[In response to yesterday’s article on Viridian, the following was submitted to TLS by an anonymous source who says he/she is an affiliate with Viridian for about 10 months] Hi everybody. I have been involved with Viridian for about 10 months. I have 380+ associates and 3400+ customers and probably 80% of people involved in Viridian in Lakewood are in my organization. I will comment on some of the topics for educational purposes. If any of you want to talk to me directly you can get my number from any Viridian associate. I met the most honest and trustworthy people through this business. They are teachers, police officers, business owners etc.
To 43. I have a degree in physics and computer science. I have read a lot of books about MLM. And you can imagine that I am good with numbers. I have been involved for many years in oil and petrochemical business. These are commodities which trade on the market the way energy trades. Obviously each market has specifics.
Let us look at the statistics. We have 16 million people involved in MLM, it is 34 Billion in sales just in the US. So nobody can say that it is not legitimate business. As you know 9 out of 10 startup companies go out of business within the first two years. The same is true with MLM. And we all know that a lot of businesses who are not using MLM as marketing can be scams. So judging the whole industry by couple of bad examples you can say that any business is a scam. In any business 20% of the people make 80% of the money the same goes with MLM.
To 19. In a good MLM Company, people below can make more money than people above them. We have a lot examples in Viridian. In my down line I have people who made more money than myself and will make more residual income then myself by the end of this year.
Energy is a Government regulated business. To get a license in 6 states and about 20 utilities, they examined Viridian inside out. It would be impossible for a scam company.
I studied about 10 different MLM companies and compared them to Viridian and so far found that Viridian is the most promising company to be involved with. I can prove that every negative point in the whole discussion was made by the people who don’t know the details
To 39. About Viridian to be the most expensive 3rd party provider: you have compare apples to apples. I have a letter from Constellation and Gateway each of them guaranty 10% savings and then in fine print it saying they don’t include 7% sales tax and use tax and reconciliation fee. If you add all of these taxes it might be over the utilities but they lock you into a 1 – 2 year contract. They rely on people not reading the fine print which most of us don’t. Viridian includes all taxes in their rates. That is why from the first glance they appeared to be more expensive. Besides in fine print they have right to change their rates if markets go up.
So use your common sense which company you would trust more. Free lunch only in the mouth trap, if something sounds too good to be true it may not be.
To 30. From my experience with trading commodities nobody can guaranty lower price always, it is impossible. When you were told the truth you decided to look for something else.
I can go on and on about MLM and Viridian in particular but to make last point; a lot of business gurus consider Energy the biggest wealth transfer in US history and it just started and for next 10-30 years will continue to be. Make sure that you can benefit from it.
Sounds exactly like every MLM sales pitch I’ve heard. We’re not like the rest because of a,b,c, etc. You dont want lose out on the biggest wealth transfer in US history! Hurry up and join the bandwagon! You don’t want to be kicking yourself down the line! etc, etc.
What about the other part, the real cash cow. Where all the people in your downline, organization or whatever, had to shell out four hundred bucks!
That is the mlm scheme, not selling energy, rather persuading friends to pay cash to be part of the false dream.
I am suspicious of all these companies that come to Lakewood. Lakewood is a gold mine for them. It’s chock full of naive people who will shell out money to make a quick and easy buck. There are thousands of people here that have never been in the business world and buy these dreams hook line and sinker. Here’s my advice for what it’s worth (I don’t charge anything!): stay away from these companies and make your money the old fashioned way. These grandiose promises of riches rarely come true.
Are you cheaper then the other companies or not. Is Dominion , Verde etc cheaper or not???
I am sorry but the sad reality is, that most people who get involved with MLM’s end up on the losing end. This kind of business even when dealing with a reputable company is far from an ideal method of obtaining a livelihood. R’ Eli Teitelbaum A”H railed against these schemes and I believe that he would have done the same regardless of your words above.
Remember it is your job to convince people to join so forgive for being somewhat skeptical and cautious about your words.
People, do not be swayed by the illusions of easy cash coming your way. Sadly, life is just not that simple. If you want money, you have to earn it.
A MLM in order to survive has to have outrageous prices to pay their commissions . Look at every “legitimate” MLM and ask yourself is this the price I would pay if it wouldnt be shoved down my throat. The answer is always NO.
That is why Viridian is expensive and not worth switching too.
I just went onto Viridians website and for an average house the savings was .70 cents , Yes 70 pennies that’s about .04% . I sure hope you are the nost expensive if not this deregulation is one bad deal.
With Constellation you are correct that it does not include 7% SUT. With Gateway it does. Neither charges a separate reconciliation fee. What you are seeing is that their comparison is to the PTC posted on JCPL’s site which does not include the recon. charge which varies monthly. Viridian’s rate has been consistently higher and has never gone as low as, for example, Gateway’s rate of $0.107 for even one month. It has gone as high as $0.12 when market prices were lower than the $70 PJM Westhub July price. Gateway’s rate is for a 6 month contract. Not the 1-2 years which you wrongfully claim. When you compare it to this it is an inferior product.
You will notice that in my comment on the previous article I did not discuss the MLM aspect at all.
Also, as far as guaranteeing a price, it can be done by buying futures contracts to cover your future obligations.
With a fixed electric rate your rate remains the same for the contracted term and in most cases you will save money. With companies who do not offer a fixed rate and only sell a variable product, you are always at risk that you can pay more than JCPL’s rate. I will take the safe route and lock in my rate rather than go on a variable plan that is risky.
#1 – you’re absolutely right, we’re not down here for money to come easy, we gotta work for every penny
Sounds like the same pitch we got when I was involved in a MLM. They paraded couple after couple on the stage saying how they were making $20,000 a month and hardly working for it. They told wonderful stories of how their lives changed, they had more time for their kids, more money, more time to travel and enjoy life. And that was just 3 months before the company went bust. I invested $750 to get into the business of selling the business to others and I walked away with a $2000 loss. But it was a lovely right off.
None of what you have said thus far addresses the elephant in the room: Why is Viridian late on commissions? Healthy professional companies don’t postpone payday. Their excuse that they have to analyze the commissions for accuracy is ridiculous. When you have thousands of “agents” earning commissions, you have a sophisticated software solution to automatically calculate payouts. So either they have one and they are lying about the reason for the delay. Or they don’t have one and what does that say about them?
Verde’s rate is. 0 .1075, it has been consistent for the past few months. They Guarantee never to go above the JCP&L rate, and they notify you by mail if there is ever any slight change in their rate.
No contract, lowest rate, guaranteed never to be higher that JCP&L, works for me.
If you feel you have to explain and excuse yourself to annonymous comments on a blog then you mustbe covering something up or you just dont understand it yourself
14:
I don;t think anyone has a problem with the idea of getting service through Viridian. At issue is the idea of convincing people to pay $400 or more for the privilege to convince others to do the same in the hopes of getting commissions that are apparently running late.
Honest things can be explained simply. Can somebody explain this simply?
yes four words .. stay away from Viridian
to #17
simple if it sounds to good to be true guess what its to good to be true
Simply put, the gov’t forced the electric companies (like the phone companies before them, i.e cucumber) to allow other people to sell energy over their delivery lines. These new companies purchase energy on the market and sell it to you. Because they sign contracts in advance they hope that they can provide lower prices. Because energy prices fluctuate, they can’t guarantee that the price they paid will be cheaper than the price the regular utility charges because the utility buys it month to month.
The issue here with Veridian (which I understand has frum investment at the highest levels) is not whether they will provide the energy. Apparently some people thought that they were assured lower prices, which they were not. (I know because I responded to an ad) Also the agents have to buy into what is a MLM scheme. MLM’s are almost always Ponzi schemes where the last ones in lose their investment. One also has to wonder what will happen to the company if the price of energy drops (something that can happen simply because the weather doesn’t get so hot and there is excess supply on the market) It would seem that the company would lose a great deal of money in such a case. Even assuming that the company is fully legit., an agent has to know if he wants to risk $400 on the commodities market, because that is part of what you are doing.
To # 14
I wrote a comment on the previous article on this website. I will not rewrite the entire comment again. I think it was #36. Just to repeat very briefly what I wrote; I WAS TOLD BY THE HIGHEST OF THOSE INVOLVED THAT VERIDIAN DOES NOT GUARANTEE TO BE CHEAPER THAN JCPL. I therefore did not get involved.
Important Commission Update: Decision on Band Change to Positively Affect Associates
Last week we sent you a communication regarding delayed commissions while we audited the impact of the recent band change on commissions. The result of this delay is great news for our field — we will not be implementing the proposed monthly kWh band change at this time or in the near future.
A Change for the Better:
Earlier this year Viridian announced that we would be adjusting the minimum Band 2 kilowatt hour usage from 501 to 751 kWh per month. This adjustment, which was in line with the different usage patterns and demographic in our newly launched New York market, had been scheduled to go live for last week’s commission run.
However, the customer usage impact has not been as significant as we had originally anticipated and, more importantly, the adjustment would disproportionately affect the commissions paid to our established, emerging and future leaders much more than we had originally anticipated which is why we decided not to implement the band change. It is our intent to continue to have a competitive and rewarding compensation plan that rewards you for your time and results, and we are confident this change helps us accomplish that.
Important Details Regarding Payday & Reporting:
To implement this change, we are currently reprogramming our commissioning software and recalculating last month’s commission payments. The intensive process will take several days to implement and audit, but will be complete and commissions will be paid by this Friday, June 17. The payment amount you receive on Friday will be accurate and include payments based on customer usage Band 2 being between 500 and 1500 kWh. However, please note that the Back Office commissions report will not have accurate June payment information since the original programming cannot be reversed. We will keep you updated with developments regarding this report.
We sincerely apologize for this delay, but are confident you will agree that this positive change warrants the audit and the postponement. Thank you for your understanding and your continued commitment to building a strong and sustainable Viridian business.
~ The Viridian Corporate Team
get a job for heavens sake and stop with these crazy schemes. You will lose all your money as sure as I am sitting here. Please name one person who you know that ever made it big with these schemes?
nebach, before you call this company a scam and not ligit etc…. did you bother calling the better business bureau? and for the person that said he calculated the savings after going to the web site of viridian and that an average house would save 7 cents!!!! nebach poor math skills. just come see my bill and see that i saved way more than 7 cents,
Sababa I wrote 70 cents . Go to Viridians website they compare their rates to JCP&L for 250kw , 500kw , 1000kw and 2000kw. I used the 1000kw comparison JCP&L costs $175.47 Viridian costs $174.78 . You are correct I dont know math its 69 cents.
They are charging .1100 per kw while I just got off the phone with Dominion who is charging .096 (of course tax included).If you like wasting money stay with Viridian . Just don’t steal from your family and friends by selling them Viridian.
sababa:
“way more than 7 cents”. Woopee!!! Whadya save 50 cents?
Viridian doesn’t even print their rate on the bill. How do you know how much you saved?
Reading glasses. You are correct. Savings this month for 1000 kwh would be .69. By the same token, I used last year in June 2000 kwh. Savings for 2k is $7.44. Not a lot of money, but better in my pocket than in the utility company. Also, Viridian offers 20% more renewable energy than the public utility. I can lessen my carbon imprint & save $7.44. I don’t see why not to switch… No fee to switch. No fee to switch back if I’m unhappy. Can switch back at any time. Looks like a win/win.