National Grid / Columbia Utilities Scam

Has anyone else in Upstate New York been getting calls saying there are "unnecessary fees on your National Grid bill," and that to eliminate them you should call (phone number)?  We've been ignoring these calls by not picking-up the phone and letting the pre-recorded messages go to the answering machine.  Well, today two people came to my door with the same spiel, adding that their visit was necessitated by our ignoring their calls.  I listened as they spoke in double-talk and argued with me over semantics, and in the end I came to learn this:

They are not representatives of National Grid, despite the impression their phone messages give.  They represent a company called Columbia Utilities, an energy supplier.  They say that National Grid does not literally supply our electricity, but rather brokers it to us as a "middle man" of sorts; National Grid gets the energy from a third-party supplier and sells it to us, adding certain fees. If you or I agree to switch to Columbia Utilities (although these reps refuse to acknowledge that a "switch" is what is being done), we will continue to get National Grid bills but without those fees... because we've authorized NG to get our energy from Columbia and sell us that, fee-free, rather than continue to sell us the energy from a different third-party supplier.  (If that's confusing, re-read the last few sentences.  I think I've been clear.) 

The sales reps on my porch, as I said, spoke in a clever double-talk and argued semantics with me.  (I also suspect there are details they weren't sharing.) Although they objected when I said this was like me "switching" from one supplier to them, isn't that exactly what I'd be authorizing?  How is this any different than MCI asking me to switch from Sprint to their long-distance service, just because they (MCI) allege that they're cheaper?  It's the exact same thing here, isn't it?

This presumptuous salesman then began dialing National Grid from his cellphone, intending to hand me his phone, have me give NG my account number, and authorize a switch to Columbia as my energy supplier.  Like I'd do that on-the-spot, on my porch, because the salesman suggests it!  When I realized what the salesman was up to, I told him to literally "hold the phone!"  I'm not speaking to National Grid right now, and I'm not agreeing to a switch until I investigate the whole thing further.

Switching to Columbia may or may not save you money.  The fees, they promise, would be eliminated from your National Grid bill, but because your energy usage varies you may still get a higher bill than the previous month, despite switching suppliers.  I will say this about Columbia: they're using underhanded sales tactics.  Someone with less intelligence than I could've been easily persuaded to make the switch, from their clever double-talk and elusiveness alone.  And Columbia was recently fined by the New York Attorney General's Office for signing customers to long-term contracts the customers didn't understand they were signing, and also fined for misleading customers into thinking they were dealing directly with National Grid, not some third-party energy supplier like Columbia.  (Remember those calls I got, which started all this?  We thought they came from National Grid themselves, offering to take some fees off our future bills.  Still, we didn't bite.)

Fees or no fees, I'm sticking with the status quo, and refuse to take Columbia's bait.  I don't like that they intentionally mis-represent themselves on the phone in an effort to trick you into the switch, and I don't like all the phone messages and the door-to-door sales pitch.  If they come calling for you, you may do what you want... but know what they're up to.  They are NOT National Grid, and they'll trap you into a long-term contract with them which may in the long run actually increase the amount of your National Grid bill.