Is Gexa Energy Price Gouging?

And if so, who do I contact?

**WARNING** - This is a particularly lengthy rant, so I'll summarize with bullet points at the end, in case you're not in a reading mood right now. That way, you can come back and catch up on all the mushy details some other time.

So it begins...

I've never been real happy with our electric provider, but recently things have gotten out of hand. I'm renting the spare room of a condo from a friend, so all the bills are in his name. He's been with Gexa Energy for his electric provider since he moved in, and possibly before that (he seems pretty loyal, even though the company has been bending us over, the last couple of months).

Which leads me to this scenario, and why I believe Gexa might be gouging:

When I had electricity in my own name in the past, I never saw more than a cent raise in "per kilowatt hour" charges over the span of any single billing period (possibly in the summer when the Texas heat is unbearable without air conditioning, so at least it would be an understandable increase), but the last three billing periods with Gexa Electric have shown an average 2 cents per billing period rise to the current 21.something cents per KWH!

Besides not wanting to pay an extra $100 a month for electricity, the falling gas prices got me to thinking that maybe something isn't right with this electrical price spike that's been occurring.

Three months ago (after the first few cent increases), I sent my roommate a link to http://powertochoose.org so that he could find a cheaper electricity provider, Texas is deregulated after all, and no one should pay more than they have to for electric services. He brushed it off saying he didn't see any companies with prices cheaper than what he was paying, or they weren't fixed/guaranteed prices, blah blah blah, etc... etc...; even though I specifically saw prices that were 4 cents/KWH cheaper than what we were paying at the time, I figured he didn't want to switch because of the hassle and possible fees related, so I understood and didn't press the issue.

Recently I did a quick search to figure out if there were potential coal sourcing issues (maybe somalian pirate ship hijacking concerns), causing the facilities burning it all, to need a couple extra hundred million dollars every month (21c/KWH x 2000 KWH/residence x minimum of 1 million customers), however, I found (not suprisingly) that the price of most American-based coal commodities has actually decreased over the last few months. Add to that, the recently reported 1 percent drop in consumer prices over the last month, and this skyrocketing electric cost just doesn't add up!!

I finally confronted the roommate again two nights ago and discussed switching providers again. I then followed up by sending him a link to http://houstonconsumerchoice.com (I couldn't remember the link I'd sent him previously and only discovered it after I perused my IM message archive), showing him specifically where to click to sign up for service with a fixed rate of 13.9 c/KWH, which is even derived from GREEN/RENEWABLE energy sources (typically a higher rate but better for the environment and green/renewable research & development). A 30% savings every month, fixed for a year, AND good for the planet!?!? I was flabbergasted!

And then it gets crazy. Instead of switching providers (showing that no-good-for-nothing gouging company that you're upset about how much you've been padding their executives' pockets), through some chain of events, my roommate has now signed up for a renewable resource plan from GEXA (to be furthermore known as the gouging devil incarnate), for 13 c/KWH!!

Any company which charges a steadily increasing rate of 30% over what they offer on a standard fixed-rate package (from what I understand, this is not a special deal of any sort), blows a red flag right into the stratosphere and screams price rape, in my humble opinion anyway (you can make your own decision).


In summary:
* Gexa has raised its c/KWH rate over 4 cents in the last two months (approx 1 c/month prior)
* Coal prices have actually decreased in recent months (coal being the number 1 energy source for electric plants)
* Gexa has fixed-rate plans offering prices 30% lower (not special introductory rates)
* Price gouging (to my understanding) is offering a service at a much inflated rate, when you can (and DO) obviously offer the same service for a much cheaper (reasonable and fair) price


So please, if you read all that, and you think the same way I do, AND you have a viable solution involving a way to punish Gexa and possibly get credited back some of the over-payments, I'd really love to hear from you!

Thanks, and happy hump day!

I Don't Really Know What The Point Is...

...but it appears USA has never lost, and I intend to keep it that way! One click per IP per 3 hour time period. Vote for your country! It's completely free and no registration is needed.

So click on over there, show your American spirit, your national pride, and your red white and blue blood! Chant with me while you click: USA USA USA USA USA USA...!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Naughty and Nice Christmas Spice!

As the old song goes: "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Just with this small collection of pictures, you can finally see why.

Now if you're so inclined, you could also click on them to see the larger images of these Mrs. Claus, Santa's Helper, and Hot Elf beauties. While you're checking out the bigger versions, you will be able to lay your eyes on the rest of the gallery, full of smokin' outfits for your daydreaming pleasure.

Enjoy!

^{(click any image for the larger version)}

So much for Thanksgiving eh!?

Happy Holidays!

How Do I Get Traffic To My Site?

Maybe you've been asking yourself (or others), "How can I let people know about my new contest?" or "How do I get traffic to my site, period?" or for those who learn by example "How do YOU get traffic to YOUR sites?" I hope you've gotten some good responses, but you probably haven't, or you wouldn't still be reading. Well, there are some very good ways out there, and you know I'm all about the free, so here's my advice (also free). Traffic Exchanges. Very simple concept, but used with a twist (stay tuned below for that tidbit). Here are the sites I'm currently an active member of, illustrated with banners (for the visually-stimulated) and explained using Pros/Cons lists (for the logically-minded):


Pros: decent timer, lottery ticket for every 8 pages, chance to win real cash, additional bonuses, credits for reporting sites that break the rules, nice upgrade price
Cons: ratio is a little low without upgrading to pro so you wind up promoting banners more than sites



Pros: decent timer, nice visual surfing interface, addictive prizebar, chance to win real cash, nice upgrade offers if you catch them, additional ways to earn credits other than just surfing, great quotes and/or helpful advice at the bottom of every page
Cons: new front-page GUI makes site-navigation less user-friendly, text ad feature has yet to work in a manner that makes using text ads worthwhile (show too fast so that credits are quickly diminished)



Pros: earn real cash while surfing, poker game for chance at bonus credits, can choose target or exclusion countries for your ads, homepage text ads option gets great results and is a cheap bargain, super-cheap upgrade price ($10 for 3 months)
Cons: can be painfully slow, high timer, had trouble at first with the poker game not crediting correctly, limited audience



Pros: fantastic user base to advertise to (over 90,000!), earn real cash while surfing, attractive site overall, new bonus pages in rotation, ongoing competitions, good ratio
Cons: so-so timer, anti-cheat mechanism can be annoying (match the gibberish word or do a math problem), bonus pages can easily be missed if you're not paying attention



Pros: best real-cash ratio, large bag of free credits just for signing up, great banner/text credit conversion ratios
Cons: so-so timer, site navigation can be confusing, sidebar text ad monitor not working, site has been completely down a couple times



Pros: speedy fast timer, lots of blatant bonus pages (every 15th), decent upgrade offers if you catch them, easy sidebar site navigation, ongoing daily credit contests, part of super-surf network (addtl credits for surfing specific other TE's at the same time), great surfer base/lots of members to advertise to
Cons: *warning - side rant* They post your login/password in every email they send. I contacted them about this procedure and their only response is that it produces more logins/surfers daily, and it may in fact, however, I think it's unsafe to have your password posted in plain text so often (especially if you use computers in public places), so I changed mine to a random password that I don't use for anything else, and I don't have to worry about forgetting what it is because I see it every time I read an email from them (usually daily). *end rant* ratio is a little low lending to using banners more than sites


Well, there you have it, my traffic story. The order they are listed above is how I open them, and I surf them all simultaneously. In firefox, I have them each bookmarked in a single folder and just click "open all in tabs." I move down the line, using the faster timers (trafficsplash, freetrafficlotto, trafficbunnies) to fill in the gaps. In a couple hours on a weekend, I can build enough credits to have my sites and banners seen throughout the rest of the week while I work my day job (hopefully one day able to quit because my internet marketing has taken off so wildly!).

These are, however, in no way a Top 5 (or even 6), they are just the ones I use because they work well and provide me with the service I need. I've been very tempted lately to try a couple of the other larger networks out there, just to see something new - I'll keep you posted and let you know if/when I do.

Best of luck and hope you had a Happy Halloween (I went to bed early and slept like a baby - it was great!)

Via Email - Funny Human Trick

This applies to everyone! I'm curious how it works with left-handed or ambidextrous people.

Here's the deal:

How smart is Your Right Foot?

Just try this. It is from an orthopedic surgeon...
This will boggle your mind and you will keep trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't. It's pre-programmed in your brain!

1. While sitting where you are at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction!

I told you so!!! And there's nothing you can do about it! You and I both know how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you haven't already done so. Send it to your buddies to frustrate them too.

Be sure to let me know your results - I can keep my foot moving clockwise, but it definitely isn't a pretty circle! It does seem to help if I start drawing the sixes first, but I suppose that's cheating...

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Always Correct = Al-Weighs Right

I'm sure you have friends like Al, who are always right, who just seem to always know - they are the gnostic ones! If you don't, then you probably have friends like the guy in this picture, a.k.a. Tim the Tool, man:

^{Click to see the larger image!}


Have a great week, hope you're something fun for Halloween!

Halloween's For Heart Attacks

I posted a whole slew of new pictures to my Shareapic galleries, and I thought some of you might be interested to see a couple of them.

First, there are these nurse costumes, which are either, something you want to check out in terms of being your next Halloween idea (for women), or just nice too look at(for men...or women). Keep in mind this is only a small sampling - with 95 images in this one gallery alone, there are plenty to keep you occupied for a while - everything from the ordinary plain, to the extremely insane; so click away and check out the rest of them if you're interested!

^{(click any image for the larger version)}


Now that you're in a nurse-y mood, check out the waitresses at The Heart Attack Grill. The Heart Attack Grill is a hospital-themed burger shack that caters to true-blooded, red-meat lovin', skimpy-nurse-outfit-watchin', American males! They say a picture is worth a thousand words (how cliche is that!?), so here are a couple thousand words to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about (and then there are 35 more in the full gallery):



^{(click any image for the larger version)}


Enjoy these picture posts, and feel free to check out all my other image galleries on Shareapic.net.

Have a great day!

Ping-ture Purr-fect

Everyone needs a couple images of cute kittens sleeping, to get their Monday off to a good start... Right?

No?

Well, how about pictures of the world's "longest-legged" woman?

Still not enough?

*deep breath*
How about pictures of the world's "longest-legged" woman posing with the world's shortest man, for the celebration of the 2009 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, in Trafalgar Square, London!?
*whew*

Ok, you people are impossible! :-p


HAVE A GREAT WEEK!