Earlier in the week, KPRC-2’s Amy Davis reported that the fine engine used to search for electricity providers had been pulled from the state’s Power To Choose website:
When Local 2 Investigates checked out the Web site, we noticed the site was not only more difficult to navigate, but some posted rates for electricity are flat out wrong.
The posted rate for Spark Energy is 9.8 cents on the “Power to Choose.” At Spark Energy’s Web site, the rate is 10.8 cents.
Out of 50 rates we checked at random, we found 11, 22 percent, incorrect.
“Now what’s happening is they’re even making it harder for us to find the cheapest price,” said Cobarruvias.
When we tried clicking on the link for Green Mountain Energy, we were actually sent to Hudson Energy’s Web site. We clicked on StarTex Power and we ended up at Green Mountain.
“Our enrollments have gone down close to 40 percent,” said Marcie Zlotnik, the owner of StarTex Power.
The only thing that Zlotnik said has changed in that time period is the “Power To Choose” Web site. She said the biggest change is that consumers can no longer search for providers by typing in their ZIP code. The site now wants to know a consumers’ Transmission and Delivery Service Provider or TDSP.
“ZIP code is easy,” said Zlotnik. “Everybody knows their ZIP code. TDSP, they first have to understand what does that mean and second of all, who is it?”
In Houston, by the way, the TDSP is CenterPoint Energy. But the average consumer does not know that.
By phone, PUC Commissioner Barry Smitherman said the Commission decided to cancel the contract with the vendor who maintained the Web site when it discovered the vendor giving some electric providers an unfair advantage over others.
But Cobarruvias said that excuse doesn’t work with him.
“You don’t wake up in the morning and find out that your contract ended. You know this in advance,” he said.
“We just want the site back up the way that it was,” said Zlotnik.
Local 2 Investigates called the PUC late last week about the problems we discovered in its Web site. About an hour and a half before our broadcast, a PUC spokesperson called us and said the PUC was able to add the ZIP code search to the site again.
Smitherman told us other changes to the site are coming in the next few weeks. The state Legislature gives the PUC $750,000 tax dollars a year to use for consumer education.
Later, the Chronicle‘s Tom Fowler and Loren Steffy posted a story with an error that has yet to be corrected:
Marcie Zlotnik, president of Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power, said her company’s business has fallen by 70 percent this month, which she attributes to the changes in the Web site.
“The Power to Choose Web site is embedded in everything we do in this market,” Zlotnik said. “I can think of no more valuable tool that we have to educate and encourage people to switch.”
In the comments section of the story, a spokesperson for StarTex power posts a correction:
We read with interest the article authored by Mr. Tom Fowler and Loren Steffy, Consumer Web site loses juice.
The article highlighted the issues facing the market due to the changes made to the Power To Choose website. As stated in the article, this website has been instrumental in assisting consumers with their decision to choose a new electricity provider.
We wish to clarify a point made in the article that is unclear as stated.
The article states that “Marcie Zlotnik, president of Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power, said her company’s business has fallen by 70 percent this month, which she attributes to the changes in the Web site.”
Our business has not fallen by 70 percent this month. This should have stated that we have experienced a 70 percent decline in the number of new customers choosing StarTex Power through the Power to Choose website so far in the month of December.
Respectfully submitted,
Steve Madden
StarTex Power
Sr. VP, Supply
Apparently, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists didn’t pay attention to the comment, because they repeated the error in their typically muddled editorial on the topic today:
The change may already be hampering some consumers in their quest to sign up for new electric service. Marcie Zlotnik, president of Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power, said her company’s business has fallen by 70 percent this month, which she attributes to the changes in the Web site.
As the spokesperson pointed out, that’s not quite right.
Further, as local blogger John Cobarruvias (who was cited in the KPRC-2 story) notes, something doesn’t quite add up with the PUC’s explanation of the changes to the website, which in its previous configuration was highly useful and merely provided links to individual power providers. In addition, the Editorial LiveJournalists seem somewhat confused as to how the website worked in its previous configuration. That’s hardly surprising, as we suspect the Editorial LiveJournalists probably never used it to shop for electric providers. (Our request for reader rep Steve Jetton to answer this question by polling the Editorial Board members on their current choice of electric provider seems likely to be ignored — he and the Editorial LiveJournalists are very busy after all).
The City of Houston maintains a similar electric provider website. While it is less useful than the state’s original site, it does seem better than the state’s current effort.
UPDATE (12-18-2007): The Chronicle posts a correction today:
Houston-based electric retailer StarTex Power has seen a 70 percent drop this month in the number of new customers referred from the state-sponsored Power to Choose Web site. A story on Page D1 Friday was not clear about how StarTex business was affected by changes in the Web site.
Note that the correction does not reference the editorial that made the same error. It is not clear why the newspaper is so reluctant to correct errors on the editorial page.
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