[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.

[freeone3000]

It's mostly not been great. Higher prices than national DOE prices, less prepared for extreme events, and notably, no power-sharing agreement possible with the national grid since they've explicitly opted-out, and vehemently defended that choice. The Texas grid is less reliable and more expensive than either US East or US West.

[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.