Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  04/10/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  To whom it may concern:Hello,After spending a great deal of time researching electric companies online today with Choose ************ I was ready to lock a provider in through their online service. I put in all my information, hit submit and an error screen produced some random prepaid electric company no one has ever heard of. I have good credit, so I was very confused by this and backed out the of the submission and re-submitted it thinking it was an actual error, and the same thing occurred. I thought ok I guess my credit isnt good enough for 4 change energy, which again I thought was strange. I then turned to my roommate, and she put in her information and the same thing happened. I then called Choose ************ The gentleman who was helping me was nice enough, however the conversation quickly moved into him telling me my account was flagged for fraud for so many submissions. I explained what had happened when I submitted the first request and that I did not want a prepaid plan which was the only option the submission was giving me. He then shared that since my account had apparently now been flagged for fraud that was my only option. I asked him to please explain to me why it would pop up with this prepaid plan when that was not the plan I was requesting, and he said it was most likely because I had entered my information in wrong. I had not, and my roommate had not. He then proceeded to tell me that this was the only plan I could now choose due to my account being flagged for fraud. During the conversation, every time I would ask him to explain something he would then get off the line and speak to his manager seemingly not being able to answer the questions on his own. I then asked him how long our household would be flagged for fraud and he said, I dont know, at least a month, and kept going back to this never been heard of prepaid plan. It seemed to me that he was being couched to coerce me into signing up for this prepaid plan and kept reporting that due to the number of online submissions I had no other choice. Every time I asked him further open ended questions for me to try and understand what was going on he would get off the line, talk to his manager, and upon his return he would re-direct me back to the prepaid plan stating it was my fault and again telling me that was the only plan I could get for at least the next month, but he wasnt sure exactly when my account would no longer be flagged for fraud. Again, my roommate and I did 2 submissions each. The first submission landed us both to the prepaid plan, so we re-submitted not understanding what was going on and why it wasnt allowing us to choose the company we had decided on. I felt like they were attempting to scam me, and force me through wrong information, and scare tactics using words like your account has been flagged for fraud into signing up for this prepaid plan. I explained to them that I would be alerting you about the experience I had today. I felt their actions were mis-leading, coercive, and unethical. I felt that they were trying to take advantage of me and blame me for the submissions as well as for not calling in so that they could process the request for my electricity change. The entire experience left me feeling unsafe about where my roommate and I had just shared our information to say the very least. This is not something I would expect from a service that is supposedly there to simplify switching electric companies. Again feeling very uneasy about where my roommate and I had just shared all of our information including our socials I ended the call. I then contact the electric company I originally wanted directly and had the complete opposite experience. My credit is great, and they verified that within 10 mins. They also verified there was no issue switching to that service and the date I had selected for the change was without issue. So, everything Choose *********** told me was a lie in order to try and force me into this pre-paid plan. I wanted to bring this to your attention as this entire experience left me feeling uneasy and wondering how many others have had this experience, and maybe they were not so lucky and ended up with the prepaid plan they were being told was their only choice. Thank you for your attention to this matter,********************* LMSW New Connections PPI Program Director ******* Professor ****** For Addiction and Recovery Studies *********************************************************************** Office phone: ************ *******************

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