A few days ago I got an item in the mail supposedly offering me a $100 refund as a Unitil customer. The name on the return address was “SmartEnergy,” not Unitil, so it immediately looked fake. It is.
The text inside says:
“Your order is not automatic.
To get started, you must call:
1-800-485-4839
Your REFUND OPTIONS (choose one):
I. Mail me a $100 Visa Prepaid Card
II. Mail me a $100 refund checkSmartEnergy would like to issue you a $100 refund.
There’s a lot more, but what I didn’t see was any conditions on the “refund” beyond requesting it by phone. I was confident it was fake, but if I wanted to blog about it, I had to find out what the scheme was, so I called the number indicated above. The man who answered asked for the ID number included in the mailing. I declined, saying the whole thing seemed fake and asked what it was all about. He immediately called my attention to the “fine print” (his own words) at the bottom of the mailing. Only then did I notice the block of nearly unreadable text there.
It says in part, “In order to be eligible for any reward, you must remain on SmartEnergy’s electricity supply plan for 6 months, send us a copy of your sixth bill and your account must be active and in good standing at the time of the redemption.”
I thanked him for pointing that out and said it was a dishonest scheme. As I was hanging up, he said “Yes.” So even the guy answering their calls is disgusted with the scheme.
Signing up with an energy provider for six months is a fairly big deal. There’s no reason a business honestly trying to persuade a competitor’s customers to switch would hide the main point in tiny print. They must have thought that if I noticed buying from them was part of the deal, I wouldn’t touch it. Dealing with a company that makes dishonest offers is always a bad idea. The fine print may protect them legally, but it doesn’t make the mailing any less of an attempt to con me.
Here’s a variant on the scheme from the same company which I found with a search. They’re doing it in Pennsylvania, too.
I’ve had issues with Unitil, but at least they’ve never tried to con me outright.