A Texas energy company has been sending a sales team door-to-door in Central Maine Power’s service area, trying to switch homeowners to its electricity supply. But CMP and the Maine Public Utilities Commission are getting complaints from customers who are puzzled and sometimes feel bullied by what they consider to be aggressive sales people, who may ask to see the home’s monthly CMP bill.

The company, Clearview Energy of Dallas, says it’s doing nothing wrong. It responded last week to a PUC request for information with details about its training and sales protocols. The company also blames CMP for stirring up trouble, charging that the utility’s staff is anti-competition.

For its part, CMP is stressing that it has no affiliation with Clearview Energy or any competitive energy provider.

“The customer has no obligation whatsoever to show their CMP bill or offer any personal information to a third party,” CMP spokeswoman Gail Rice said Wednesday. “In fact, it is generally a very good idea not to share such information when receiving an unsolicited request.”

Rice said CMP has received “numerous calls” from customers who report one of three general sales pitches. In one, the sales rep says he or she is performing a survey. Another offers to make sure bills aren’t fluctuating too much or that the customer is on the “proper rate.” A third offer is to get green power.

“In virtually every case,” Rice said, “the person coming to the customer’s home asked to see the customer’s CMP bill or requested the customer’s name and account number.”

Kai Stansberry, a Clearview spokeswoman, said in an interview that customer care is the company highest priority. She provided this statement:

“Clearview Energy was happy to comply with the MPUC request for information, with regard to our marketing practices in the state of Maine. At this time, neither Clearview Energy nor its representatives have been charged with any wrongdoing. Our association with CMP is a win-win for consumers. We look forward to working with them to continue delivering the standard of service our customers have come to expect.”

Electricity suppliers must be licensed by the PUC to do business in Maine. The PUC said Wednesday that it’s evaluating the information submitted by Clearview and deciding what, if any, steps to take. It said that Clearview appears to be the first electricity provider using door-to-door sales in Maine, and it’s the first time the PUC has received complaints about the practice.

Derek Davidson, head of the agency’s consumer assistance division, added that residents don’t have to engage with a Clearview representative or anyone asking about their power bill.

“People should not provide any information to a person at their door if they’re concerned about the identity of the person or are not interested in changing their electricity supplier,” Davidson said.

The dispute highlights the ongoing confusion that surrounds Maine’s electricity market.

Maine’s electricity industry was restructured in 2000, separating energy supply from delivery services. Electricity now comes from competitive providers, while regulated utilities such as CMP deliver it over their lines. Customers who don’t want to pick a provider get default service through the so-called standard offer, which is arranged through bids to the PUC.

Large businesses have long been shopping around for power supply. But it wasn’t until a four years ago that competition heated up for home customers. Several companies are licensed by the PUC as competitive energy providers for homes and small businesses. Just as with mobile phone and Internet providers, these suppliers offer deals and rates that are constantly changing.

A good way to compare current offerings is on a Web page maintained by the Maine Office of Public Advocate:

http://www.maine.gov/meopa/utilities/electric/supply.html

In the case of Clearview, a review of the company’s rates in CMP’s service area shows that they are well above the standard offer. On its website, the company features two “Green Energy” plans. One is a fixed rate for 12 months at 11.99 cents per kilowatt hour. The second is a fixed rate through the end of 2015, at 9.49 cents/kwh. The current standard offer rate for CMP home customers, which expires at the end of the year, is 6.5 cents/kwh.

Clearview does business in 13 states. It’s one of the largest green and renewable retail energy providers in North America, according to Tammi Stroud, the company’s vice president of sales. In a response to the PUC, Stroud laid out how the company is operating in Maine.

The door-to-door sales reps work for Platinum Advertising, under a contract with Clearview. Platinum is an ad firm based in Trevose, Pa., which focuses on telecom and energy service marketing. The sales reps are paid on commission for each customer they enroll.

Clearview currently has 13 door-to-door reps in Maine working under one sales team. It began operations June 9. According to a map provided by the company, sales are concentrated in Greater Portland, Brunswick, Lewiston-Auburn, Augusta and Waterville. The company also has plans to go door-to-door in Emera Maine’s service area around Bangor.

In response to the PUC’s data request, Clearview said it has enrolled 757 customers going door-to-door, 648 of them in CMP’s service area. PUC rules allow customers to back out of electricity supply contracts within five days, and Clearview said a total of 34 people have done that.

Stroud also outlined a broad, one-week training regimen that all sales people must attend.

“They are also trained thoroughly on Clearview’s field code of conduct, which includes a zero-tolerance with regard to misrepresentation and fraudulent enrollment,” she wrote.

Stroud also provided a sales script meant to show that sales agents don’t make statements about price comparisons with the standard offer or other providers. Stroud said Maine customers benefit from a rate that won’t change through the end of the year.

“Our product is also 100 percent wind energy,” she wrote, “which has proven to be valuable to our customers in the form of offsetting their carbon footprint.”

The PUC also asked if Clearview has received reports of sales agents claiming to represent Maine utilities and having a “badge” from the local utility. Stroud responded that the only report she’s aware of came from Susan Clary, CMP’s director of electricity supply. Stroud attached the complaint log and correspondence record. She repeated that Clearview has “zero tolerance” for misrepresentation and that it terminated an entire sales team for “a pattern of minor customer confusion.” She also said the Maine sales team is testing a customer complaint software that tracks where agents are in real time, using GPS coordinates.

Stroud also had harsh words for CMP, saying that Clearview had never encountered a utility staff that was “so anti-supplier (deregulation).” She accused Clary and her staff of telling customers that it was illegal to market door-to-door and that they should file complaints with the PUC.

At CMP, Rice said that allegation was untrue.

Rice said CMP would have no reason to be anti-supplier, because it doesn’t compete with any power providers and works cooperatively with 54 separate companies. On occasion, Rice said, customers call with provider concerns or complaints, and those are passed to Clary, who then contacts the provider.

“If it appears that the provider has violated an MPUC regulation,” Rice said, “she may also contact the MPUC, which licenses the providers. Generally, such matters are resolved quickly after CMP’s initial contact with the providers.”

 

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