Their rates/their website says you save money but my experience has shown me you don’t save money
Unfortunately I have been signed up with Canadian Riterate Energy Corporations Gas delivery service for five years and thank god it is over this year. My experience over the last 5 years is that my Gas bill has been considerably higher than had I stayed with Union Gas. Canadian Riterate Energy Corporations website currently says ‘an average homeowner can save up to $125.00 a year or $625 for 5 years by choosing RiteRate’
An example of my experience by signing up with this company is the following example:
My January Gas Bill was $296.71. Whereas my parents Union Gas bill was $126.60….they live down the street from me.
Needless to say, the math says it all and when I add up the difference over the last 5 years, it has cost me thousands of dollars more than had I stayed with Union Gas
The results of how much more I have paid over the last 5 years tells me that it would have been better to not be locked into a contract with a company like this…I would have saved ALOT of money had I stayed with Union Gas. The learning experience from this: Regardless of what you are told and the excuses you are given by companies like this…..I suggest to all who read this, stay with Union Gas and go with the fluctations….in the long run you will save more money staying with Union Gas….that’s my experience.
I understand your frustration, but to be honest don’t just read what’s on a company’s website or its advertisements. Just because an gas and electricity provider post some information on their website saying about "saving you money", doesn’t mean it is guarantee.
Don’t just listen to their sale pitches or advertisements, it can be misleading.
As explained at our website, RiteRate.ca pre-purchases 5-year gas to hedge the contracts we sell. So, whether the market goes up or down we do not make any more or less money on an individual contract.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Sumner signed up on March 15, 2006 near the peak of the market after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She signed up for a 5-year fixed rate of 38.4 cents/m3. At the time of her sign up she received the lowest 5-year rate available to her. In fact, our two main competitors Direct Energy and Just Energy were selling 5-year contracts for 42.7 c/m3 and 45 c/m3 respectively at that time. In addition, the Union Gas variable rate was 41.7 c/m3, higher than the rate she received from us.
The quoted savings that Mrs. Sumner takes exception to are to "current rates being sold at the door and on the phone". They are comparing our fixed rate to those of our competitors, not to the variable rate of Union Gas. When she signed up, Mrs. Sumner saved 4.3 c/m3 compared to Direct Energy and 6.6 c/m3 compared to Just Energy. So, our message is that door to door costs more and customers will get a lower fixed rate by choosing RiteRate over our competitors.
Finally, we do post the Union Gas variable rate going back to 2003 in the Utility Rate History section of our website. We do this because we believe in full disclosure before a customer signs a contract. Unfortunately, in retrospect Mrs. Sumner's timing was not great but at the time of her decision our offer was a very good deal. Whether you save compared to the variable rate of the Utility is solely dependent on timing, and the time to sign a contract is when the market is way down not way up like it was in 2006.
We don't automatically renew customers and we certainly respect Mrs. Sumners decision to return to the variable rate of Union Gas, which she did on July 1, 2011.
Brian Wikant
COO & VP Marketing
Canadian RiteRate Energy
I totally understand Lorraine's pain. I too signed a 5 yr
contract with Rite Rate in 2006. However, I do not fault
Rite Rate for my misreading of where nat gas pricing was going. At the time it looked to me that nat gas was going thru the roof. It did go higher 1 year (so I saved a couple hundred bucks that year – 07), but over the life of the contract I paid an extra $1000 for "price stability".
I am surprised to see Rite Rate unfairly lumped together with door to door sales companies. I called them (no solicitation) and their contract is not "evergreen" so when it expired it reverted back to Union Gas rates.
I think that if gas prices were at say 50 or 60 cents, we wouldn't be hearing any complaints. How weird is that!
Again I feel it's not "rite" to blame the reseller for ripping off customers any more than one would blame the banks for charging 6% on a 5 yr mortgage when a few years into that contract the prevailing rates are at 3 or 4%.
Can't we just live with the decisions we make, good or bad.
Riterate.ca is a scammer company.The advertisement those who sign up save is false and misleading advertising.I would hope at some time that a class action law suite will take place to take down these three scumbags
I just crunched some numbers to see how much I would save by taking Riterate.ca’s AnyTime Electricity offer. Since, with tax, the privilege of saving on electricity costs 8.95 + tax a month (just over $10) and I am a relatively modest electricity user, their deal would cost me about $8 a month more than not using their, ahem, service.
the reiterate.ca AnyTime Electricity deal would cost me $8 a month more than I pay for electricity without it. Some deal!