World Kinect Energy Services Ripped me off with high fees on an "energy hedging plan" Internet

I own a large business that spans across 4 states, and this is focusing on my locations in PA and OH because those are the two states we're in that are deregulated for electricty and natural gas, and the other 2 are not, so we don't have any options there. I was handling the energy aspects of my business myself until I met World Kinect - I met them through an association that they apparently pay money to in order to get the association to push their services (something I didn't realize until after the fact or I would have never proceeded with them).

World Kinect proceeded to tell me that in this market the way to go was an energy hedging contract, where you don't lock your energy in all at once and instead try to time the market and layer in purchases, the goal of which is to eventually hedge to a 100% fixed rate that was supposed to save me money. They also claimed their fees were very low and what they showed me was reasonable at the time, but that's where the scam really begins.

Long story short, after extensive research and forcing the supplier to finally share information with me, I found out that they were putting more fee on every power hedge they took, and by the time we had taken all the hedges and had a fully fixed rate, World Kinect was making 5 TIMES the fee they told me they were going to charge. They were able to do this because there was no way for me to know that they were adding fee here and there every time they suggested it was "time to take another power hedge". It also turned out that this plan didn't help me at all even if they hadn't added fee and extorted me out of money. The suggested option didn't really save me anything over the fixed rates I had been getting for years and years. In other words, had I just went with a fixed rate, even through World Kinect, I would have gotten a better rate and their fee would have been locked in, and they wouldn't have been able to keep adding fee and making a small fortune off of my business.

The other aspect that bothered me was how the association pushed this company on to me, not because they actually felt that they were a good company to use for energy consulting, or got any sort of special deal for the members, but simply because the association was paid money if I used World Kinect.

The moral of this story is avoid this company and other large corporate energy brokers because all they do is pay off associations to push their members to utilize their services, and then they scam you with fees and give bad advice. Don't use these folks or anyone like them, and if anyone suggests going with a energy hedging type product, RUN.

Since this incident I've decided to seek the assistance of a small energy consultant local to me that charges low fees. Getting help from a smaller consultant is much better because they need your business and they're upfront and honest about everything because they want to keep you as a client forever if possible. These giant corporate energy brokers only care about money and making as much as possible and it doesn't matter if they rip you off like they did to me and you don't come back, because they can just move on to the next victim since they're a gigantic wealthy company that can take the loss. Also, smaller consultants aren't in cahoots with associations to get them to push their business by offering money, because they don't have the type of funding to waste on something like that.

Hopefully my report helps at least one person avoid getting ripped off by World Kinect or anyone like them.