Jackson Heights Life

Just a heads-up to JH residents:

A few days ago, someone from IDT showed up in our building and was knocking on doors, trying to get people to hand over copies of their ConEd bills to "check to make sure [we] weren't paying sales tax," and basically trying to fast-talk the tenants into signing up with IDT as their energy provider. I interrupted him confusing the hell out of my neighbor, who is in her 90's, and made it clear that unsolicited sales calls were not welcome in our building. I "escorted" him out, and fortunately, he was polite about it and left quickly and without a fuss.

The blog Consumerist has been following IDT, the failed calling card company which has re-framed itself as a shady "energy reseller," and their not-so-fair dealings in detail, so I won't rehash everything they've very explicitly spelled out here:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/idt%20energy/

We have a lot of elderly residents in our building, along with many people for whom English is not a first language, and it seems that IDT regularly sends their "representatives" to places like this because they see these people as easy targets.

I'm not saying that energy reselling is necessarily a bad thing, but consumers deserve to be able to make educated decisions, not to be harassed by unsolicited sales calls, or to be fast-talked or tricked into handing over their utility bills and personal information to a stranger, or to be manipulated into signing something they have not been given time to study or consider.

Please keep an eye out for these guys, and send them packing.

I had some guy come to my door about a month ago, not sure if it was directly related to Con Ed or some alternative energy company. The person was persistant and I brushed them off as best as possible. Thanks for the heads up.

My neighbor and I also escorted a trio of energy sellers out of the building about a month ago.  I don't like their practices, and while it may not be a scam exactly, this industry is known for its agressive sales tactics.  I also felt very uncomfortable having a guy knock on my door and ask me to show him my bill, which has all my information on it (name, etc. and he already knew my address). 

A bigger concern, though is when will this pattern turn from quasi-scammers into actual thieves.  There are smart thieves out there who will figure out they can pose as energy re-sellers.  Then they knock on your door and while you go get your bill to show them, they are busy casing the joint.  After all, they already know they can get in the building easily if they are knocking at your apartment door and not ringing the bell from outside.

A close friend who works in the intelligence field says there's usually just a 6-month lag time between when a pattern is established (energy re-sellers become a common sight inside buildings in a neighborhood) to when a new, more dangerous pattern is established (thieves pose as energy re-sellers to gain access to apartments). 

One (non-dangerous) pattern I noticed during the years I've been living in NY was that in 2001 there were kids selling candy on the subway for their "basketball team uniforms."  Of course, this was always in the middle of the school day.  Then one enterprising young man figured out he should say "folks, I'm not here to lie to you.  I'm not selling the candy for basketball uniforms. I'm just here to put some money in my pocket. etc."  and I do believe that within 6 months EVERY kid was saying that.  Now it's never about uniforms anymore, just not lying in order to get pocket money.  So maybe the 6-month rule is correct when it comes to patterns.

Anyway, I do think it's worth getting in the habit of escorting these energy re-sellers out of the building as soon as you see them, just to be on the safe side.

They come on my block in the evenings about once every 2-3 weeks,always a different pair of soliciters. I can't stand ESCO's. They have surpassed the Jehovas Witnesses as most annoying door to door people.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/27/2008-07-27_pol_slam_door_on_utility_scam.html

Thanks for posting that article snickers.

Here's a way that these guys have used to enter in our building:

They approach our resident listing and search for Hispanic names.  They ring the intercom thinking that most Hispanics aren't up on their game and will let them in.  I've managed to catch them a few times, but they're very persistent!

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks that this energy sales pitch could be the perfect cover for people who are actually casing the joint.

In this thread from the brooklynian http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44746
one person has noticed a link between people who say they are from an energy company going door-to-door and apartment break-ins later in the week.

quote from Brooklynian
"But in my last building in Park Slope, there would be times where similar people from the "gas company" were knocking on doors frequently for a week and, more times than not, an apartment was robbed by that Friday. All of us caught on and looked out for each other. There was an interesting evening when a tenant was chasing 2 woman with his digital camera snapping photos of them as they ran out of the building. Such drama!"

Actually, you may have saved some money.  I don't really think the IDT thing is actually a scam - I just don't like the sales tactics.  Everyone's bill has shot up this month due to the 22% rate hike.  I just received info about a rally in JH tomorrw (Aug 14) to protest this rate hike which I will post in the events section if it hasn't already been posted.

edited to say: I just posted the info at http://www.jacksonheightslife.com/community/index.php?topic=1342.0

I saw a TV commercial earlier today for one of those long distance phone companies that supposedly offers considerable savings on long distance calling.  I think it was called Pennytalk, and I noticed an IDT logo at the bottom of the screen.  I wonder if this is the same IDT we've been talking about.