[happytwenty]

Hi there,
My husband and I moved out here for me to go to law school and we'd been banking on him finding a job quickly (he's a former engineer). Well weeks go by and nothing. Finally, out of desperation, he takes a job with a company called "universal gas and electric." The gist of what they do is go door to door "informing" people about deregulation of natural gas etc. At this point, he has been working for them for about a month and they still have yet to pay him. We can't go on like this but I fear that we are stuck. They continue to maintain the position that they will pay him when they get everything "set up." I was wondering if anyone out there had a common experience with this company and if so what did you do? We are from Washington and I'm not entirely sure what the laws are around here about this sort of thing. Any info would be great thanks!

[trinkit]

I'm not an attorney, but I would say that unless he's on commission that what they are doing is illegal. He must be paid for the hours he's worked. What did he agree to when he took the job?

[zackwesterling]

I worked for Universal for one day. and walked off. I understand it the employment relationship as an "independant contractor." Your employment situation is just like mine and my fellow Michiganders. Its all "Manpower" or some temp service. There are no jobs that pay anything. Only temps. Its the pits and I'm looking outside of Michigan. But my house is paid for, thank God. But I can't sell it or I take a huge loss. I have 5 bedroom 2 bath house with 3 stall garage with a work shop 26' by 100' are its dimensions. And I had one offer-a paltry $25,700 !!!! NO WAY!!! I had it appraised at $200,000. My taxes are $1800 per year! Its bad here for everybody. Its all Manpower, Adecco, Forge, Williamson temp services. $9 bucks an hour, no benefits. And guess what our legislators did to us! They made so we can't collect unemployment checks if you work for a temp service. People are on temp services for as long as 2 years at Herman Miller, Haworth and Steelcase and many other companies. What they is do is they change payroll firms every nine months so you don't technically work for them so as to become eligible for benefits. Its the pits here in Michigan, Its awful. You will never get your check from Universal so cut your loses and leave Michigan. Its hopless, Its all Manpower

[diamondgirl45]

Deregulation of utilities is awful. The government did that here and the utilities have gone up over 300% in the last 5 years. Crazy!

[Michigansnowflake]

Originally Posted by diamondgirl45

Deregulation of utilities is awful. The government did that here and the utilities have gone up over 300% in the last 5 years. Crazy!

Where? Where is here?

[1eyedjack]

Originally Posted by Michigansnowflake

Where? Where is here?

She's talking about Canada.

[diamondgirl45]

Originally Posted by Michigansnowflake

Where? Where is here?

oops, sorry. "Here" is Western Canada.

[cardwellave]

They did a HUGE expose on this company on Fox 2 Detroit. Not sure if it's the same thing.

Rip-off Report: Universal Gas And Electric Ripoff SCAM deceiving representatives and unhelpful customer service Southfield Michigan

[kaypurdue]

I've heard nothing but bad news about these folks. There are at least a couple other posts on this forum about them.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by cardwellave

They did a HUGE expose on this company on Fox 2 Detroit. Not sure if it's the same thing.

Rip-off Report: Universal Gas And Electric Ripoff SCAM deceiving representatives and unhelpful customer service Southfield Michigan

Yep, same company. They had an expose here in GR too about these scammers. Apparently the Attorney General is now investigating them.