Consumer protection office: Pepco's competitor had misleading ads
- Montgomery County was hit the hardest after a July 25 storm. Image courtesy Montgomery County
Residents throughout Montgomery County, including the County Executive himself, have had their fair share of gripes with Pepco this year.
The public has come down hard on the utility in the aftermath of a brief July 25 storm that knocked out power, at least initially, for more than 300,000 Pepco customers in Montgomery County. Thousands were left in the dark for days as Pepco came under fire for its response time.
But it looks like Pepco scored a victory this week after a competing utility was told to put the brakes on its marketing campaign to woo Pepco customers away with promises of lower, locked-in rates.
The Montgomery County Consumer Protection Office reached an agreement with an affiliate of the Washington Gas Light Company on what it termed "misleading advertisements." They were direct mailings sent to current Pepco customers, and the advertisements contradicted the fine print.
I wonder if the promise of lower rates really convinced anyone to switch. A better tactic might have been to make promises of lightning-fast response time to power outages. Did any of you get these ads in the mail?
1 Comment
Andrew Hunt
Even if you go with another power provider, you're still relying on Pepco's lines. I get my power from Clean Currents (they offer wind power for nearly the same price as Pepco's coal and nuclear), but the bill comes from Pepco and the transmission charges come from Pepco--it's just the generation charges that go to Clean Currents. And when the power goes out, it's Pepco we have to wait for.
Your official 2 cents
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