Mr. Rocha – I just wanted to say that your continued commitment to the truth is inspiring to us. My husband is probably too rare a commodity; he is 100% committed to truth and honesty in all facets his life; this episode has been very difficult on him but he remained committed to honesty throughout. He holds his head high.

We just had two healthy twin girls last month; so we are counting our blessing amidst the adversity.

He was deeply hurt when the press blamed all the bad things at the firm on him; but it was not his place to speak out. I know he took equal pride in the truth being championed by the press; and I know I speak for him when I say there was never any need to apologize in your blog; championing the truth is enough.

Thank you for all you do. – Sarah

I am pretty sure I could have written more about him, however, given his legal battle at the time, I was told he was advised by legal counsel not make any public statements. This was back in 2009; three years later after writing my post, Behind Amigo’s Facade, I was contacted by Javier Vega to inform me that he had won the case.

In 2007, Vega agreed to Fulcrum’s acquisition of Amigo Energy. Vega was to remain onboard as president and CEO of Amigo Energy, and would become senior vice president of Fulcrum Energy. When Vega was terminated without cause in 2008, Fulcrum kept Amigo Energy and refused to compensate Vega for his interest in the company. Vega filed suit, seeking a return of the value of his equity in the company, as well as unpaid salary and bonus. On August 1, 2011, a Houston jury unanimously voted in Vega’s favor, with damages and fees expected to total more than $3 million.

I was actually surprised Mr. Vega contacted me to update me about his case. I am touched since we really never had direct communication. Even though he won the case, according to court records Fulcrum is appealing. Not surprising really.

Does it really matter, in my eyes, not really. What matters, Javier Vega was vindicated by a jury of his peers. The
fact was Amigo Energy became a facade after it was purchased by Fulcrum, they kept Vega on so they can claim be a minority owned company, when greed and corruption took over, they used Vega as their fall guy. It is obvious the jury saw the same thing.

Javier and his father, Antonio Vega, have moved on and is operating another electric service provider, Mission Power.

I wish them the best.

As I mention, they really don’t have any teeth to do anything about except just investigate. I will admit, they did contact me, but fear not my fellow readers, they did not threaten to cut me off, and I didn’t give them a chance. And I am glad I did, considering what I just found out.

I am pretty sure they are not happy I have chosen this avenue rather than going through the Public Utility Commission (PUC). You see, if you did an internet search on “Amigo Energy” on any of the top three internet search engines – Google, Yahoo! and Windows Live (formally known as MSN) – well, my post can be found on the first page of Google’s and Windows Live’s search results. As for Yahoo!, it flips between the first and second page.

Why does this matter? It’s all about reputation and they know it. The internet has given a powerful voice to consumers and bloggers. As a blogger, if done correctly, we can play an important role in shaping public perception about certain issues. However, this type of activism is still in its infancy, but we are growing by leaps and bounds. But not all sounding boards are the created equal. Not everybody blogs, that is why you have companies like City Search and Ripoff Report that offer the public the ability to voice their opinion in other ways.

While this is a a powerful way get due diligence, i.e., Dell’s flaming laptop batteries, we do have to remember what Uncle Ben used to say, “With great power comes great responsibility.” There is no denying, there are some people who do abuse the system, such as providing bogus reviews and unethical negative marketing. In my opinion, these people do serve a purpose, they keep us ground, reminding us the importance of holding ourselves accountable for our actions, making sure we have exhausted all resources before we hit that “publish” button.

They should as serve as reminder that just because a company is posted on the internet does not mean they are “bad.” Regardless of the report, as consumers we should continuing investigating and obtaining more information from a number of sources so we are able to make a more educated decision. But there are some who don’t see it that way and try to find ways to squelch negative reviews.

Anyway, back to Amigo Energy. When I wrote about Amigo, it was because I received a bill for $255 for using 1529 kWh. The reason I thought something was a bit off, when I received a bill the year before, I was only charged for using 567 kWh.

I had a couple of commenter who felt I and anybody who complained should just STFU and pay the bill. Well they can suck it.

According to my December bill, I was being billed for a 36 day service period, starting from October 31, 2008 to December 05, 2008. The meter started at 32553 and ended at 34082. When I received my January bill, there was some meter funny business. I was being billed for 69 Days, once the billing period beginning on October 31, 2008, with the same meter reading, beginning at 32553 and ending 34082. Instead of being charged for using 1529 kWh, this time around they did a little Enron math.

I guess they admitted there was made a mistake. According to my January bill, I should have been charged for only using 560 kWh and NOT the 1529kWh in December. Therefore I received a credit and wasn’t required to pay the $83.92 for only using 519 kWh. I was also given credit for the remaining 450 kWh, which is to be used for my Feb bill.

Break down of my bill:
- 10/31/2008 – 12/5/2008 – Energy Usage (36 days) 560 kWh – rate @ 0.1617 = $90.55
- 12/5/2008 – 1/7/2009 – Energy Usage (34 days) 519 kWh – rate @ 0.1617 = $83.92

Just when you think they redeemed themselves, they try to pull another fast one. I am not complaining about my bill. This time around, I owe $6.08. Who would complain about owning six dollars compared what other people have to pay, such this person who being charged $2,112.86 for 38 days. The problem I have with this bill, there is some funny Enron math.

Remember the meter was clocked at 34082 on 12/5/2008 and 1/7/2009 according to Dec’s and Jan’s bill. Oddly enough, my meter was magically set back 450 kWh. The current bill states: the billing period began with 33632 on 1/7/2009 and ended with 34051 on 2/4/2009. You would think with the technological advances we have made this company would be able to perform a simple subtraction equation. So where did the remaining 31 kWh go? Isn’t there a fine for tampering with meter readings?

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!

Break down of my bill:
- 12/5/2008 – 1/7/2009 – Energy Usage (29 days) 419 kWh – rate @ 0.1617 = $67.75
- $6.95 – Fixed Monthly Charge
- $3.24 – Advanced Meter Chg

I did a little investigating to see what those two charges are; and this is what I found out. There is $6.95 fixed monthly charge if I use less than 500 kWh per billing period. Huh?!? Let me get this straight. So if you want to be conscience about your energy by doing all the right things, but if you use less than 500 kWh per month, you get hit with a fee. Go figure, they get you coming and going. The other charge is part of CenterPoint Energy’s Advanced Metering System (AMS) initial deployment plan, which WE, not them, will be paying.

Amigo’s legal trouble
I was going to let this go, but something just kept nagging at me. So I decided to look into Amigo Energy. I went straight to the PUC’s Retail Electric Provider Report, it turns out that Amigo Energy is no longer Latino owned; it is owned by Fulcrum Power. According to Amigo’s website, “in 2007, Amigo became a wholly owned subsidiary of Fulcrum Power Services.”

I never heard of this company, but I have notice that somebody from Fulcrum has decided to check out my blog. So who is Fulcrum Power?

Fulcrum Power Services is a energy management company that provides services to power generation facilities and to retail electricity providers.

Naturally, I fired up Google to make sure they are not some fly by night company, suddenly I came across article on Ft. Worth Star Telegram. Last week, Dave Lieber reported that Javier Vega, the former CEO and founder of Amigo Energy, filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit against Amigo’s current owner, Fulcrum Power, in Harris County district court in November. I guess they the damage control people at Fulcrum Power were wondering if I had come across these article, since the Star Telegram was the only media source reporting it. This would be the only explanation why their sudden appearance on my blog after the story ran. Thanks for the indirect hat tip, guys.

It looks like every problem Amigo’s consumer experienced occurred after Fulcrum took over. According to Ft. Worth Star Telegram :

It says, “[Vega's lawsuit] involves the greed and corruption of certain individuals and legal entities that led to blatant and knowingly illegal efforts to collect improper rates from Texas retail electricity consumers.”
…
The first year went smoothly, the lawsuit says. But last June, [Gerardo "G.P."] Manalac, Fulcrum’s co-founder, took day-to-day operations away from Vega, who kept the CEO title in name only.

Manalac, though, did not buy electricity at lower prices for future use to hedge against price jumps, the lawsuit contends, something that Vega handled when he ran the company. Vega claims that he repeatedly warned Manalac to stop selling fixed-rate contracts to customers because the company hadn’t bought enough electricity at lower prices to make a profit. If prices jumped, he warned, the company could find itself in severe trouble.

Prices did jump, and the company lost $15 million by “gross mismanagement in a mere five months” last year, Vega contends in the suit.

To make up for the loss, the suit says, the company turned to “aggressive price increase methods” aimed at former customers of National Power, which closed in May. Amigo bought National Power’s variable-rate customers, who suddenly found themselves paying higher prices with a new provider.

Since this is considered public record, I was able to get my hands on Mr. Vega’s lawsuit. The suit says that to make up for their lost profits, Manalac had increased their rates and would retroactively bill their customers. In other words, if the rates were increased for the month you were using power, instead of the new rates being reflect on next month’s bill, Manalac ordered Amigo to apply them retroactively on the current bill due that month. For example, my contract ended in July, which means the power I used during the month of July, the rate, 0.1290 per kWh, I signed up in August of 2007 should have been reflected on my August bill, since all bill reflect the power used during the pervious months. However, that didn’t happen, I was charged the new rate, 0.1697 kWh when I resigned with Amigo.

The suit also contends that Fulcrum cut Amigo’s customer service staff, leaving angry customers with phone waits “in excess of one hour for tens of thousands of Amigo Energy customers.” There was also a backlog of 10,000 unanswered customer e-mails.

In one the comments I left, I mentioned how Javier Vega had told the Houston Chronicle that the only complaints he got what that “Amigo is a lousy company,” which made me wonder if ever he set foot in the customer service department or there was a gatekeeper that was censoring what type of complaints he saw. Well, looks like it was the latter. The suit mentions that Mr. Vega was kept out of the loop when Manalac sent out an email instructing Amigo personnel, “when talking to customers ‘Allow them no negotiation the first or second round.’”

Mr. Vega, I owe you an apology. It is obvious Manalac and Fulcrum Power made sure you were going to be their scapegoat. However, I am disappointed that you and your father chose to sell you business to them in the first place. But that is water under the bridge now.

I am seriously consider writing the Houston Dynamo to back out on their four-year sponsorship deal with Amigo Energy/Fulcrum Power. As mentioned, the only way to hit them where it hurts is their pocket book. The fact is Amigo Energy is just a shell of the company I originally signed up with. As you know, there are not too many Latino owned retail electric providers in the US. In Texas, there are none. I was happy to help support a Latino own business. But the real reason, I signed up with your company, Mr. Vega, I read and heard that you gave back to the Latino community, in fact, I even heard Amigo Energy were payment Nazi’s like it now.

I hope you and your father go back to the drawing board and do it again. Your business model worked and as you stated in your lawsuit, prior to Fulcrum Power taking over. I hope do consider starting up another retail electric provider business. I would be the first one to sign up again.

While deregulation does give the consumer the power to choose from a list of providers, at the same the same time, we also have no way of knowing whether these smaller companies have the financial resources to deliver on its promises. A good example of what the future will bring for us in Texas now that deregulation is the telecommunication industry. The Act, Telecommunications Act of 1996, that was suppose to foster competition that would result in lower rates for consumers did the opposite. The new companies that sprang up with the passage of the Act quickly “flamed out.” There are signs that the Texas utility industry is beginning to crumble.

Last year, after doing some extensive research online, I decided to go with this small Latino owned Houston base electricity provider, Amigo Energy. At that time – August, 2007 – Amigo had one of the most reasonable 12 month fixed electric rates in Houston area, 12.9 cents kWh. Throughout the year, Amigo remained stable with those rates.

I didn’t have any complaints until now. Alarms went off as I noticed that my electric bill I received the previous day was three times the amount I normally paid since the time I signed up. I already expected my bill to go up since their rates went up when I had to renew my contract with them. That is a separate issue which I will discuss later on.

Before I had to renew, my electricity bill was between $70 to $80 a month except near the end of my contract period. My usage isn’t that bad, considering my loft is an all-electric apartment with an air conditioner set at 72 and one ceiling fan turned on. I have CFLs in all my lamps, which I prefer because they are brighter than the pre-installed with conventional bulbs.

Since I have cement flooring, during the cooler months the acts as a heater because the cement absorbs the the energy from the sun and during our record high summer the cement flooring acted as a heat sink. Here is a snapshot of our electricity bill.

Texas’ Cooler Months
Jan 597kwh @ 0.1290 = $79.50
Feb 546kwh @ 0.1290 = $72.71
Mar 500kwh @ 0.1290 = $66.59

Texas’ Hotter Months
Apr 633kwh @ 0.1290 = $87.12
May 566kwh @ 0.1290 = $75.37
Jun 823kwh @ 0.1290 = $109.61

Here is the fun part and where things do not add up. Last December my usage was 567 kWh, therefore, my bill for the month was $75, however, this month had to pay for $255 for using 1529 kWh at .1617 per kWh. According to this month’s bill, I had every energy sucking appliance in my 809 sq ft loft running 24/7. Amigo is trying to say I consumed more electricity in November than the record high summer.

The downside of using the automatic, you tend to assume some things are in the up-n-up. Well after some research, I realize Amigo is no friend of mine and I was not the only one in this boat. I looked Amigo Energy up on the BBB and they have had 136 complaints against them and on the blog Texas Electricity one post had 75 comments that were all complaints. Many of complaints regarded rate hicks to .2419 during the months of May to July. According to the Public Utility Commission report card on Complaint Rates for March 1, 2008 through August 31, 2008, Amigo had the “Highest Complaint Rate.”

Ever since I renewed, I have been receiving weird charges. The first two months, my bill was broken down with different rates.
August 07, 2008 to September 04, 2008 – Energy Usage (29 days) 760 kWh – rate @ 0.1692
- 8/7/2008 – 8/31/2008 – Energy Usage (25 days) 655 kWh @ 0.1697 kWh
- 9/1/2008 – 9/4/2008 – Energy Usage (4 days) 105 kWh @ 0.1640 kWh

September 04, 2008 to October 06, 2008 – Energy Usage (33 days) 170 kWh paid Oct 24, 2008 – rate @ .2010 Actual pay:
- 9/4/2008 – 9/30/2008 – Energy Usage (27 days) 138 kWh @ 0.1640 kWh
- 10/1/2008 – 10/6/2008 – Energy Usage (6 days) 32 kWh @ 0.1617 kWh

October 06, 2008 to October 31, 2008 – Energy Usage (26 days) 1092 kWh – rate @ 0.1617
October 31, 2008 to December 05, 2008 – Energy Usage (36 days) 1529 kWh – rate @ 0.1617

My guess the bill I received are estimates and not from the meter. This could be done to make up their loses due to Hurricane Ike.

Sure I could call them up and complain, however, I don’t think it would make a difference. From all the complaints I have read, every one of them say the same thing, bad customer service. Many of the complaints have been that they are unable to reach them on numerous calls and emails. If they do, the problem is not theirs its yours.

If I were the Houston Dynamo, I would reconsider their four-year sponsorship deal with Amigo Energy. The fact is the PUC or BBB will not do anything regarding their questionable practices. The only way to hit them where it hurts is their pocket book. One way effective way is if the Houston Dynamo where to drop them like a bad habit.

After the Christmas holidays, I will be writing my letter to the soccer team to drop them before Amigo Energy’s bad reputation will also drag them down.