my address/ZIP code, he filled in a three-part form for 'Residential
Natural Gas Service Agreement', and then said something about a
telephone call being required to confirm that the agreement was validly
executed.  I fetched the house landline, still being bemusedly carried
along.  About this time, I'm carefully reading the three-part form, made
somewhat more difficult by the fact that Gabriel keeps talking.  

I had the impression that he'd spoken of an _incoming_ call to my
residence telephone number, but suddenly Gabriel is wanting to make a
call out, and, to my annoyance he's doing the dialing (which I really
don't approve of strangers doing with any phone of mine, because you
don't know what expensive thing they're doing.  I said, wait, what
number are you dialing?  He says 855-something (which indeed it was),
which at least means it was toll-free.

I've carefully not signed anything, nor have I revealed anything
privacy-sensitive.  Things are a little out of control, though, and in
the middle of the call I resolve to angle back to the aforementioned 
basic personal policy.  But first I had to deal with the call.

Gabriel had me talking to someone in a call centre, and I was notified
that the call would be recorded.  I was asked to confirm my name, which
I did, and the operator said she needed, in order to verify that I'm
between the ages of 18 and 71, to get my date of birth.  I gave that,
but decided I'd reached my limit.  She asked me to state for the
recording that he'd been wearing an SFE uniform and given me a business
card including the phrase 'SF Energy California is NOT the utility',
which he had, so I confirmed that.  She proceeded to ask confirmation
that I'd signed the contract, and I said 'No, I absolutely have not
signed the contract, and, moreover, I am _not_ concluding any contract
today.  I will be reviewing this offer, and may get back to you.'

All of this time, Gabriel was talking at me at the same time I was
talking to the operator, saying things like that I should say I had
signed the contract otherwise she would need to start the process over,
which if anything confirmed me in my corrected course of action.
 
I asked Gabriel, if I called SFE Energy California's publicly advertised
telephone number, which desk should I ask to be transferred to, if I
wished to proceed with the offered contract?  He didn't exactly answer
the question, so I circled back:  I said, 'I don't just call telephone
numbers people give me to call, in order to execute business with some
stranger, because among other problems I need to be certain whom I'm
talking to.  Therefore, if I call SFE Energy California at all, I will
start by calling that firm's publicly advertised telephone number, which
I hope reaches a front desk or company operator.  I expect I would be
able to reach the correct department that way.  So, what department
should I ask for?' He finally gave me a semi-OK answer.  Also, he gave
me all copies of the (unsigned) three-part contract form.

Terms of the contract include a 30-day cooling-off cancellation period,
after which there would be a $7.50 cancellation fee for _each month_ of
the remaining contract term.  I.e., if I cancelled 31 days in, that
would require a $262.50 cancellation fee ('plus applicable taxes',
whatever that means).  The contract would be for a 3-year term with
automatic renewal, absent cancellation.  Cancellation is said to be per
the 'attached Notice of Cancellation', which was _not_ attached.
Several parts of the contract closed with 'See Section [N] of the Terms
and Conditions', but there was no provided Terms and Conditions.
Oh, and the $29.99/month rate for gas was in addition to a 'monthly
customer service fee in the amount of $4.98', so it's actually $29.99 +
$4.98 = $34.97/month, but who's counting?

So, the guy leaves, I walk away from the door with a stack of paper and
a bemused expression, and I review the basic personal policy with
Cheryl:

1.  Don't give out sensitive information to strangers without really 
    compelling justification.  Them asking imposes no obligation on
    you to answer.
2.  It's pretty much always appropriate to say to the insistant,
    visiting stranger 'Give me relevant printed material, and I'll 
    consider the matter.'  Distrust deeply strangers wanting to
    'help' you.  Don't agree to anything, don't sign anything.
3.  Distrust suspicious convenience.
4.  Where appropriate, ask yourself 'Who _are_ these guys, 
    why do I want to deal with them at all, and why them instead
    of somebody else?'  If you don't have really good answers,
    politely walk away.

I admitted to Cheryl, if I'd stuck strictly with point #2 at the
beginning, I could have saved 20 minutes of pointless sodding around
with Gabriel and his colleague trying to sign me up to a bad business
deal.  OTOH, I wouldn't be able to share this cautionary tale.

Part of the reason Gabriel roped me along for a while is that I vaguely
recalled recent changes to local gas and electric introducing new
entities and arrangements.  I was mostly thinking of Peninsula Clean
Energy, https://www.peninsulacleanenergy.com/ , where a consortium of
Peninsula cities now acquire electrical power using as much renewable
sources as possible, and PG&E then delivers and bills it.  So, while
being semi-distracted by Gabriel's continuous talk, I thought, 'Maybe
this is the gas portion of this new arrangement?'  (No.)

 
Anyhow, having walked away from the Gabriel mishegoss without (I hope
and expect) been caught in anything I'll regret, I had time to consider
question #4, 'Who _are_ these guys...?'  Web-searching finds, ta-da!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Humboldt/comments/8jexm9/do_not_sign_up_for_sfe_energy_or_any_other_third/

   [top comment]
   Posted byu/sp1keNARF 11 months ago

   DO NOT sign up for SFE Energy or any other third party gas provider
   door to door salesman it’s a SCAM

   I heard this scam was back in town and I just wanted to put another
   friendly warning out there. These guys will come to your door and ask to
   see your PGE bill. They’ll say they will save you money. What they’re
   doing is technically legal, but it will definitely not save you money
   over your current bill. My wife believed them a year or two ago and
   signed up. What they don’t tell you is that although their gas is
   cheaper than PGE, PGE will still charge you a delivery fee, and your
   bill will end up being higher. Also they make it damn near impossible to
   cancel. I waited on the phone over and hour and was transferred to four
   different people before I got someone in the US who finally agreed to
   cancel, but only after I sent them a paycheck stub. Ignore them or tell
   them to fuck off.  

That tracks.

Numerous useful comments among the upvoted ones.

   Last night a young man from SFE surprised us at home at 7pm, in the
   dark. During dinner. We had never heard of this and had no time to do
   research online, ask friends, or prepare to make an informed decision.
   They do this on purpose so we know only what they tell us. I said no,
   but only after wasting too much time with the salesman.


Apparently, PG&E now accepts gas delivery from what are termed 'Core
Transport Agents' (CTAs), of which there's a list, here:
https://www.pge.com/en_US/small-medium-business/energy-alternatives/alternatives-to-pge/third-party-gas-options/alternative-gas-providers.page

BBB rates them 'F', with 174 complains over the last three years.
https://www.bbb.org/ca/on/mississauga/profile/energy-service-company/sfe-energy-0107-1336738#reasonrating

And there are lots and lots of online complaints.
https://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/2017/04/25/forewarning/