Thursday, August 27, 2015

"Show Me Your Electric Bill!"

A couple of readers have told us that the "switch your electricity provider" teams are back in Uptown, going door to door, getting into multi-unit buildings, and asking to see your ComEd bill so they can tell you how much cheaper your rates will be with whatever company they represent.

While this isn't illegal -- it's annoying. It's like telemarketers showing up in person. (I had three different teams knock on my door the other day, all within a half hour of one another.) A few people have claimed in online forums that when they've shown their bill, the person memorizes their account number and switches their energy provider to another company without their knowledge. So if you do feel like showing your electric bill to a stranger, be sure to block out your account number first, just to be on the safe side.

Remember that your building is private property and you can ask them to leave the premises, particularly if your building has a policy of no soliciting.  But also remember that these are people just trying to make a living, and if they're not rude or aggressive, a polite "no" should be sufficient if you're not interested.

The only good news is that these things are cyclical, and soon they'll move on to some other neighborhood.

2 comments:

  1. This is low priority for the police, but residents should call the police. Where I lived I called the LL and he said to call the police. It took 1 hour for the police to show up, but they went up and down the building looking for the telemarketers.
    The LLs should also put a "no soliciting" sign in the doors.

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  2. wow alll that 4 a person doing there job

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