Smart Energy, One Smart One Energy Claimed to be from Washington Gas then switched to a sales associate from Smart One Energy Internet, Internet
Same story as the prior complaint report. The caller called from an unavailable 301/Maryland number while claiming to be a Washington Gas customer service rep in New York. He said that he needed to verify our account number to qualify us for some sort of discount on our gas services. The number he called from (301-460-5216) says that it is disconnected when called back. I wanted to verify the info that he had given me about his company but he insisted that it had to be done in the next 10 min to get the "deal". I told him that this sounded like a scam and was not interested. He insisted that I call the number he had given me to verify and he would call me back in 10 min. I had had enough and hung up. The number he had given to me, according to their website, is the same number for sales as well as customer service and both departments are located in the same suite in NY?!? Also, the number he had given me is only open until 5pm and he had called me at about 7:45 pm. Clearly he does not have any clue what the website claims as their hours. Strange form an employee not to know the hours that their company is open???
Anyway, this seems like a nightmare avoided. NEVER give your account number to a stranger on the phone. I'm sure step 2 of this rip off is to call me back saying I need to give them my checking account number in order to pay my bill and keep the gas on, of course, using the account # I had already supplied previously to convince me it is the Gas Company.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Bmg
Silver Spring,Maryland,
USA
See the other report
#2Consumer Comment
Mon, February 20, 2012
As someone that was also called, and switched because my wife agreed to switch (they made it perfectly clear who they were and what they were doing but my wife didn't realize we had a deal with another supplier, WGES, that made unwise to switch), I suggest that people read this report for my views on this, and despite the claims made there, I am not an employee.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/utility-companies/smart-one-energy-llc/smart-one-energy-llc-tricked-91a84.htm
I can't vouch for what was or wasn't said by the soliciting caller from Smart One since I never received the call myself (my wife did), however having a customer office closing at 5pm and a sales call at 7:45pm is not a contradiction - I bet the sales caller doesn't even work for Smart One or they could be calling after hours from home.
I can tell you that the person I spoke to at Smart One has always answered the phone immediately, or called back when I left a voicemail message, and did cancel the switch when I asked her too (and that happened). The fact that that I still had to battle with the old supplier WGES after she had canceled the switch is because of WGES red tape - and Smart One even tried to fix that, but they would not speak to her because she was a competitor. The bad guys here are really Washington Gas for allowing a switch without verifying that the customer actually wants the switch.