Ambit Energy Customer Training Videos
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Will I get a separate bill from Ambit Energy?
Texas – Yes, you will get a separate bill from Ambit Energy and one of the neat things about it is that on that Ambit Energy bill it’s going tell you directly what your savings were for the month. It’s also going to tell you what your year-to-date savings are with Ambit Energy by switching to Ambit from the incumbent provider.
All Other States – No, nothing changes for Ambit customers in these states. Their bill will still come from the incumbant. The only difference will be a line item notation on their bill indicating Ambit as their electric and/or gas supplier.
2. Is there a charge to switch to Ambit Energy, or vice versa?
Switching to Ambit Energy is free, but if a customer is currently under contract with another provider at the time of switch, there may be a cancellation fee incurred as a result of switching away from their old company.
3. Does Ambit provide Average Monthly Billing?
Texas – Yes, Ambit does provide customers with the ability to average their monthly bill over a 12 month period of time. Customer must activate an account first then contact customer service to switch to average billing.
New York – In most territories yes, contact consultant support for details.
Illinois – Not at this time.
Maryland – Yes, contact consultant support for details.
Pennsylvania – Yes, contact consultant support for details.
4. If I sign a contract are there any fees to cancel early?
Texas – Yes, there are cancellation fees depending on length of contract.
All Other States – No, you can cancel early with no early termination fees, if rates go down you can even switch into the new lower rate contract.
5. If I have an electrical outage or gas leak, who do I call?
You would still call the same local utility “delivery” company to come out and fix any problem that you may have with the transmission and delivery of your electricity and/or natural gas. The contact information for your local utility “delivery” company is listed in every bill you get regardless of state.
6. How do we know if we are really saving money with Ambit?
Guaranteed Savings States Like New York & Illinois (natural gas) – Ambit will send a statement at the end of each year you are on the guaranteed savings plan. This statement will show what you would have paid versus the incumbant, what you actually paid on Ambit and if it’s less than 1%, Ambit is going to include a check for the difference.
Rate Quote States Like Texas & Pennsylvania – Simple grade school math. Compare the per kilowatt rate currently currently being charged by your local incumbent or current retail energy provider with the per kilowatt rate Ambit offers and see which is lower.
Sometimes the manner in which the local incumbent does their billing makes it confusing to actually compute their true rate. For example, in the Illinois ComEd electric territory you actually have to add up and combine three separate charges on the supply portion to get the incumbent’s true rate that would compare to Ambit’s single charge. For this reason be sure to consult with a local leader to be sure you understand the unique differences that may be applicable to your local area.
7. Why does Ambit not offer service in all areas of the states in which they operate?
Texas – As the state Legislature in Texas passed the deregulation of electricity in the state, they carved out all of the municipalities and all the coops in the state. The reason they did that was, for example in the city of Austin a lot of the revenue for the city is dependent on that electric service revenue. And so what happens is if they were forced to go into deregulation they would probably decline market share and attack that profit which in turn would hurt the coffers of the city. And so the state Legislature simply said that if utility is cooped owned or municipally owned that they get a right to choose whether to participate in the deregulation or not. And to this time I am not aware of a municipality or coop that’s chosen to participate.
All Other States – Ambit is licensed to do business in all deregulated areas but must integrate data systems individually with each incumbant provider/territory. Because of this intensive integration process, opening up a new incumbant territory within each state is much like opening up a new country for most companies. Ambit is aggressively opening up new incumbant territories on a prioritized basis determined by market potential. In some cases there are also co-op and municipal utility territories similar to Texas that are not available for deregulation.
8. When will the consumer receive their 3 day 2 night get away vacation certificate?
Your customer will receive their 3 day 2 night get away certificate after achieving “energized status” which means they are active Ambit Customers. The length of time to activation could be as little as 10 days or as much at 45 days.
9. How does my new customer access their customer referral website?
To access the customer referral website, your customer will go to www.a1234567.joinambit.com, where the “A” number is their customer number generated upon signup. We encourage you to get your customers looking at their website. They get pretty excited about the opportunity to earn a free cruise or a get-away weekends. It’s an exciting part of our business and it’s a great way to help you build your business through referrals.
10. What questions should my customers be ready to answer on 3rd party verification?
The questions that the 3rd party verification company are going to ask your customer are pretty straight forward. The basic questions include name, address and account number. They will also usually verify the name of the plan they selected and ask the customer for acknowledgment. In some cases they will ask the customer if they were given the chance to review the terms of service so you will want to prepare them for that.
11. How does 3rd party verification work and what is the fastest way to get it done?
Option 1 – The fastest way to get your new customer verified is to do a 3-way call with your customer on the line into 3rd party verification company. Only the customer can do the talking but you connecting them to the verification line is a good way to make sure it gets done without delay.
Option 2 – Give the verification number to your customer and ask them to call and complete verification immediately.
Option 3 – If verification is not initiated by you or your customer, the verification call center will attempt up to 5 calls to reach your customer. It’s really important you double check their phone number(s) upon enrollment so that customers can be reached by 3rd party verification or directly by Ambit Energy in case of a problem with enrollment.
12. Can I just call Ambit to enroll a customer or do I have to do it on my website?
All customers must be enrolled through your www.username.joinambit.com website.
13. How long does it take to switch?
Texas – You can schedule a switch to take place on an exact date up to 30 days in advance or if you select the “standard” switch option then it will switch within a week. In either case the customer will receive a partial bill to end service with their old provider and a partial bill to begin service with Ambit.
All Other States – Switching generally occurs upon the next meter read with the exception being if there was not enough time between switch and meter read for the paperwork to go through. The paperwork delay is different for every territory so there is no way to exactly predict the switch date which means it could take as little as 10 days to as long 45.
14. Do we check credit and/or require a deposit during enrollment?
Texas – YES, because Ambit handles all aspects of billing and collection, we (along with every other provider in Texas) run a credit check during the application process and may require a deposit before switching.
All Other States – NO, because Ambit does not handle billing or collections in these states all customers are immediately approved regardless of credit.