We heat our home and our water with natural gas. What used to be a simple routine of just read the Terasen bill and then pay it is no more, and with the choices to be had I'm finding it's getting a little complicated.
A few months ago there was an option for us included in our bill indicating that we could go on a program to 'lock in' at a single price and stick to it, whether gas costs went up or went down. Depending on how things go, that could be a good thing or a not so good thing. I opted not to join and just pay whatever the cost of gas is. (not that that is the best way to go, it's just what I felt comfortable with at the time)
Fast forward to now, when a NEW program is in place that means I have MORE choices to make, if I wish to. I'll still get my bill from my gas company, but I now have a choice of who I buy my gas from, which means I can lock into a long-term, fixed-rate contract with a gas marketer. These "Natural gas marketers" can begin signing up customers May 1, 2007 for gas that will be delivered beginning November 1, 2007. At this time I'm not going to get into that, I'll just keep paying what I think is called the variable rate.
So, with not even a full month since the "Natural gas marketers" are out trying to drum up business, I have had 2 such people at my door. DOOR TO DOOR MARKETERS. I generally have a policy that I don't do business of any kind with people who solicit door to door, so this is kind of annoying for me. Of course I don't suppose I'll like a whole new bunch of telemarketing calls from gas people either, but I don't think I've had one of those yet and I don't know if any of them plan telemarketing. (but one would assume that would be predictable)
The first "Natural gas marketer" I had flashed a card clipped to her windbreaker jacket which had the name "Terasen" on it, and I feel misled me to mistake her as a Terasen employee. Tonight another "Natural gas marketer" came to my door at 8:30pm. (long day, huh?) He was only a little more clear about not being a Terasen employee.
Anyway, I'm not liking this so far. I suppose it's a sign of the times, and time brings change. I'll have to get used to it, and anticipate more choices (or is that complications :) ) down the road.
Do you have such 'choices' with your natural gas provider? As you can tell, this is quite new for me.
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oh god...i hate those natural gas marketers and then you hear on the news about the many scams and they are so tricky, the day we were moving into our very first home (4yrs ago) they had the audacity to come knocking on the door, the place was a mess with boxes and the confusion abound and it took almost half an hour just to get him to go away and sure enough we had quite a few come within the next few weeks. I actually did research on it at the time and found the marketer that I prefered and had a good rate at the time and I signed with them.
Well, I was out one day and another came to the door tricked my DH into thinking that I had agreed to sign up with his company and signed a contract, I swear it took weeks of phoning and talking to different people to finally get that contract voided and back to the one I had researched. I had come very choice words for them as my patience started running very thin.
Since it's our first place I had no experience or loyalty to anyone. I don't make a note of watching what the actual price is had I stayed in a variable plan, it would just drive me crazy. I'm not looking forward to the day when the contract is up and it starts all over again.
Well, Dawn, we have had the choice of changing who supplies our gas here for several years now (Northern Ontario) but I decided to just stick with our gas company and not deal with anyone else. IMO, its not a good idea to get locked in to any contracts, and I just recently read how people who chose this route in the last few years have paid more, as gas prices came down. Of course, they can go up, but like you, I prefer to stay with the company I know, which is Union Gas . Of course, they always find ways to stick us tho, dont they? Like delivery charges and storage, etc. Anyway, just to let you know, we had gas marketers knock on our door for a while now too, and eventually (thank goodness) they stopped.Havent had one knock on the door for over a year.