Energista - Solar - Comments

Raising the bar!

nobody — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 01:20:02 -0500

There is new training and a very challenging test coming out for Citizenre Ecopreneurs now that is raising the bar... of course some renegade Ecopreneurs got in and that was to be expected with internet marketing and they are the ones that you see the false ads from... as soon as the new test comes out then Ecopreneurs have 7-days to pass or they cannot sign customers or Ecopreneurs up... they still get to keep what they have earned but can't sign anyone up unless they are well educated on what we offer and are able to do so with honesty and integrity.
As for no plant yet... almost 10,000 customers (9866 tonight!) they know the plant isn't built yet and are happy to be some of the first in line for installs! Things are looking great from here!
Frank Knight

Econ 101

nobody — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:58:09 -0600

I'd be more worried that there is very little regulation in place to prevent CR from aggregating a huge energy futures portfolio - in which they stand a 50/50 chance of going bust, or seeing windfall profits.

If the energy market moves in their favor - it won't matter whether they have a product or not - commited customers will pay them "todays price" for tomorrows energy.

On the other hand - if the market moves against them - they don't have the capital to keep their part of the bargain. It is Win/Bankrupcy for them, and lose-more/lose-less for the customer.

Invite the SEC to investigate at:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/208387720

Ben

State Responsability

nobody — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:47:10 -0600

The State should be wary of contributing. It is clear in my view that they have already falsely advertised customer claims when there are no "customers" only qualified leads. (for the absolutely daft, a customer involves a monied transaction)

If the State knew or should have know that they were supporting a con, I believe victims will have been deprived of their money - under color of law, and state taxpayers could be liable.

Ben

Just my opinion, but at least it's mine

nobody — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:42:27 -0600

Talk about a ponzi scheme is rediculous. Citizenre has not asked for any money whatsoever. I am an affiliate and they tell you right up front, there are no costs to join and you need to pass a test to be able to sign up other reservations. That's correct RESERVATIONS.

When they start asking people for a deposit is not until they have the panels to put on the house. I'm sure at this time there will be a ton of information that can be proved to make others certain this is no hoax. If for some wild reason it is a hoax, you are not obligated to pay any money. In fact, if you don't like the design prior to them installing it, you can back out of the contract.

So this leads me to the question; What is everyone so afraid of? If you don't want to get a head start on this business then don't be an affiliate. No one has a gun to your head. If you think that there is even a chance at Citizenre doing what they said they can do, and the benefits of having a system through Citizenre are for you, then reserve a system so you can get yours in 1 - 2 years. If you wait it may take you a little longer as it will be first come first serve. Noone has asked anyone for a dime yet.

Now getting back to the rediculous idea of a ponzi scheme. What does Citizenre get out of it. Your home and email address. There are alot cheaper ways to get this information from you.

Bob Lavoie
powerofthesun.net

More CitizenRE info

christopher — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 17:53:01 -0600

Solar Kismet posted more information about them and their woes...

Skeptism is justified

darrell — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 13:05:51 -0600

I think that the skepticism of CitizenRE voiced by SolarKismet and others is not only justified but also critical. I, too, think this is a very interesting and, probably, good business model for widespread distribution of solar panels on individual homes. It's also not new...I first heard about it a couple years ago from BP Solar. I don't know what ever happened to the idea as I have not heard anything else since. BP Solar has several advantages over CitizenRE in that they have a plant (in Frederik, MD) and experience selling, installing, and maintaining photovoltaic systems in industrial, commercial, and residential applications. I think it would be very revealing of the viability of the CitizenRE approach to know what came of the similar BP Solar idea.

The main reason I think that skepticism and questioning of CitizenRE is important is due to history. After the last energy crisis solar thermal systems spread like wildfire across the country. The problem is that there was very little history and regulation in place to ensure that consumers were getting a good system. The products themselves were sometimes of questionable quality and often produced by companies that soon disappeared leaving customers with no support. Even worse, installers cropped up like roofers after a hail storm. There was no way to ensure that they had the experience to properly install the systems or would be around to maintain systems and support customers.

All this lead to installations that did not meet the needs of the customers, failed to work properly, or worse. My parents installed a solar thermal system on their newly built house in the late 80's. It really didn't make sense for them to do it but the promises of the, later to be recognized as shady, sales people made it appear to be a wise decision. Their heating costs were, and continue to be, very, very low (admittedly there was an element of hedging against that not continuing). The only good use of the solar thermal heat in the house was to heat water which is too small of a portion of the household energy use to justify the expense. Besides that, the system never worked up to the promised levels of efficiency. The forced air output was often colder than the room temperature. It has now been removed from the roof and sits in the junk pile out back.

If we are to avoid a replay of this we must be sure that the questions being raised are answered and that the answers give a good level of confidence that customers will be provided with an appropriate system for their long-term needs. The damage done to the public image of solar systems by the last round of widespread installations is only just fading. Can we afford another hit by poorly installed, poorly built, oversold, inappropriate system? I doubt it.

Factory not in Tx 2

nobody — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:27:39 -0600

Sorry about the improper formatting, the previous message was NOT posted by Rob, I copied the text from the Ecopreneur page.

nobody

Factory not in TX

nobody — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 14:24:51 -0600

From a thread on the internal www site:

P.S. Our plant is not in Texas......

Rob

CitizenRe Comments

nobody — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 18:39:25 -0600

I just became an Ecopreneur for CitizenRe. After going through their tutorials and talking to some of its associates, it seems to me that this is real. According to some, they are using new designs and methods from top people in order to cut production cost in half.

Having said that, I wouldn't trust it until we see the results playing out. As an Ecopreneur, you don't commit to any type of contract or anything. You can also choose to wait until September 2007 to see if, in fact, this is real. So far, over 5,000 homes across the nation have signed up to get the solar systems once they come in. As for the production facility, I believe it is a $415 million facility in Texas (don't trust me on that).

Keep an open eye, but don't discount it as not true. We are long overdue for this kind of business model to come forth.

Citzenre Factory-WHERE IS IT?

nobody — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:50:35 -0600

It is so easy to say something cliche like "join the solution and stop being part of the problem". If we didn't care about the solution, we wouldn't have investigated solar options and eventually read about Citizenre, now would we?

It is a VERY legitimate question to ask:Where is the factory?
Are there material vendors? Does Citizenre have real contracts with these vendors? Are there contractors trained and in line to install these products? Who are they?

I looked up information on Mr. Styler and he is a marketer par excellance (remember Equinox?). There is nothing wrong with being a marketer, however, I am surely going to check out someone I would consider doing business for/with. Perhaps, I haven't been on the cover of INC magazine for my salesmanship, but I am known to be honest and I would prefer to pitch something that is concrete rather than an if/come venture.
Yes, we are long overdue for something of this nature. I believe that this business model in some form, is coming.

At first blush, I was excited, but after some thought, these questions keep popping up and there is NO REAL INFORMATION or answer, especially from the Citizenre people.
Just a thought.

Citizenre Spam

nobody — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:11:18 -0600

Citizenre spam is all over the internet promoting how individuals can make thousands of millionaires

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/News/012007/solar-power-business.htm

and "free solar system" ads. They clearly have no control over their MLM minions. They must be accumulating a lot of complaints at the Federal Trade Commission. It would be interesting to place a FOIA request to get any complaints against Citizenre

CitizenRe is real!

nobody — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:34:08 -0600

Join in the solution and stop being part of the problem! I have investigated this company since its inception. I have spoken to it's principals and have evaluated the technical side of this company. I have 28 years of electrical engineering background and give a "GREEN" light to sign up for this "GREEN" energy alternative!
Go to:
www.jointhesolution.com/yorkville
and read all the data and facts - make your own educated decision to sign up for SOLAR!!

How Tepid of him!

christopher — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:08:51 -0600

Reducing energy intensity is a nice way of saying, don't stop business as usual technological development. Energy intensity and water intensity has been going down naturally along those lines naturally for decades.

Non-petroleum based transportation reductions? Awesome! We need to switch our oil importation with natural gas importation.

Given the gravity of the looming energy situation, I think the past 6 years will be known as the do-minimum President and do-nothing Congress. I hope this new Congress changes that.

Straight up pyramid scheme and lie.

nobody — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:04:22 -0600

There's no factory, there's no silicon contract for a factory, there's no investors that have been contacted about a factory, and there's no one in the company capable of operating a factory. The contract is full of holes and outs for them.

There's no installers backing them up, and no one who's ever turned a wrench on a panel has signed up. The address leads to a storefront in Delaware, and the blogs posted about them are 99% false grassroots.

(In fact, I have my suspicions about this one - the "at first I was skeptical, but let's talk about it and boost the Google rank" schtick is an old one.)

It's a fancy website over top of a Ponzi scheme. Try talking to someone there and see how quick they ask for some of your friend's email addresses. Or, for another laugh, write them and ask where the factory is. The worst part is if they've suckered some state economic development department to back them.

The Solution

solarkismet — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:52:56 -0600

Mr. Styler also responded on Renewable Energy Now’s blog…He has an active RSS feed and time to burn I guess…

I don't doubt the business model. I think it has everything a consumer could want - no risk, economic sense, etc. Like I mentioned above, it's happening in the commercial, i.e. large, markets. It's not a matter of "if" but "when". But either we have the next Google on our solar hands (believe me, prove me wrong), or the entire solar industry has been grossly overlooking something.

In fact, the entire energy industry would be wrong. Why aren't heat pumps, wind turbines, and even regular old furnaces managed this way? The answer: capital. If they get 10,000 people to do this at 3 kilowatts each, they need at least $150,000,000 to set-up systems on people's houses. Add in a 500 MW manufacturing plant, worth another few hundred million...They must have the Google Foundation as one of their funders...