For months, readers have told The Consumerist of fake Con Edison employees showing up on their doorstep. The story is always the same; they open their door to find people in Con Ed outfits almost demanding that the customer sign a form to save 7% on their bills. The “Con Ed” employee then demands to see the bill and thrust their fingers at the part where it says you can save by switching to an alternate energy supplier. But they don’t actually work for Con Ed; in fact, they work for IDT Energy.
electricity
The Consumerist Goes Undercover At IDT Energy
By 5.29.07
For nearly a year, we’ve told you about door-to-door salesmen trying to get New Yorkers to switch to IDT Energy, pretending to work for ConEd.
IDT Energy Scamming Spreads Past New York City
By 5.3.07
IDT Energy, which specializes in going door to door and lying to customers in order to get sales, has expanded its reach past NYC and is now conning the good citizens in Albany, NY, according to this reader Peter’s letter:
The Anatomy Of The "Dangerous Levels Of Mercury In CFLs" Myth
By 5.2.07
A woman in Maine broke a CFL and, rather than carefully cleaning the mess up herself, she called Home Depot. They told her not to vacuum, and directed her to call Poison Control. Poison Control directed her to the Maine DEP, who then sent an agent. The agent told her to call in a toxic waste team to give an estimate. Naturally, they told her it was going to be around $2,000. She heard that number, walled off the bedroom and alerted the local media.
Energy Saving Tips For Spring
By 4.23.07
Warm weather is coming and now is the time to think about saving energy before it’s so freaking hot that you just don’t care anymore. Here are some quick tips for cooling your home without spending any more money than is necessary:
How To: Make A Cellphone Charger Box
By 4.9.07
Organizing the chargers for your cellphone, PDA, Nintendo DS, etc. can be hugely annoying and expensive. Why expensive? When you leave chargers plugged into the wall, they’re still drawing electricity—even when your phone isn’t plugged in.
Attention: You Cut Your Electric Bill By Almost Half!
By 3.22.07
Reader Melissa writes in to tell us that using tips from Consumerist and other sites, she cut her (admittedly outrageous) electric bill down to size. Melissa writes: I cut my electric bill nearly in half.
Ask Meghann's Dad!
By 2.27.07
Meghann’s dad, a commercial construction electrician with 35 years experience, has volunteered to answer any questions the readers might have about home improvement, simple wiring, hiring a sub-contractor, life, art, his 1967 Firebird convertible, or any other topics your strange, evil minds can come up with.
GE: We're Totally About To Invent A Better Incandescent Light Bulb In, Like, Several Years
By 2.23.07
Ultimately the high efficiency lamp (HEI) technology is expected to be about four times as efficient as current incandescent bulbs and comparable to CFL bulbs.
Like, by when? The apocalypse? —MEGHANN MARCO
Recharge Your Batteries For Free At Airports
By 2.22.07
The folks at BoingBoing are rightly angered by the trend in airports to feature pay-per-use electric charging stations. It’s bad enough that you’re stuck in the terminal, waiting for your delayed flight to finally start boarding, only to sit and wait some more while seated in 25B. Now, more and more airports are renting out their power sockets, so you can’t even recharge that laptop, cellphone, or DVD player while you’re killing time.
How Much Does It Cost To Leave Your Computer On?
By 2.20.07
Lifehacker points us to a post on Coding Horror that details how to determine the cost of leaving your computer on all the time. Unsurprisingly, it involves the use of the Kill-a-Watt (power meter), but the post also gives some tips that anyone can use to cut the costs involved in keeping that computer running. —MEGHANN MARCO
Select Dell Models Come With Free Electric Shock
By 2.11.07
Dude, you’re getting a shock. An electric shock. If you have a Dell 9400, e1705, m1710, m90, or 6400, and a two-pronged power adapter, Dell has a special hidden feature just for you:
ConEd Customer's Personal Info Highly Vulnerable To Online Theft
By 1.30.07
ConEd customer’s personal information is in grave danger. ConEd’s online account system is easily crackable, only requiring entering an account number.
Verizon Fios Could Leave You In The Dark When The Power Goes Out
By 1.29.07
Consumers who switch to Verizon’s new FiOS TV or Internet services will find a change to their existing Verizon phone service: Their copper-wire phone line will be replaced with a fiber-optic line.
IDT Energy’s MLM Salesforce
By 1.26.07
Reader J. used his powers as recruiter to mine through the resumes on Monster. He found two companies that seem to have run door-to-door campaigns for IDT Energy.
Oh, We See, IDT Outsources Their Door To Door Sales!
By 1.25.07
The reason why we’re having such a hard time finding a job with IDT Energy as a door to door salesman might be because they outsource these jobs.
Help Consumerist Get A Job With IDT Energy
By 1.25.07
We want to get our intern a job as a door to door salesman with IDT Energy, the energy reseller that’s scamming New Yorkers into switching over from ConEd.
Scammed By IDT Energy? News 12 Wants To Talk
By 1.9.07
If you were scammed by IDT Energy into switching over your contract, live in Brooklyn or the Bronx, and are willing to appear on-camera, email news12bx@news12.com with your contact info and story.
