After decades of abusing Maine’s customers, CMP is finding the climate is changing! In just 18 months, social media groups holding CMP accountable, have grown to over 20,000!. While CMP may recognize that grassroots social media groups are impacting their spin and story lines, it remains doubtful that they fully understand how the climate is changing. CMP has run roughshod over their customers, because they controlled the perceptions of politicians, media and regulators, selling themselves and their projects as “good for Maine” while delivering pitiful performance!
The social climate they operate in has changed! People are able to unite, tell their own stories and react to CMP pressures in seconds. While CMP lobbyists and spokespeople are sleeping, social media groups are still active. Never again will CMP be able to bulldoze their agendas through Maine without enormous push back from Maine people telling the truth and exposing their doctrines of spin! Pictures and videos from cellphones will expose truths concerning billing failures, price increases, outages, customer service and NECEC. Truth will increase to a 100 thousand or more the watchdogs overseeing CMP’s dastardly deeds.
CMP failures have highlighted the news and created several investigations into their practices. A petition gathered over 600 signatures in just 3 weeks, asking the PUC to revoke CMP authority to operate in the State of Maine and Seth Berry’s proposal for replacing them with a Consumer Owned Utility is gaining traction. The climate change is real and CMP is melting down, due to their inability to treat Maine customers honestly.
If CMP is successful in pushing through NECEC it will be the epitaph on their tombstone. The visual scar and broken promises will be a forever reminder “DON’T TRUST CMP”!
Rev. Darien (Deke) Sawyer
Jackman
So when Americans, Maine folks in this case use social media to attempt to sway public opinion towards their cause, it’s not a problem, but when a foreigner uses the same public social media to try to do the same thing, it’s a bad thing, Can you explain that to me? And every lawsuit brought against CMP gets thrown out, want to know why? It’s because of three reasons, 1) It is a pay to use service, like Netflix, you pay to use Netflix and when you don’t pay, they turn off the service. 2) CMP is not forcing people to use their service, people do so at their own volition. 3) You have no right to electricity that you don’t produce, it is not something that is congruent to human survival, people lived for thousands of years without it. And the law says that public utility companies can charge people for a share of their products, CMP can’t make you pay for the NECEC, but since CMP does deliver the electricity to your house they can charge you a delivery fee and since they also buy power from other producers, they can’t charge you for a share of their costs for that, and protects their profits from third party sales(you selling their power to non customers. Kind of like the farmer sells the milk for $1 the delivery guy buys it and delivers it for $1.50 and you buy the milk for $2 you paid a share of the delivery guy’s expenses for bringing you the milk, and the law prohibits you from selling that milk you just bought to your neighbor, if they want milk they have to buy it from the delivery man, you can share your milk gratis, but you can’t charge for it.
I am so grateful for Madison Electric. During the ice storm of ’98,much of the state was without power for 2-4 weeks. We were out for 45 minutes.
How could anyone trust anything cmp has to say? Billing errors from ‘smart meters’ have been met with a list given to call centers to say ‘your appliances are drawing too much electricity’ or some ‘someone is stealing your electricity and you are charged for it’ ……… Absolutely despicable that cmp cannot simply admit an error and work with people to correct this error. But, nope, they just continue to deny even in the face of mounting, concrete, quantifiable FACTS. Who are these people? Who do they think they are? And this same group of corporate A-holes wants to carve a corridor in Maine so they can make more money and screw Mainers again. It’s time to throw them out of Maine AFTER we recoup all of the money they have stolen from us and all of the people who have been harmed by these ‘smart meters’ from their EMR emissions. The games, lies, and trolling is massive and all to make cmp more money with little or no conscience. CMP looking for new managers: qualifications required – visible psychopathic behavior (bipolar individuals may be reviewed, depending on whether one is currently taking lithium or not).
NIMBY!
I wish CMP could shut off power to all of their haters. Maybe then the convenience of reliable electricity would suddenly be appreciated.
“I wish CMP could shut off power to all of their haters. Maybe then the convenience of reliable electricity would suddenly be appreciated.”
Cool…extend that to internet giants, food producers – let’s kill cable access for Trump haters…let’s make sure those “poor, poor” mega corporations get to REALLY shut people up, huh, Planet? You probably turn around and talk about how this or that group is taking your freedom, tho, I bet. Wow. In your view, people should not have a voice – the exact opposite of what this nation was founded on. The elite “experts” should be empowered to make all decisions for you. Have fun with that!
I, for one, would be fine if there was no power for an extended time, but I understand most all people are utterly and frighteningly dependent on power and even more, internet.
That first part you may have to explain that ? for those of us who don’t attend the Circus (main stream media)
I think a lot of anger with CMP is the fact that people were overcharged, so use your Netflix or milk example and pretend you were charged for movies/milk that you didn’t request nor consume. Now pretend they are the only entity you can get milk/movies from.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of people outraged at so much stuff today that it is tiring, however I understand why someone charged for something they didn’t receive might be angry.
Captain Planet,
I just recently talked with a young couple down in Lewiston. Back in 2017 their electric bill skyrocketed when CMP installed a smart meter at their house. They called customer service and could get no answers on the increase. As time went on and the CMP bills kept coming, bills they couldn’t pay, CMP offered a final solution if they didn’t pay. CMP said they’d shut off their power. Now this couples livelihood depended on that power but that wasn’t the greatest fear that couple faced. Their greatest fear was that their young child depended on a nebulizer, a medical machine that runs on electrical power, to treat his asthma.
Tell me Captain, should anyone be reduced to emotional rubble because CMP couldn’t get their billing right?
CMP has haters because CMP took their problems and blame-shifted those problems onto their customers. And as far as l can tell CMP hasn’t learned a thing from their mistakes because they have very foolishly asked for a rate hike just as wronged people are coming forward to tell their stories to the MPUC.
Tell me Captain, how arrogant can a for profit corporation get? And who’s in charge of their PR machine? Because when CMP finally takes a fall, everyone who stood with them, will be implicated in some form or another.
Clearly those folk who are dissing the CMP complainers have no clue what others have experienced. The complaint is not about the normal charges but about greatly inflated false usage that the users have never experienced in past years during which usage was exactly the same as when receiving $1500 a month bills that were usually $100. Why are some people so ready to rip someone a new one when they have no idea what the discussion is all about?
Oh and what is wrong with US citizens using social media for influencing US policies vs foreigners using social media for influencing US policies??? Um think about it….if you are a US citizen that is!
Non-profits offer some of the worst examples of internal corruption I’ve ever seen, Terry. Just sayin’….’profit’ is not a dirty word! It is how you replace worn vehicles, give bonuses, expand…if you abuse your position, then you abuse it. Profit, capitalism, etc, have ZERO to do with it.
I’ve known people on those little ‘boards’ of non-profits that simply divvy up the big bucks they were donated, and enjoy $150,000 salaries for nothing work. There is not a thing more noble about being ‘non profit’ than ‘for profit’.
David F…. How many customers in what size area does Madison Electric provide service to??
OverRegulated,
I stand corrected. I find the nonprofit started up by CMP, which was given 250,000 up front with another 250,000 promised at a later date, highly suspect.
And there’s that pesky nagging feeling l get when I remember that the Governor’s brother sits on the Board of that NGO.
How many whiners about CMP and NECEC have actually gotten these outrageous bills? I don’t personally know of anyone. I’ll bet most of you spend more on your cable, cell phone, and ISP bills than electric service. If someone actually was overcharged(and I believe some were) that should be dealt with through legal channels. However many folks found out when they put in their ‘magic’ heat pumps or their powerful lights to grow some weed that the energy necessary to power these things comes from CMP, not the ‘lectricity fairy’.
Good points, Terry! Sadly, many of the environmental and human services-based non-profits are simply ways to rake in cash hand over fist. I’ve worked at a couple…it was disgusting, and not simply isolated practices! Human nature is human nature.
Well, case closed then! You don’t know anyone overcharged and know that “powerful” weed growing lights and heat pumps are to blame, and according to this anyone who may have been overcharged should shut up and follow the legal process.
A lot of claims made there about a lot of people you don’t know.
@Captain I received one of those bills some yrs ago before smart meters (still don’t have on btw). I got my bill opened it and was being charged over $800. When I called them there answer was “Well it’s Christmas time and everyone has lights so when we estimated your bill we just assumed you had lights up”. My response to them was go ahead and do your job and send someone to read my meter like I pay you too or I will be contacting the authorities. My bill was corrected within a week. There’s been a number of times I have had to call them because my bill isn’t in line with the normal month to month useage and their excuse is “well we were estimating your bill it will reflect next month when we read it.” Funny thing is it never drops back to show being over charged the month before. Now my wife and I read the meter ourselves and send it to cmp so we get charged properly. Not only do we do our jobs we get to do cmp’s job too.
Glen,It’s probably about 5-6 thousand and only available in Madison and Anson. Not a large sample.
I personally know a guy who has an abandoned house on his property, and a trailer. He gets a bill about $80/mo for the trailer. He used the power one time in the abandoned house to do some work for one day.
He then got another bill … for $80, for that house. Saw the bills myself.
Yeah, ‘smart’ meters. So smart.
I am also with Madison Electric and couldn’t be happier with their service and billing.
Our usage is consistent and our billing reflects that. We have a magical heat pump and it costs about 20$ a month, winter or summer. ( on 12~24 hours a day ) Our total bill averages about 75$ a month.
When I lived on the West Coast for over 20 years we had an electrical co-op as a provider. Very good system, much like Madison Electric.
My unoccupied house that’s with CMP is 11$ in the winter ( basic fee ) and about 17$ summer ( add fridge )
I have had CMP going on 30 years, and only once had one complaint over a bill and it was due to power leak from a faulty meter, it was basically reading power from itself and the house, CMP showed up and replaced the smart meter and sent me a refund check for the difference. There is a thing called vampire power, things you think don’t use power because they are off but actually do, chargers are notorious for it. half a watt here, half a watt there, it adds up.
I have never been to the moon…therefore no one has ever been to the moon…same convoluted reasoning applied when saying I have never been improperly billed by CMP thus all those who say they have been are liars.
I think it is a shame that a company as big as CMP, has forced some people on a budget to sell their personal items so they can try to pay their Bill .SHAME ON YOU. I HOPE ANOTHER POWER COMPANY DOES COME IN AND RUNS YOU OUT!!!!! It wouldn’t bother me to go without power.
HB and others: It amazes me that you can avoid citing FACTS. CMP has admitted that they had billing problems with 97,000 customers. People who have left their houses with every breaker turned off except a fridge and their bill is like $300 per month? What is wrong with you people? Simply because YOU are not affected means that no one else has a right to complain, even though these people have FACTS on their side and an error has been admitted. Do you people work for cmp and get a cut of what is not paid out? And this vampire power? Sure, extremely likely that this happened to over 90,000 ratepayers at the same time. Logic and statistics out the window, we will just agree and say that this vampire power is the cause and stop whining. Your ridiculous analogy about Netflix? How about you acknowledge that Netflix doesn’t have a monopoly like cmp has. If I get screwed by Netflix then I go to Hulu or Amazon Prime. With cmp, I get screwed and have ZERO alternative. Let’s not forget that this is a foreign entity that owns cmp. I just really don’t get how any sane person can defend cmp with all of the quantifiable, factual evidence available. And particularly since they have admitted billing errors and faulty ‘smart meters’. Many of you are just like cmp – you have lost all credibility with your lame arguments and pulling implausible explanations out of thin air. It would be refreshing to have a reasonable discussion, but it seems that a few of you are simply lost in the cmp wormhole. You are either employed by cmp, Avangrid, or Iberdrola …… or you have another problem and most of us know what that is.