Independent gas marketer Apollo Gas says it will appeal theAlberta government’s decision to yank its license over consumercomplaints about the manner in which it solicited business. Thelicense was revoked effective April 1; however, the company hasbeen issued a two-month conditional license so it can supply gas toexisting customers until May 31. After that, Apollo may sell itscontracts “at the agreed-upon price” to another marketer or alloweach account to revert back to the customer’s original utility.

Apollo came on the scene in September 1998, said Rob Phillips,director of consumer programs for Alberta Government Services.”Almost from day one we received a fairly high number of phonecalls and letters of complaint, and we worked closely with thecompany.” He said there were a high number of calls from customerswho said they were misled into signing Apollo contracts. Othercomplainants said they thought they were dealing with the areautility, Atco Gas, or they didn’t realize savings with Apollo. Thecomplaints centered on the company’s controversial door-to-doormarketing campaign, which was recently abandoned.

While an Alberta government news release says Apollo has 45,000customers, Apollo President Gordon Jarvis says the number is morelike 30,000. The company was selling five-year, fixed-pricecontracts, mainly to residentials in Alberta. It also has about25,000 customers in Ontario, most of them commercial.

“We don’t try to tell consumers whether these contracts are agood deal or not… The consumer has to make that judgment call.Our concern was that the representation that this was going to saveyou money. Those are things that no one can guarantee because noone knows what the price of gas is three, four or five years fromnow.”

Jarvis, who joined Apollo in December, said he tried workingwith the provincial government to improve but got littlecooperation. “Through this process the reports that we were gettingin our regular contacts with Government Services were that thingswere a lot better. Up until last week, we were told there should beno difficulty getting our license renewed.” Jarvis said the companyhas 30 days from the date of the decision to appeal the licenserevocation, and a panel to review the case must be appointed within30 days after that.

Although Jarvis sounds steadfast in his determination to appealthe license revocation, the company faces trouble on another front.Local distribution company Atco Gas has decided to stop providingbilling services to the marketer. Atco President Chris Sheard saidhis company’s apparent affiliation with Apollo resulted in”hundreds rising to thousands per day” of calls to Atco’s customerassistance number. “And the phone calls coming into our call centerfrom our customers were clearly highlighting to us that customersperceived us to be part of the problem. If we were allowing Apolloto use our bills, then clearly we must be in cahoots with them.”

Asked why his company is being set free to do its own billing,Jarvis said he doesn’t know. “The only thing that Atco will tell meis that gas marketers went into the province and started givingAtco a bad name. Therefore, they don’t want to be associated withthem. Their name is very important to them, and that’s it, ‘goaway.'” At one time Atco had a marketing affiliate but has sinceshut it down.

Apollo is working with Atco to gather the information it needsto set up its own billing system. However, if it is successful inregaining its license, any billing system likely will only remainin place until next year when electric deregulation takes hold inAlberta. The province’s electric legislation specifies thatmarketers are responsible for billing for commodity andtransportation, and the same rules are likely to apply to gas.That’s about the only thing Jarvis and Sheard agree on.

Joe Fisher, Houston

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