volunteer energy they give misinformation and lie about who they are. Pickerington, Ohio

First off I would like to apologize to anyone who received misleading information about this program. Today was my first day working with this company and honestly it was the most fun I have ever had at work. My last job was driving truck for the military which believe me once you got around all the yelling and massive amounts of p.t. it was a ton of fun.

My main reason for posting here is because like you I was wondering if this is a scam. However the very first thing i was told in the meeting this morning was (we do not lie, sometimes the truth is so good its hard to believe.) I was also told that this company was very reputable. They provide gas to the Lions, Michigan state, the Red Wings, and I believe but correct me if I am wrong about this, 72 charter schools.

Like you I was very cautious, and still keeping my eyes open wide to spot the first sign of fraud, but honestly I have found nothing yet. Today I spoke with a man who ran a party store in west side Detroit. He was very kind and friendly even though he went through a horrible experience with another company. The guy who was training me who was well educated about the company expressed that in Michigan alone there are 26 providers.

His concern was about a distribution charge. I was very aware of this and it was brought back to memory when this conversation was going on. He assured the patron that it was not going to happen that this was unheard of. The man then told him that he would not choose us even though our program offered a lower rate at .499 vs. his .599 rate he was currently receiving through another program which I prefer not to mention.

The guy who was training me decided his best bet would be to call the head guy for our region who's title I am unsure of but is located in Ann Arbor, MI. He told the guy who was training me that he never heard of that either but that he would eat the cost personally if anything like that happened.

Today I suggested that we would put this on the contract. If this were true to be the case I morally would not be able to keep the job because I would be selling a lie. I am not a godly man but I am a man of integrity and this would be something I could not do to others. Why sell something that I would not use myself.This is a subject that I feel was heard today and I am going to mention it again tomorrow morning at our morning meeting to remind my chain of command about my concern.

I would like to leave off with this. If there are any problems you are currently receiving with this company please I beg you to tell me. I mean what I said about wanting to help and not to hurt. Any problems you have are my problems as well and i figure that this is the best training I can receive. I want to widen my experience by helping everyone out and learning possible issues that may come about and stop me from being able to make a sale because of course my job is commission based. However there is no reason to not make an honest living and really that's all I am trying to do.

Please email me any concerns at xchristopherwestx@aol.com and I will respond back to you as soon as possible. With in the same day most likely. All questions and concerns will be taken directly to my superiors. Thanks again guys I can not express how much help this will be to me:)

Good morning.  I just wanted to let you know that you were not slammed, you are actually part of the Pickerington Government Aggregation OPT OUT Program that was voted on in 2009 by the residents of Pickerington.  The City of Pickerington then selected Volunteer Energy to provide its residents with a % off the utility rate savings program.  On June 14th, 2012 Volunteer Energy sent letters out that explained this program and gave you the opportunity to opt out by either phone or sending the attached opt out form back in.  The letter was sent to the same address that the post card was sent to by Columbia Gas.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to give us a call.  If you would like to opt out you may call the number on that post card to do so.

I just received notification from Columbia Gas that I entered into a contract with Volunteer Energy Services-Pickerington to have them provide my natural gas.  I never entered into any such agreement.  In my opinion, any company that switches a person's services without authorization (slamming) is not a company that I would recommend giving business (or money) to.  I will be correcting this Monday morning as well as filing a complaint with the BBB.

I am from the volunteer energy cooperate office and I read your complaint about Volunteer Energy.  Sometime I think the phone sales people can be so concerned with making a quick sale they skip over important information.  Your utility probably did not send you anything in with your bill about the choice program but some utilities in MI have in the past.  We have asked our sales people to not say this to a customer because we do not know for sure if something was sent.  Also "government program" can be misleading.  The choice program was brought on by government deregulation , meaning a customer can choose who supplies their gas through their utility.  I am sorry you were told misleading information and the fact that the sales person tried to get your account information before explaining the program to you is unacceptable.  Volunteer has been in MGU territory for 15 months now and has been below their GCR every month.  If the sales person was honest and simply stated the facts to you, you might have became a volunteer gas consumer. If you would like to contact our cooperate office I urge you to do so.  This way we can track down the employee you spoke to on the phone and get them retrained.    As to the claim by the other poster claiming to be from volunteer energy that basically said you have to trick customers, I hope that is not the case or you will be caught and will no longer sell for volunteer energy.  I understand you were trying to defend VE but please do not post comments on behalf of Volunteer Energy if you are not a cooperate office employee in administration.

If volunteer is such a great deal, why do you have to lie about what you are doing? You (volunteer gas) told me I had recieved a notice in my previous MGU bill. This was false. They said I did not have to switch providers. This is false. They said this was a Government program. This too, is false.

You even admit in your rebuttle that you have to lie to people in michagan because we are so conservative, but you imply it is for our own good. We are not conservative, we are not morons! There have been many complaints against your company for this scam. I cannot beleive you have the audacity to post on this website! You should be ashamed of yourself, and your company!

And no, I do not need your e-mail. I was not scammed the first time, I hope the utillity regulators catch up with you and fine you heavily!

Okay, I work in one of the call centers and what I've noticed is that Michigan is the most cautious state ever. You tell them they can save money without switching and they just want to leave it alone. If your not from MGU they dont want to talk to you. You have to literally con these people into saving money its insane! They think you can charge them extra or something if you get there utility account number haha. It amazes me sometimes, but all the program does is save them money and ma'am mgu is not ur supplier but ur utility company. You couldnt switch from them even if u wanted to. Volunteer energy is a supply company you have no relation with thats just a place mgu gets there gas from. and its ur utility companies program so how could u be switching? u still get one bill everymonth and EVERYTHING like you do now but youd be paying less on your bill basically. Let me know if you want more information regarding the program id be more than happy to explain everything and help you get your rate reduced just email me at (((ROR redacted)))