Illinois Attorney General Consumer Complaint

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Illinois Attorney General Consumer Complaint

Consumer Protection Protecting consumers and businesses from fraud, deception, and unfair business practices Safer communities Fighting crime, protecting children, serving crime victims, and providing resources to law enforcement Protecting the environment Protecting Illinois’ air, water, land, and community health

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Protection of public rights and civil rights. Advocating for the rights of workers, immigrants, people with disabilities, and veterans and service members. Protecting children, women and the elderly. Honest and open government Open public information and meetings, fight fraud in Medicaid and government programs, and investigate official or employee corruption.

The Illinois Attorney General has the authority to enforce the laws and protect Illinois residents in many cases. Individuals can file complaints about various forms of discrimination in financial and business transactions.

We cannot act as your personal attorney, but in many cases we can provide information, advocate, mediate or investigate, or refer you to other agencies when necessary.

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The OAG now has the authority to investigate Medicaid fraud and reports of patient abuse/neglect in Medicaid facilities.

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Student loan debt online safe online smart internet security property tax forms freedom of information act oag records requests Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has urged Senate passage of Bill 651 to reform the alternative retail energy market, which has been accused of defrauding consumers. Press release April 23. Credit: Photo by Bob Chiarito

For years, Fred Popolo, a 45-year-old union worker, paid his bills every month. A two-bedroom ranch in Bridgeport turned down the heat when the gas bill was high. That is, until a system glitch failed to charge her in February, bringing her March bill to $671.

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“I went to the account and checked it and called People’s Gas. They said, ‘Our bill is actually $123, but your other bill is $248 (in March).’ I asked him if and how long I had been registered.

Popolo learned that he had been involved with Just Energy, an alternative retail energy supplier, without his consent for the past 10 years. After doing some research, Popolo and his girlfriend, Gina Kapernekas, a 40-year-old mechanical engineer, estimate they’ve been charged more than $20,000 over the past decade. They say that the contract that Just Energy offered to sign Popolo is fake.

As extreme as Popolo’s story is, he’s one of hundreds of Illinois residents who say they’ve been duped by alternative energy companies that promised lower utility bills and did just the opposite. Critics of alternative energy companies say it targets poor black and Latino neighborhoods, as well as the elderly and communities where English is a second language. A Chicago Reporter analysis found that the 20 Chicago ZIP codes with the highest consumer complaints about energy retailers are mostly non-white. These numbers reflect those released by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Rawle. On April 23, she held a press conference to urge state lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 651, a bill sponsored by state Sen. Kimberly Lightford, herself a victim of crime. Fiction.

Lightford said he was at O’Hare Airport last summer when a man approached him about reducing his usage fee.

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“Someone came up to me and said I’d save money and offered loyalty miles if I signed up,” Lightford said. Soon after signing up, the bill went up instead of down.

“My bill was up, but it was summer, so I thought maybe I’d use a little more energy. But the next bill after that was $800,” Lightford said, adding that a typical bill is $130 to $140.

The Alternative Retail Energy Market was created in 1997 when the state legislature voted to regulate the electricity industry. The theory is that deregulation leads to higher competition and lower utility bills, but critics say the opposite is true.

“The General Assembly created this industry with the idea of ​​creating price-cutting competition, but almost no one registered pays the minimum,” Raul said.

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SB 651, called the Home Energy Affordability and Transparency Act (HEAT), seeks to strengthen regulation by forcing alternative energy companies to operate more transparently. The bill passed the state Senate on May 1, 2019, and now heads to the House for a vote.

Over the past four years, customers with alternative energy providers have paid more than $600 million more in electricity bills than customers who have stayed with the public utility, Raoul said.

Jim Chilson, director of communications for the Citizens Utilities Board, a nonprofit public watchdog group that supported SB 651, said the bill is similar to several bills that have failed in recent years, including one that failed last year (SB 1531) by four votes. . Voices.

“I believe that alternative journalists are strongly present and strongly oppose these measures. Many of these bills are the same in previous years, but the difference is that now the problem has worsened,” said Chilson.

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Raul said his office has taken action against nine alternative energy providers over the years, five of which have returned millions of dollars to state consumers in the past three years. There are about 100 alternative energy providers registered in Illinois, he added. Just Energy is one of the companies targeted by the state, and Patricia McCracklin, 70, a certified nursing assistant from Hazelcrest, signed a flyer offering discounted rates in her mailbox.

Instead, shortly after signing up, McCracklin threatened to cut off service in mid-winter when the company doubled its bill and couldn’t pay. McCracklin added that she sought help from CUB, which helped her find relief, but with high bills, the company sent her hard-to-interpret bills and didn’t answer her questions.

“I’ve lived in the same place for 23 years and I’ve never had an electric bill like this,” McCracklin said. “I work nights, so the coldest part of the day I’m at work and I always turn the thermostat down. Their billing was, I couldn’t figure out where I got ripped off, but I knew my bill was unreasonable.”

He said that Just Energy falsified the contract, extended his six-month contract without his consent, and tried to charge him $250 to get out of the contract.

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“They produced documents that I allegedly signed, but I never signed them,” McCracklin said. “They called me for an early termination and wanted to charge me $250, then when I protested they said I was going to cut off my service in the middle of 40 below weather. That’s when I called the Citizens Utilities Board.

Gina Kaepernekas and Fred Popolo haven’t registered overtime for secondary power providers in the last 10 years. Credit: Photo by Bob Chiarito

Popolo sued Just Energy for forgery, saying he never signed it in the first place. He provided a copy of the contract sent to him by Just Energy, which mentions the company in the US. As an energy saving company.

“I never say I sign Fred Popolo. I always write Fred J. Popolo, and that’s not my signature or my signature,” Popolo said.

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A review of the past five months that Popolo signed with Just Energy estimated that he paid an average of $170 more than if he stayed with People Gas. Unbeknownst to him, that figure had ballooned to more than $20,000 in the ten years she had been enrolled.

Chilson said CUB could not provide exact figures but said his team was well aware of Just Energy.

“Only Energy has a long history of getting into hot water in Illinois and other states. Unhappy customers also go a long way,” Chilson said.

In a statement to the Chicago Reporter, Just Energy said, “Just Energy has always supported strong regulation that balances healthy competitive markets and best business practices that include appropriate protections for customers.” Just Energy did not respond to specific questions about the customer experience mentioned in this story.

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Just Energy is one player in many questionable business practices such as CUB, a public interest survey.

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