A Philly woman answered the door for energy salespeople. That decision cost her.

The pitch sounded like a no-brainer: cheaper electric bills.

Janell Johnson-Washington stood on the doorstep of her East Germantown home in early 2020 and listened as two salespeople touted the benefits of switching to StateWise Energy, a third-party electric and gas supplier. They were there, she recalled them telling her, because they were working with Peco to lower energy costs in low-income neighborhoods.

Still, she didn’t sign anything, she said, only giving a verbal “yes” when they asked whether she understood what they were telling her.

Three years later, Johnson-Washington cries when she recalls what happened next.

Her electric bill skyrocketed, she said, jumping from around $50 to more than $200 one month. She thought it was just a fluke. But even during months she and her teenage son bunked in one room, a futile attempt to save money on air-conditioning and other electric costs, the bills remained at least double what they had been previously.

“It was devastating,” she said. “There were times there wasn’t enough food for me because I had to feed my boy.”

The 56-year-old former EMT, who has a disability and a terminal illness, said she shared her story in the hopes of preventing others from falling victim.

Door-to-door marketing tends to increase in warm weather months, according to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, which regulates the cost and reliability of the state’s utilities. In recent weeks, state agencies and utility companies have advised consumers to be on the lookout for potential scams on electric and gas bills, especially as fluctuating energy prices continue to make news.

Pennsylvania is one of nearly 30 states that have a fully or partially deregulated energy market, meaning consumers can choose to get their electricity and gas from a third-party supplier instead of their local utility company. The local utility still covers the energy delivery and sends the monthly bill.

But while deregulation has created competition in the market, which can lead to lower prices and higher-quality service, it has also paved the way for abuse, some experts say.

“The people who are actually going door-to-door, they may have no relationship with the ultimate provider. They could be a separate marketing firm or marketing arm doing those sales,” said Robert Ballenger, an attorney in the energy unit at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia who worked on Johnson-Washington’s case. “There is an incentive to sign up as many people as you can, and there’s an incentive to not be forthright about what’s being offered. "

“Over time, the vast majority of residential customers who do choose an alternative supplier end up paying more,” he added, citing a 2022 National Consumer Law Center report on the impact of alternative energy suppliers.

Johnson-Washington said StateWise misled her by saying they were Peco employees and signing her up for a contract without her written consent.

StateWise spokesperson Tamara Sinson-Banton declined a phone interview, saying via email that the company addressed Johnson-Washington’s concerns promptly and provided a refund. According to Johnson-Washington, StateWise refused to help her until Community Legal Services stepped in.

It took several months but with the help of Community Legal Services and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office of the Consumer Advocate, Johnson-Washington eventually received a partial refund of more than $800, an estimation of how much more she spent on electric and gas with StateWise over nearly a year.

“StateWise Energy submits that we take customer complaints very seriously,” Sinson-Banton said, “and we have customer protection initiatives in place to ensure that customers have full disclosure about our products and services.”

StateWise also emailed Johnson-Washington contract terms and conditions, as well as cancellation rights. (Johnson-Washington said she received an email from StateWise, but she was unable to read it due to vision problems caused by a 2002 stroke and subsequent brain surgery. She prefers not to receive communications over email.)

StateWise is a PUC-licensed energy supplier that has a C rating by the Better Business Bureau, with a couple dozen customers nationwide saying they were misled by the company. StateWise, which is based in Ontario, has thousands of customers across the United States, according to Sinson-Banton.

The PUC “would strongly encourage” Washington-Johnson to file a complaint with its Bureau of Consumer Services so it can investigate, spokesperson Nils Hagen-Frederiksen said.

Door-to-door salespeople are never Peco employees or contractors, said Peco spokesperson Thomas Brubaker, and Peco sends letters to customers confirming a change in energy supplier. Johnson-Washington does not recall receiving this letter.

“Peco supports the competitive energy market and encourages all customers to read and understand the terms of their energy supply agreements,” he said.

Until the issue was resolved, Johnson-Washington said she had no choice but to keep paying the utility bills. As a recipient of a Housing Choice Voucher, formerly known as Section 8, Johnson-Washington said she could not risk a late payment or a shutoff notice, which could jeopardize her eligibility for the program.

With all the money she was putting toward her energy bills, she sometimes didn’t have enough money to buy groceries (she gets SNAP benefits, formerly called food stamps, but not enough to cover an entire month’s worth of groceries).

“It was really hard,” she aid, “but my son, he was by my side and was like, ‘Mom, you’ll find a way to work it out, you’ll be OK.’ ”

But he didn’t feel the shame she did, she said, when he opened the fridge to see empty shelves.

Johnson-Washington said she prioritized feeding him. For a three-day stretch, he ate only pancakes. Some days she would hardly eat at all, which led her to develop stomach issues, she said. The medication for her seizure disorder is supposed to be taken with food.

To make ends meet, she borrowed money from her father, she said, and paid other bills late.

After she received the $800 refund, she was able to pay back her father, she said, and pay off her other debts.

But the emotional toll remains.

“It just didn’t give me a good vision of myself going through all of that,” she said. “I pride myself on providing my son everything.”

A couple weeks ago, Johnson-Washington got another knock on her door.

As she peered out, she said she could see it was door-to-door energy salespeople.

She didn’t answer.