Retail Supplier to Pay $150,000 Under Settlement with PUC Staff

Energy Services Providers, Inc. d/b/a Pennsylvania Gas & Electric and U. S. Gas & Electric, Inc. d/b/a Pennsylvania Gas & Electric would pay $150,200 to resolve a Pennsylvania PUC Staff investigation into the alleged slamming of 10 customers with over 300 accounts, due to what USG&E said was an individual subverting USG&E's internal controls.

The settlement, with the PUC's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, comes after the PUC rejected a prior $75,000 settlement between Staff and USG&E.

For further details regarding the actions leading to the settlement, click here for our original story

In brief, Staff's investigation revealed that a telephone sales representative (TSR) employed by a vendor utilized by USG&E, "was apparently involved in a scheme to obtain third-party verifications by directing the verifications to an accomplice who posed as the customer, thereby enrolling the accounts. Thus, while audio recordings of TPVs were made, the 'authorizing' party on the other end was not the customer."

The settlement notes that the, "TSR willfully circumvented PaG&E's established control procedures by directly calling the TPV provider from an unrecorded landline and using an acquaintance to pose as the customer."

The new settlement's civil penalty represents the following: $108,000 for the 108 accounts that were physically switched to receive electric generation or natural gas supply service from USG&E; and $42,200 for the 211 customer accounts for which the process of switching to USG&E was initiated but for which the switch was not completed.

Additionally, USG&E will provide to each of the customers, who had one or more of the 108 accounts physically switched to USG&E, a refund for the entire electric generation or natural gas supply portion of their bill for the period of time they were served by USG&E, net of any amounts already rebated to customers, not to exceed 60 days.

In a statement in support of the settlement, USG&E states, "It should be noted that the entirety of the allegations in this matter concern the actions of a single individual working for a single vendor and occurred over a very short period of time. All of the alleged switches involve this agent's employee deliberately acting in a manner that was contrary to all policy and training. Upon discovery, this person was not only terminated, but permanently embargoed. That is, PAG&E will not participate in any relationship with any vendor that employs this individual."

Docket No. M-2013-2325122