ESCO Petitions New York To Allow Alternative Means of Verification for Contracts

Just Energy, LLC petitioned the New York PSC to modify the Uniform Business Practices to allow door-to-door or telephonic contracts to be verified through an online electronic verification process.

Currently, UBP Section 5, Attachment 1.A provides that, "A voice-recorded verification is required to enter into a telephonic agreement or a door to door agreement with a customer to initiate service and begin enrollment. Use of either an Independent Third Party or an Integrated Voice Response system to obtain customer authorization is required for any telephone solicitation or sales resulting from door-to-door marketing. Verification by an Independent Third Party or an Integrated Voice Response system shall be recorded and conducted without the ESCO marketing representative's presence, either on the telephone or in person."

Just Energy said that it, "concurs with the stated goal of the Commission to ensure that a customer's decision to enroll with a particular ESCO can be properly substantiated or verified."

"Nonetheless, as the Commission is well aware, many consumers are accustomed and even more comfortable to interact with business vendors through an on-line internet portal rather through a more traditional format such as a telephone. The use of the internet for all types of business transactions and interaction between vendors and consumers is ubiquitous and often the preferred choice of interfacing by the consumer," Just Energy said

"It therefore would be logical and reasonable to allow an ESCO to verify a customer's enrollment through an on-line verification process in addition to the use of a voice recording as is currently incorporated in the UBP," Just Energy said.

Just Energy proposed that the on-line verification process would include the following elements:

• After the marketing representative has left the premises, an email is sent to the customer setting forth the internet address for the ESCO's verification page.

• The Customer completes the required online verification on their own computer, at their leisure and without the agent present.

• The ESCO verification page would incorporate the specific information elements currently included and codified in UBP Section 5, Attachment A (1-17), as applicable.

"With these parameters in place, the use of on-line verification would fully comply with the standards currently applicable to the use of a voice-recorded system. The on-line verification would produce a replicable and permanent proof of the enrollment verification, the verification would only occur after the marketing representative has left the premises, and the actual on-line verification script would include all the applicable information elements set forth in UBP Section 5, Attachment 1.A (1-17). In sum, the customer would be fully protected and buffered by the same requirements applicable to a voice-recorded verification," Just Energy said.