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My first encounter with IGS was when l rented utilities weren't even in my name and they tried to get me to sign a contract with them for gas supply, which I was not authorized to do in any capacity. Knocking on doors, making you think that you already have business with them even though you don't, pushy sales tactics, predatory last-century sales grift is their bread and butter. It's truly bizarre to see a company operate like this in this decade.

What IGS does is get you to sign a contract locking in a rate for energy/gas supply for an extended period of time. If their sales people are in your face on any given month you can bet that they're offering a decent rate that month compared to other suppliers. It seems like a deal so you lock it in. Then in a few months, energy costs from other suppliers go down (reacting to the market) and you're still paying your contract rate, which may now be higher than market price (if you haven't signed their contract, the utility will just give you whatever supplier's gas is cheapest for a given month). This is anecdotal but they always contact me at the beginning of fall for a gas contract, right as rates are going up. Maybe they've got a policy of keeping their rate low relative to the other suppliers for a month or two, then reverting to market price after their fall "sales push." Either way, the rest of the year when other suppliers are offering cheap gas, you're paying heating-season prices.

Unfortunately when I bought a home I made the mistake of signing a contract with IGS. A rep appeared waving a tablet displaying Columbia Gas information for my address and told me he represented my gas supplier. He approached when I was in my driveway with 3 friends. I signed. 36 months locked in rate for natural gas and a "home warranty" ($15 a month) which is impossible to utilize or get out of since their online account management tools "can't locate my account." The only way to do business with them is when their usually aggravated sales reps call or come to your door. I've repeatedly contacted their customer service via email, thinking this would negate the pushy tactics, to help me sync my account to their online "tools" just so I can see when exactly the contract ends and how to opt out of it. I have never even gotten a reply. At every turn they try to get you on the phone with a sales person, or get your address so they can send a sales person out to your house so that they can lean on you and get you to sign something you don't understand.

I've been unsuccessful at managing, altering, or cancelling my contract because I refuse to talk to their sales people who come to my house knocking and shouting my name in windows. This company covers its shady dealings by having very little online footprint. They didn't have an email address associated with my account. All they're interested in is selling me a contract for energy and getting me to re-sign a new gas contract, not in helping me understand, utilize, or manage the services I already bought from them.

Be sure to check out the BBB and ohenergyratings pages on this company. I've read plenty of stories from other people--$200 unavoidable cancellation fees, contracts being renewed without consent, expired contracts reverting to "variable rate" contracts with IGS as the exclusive energy provider, no access to account information. And worst of all is that this company provides no value--they are just another energy supplier, one of many, who has elected, unlike the others, to aggressively insert themselves between consumer and utility and extract value from the consumer. Where there's smoke, there's fire. This company has atrocious business practices, zero transparency, almost no online tools to help you manage/understand your account, insists on doing business in person or by phone, and their sales people actually lie to your face to make you think they represent someone you already have business with even if you don't. I just want to help other people keep from making the same mistake I did