We were told our heating bills would be cheaper by signing with them when in fact they are over a third higher. Also told if DTE came in cheaper they would adjust the price to beat theirs so when I called was told they never said that and of course they didn't give any paperwork or mail any as promised. At that time I told them to cancel and was led to believe it would be done. Instead today a paper came stating we would have to pay a 250.00 fee to terminate the contract. This is fleecing and needs to be taken care of by the government. How long will this company get away with this crap? We're retired people who cannot afford these prices.

I interviewed for a job with the Canada based company, Universal Gas & Electric (UGE) in May of 2008, at their behest. I was assured that this was a one on one interview, but was actually a cattle call presentation (Lie #1). Due to deregulation in Michigan, they are able to charge you for residential & commercial natural gas that you receive either through Detroit Edison or Consumers Energy if you agree and sign a long term contract with them. The UGE charge appears on your normal Detroit Edison or Consumers bill, only replacing the “Gas Cost Recovery Charge” line item on your statement; the “Distribution Charge” will remain on your statement (currently .2047¢ from Consumers Energy).

UGE only "sells" a five year locked in plan that is substantially higher than what is currently billed through the aforementioned utilities. At the time of my interview, my “Gas Cost Recovery Charge” billed through Consumers Energy was .92152¢/ccf – UGE was at $1.14/ccf

During the course of their presentation I asked a question regarding the fact that for 40 minutes the presenter (Rob Watson, Regional Manager) only spoke about billing for natural gas - what about electrical billing? Mr. Watson stated that the MPSC only issues a 2 year license for electrical billing, which was contrary to UGE’s 5 year locked in plan, so UGE “opted out” of electrical service billing in Michigan.

So, how do you “sell” a product, door to door, that is 26% higher than what the customer is currently paying? UGE conveniently leaves that up to their 1099’d (http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0, , id=99921, 00.html) sales staff.

According to UGE, if you use their "Proven Sales Techniques" you can earn "Six figures within the first three weeks". Mr. Watson further explained that the whole sales process should take about 5, but certainly no longer than 10 minutes or “you’re wasting your time.” UGE does not provide protected sales territories, but instead recruits "Sales Managers" to flood the market - an unlimited number of UGE 1099'ers could converge on your home or business in one day. Amongst other things, their “sales techniques” includes throwing in the volatility of OPEC, i.e. $4/gal gasoline, into the sales pitch to the potential customer.

The fact is, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has already rescinded their license to invoice electrical service (see paragraph 4 above), and are in the process of revoking their natural gas license for possible ethics violations related to the sales techniques of their 1099'd door to door sales staff. This is public information at the MPSC website – Case #’s U-15577 & U-15509 (http://www.michigan.gov/mpsc).

The full complaint that the MPSC filed against Universal Gas & Electric can be found at: http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/mpsc/orders/gas/2008/u-15509etal_05-20-2008.pdf.
You can file a complaint with the MPSC at: http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/mpsc/gas/gascomplaint.htm
Or by calling 1-800-292-9555 (from within Michigan) or 517-241-6180 (from outside of Michigan).

A simple internet search will turn up thousands of consumer complaints from Canada to the USA. My grandfather used to call company’s such as these “Boiler Room Operations!

Hi. I am having the same problem all of you have with this company. Seems like they lied and took money from all of us. We tried to contact them and they fed us a line of bull so I'm trying to get everyone who is interested, into a class action lawsuit. I'm going on a risky limb here but please email me directly at [email protected] so I can start gathering everyones input and contact info.

Not to worry, I'm just a stay at home mom of 3 boys and my husband works too hard for his money to be going to these people. We are paying $70-$100 per month more than we should!!

I signed a contract with Universal Gas & Electric with the understanding that I would be protected from future gas increases not to exceed $1.049/Ccf. Their representative lead us to believe we would continue paying the same rates through Consumers Power Utility not to exceed the capped rate. That was not the case they started charging us $1.04 per ccf in our 1st. billing cycle. We are pay a difference of .30 more with Universal., where is the saving? I am interested in join a class action suit, please let me who to join with file this lawsuit against this Universal Gas & Electric Big Scam

I would like to report a complaint about a company called Universal Gas & Electric in Michigan. The salesperson lied to me and told me that he would save me money on my heating bill by locking in my current Consumers Energy rate and that it would NEVER go above a certain rate for 5 years. Lo and behold, two months later, my heating bill is $30.00 more than it was the previous month and it's because Universal is showing up on my bill and they're already billing me for the higher rate. They were supposed to keep me at my current lower rate until Consumers soared above and then Universal was supposed to "protect" me and keep me from any rising rates. Instead, they put me at a higher rate already. The salesperson lied to me to get my business and it's not fair.

I am a single mother who worries about heating costs. I work part-time and most days even with the heat is on 70 degrees, we're cold. Having my heating bill go up even more than it should is a hardship. I tried to cancel Universal but they tell me I have to pay them $250 to cancel, despite the fact that my signing up with them in the first place was based on lies. They are preying on lower income people like me every day. This complaints board has tons of comments about them and I wish I had seen these complaints before the man came to my door. Something needs to be done to protect us consumers and also help those of us who were swindled be able to cancel without a penalty. They are using tactics that should be illegal.

I think the reason the cancellation fee is $250 is because they know their sales tactics are based on lies. What better way to swindle people and keep us signed on except by charging high cancellation fees. If it was a $50 or less cancellation fee or even no cancellation fee at all, you better believe they'd be out of business. Not one of us would have kept them as our gas supplier after seeing the truth.