Called me today - Saturday - at 1:38 PM EDT. Young female starts off saying she is calling from Duke Energy and wants to offer me their "Energy Wise Home Program". I told her I get that crap offer in the mail every time I get my bill and damn sure don't need them calling me about it. I don't want anybody controlling my air conditioner but ME. Obviously some bunch of yahoos Duke has contracted with to harass people on Saturdays.
Yes, Duke Energy calling about this program. I also know all about it because they separate mailers. I did learn that 1) they do not need access to the house, and 2) you can cancel the program at any time. I signed up. Why not. We can always cancel. And I'm excited to be part of a smarter energy system. I'm not saying I love Duke Energy, I'm just saying having all our air conditioners "play nice" is a worthwhile experiment.
Why not? Because when you sign up for something from a telemarketer, you are encouraging telemarketing. When you signed up, you increased the perceived effectiveness of these calls (from Duke's point of view), so the rest of us will get them more.
This is completely separate from the merits of the program. Even if the program is great, fine, sign up for it on their website or using one of the umpteen flyers you get with your bills. But never, ever agree to anything a telemarketer asks you to do. If it's legitimate, there will always be other ways to get what they're offering that don't help telemarketing look better to those making the decisions about how to market.
I used to live in a different area of the state. We had a similar program (Duke Power at that time) that gave us a better rate if we allowed to cut the water heater and A/C at times. When we moved to this new area and still served by what was once Duke Power, we called to see if we could enroll in the same program here. We were astonished to be told that the newer version of Duke Power (Duke Energy--now Duke Energy Progress) had no such program. We've survived for over 10 years and now we turn a deaf ear to their Saturday-morning hassling phone calls.
They didn't want us in 2002. We don't want them in 2015.