Ambit Energy is an up and coming Energy Supply Company that does business throughout the world, including the USA, Canada, Mexico and even Japan. It has grown enormously in the few years of its existence, pledging to be "the most ethical utility company" and that they would “never sacrifice integrity for growth". There's an issue here, however, in that many of its users and consultants wouldn't necessarily agree with this pledge, as they lost money and broke friendships over this Ambit Energy Scam.
An Ambit Energy consultant, who preferred to remain anonymous has given us much of the following information. After looking into the matter, we realized that this consultant was not alone, and this was, in fact, a very large community of people who felt the repercussions of signing on with Ambit as a consultant or a customer.
The engine that has driven this growth was its use of a multi-level marketing (MLM) model, (although they consistently deny in their presentations that they are an MLM company). The basic pitch that has allowed them to sign up so many customers – despite the fierce completion in this area – is comprised of two basic notions:
- The “consultant” who solicits the customer’s business is typically a relative, friend, or neighbor of the consultant, and essentially asks that person to help them “build their business” by becoming “their customer.”
- Ambit “absolutely guaranteed” that they will save money by becoming an Ambit customer – they guarantee that the consumer will save at least 1% annually off of the rate charged by the embedded utility (in New York City, Con Edison, National Grid, etc.).
A large percentage of Ambit’s customers, therefore, were persuaded to join Ambit due to the influence of a friend, neighbor, family member, or someone recommended by them that ensured them that they would be getting a good deal, and saving money while helping their trusted acquaintance.
These trusted acquaintances are called “Consultants” in the world of Ambit. The army of Consultants, who are the engine of Ambit’s growth, are attracted to represent Ambit through a very persuasive solicitation campaign, based on the multi-level-marketing model. Potential recruits are told that if they get just a few customers they will receive bonuses, but the real money will be made when they convince other people to become consultants, who then help others to become consultants, and so on. As they “build their business”, they can look forward to financial independence as they reap ever-growing profits generated by their downline consultants, all of whom are helping people save money on their energy costs.
This very attractive scenario, namely getting to represent a company that can help your loved one save money on a product that they had to purchase, i.e. electricity and gas, plus the opportunity to make one’s fortune as part of this amazing business, seems like a great business model and has helped Ambit grow exponentially over the past decade.
But apparently, the picture is not altogether rosy. Although, in fairness, Ambit has many satisfied customers,
Consider the Consumer has learned that there are a great many customers who feel that Ambit has not kept their promises to them, and acted with the opposite of integrity.
There are many customers who were promised that they would save money on their utility bills, only to find that unbeknownst to them, Ambit had switched them into a much higher rate plan, claiming that it was the customer’s fault that they had ignored an email telling them that they had to re-register for the lower plan after a few months.
There are also many, many formerly active consultants, who put in endless hours and a great deal of money buying in to the fantastic dreams that Ambit enticed them with, only to find that not only were those dreams wildly unrealistic but that rules and policies kept changing such that they were unable to ever make any money. Worst of all, when the customers who they had persuaded to join Ambit found that not only were they not saving money, but that their utility bills had gone very high, and that Ambit would do nothing to address these losses, they were embarrassed and humiliated in feeling that they had violated the trust of their loved ones, and are furious at Ambit for causing this.
If you are one of the customers or consultants who was hurt by this Ambit Energy Scam,
Consider the Consumer would like to hear from you. We can be reached via Email at ConsiderTheConsumer@gmail.com, or you can find us on
Twitter,
Facebook, or even
connect with us directly on our website. We look forward to hearing from all of you, and to finally put this scam to rest! Perhaps, by working together, we can seek justice on behalf of Ambit victims.
