Central and southern Illinois has recently become a hotbed for electric aggregation. Many municipalities either have recently gone through aggregation or are scheduled to vote on aggregation this April. Due to all of the changes and voting, people are talking about the pros and cons of aggregation, and this is causing some misinformation to spread.
Some of the worst culprits of the spread of misinformation are actually municipal aggregation consulting firms who want to get a piece of the aggregation business pie in Illinois, and scammers looking to steal your information. Residents in many municipalities which recently contracted Good Energy, a respectable consulting firm that has helped over 100 local municipalities with aggregation, have been solicited by strangers at their door claiming to be with competing firms and offering lower rates.
Citizen’s Utility Board agent Jim Chilsen says consumers need to be careful and always read the small print because, though door to door solicitation is not illegal, what many of these individuals have been doing is. Many of the alleged representatives have been doing something called slamming. Slamming is the practice of stealing your account information from a bill they request to see, so that they can change your service to another provider without your consent.
If your municipality recently hired Good Energy as their municipal aggregation consultant, be careful if any other companies try to solicit you.
To get more information about what to look out for from scammers, or for general information on municipal aggregation, please come to the next meeting of the Citizens Utility Board which will be held next Monday at 6 pm at Godfrey Village Hall.
For more information on municipal aggregation, click here. For the full article, see below.
