Appliance rebate money all gone

[Jeanfromfillmore]

This is where part of the stimulus money has gone. Yet few people know how the products and services are being distributed. What is happening is the nonprofits are on board with this stimulus booty and are informing their “poor” clients at to how to get their paws on it. As I told you already, PGE in Central and Northern California has partnered up with the Mexican Consulate in Fresno and San Francisco to inform their “poor” on how, where and when to grab at this money. I’m sure the same thing is happening in Texas and throughout the US. That is why so many of our citizens land up at the back of the line when it comes to these handouts and rebates. Some may say that I’m stretching to connect the dots on this, but I’m not. Today there is a meeting of the largest utility companies here in California. It is the LIEE (Low Income Energy Efficient) program that is getting a partnership with the nonprofits and the stimulus money, similar to the LIHEAP (Low Income Energy Assistance Program) where they pay their utility bills. This is happening nation wide and you’re paying for it as an added cost on your utility bill. As I write this it’s 2:00pm and the meeting is underway. Here is the email I received and the invitation:
Dear Valued Partners,
This is a reminder.
San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E), Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison Company (SCE), and Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) (the Joint Utilities) will hold a public meeting to discuss their CARE and LIEE programs as authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission for 2009-2011 program years. Agenda is attached.
Meeting information:
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
10am to 3pm (CARE portion usually ends by 12pm)
Energy Resource Center
9240 E Firestone Blvd.
Downey, CA 90241

Teleconference Information:
1-800-423-1988
ID *1445127* (Press star button before and after ID number)
You are more than welcome stay for the LIEE portion.
Please RSVP by end of Monday, April 5, 2010 to Eleanor at erd5@pge.com or you can call 1-800-239-5170, prompt 3. Please reply whether you or a staff member will be able to participate or not.
Thank you for your attention.
<<Agenda April 7 2010.doc>>
Sincerely,
Eleanor Dela Cruz,
PG&E CEE/CARE
77 Beale St., MC B5K
San Francisco, CA 94105
erd5@pge.com
1-800-239-5170, prompt 3
1-800-239-6410 (fax)
These are the programs that are connected with the nonprofits and also getting the stimulus money through those nonprofits. But you, Joe and Mary citizen will hardly hear of any of the handouts. But the illegal get a personal invitation from many sources. By the time Joe and Mary citizen gets in line, the money is gone.

Appliance rebate money all gone
UPDATE — All of the appliance rebate money has been reserved, but waitlist reservations are available, officials said.
Thousands of Texans could not get through Wednesday on a Web site and phone line to apply for rebates for energy efficient appliances. Traffic was so heavy that the state Comptrollers Office shut the Web site down at one point, and the phone line was giving only busy signals well into the afternoon.
Demand for the rebates exceeded expectations, a comptrollers office spokesman said. Additionally, heavy traffic from a suspicious Internet address might have slowed down the Web site for part of the morning, he said.
The Web site, www.txrebates.com, opened for business at 7 a.m. today, but the comptroller’s office said it was hit with “unprecedented traffic.”
State officials took down the online reservation system later in the morning to test its load capacity. It was restored to limited capacity at 12:15 p.m., comptroller’s office spokesman R.J. DeSilva said.
As part of that testing, the contractor hired to run the applications program, Helgeson Enterprises Inc., noticed that an unusually high amount of traffic was coming from one IP address. It was blocked.
But heavy demand continued into the afternoon. A phone line (877-780-3039) was also swamped, and a message on a backup line said calls were not going through.”
To accommodate phone demand, more call-takers were added Wednesday morning, for a total of 550, DeSilva said.
“There’s extremely high interest,” he said. “Response has been higher than expected because a lot of Texans” want these rebates.
The office was receiving about 1,000 calls per minute at about 10:20 a.m., and the Web site was getting 1,700 hits per second, according to a comptroller’s office Twitter post. The Web site has received more than 19 million hits.
DeSilva said the agency made a number of improvements to expand the program in the runup to today’s launch, adding call-takers and boosting the server to handle online interest. Even so, demand outpaced those preparations.
“We worked to try and handle as much capacity as we thought” was necessary, DeSilva said. “This morning, there was even more than that.”
The comptrollers office signed a contract with Helgeson last month for $876,000 to run the rebate program. It was the first time that the comptroller’s office has contracted with Helgeson, DeSilva said.
It’s not the first time, however, that Helgeson has run a rebate program that’s been overwhelmed by callers.
Earlier this year, a similar program in Minnesota sparked high demand, causing the phone and Web systems to crash.
DeSilva said the comptroller’s office was aware of the overload in Minnesota, hence the early testing. Asked if the comptroller’s office would penalize Helgeson for the problems Wednesday, DeSilva declined to comment.
The $23 million in rebates is being handed out on a first-come, first-serve basis under a federal program. The rebates are for certain energy-efficient appliances, ranging from dishwashers to air conditioners, with extra money if people also recycle their older appliance.
The limit is two rebates per household, and people have to log back into the Web site to register for each rebate.
Purchases must be made from April 16-25 for most appliances, with a longer period for a few big-ticket items such as air conditioners.
Area appliance stores say they’re preparing for a rush of customers.
“We’re definitely excited about it,” said an employee at the Best Buy on U.S. 290 who said she wasn’t allowed to talk to the media.
At Depew Appliance on Burnet Road, sales manager Kenneth Boyles said he’s trying to order merchandise, but manufacturers are running low.
“We order stuff, it just hasn’t come in,” he said.
Still the store is stocking up where it can and is expecting to get slammed starting April 16, he said.
One of Boyles’ customers has a refrigerator that hasn’t been working for a week. He’s been buying time by keeping dry ice in the freezer, Boyles said.
“He’s hoping he’s going to get this money,” Boyles said. “If he doesn’t get it, then what’s he going to do?”
Austin resident Kelly Wilson said she put off buying a new dishwasher in anticipation of getting the rebate today.
Since about 7 a.m., she’s been trying to call and access the Web site. No luck on either front.
“I got up early, for god’s sake,” she said. “That’s what really annoys me.”
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...ram_web_s.html