Duke Energy and unfair small business practices.
August 4, 2008
Add this to the long list of ways that small businesses take it sans lube. Duke Energy requires a $500 deposit for new business account transfers. There are a few ways to get around this:
1. Find a co-signer who owns a business and has been a Duke Energy customer for 2 years without a late bill in the past year.
2. Get a Irrevocable Standby Letter of Credit from your bank: example. Turns out your money is still kept in a separate account and the bank’s charge is $300 in addition to the $500. Nice.
3. Surety bond. Requires advanced knowledge of legal babble: example.
After attempting #2 (and 10 transfers around our bank’s phone system later) we decided to just go ahead and pay the $500 deposit over the phone. I called Duke’s Business number on the site and was taken to the Residential department *cough* where they told me it’d be a $3 convenience fee to pay over the phone (also only a $200 deposit). Once they realized I was in the wrong place I was transferred to Business Services where it costs $12.50 convenience fee instead for them to take our money and hold it in their interest-bearing account rather than our interest-bearing account.
It didn’t matter that I’ve personally been a paying customer for 2 years, etc. and we’ve been in business for 3– they just want to hold on to that money. A $500 deposit that our bill draws from would’ve been fine. We’re setup for E-bills to begin with. If somebody doesn’t pay, flip a switch and turn off their power.
Somebody, somewhere, is getting rich.
Tags: duke energy, sans lube, small business bsComments
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