[techsupporter]

Exactly.

In my experience, there are exactly two types of customers on the kinds of plans like Griddy offers: a) people who are heavily into cost-optimization and have spent the cash to automate their living quarters to take advantage of wholesale price swings; and b) people who are trying to stretch a dollar because a single dollar is all they have left.

For people in that second category, the dollar broke and smacked them in the face.

I am by no means calling people stupid for doing this; they believed the sales pitch and either did not understand (because the wholesale pricing model is actually complex) or were not told the massive potential downsides. And when the cost of keeping where you live at a livable temperature runs into the mid-three-digits per month during the summer, you're going to jump at the idea of slashing that by two-thirds.

This is consent in the same way that clicking "agree" on a 15,000-word EULA is consent. It isn't.

[ahepp]

I used to have these guys (EDIT: energy dereg companies, not griddy specifically) knocking on my door regularly with a pen, asking me to sign a contract for real time pricing literally on the spot, because I could save a bunch of money on my bill

I would be shocked if there is any energy deregulation company that doesn't resort to this, because it's the basic result of hiring contractors and paying them on commission

[wnymls]

In NYC, back when movie theaters were open, all of the Regals and AMC had these variable rate energy companies setup tables near the machines where you buy tickets. Usually they were manned by 2 young people in their early 20s, possibly college students.

These promoters would aggressively advertise "Free $10 Regal Gift Cards" or "Free $10 AMC Gift Cards", on the spot. They would say there is no catch. All you need is to be a ConEd Customer.

Every household in NYC is a ConEd customer because it is the only electric company.

Then they give you a tablet, and have you sign into your ConEd account. What they don't tell you is that you are switching your ConEd bill to a variable rate energy provider. On average, your bill is actually higher per month.

Every time I went to the movies I saw dozens of people get conned into higher monthly bills in exchange for a $10 gift card. I highly doubt anyone that signed up knew what they were really signing up for.

In upstate New York, I recall door to door salesmen doing the same thing. In NYC, too many residents live in buildings so they setup in movie theaters instead.

I wonder what their deal was with the theater venues. Does Regal/AMC rent out floor space to these promoters, or is there a revenue sharing deal?

[fennecfoxen]

> knocking on my door regularly with a pen

How delightful! Here in New York we just have CleanChoice Power doing it via mail fraud.

(By "mail fraud" I mean that they do their best to dress it up as a something like power bill, except demanding a signature, to trick the unwary into signing it without reading.)

[paulgb]

Unfortunately energy deregulation seems to disproportionately attract hucksters. I had never heard of Griddy until recently but in NY we have our share of pushy firms with questionable sales.

Question for those in TX: was your perception of Griddy that they were sketchy, or just a get-what-you-pay-for sort of basic service? Did they aggressively sell door-to-door?

[ohyeshedid]

> Unfortunately energy deregulation seems to disproportionately attract hucksters.

Deregulation does that in lots of markets, if not all of them. Paying via commissions does the same.

[paulgb]

Yes, I think especially so in industries the average person doesn’t understand well, like electricity spot markets.

[majormajor]

The existence of hucksters is a big part of why regulation is created in the first place.

If you have to "de"regulation something, ask why it was regulated in the first place!

[paulgb]

I’m not an anti-regulation guy by any means, but I do think there are cases where too much regulation is bad for customers. I don’t know enough about Texas energy markets to say if it’s the case here, but for example the deregulation of airline markets in the US was almost certainly good for customers on net.

[cameronh90]

We have energy privatisation in the UK and I've never experienced any hucksters. Indeed, I've had a very good experience with the small start-up energy providers compared to the big pre-privatisation firms.

I would guess there are different types of deregulation. We still have a regulatory body that ensures the market and new private entrants are operating effectively.

[makomk]

I'm guessing you're not the target market. The UK energy market has a huge huckster problem - sleazy door-to-door salesmen and cold callers tricking people who don't know better into switching their energy plans without realizing that's what they're signing up for, even outright faking signatures in some cases.