Reader Fiona wants to know if the people calling from “Con Ed” offering “free light bulbs” are running a scam.
Today my mother received a series of calls from someone claiming to be calling from Con Ed. After asking for someone who doesn’t exist (at least not in our family) they informed her that our apartment building was participating in a new Con Ed program to replace all old light bulbs with new energy saving light bulbs free of charge. It sounded way too good to be true so she told them she wasn’t sure about her availability and hung up. After checking the lobby, the internet and asking the doorman if he’d heard anything about this “program” she returned home to find two messages from the “Con Ed” employees telling her that they could completely work with her schedule and that they would call back later.
It all sounds very odd to me.
Well, Fiona, the program is real but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be wary of strangers who want to come to your house and give you free light bulbs. In the New York City area, there’s a program that aims to reduce summer power outages by helping people save electricity. The program pays subcontractors to go to eligible buildings and install energy efficient light bulbs. Having said that, we did see a report on WCBS about a subcontractor stealing jewelry while he was supposed to be installing the light bulbs.
“They’re terrific, they’re really good,” said George Burke as he described the new energy efficient light bulbs Con Edison offered for free, but Burke says he ended up paying for them with valuable jewelry.
Last month, two subcontractors came to Burke’s house to install the energy efficient light bulbs. While Burke filled out paperwork with one of them, the other went around the house changing light bulbs.
After having the new bulbs installed, Burke noticed a ten-karat diamond ring and a one-karat ruby garnet worth about $20,000 were gone.
“This right here is the dish where they were in,” pointed Burke. “So you can see how close the lamp was to the dish.”
That’s when he realized one of the subcontractors hired by Con Edison was the culprit.
A detective investigating the subcontractor recently contacted Burke.
According to the detective, Burke wasn’t the only victim. Several complaints, all of them from Staten Island had come in, and all of the victims had recently gotten their light bulbs replaced with one of the new energy saving kind.
So we guess the moral of this story is that there may be such a thing as a free light bulb, but you’d better keep an eye on the guy who installs it.
Con Ed Subcontractor Allegedly Stole From Homes [WCBS]
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I’m kind of shocked the energy scammers (blanking on their name now…the ones that go door to door w/ aggressive sales people to switch you over to their overpriced plan claiming to be from ConEd) haven’t latched on to this.
“Hi ma’am, I’m here to give you your free bulbs from ConEd”
“ooo, thank you young man”
“If you’ll just sign here on this piece of paper that I’ve mostly covered up so you can’t see the details, it will confirm that you have received your free bulbs (and switched to our scummy overpriced service).”
RULES #1-10 FOR PHONE SOLICITATIONS:
1. Thanks for calling.
2. May I get your name?
3. May I get your company?
4. May I have a telephone number with which to call you back?
5. No, you cannot have my CC#, DOB, SSN, MMN, or any other information.
6. If you are legitimate, I will call you back in 2-3 minutes.
7. Reverse directory lookup for phone number (adjacent digits count).
8. Call number given, ask for name given.
9. Explain security cautions, and complete the deal.
10. If any of steps 2-7 fail, contact appropriate local authorities or
reporting agencies.
Rule #0: Don’t be a stupid consumer.
Somebody from our local electric company (not ConEd) talked my rather naive roommate into a visit like this many years ago. Believe it or not, in addition to replacing the light bulbs and checking out our appliances, he also clipped plastic to our really old windows to minimize drafts, which saved us a noticeable amount of money.
In retrospect, I think it’s much better that he happened to get her on the phone. I would have probably hung up.
Even if the callers don’t steal your jewelry, they could be stealing your perfectly good incandescent light bulbs and replacing them with defective or even dead fluorescents. I’m not sure such a scam would be worth the effort, but it’s possible I suppose.
In Chicago a decade ago or so, you could bring your monthly electric bill to certain retail locations and get X free lightbulbs, each month. I don’t remember if this was an optional program or not, and I know they discontinued it, but it would be a useful way to get people to try the CFLs.
Con Ed. Nice name.
@ironchef: And so will your electric company, depending on where you live. I know the local electric cooperatives have been educating customers on CFLs and have conducted recycling effort at each service office.
I had the free light bulb guys’ here in my home in Staten Island when the proram just started. The bulbs were ugly and I didn’t want them in my beautiful ceiling fans. As for the installers when they got out of the truck all 3 of them they looked like they were dug out of the gutter all trashey looking. I was glad I sent them on there way and opted out of the program. If I do decide to get the bulbs in the near future my jewelry box will be locked up.