Columbia Energy took a hit Wednesday as the Michigan AttorneyGeneral stepped in to halt one of Columbia’s marketing efforts. Dueto an objection by the Attorney General over the wording in a mailsolicitation sent to Michcon pilot program customers, Columbia hasconsented to end the solicitation and offer any customer it hassigned to an out. Currently, Columbia has signed 12,200 customersaway from Michcon.

The controversy stems from a promotion sent to residentialcustomers stating, “Save this winter, when your gas cost is usuallythe highest. Lock in your low price now, when your gas usage ispeaking.”

Under the terms of the program and written in fine print on theback of the solicitation, customers cannot possibly begin savinguntil after the heating season in April.

“I will not tolerate advertisements that mislead Michigan’sconsumers. While this solicitation never should have been sent inthe first place, I commend Columbia Energy for its quick responseand its promise to pull the advertisement and allow customers whomay have been misled to opt out of the program,” said JenniferGranholm, Michigan’s attorney general.

Columbia said it did not mean to confuse anybody. “It certainlywas not our intent to lie to customers, and we are apologizing toall our customers we got from Michcon,” said Columbia spokesmanSimon Ruebens.

Michcon’s three-stage pilot program began in January. Open on afirst-come-first served basis to all 1.2 million Michcon customers,the pilot program allows 75,000 people to shop for gas each yearfor the duration of the program.

This marks the second time Columbia has had trouble with aMichigan pilot program. A Semco spokesman said over the summer atelemarketing agency Columbia employed used “definitemisrepresentations” to try and sign commercial and industrialcustomers. “Now it is unclear if the fault is Columbia’s,” thespokesman said. “It might have just been an overaggressive agency.But it was a significant enough problem that we contacted Columbiaabout it, and like this situation, they acted responsibly.”

Columbia is also an authorized marketer in Consumers Energy’spilot program, but has not started an advertising campaign. “Thisproblem with Michcon does not affect their authorization in ourarea,” a Consumers spokesman said.

©Copyright 1999 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.