Ignite and Stream Energy - Is it a Scam?

[Streamer]

Stream Energy / Ignite

First, Ignite is a marketing arm for Stream Energy. This is nothing new, companies have done it for years, but it is probably more important now. I, for one, do NOT watch commercials and throw junk mail away. So if you are going to sell me something -- you better send someone I know and trust to talk to me. MLM does that.

Second, both Ignite & Stream have been around at least 6 years. They are as safe as any other company these days!

Third, I have used Stream Energy for at least 6 years and just renewed again. Their bill is easy to read/understand and have no additional CRAP fees that rip people off. And their rates are very reasonable!

Signed,
Loyal Customer to what has proven to be a good company.

[Streamer]

Cancel website - info

well as anything shows, there is rejection as well as acception. you have to work it hard at first, but your upline should be helping you. if not find someone else that is in a different upline at a meeting and get their help. it is worth it. maybe not for you, but dont knock it for others.

You can contact the Ignite Associate Support line: 214-800-4500
Really simple.

[Streamer]

Mlm

Yea most of the time MLM is bad and most of the time people dont actually get what they were hoping for. But maybe if you are like a band or something and get a whole bunch of people to follow you then maybe it'll work

I know people that have never worked a job, they do sales in MLM and have made a TON of money. On the other hand, I don't know ANYONE who has ever worked a J-O-B that made a ton of money, but I have HEARD about CEO's raping the business world with their self promoted bonuses. I rather dislike the "business" structure of the "business" world myself.

[Hermes]

Here in Texas there is an energy company called Stream Energy that also owns its marketing business called Ignite that uses Multi Level Marketing to sell its energy.

It is set up like Amway and I do not trust it and wanted to see if any of you guys have had any experience with them that you can tell me about.

Thanks

It's not like Amway in the first point, but the multy level it works as a chain that gets loyalty from the client, what's a very smart way to get secure customers.

[yellis]

While I'm not one to stomp on an opportunity I am one to try and understand how this company makes it's money. I've seen Warren Buffet quoted around here and I think the most important thing he has ever said is "Invest in what you know."

What he means by that is understand the in's and out's of the business you are putting you money in. Understand their strategy for the next quarter, fiscal year, 5 years, 10 years, etc. Also be aware of their exit strategy, i.e. bankruptcy, mergers, etc. Does the Executive Team have a clear vision for the future? Do they have a track record of success in this industry? What account system are the using? What percentage of which services make up the overall revenue?

My concerns with any utility (telecom, water, energy, etc) using MLM for it's marketing is first and foremost is how much of the revenue is generated from the energy side of the business and how much is generated from the $329 sign up fee and monthly web maintenance fees. When I go to the About Us page on the Stream Energy Home Page it states the following:

"Stream Energy, a retail energy provider, is Ignite’s parent company and is responsible for supplying energy service to ALL customers who enroll for service through the recruiting efforts of Ignite’s Independent Associates.

Ignite is the network marketing distribution channel for Stream Energy, a leader among energy providers and utility companies in Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, & Maryland. While Ignite does not technically supply energy service, its Independent Associates are compensated for gathering energy customers on behalf of Stream Energy.

When a customer is recruited by an Ignite Independent Associate, the customer receives his or her energy service and billing from Stream Energy. However, the Ignite Independent Associate serves as the customer’s energy service adviser and maintains the one-to-one relationship with the customer for as long as he or she stays on Stream Energy service."

I've spent 16 years in the Telecom industry working for providers, vendors and installers and I've never never EVER head of a company touting the strength of their marketing and recruiting over the quality of the product or service they are supposedly selling. If this was coming from the Ignite website I would be so worried as that is the marketing arm of Steam. However, this was under the About Us page!

Furthermore they make it very clear that you are dealing with two different entities, the service side and the sales side. Stream hooks up the power but Ignite handles the rest. Now if I'm a customer and someone signs me up for a service I want to know I'm dealing with the company that's providing that service, not a secondary company who's entire goal is to not only market the product but is probably looking to me as a recruit into their down line. This is especially alarming as the don't "earn" customers they "recruit" them.

Additionally you should also review the rise and fall of Excel Communications. Yes they rose quickly to a billion dollar company and even a mark leader in the industry. However, as they were simply a middle man and didn't understand the complexities of the industry they were unable to sustain that growth. Excel was good at reinventing the wheel and offering competitive prices but unless you provide innovation and differentiated services over time you will never grow beyond a certain level. They learned quickly that long distance was a game with too many players and unless you invest in high speed, internet, local telephone, TV and mobility you will quickly lose out. When they went bankrupt and the assets were purchased, the independent associate were no longer being paid thus leaving a discontented network and downline of associates that would be very wary of getting involved in something like that again.

I've also seen people speaking highly of awards for this company. There was another company in this industry that was spoken of highly: Enron. This was a company that also grew in tremendous size due to energy deregulation. Furthermore they used "black box" and shifty accounting (mark to market) methods in which to exaggerate revenue and return on investment for shareholders. They had their name on a baseball stadium, their CEO was on the short list for Secretary of Energy during the Bush Administration and won numerous business awards in their time. Unfortunately the company was built on a house of cards and imploded.

Is Stream Energy a long term player in the energy market? Is Ignite a scam? Who knows, but their inability to have their financial reports posted on their website or to clearly provide a long term strategy in the deregulated energy market makes me question their long term sustainability as player. Are they focused on long term greener energies? Are they investing on power plants? How much of the revenue are they investing back into Research and Development? These are the questions any associate should ask first to understand whether or not this company can sustain the growth. If the company can show that they are doing all of the above AND can provide financial statements that show that at least 70% of their income comes from their services and NOT from the sign up and web maintenance fee...then yes it's probably legit.

If not, then this company's goal is simply to milk money from it's marketing arm instead of building a sustainable business model that provides long term, competitive energy solutions and savings through innovation.

[OneThousandAndOneYen]

Hi. I'm from Pennsylvania and signed up to be a stream energy associate recently, and let me tell you about my experience so far.

You need to lack a social conscience. We're supposed to tell potential customers (who are also supposed to be Family and Friends, so they can trust us, right?) that there is no risk... What we're not supposed to tell them is that they're locked in for 12 months and if they wanna switch to a different provider before that, there is a $150 termination fee. Sounds like a bit of a risk, right? Especially since the rate is actually 8.7 cents a kilowatt hour, and PPL (the default energy provider for this area) is 9.2 cents a kilowatt hour. It's not enough of a difference to actually make a difference.

They wanted me to try and sign someone on as my customer while they were here at my house. I first called a relative, and tried to explain the rates and stuff to peak his interest. That's apparently a big no-no. You're actually supposed to just say like "Hey, can ya do me a huge favor? I'm your friend/sister/father/etc, so you can trust me" to hook them, but not actually explain any of the nitty gritty. They even gave me scripts to use to counter no's and excuses with. These are my friends and family. I feel just awful trying to hook them in like that before telling them all the facts (such as the $150 termination fee we're not allowed to talk about)

A phrase they like to throw around is "If you can't change your friends, change your friends." Meaning, if you can't change your friends minds, get some new friends to try and persuade. These people do not care about personal relationships at all, and as long as they get paid, they don't care about how many friendships and relationships they damage in the process. The ends justify the means for these people.

I'm in the 30th level or something like that. There's supposedly 30 more associates between me and "the 3rd best paid associate in the company". So while I'm getting my measly 50 cent commission off of the energy bills of myself and my costumers, the big wigs are all making triple digit commissions off us. In PA, Associates get paid whenever a customer gets billed. Whether or not customers pay their bills have no bearing on Ignite Customers. So even if I choose not to pay my bill.

The guy who signed me on got me on the phone with some of the big wigs, too. And they all encourage me to call them whenever I want to talk, because they supposedly care enough about me (even though we've never met and they're in Georgia or Texas or wherever.) My guess is, if I'm feeling discouraged about "the business", I'm supposed to call them so they can talk me up and keep me afloat, because they get paid the big bucks off my customers. There's an ulterior motive. These people want money, and one of my pet peeves is people pretending to care about me when they just want something I can provide for them.

As far as the website goes, Its a total ripoff. I own my own domain for only $10 a month for unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth (thank you, Dreamhost) that I can do anything with, and if that kind of advertising were allowed, I'd totally be recommending people to just buy their own websites to advertise this stuff with. And the people singing praises about how the website is important for driving their business obviously don't know anything about web-hosting.

All of this just screams unethical to me. Electricity shouldn't be treated like a cash cow by people who simply do advertising. If associates get paid when customers get billed, who picks up the slack when customers don't pay their bills? Where does their commission come from? Stream, itself? the utility company? They don't tell us that kind of stuff

Unrelated, but I plan on switching back to PPL's energy after the 12 month lock-in with Stream ends. One of the power plants that produce PPL's energy is about a 30 minute drive from here. Even if I was paying OMG HALF A PENNY MORE per kilowatt hour, I was still supporting the local economy and people who risk their lives who work such a dangerous job (Did I mention the plant is Nuclear?). Sure, you could say I'm supporting Stream Associates, some could be local... but they're just normal people who don't put their lives on the line to provide electric for the entire Eastern part of the state.

[Pkepneriv]

Ignite a scam? Nope!!

hi everyone! I was on here reading everything and thought I would add my two bits for what they are worth. A few months ago my wife and I were customers of Garland Power and Light. Our two story house with pool and spa running during the summer and with the air on 68 at night was costing us around $500 a month. We were paying $0.154 kwh. We recently switched to Stream Energy a few months ago and our highest bill for the summers far has been $230.00 and we are only paying $0.894 per kwh. To me is is worth it to switch just for the pure energy savings. If you can a make some money out of it regardless if it is an old way or a new way I say go for it. It only adds to your income. Just my thoughts.

Cheers,
Paul

[lanjo]

My question about this and siimilar

networks that have a big sign up(headhunter) fee. It seems that the bulk of the money you "make" comes from this headhunter fee, which seems to be borderline illegal pyramid. Can you actually make residual money based on a real product or service, or is that a long term possibility?

[Musclegoddess]

this goes out to all u people that think this is a scam.....WHo's being scammed here????? the customers??? NOpe, they might pay the same and in some cases save 10-12% EACH MONTH on their energy bill, not to mention they can lock in a rate ( the other companies will not allow u to do this), when the other power companies fluctuate and go up....so customers are not being scammed.....paying a sign up fee????? actually its an investment in your own business, and it comes back to you within 2 months or less. And furthermore, where in the hell can you start up your own business for $300 with NO OVERHEAD or NO merchandise to buy??? AND GET IT BACK WITHIN WEEKS UPON PAYING IT !!!!!!!!!! ...so nope.....you're not being scammed either......looks like the only one who is losing (but theyre not) is STREAM energy themselves...so WHERES THE SCAM PEOPLE?????? before posting rumors, you need to do your homework!!!!!!!! People who believe this is a scam are MORONS that dont have the facts about this company and what theyre about.....and FYI (its public knowledge) this company has gone up in revenues and profits (every year)since they started in 2005....what other company can say that in this day and age????? And if this company was about scamming people ,they wouldnt still be around and booming and they definitely would not be able to say that they have paid out 100s of millions of dollars to their associates.....so to all the nay-sayers.....u just stay that way and make ur little bit of money every month and watch us SMART people who believe in this company roll in the dough....STREAM energy only needs people that are intelligent and motivated and if you are neither, then just go home and quit yer bitchin

[Rico2000]

Muscle,

What happens when the company closes shop????? What are you going to do then, with all of your hard work and time put into this? You were making such a "good" living, then the company closed shop and all their clients went to a "new" company that is owned by the same people. Then all you "SMART" people are left on the corner with nothing. Have you checked into this?

[Rico2000]

To the previous poster "Muscle". What happens when the company closes shop????? What are you going to do then, with all of your hard work and time put into this? You were making such a "good" living, then the company closed shop and all their clients went to a "new" company that is owned by the same people. Then all you "SMART" people are left on the corner with nothing. Have you checked into this?

[Rico2000]

To the previous poster "Muscle". What happens when the company closes shop????? What are you going to do then, with all of your hard work and time put into this? You were making such a "good" living, then the company closed shop and all their clients went to a "new" company, that is owned by the same people. Then all you "SMART" people are left on the corner with nothing. Have you checked into this?

[adstalker]

Whats the best way to destroy your relationship with your friends and family?
Join an MLM and get them to pay monthly for a crappy product they dont want or need.

[adstalker]

this goes out to all u people that think this is a scam.....WHo's being scammed here????? the customers??? NOpe, they might pay the same and in some cases save 10-12% EACH MONTH on their energy bill, not to mention they can lock in a rate ( the other companies will not allow u to do this), when the other power companies fluctuate and go up....so customers are not being scammed.....paying a sign up fee????? actually its an investment in your own business, and it comes back to you within 2 months or less. And furthermore, where in the hell can you start up your own business for $300 with NO OVERHEAD or NO merchandise to buy??? AND GET IT BACK WITHIN WEEKS UPON PAYING IT !!!!!!!!!! ...so nope.....you're not being scammed either......looks like the only one who is losing (but theyre not) is STREAM energy themselves...so WHERES THE SCAM PEOPLE?????? before posting rumors, you need to do your homework!!!!!!!! People who believe this is a scam are MORONS that dont have the facts about this company and what theyre about.....and FYI (its public knowledge) this company has gone up in revenues and profits (every year)since they started in 2005....what other company can say that in this day and age????? And if this company was about scamming people ,they wouldnt still be around and booming and they definitely would not be able to say that they have paid out 100s of millions of dollars to their associates.....so to all the nay-sayers.....u just stay that way and make ur little bit of money every month and watch us SMART people who believe in this company roll in the dough....STREAM energy only needs people that are intelligent and motivated and if you are neither, then just go home and quit yer bitchin

typical brainwashed MLM rhetoric

[ndaddy1980]

Stream Energy Changed My Life!!!!

Hi I'm from Philly, I'd just like to say to all the negative ppl talking bad about stream Energy. Keep up the good work. Cuz all your doing is allowing us to constantly make this money. 1st. The marketing ARM of Stream Energy has a grade B, with BETter Business Bureau. ATT don't even have that. Jd power & associates ranked us #2 for customer service. An we just got a write up in the wall street journal. To clear up the looser that said .50 per customer. All associates have to explain the cancellation fee for 12 month fixed rates. There's a variable rate plan were there's no cancellation fee. The only reason u don't wanna stay with stream is becuz ur bitter about the business. If u don't work the business its not gonna work for u. This company has not only impacted me but also change my life. I look at things totally different now. Anyone with a half a brain that really wanna learn more about this company an see what it is ur really saying no too.