Received a call today (Saturday) from a foreign speaking guy talking about PEPCO installing. I told him that I heard about this scam on the news and he would not give up on helping me. I finally hung up on him.
Maybe you're just a racist and you need to understand pepco has a large call center. I have had the same calls and when the technicians came to my house they had proper pepco ID and pepco verified their ID's, cant be a scam if the technicians show their ID before doing anything and at that time you can call pepco to make sure its legit.
Received a call today from a man who said his name was Lamond Byrams, calling on behalf of Pepco. When I pressed him, he said he was a contractor, and with a call center, but would not tell me the name of his company. He told me he was calling to alert me that 'they' would be coming tomorrow to install a device to reduce energy use during peak hours, which would reduce my electric bills. He did say the program was voluntary, but did not specifically request permission to install anything, just said it would be done. I wonder if they get some sort of commission for each device installed or agreed to. Someone drove into my yard on Sunday in a truck that looked like it was from Pepco, and then left almost immediately. I thought perhaps it was the meter reader, but couldn't be sure and was a bit concerned.
When I said I was very unhappy with my Pepco bill over the last few months, and asked if kwh rates had been increased, he said he understood the concern, and that Pepco had entered into an agreement with Solar City to install free solar panels on homes, for which there would be no leasing or other costs to the homeowner, with the option to have then removed for a nominal fee if the homeowner moved. I made an appointment to discuss this program and our options, but had second thoughts. He gave this number as a contact for his "main office".I can find nothing on either the Pepco or the solar City web sites that indicate such an agreement or program. On the presumption that anything that sounds too good to be true, it probably is a scam, I searched the web for this phone number and found this site.
I will be contacting the MD consumer protection office to report this solicitation.
This number was unavailable and turned out to be a program for Pepco. I called the verification number they gave me and they said the exact same thing. Sure enough this guy showed up to my house with a Pepco badge. I was unsure about the number but a technician with Pepco equipment made me feel better.