Phone number mix-up gives utility customers steamy offer

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Posted 7:46AM on Wednesday, March 27, 2002

PITTSBURGH - A utility company that offers its customers clean energy inadvertently referred Pennsylvania callers to a risque phone number. In letters sent to Green Mountain Energy Co.'s 93,000 local customers, the company misprinted its toll-free number, sending 200 people to a phone-sex service where a husky-voiced woman offered "wild, one-on-one-adventures." "The worst-case scenario occurred," said John Holtz, spokesman for the Austin, Texas-based utility. Customers won't see their phone bills increase along with their electricity bills. The phone-sex line is a directory to other toll phone numbers. Company officials are unsure how the mix-up happened. The letter was proofread and approved by company officials with the correct number, Holtz said. But when a printing company ran off the letters, the phone number was off by one digit. "There's nothing sinister behind it. We believe it was a simple mistake," Holtz said. Some Pennsylvania customers who called the sex service laughed it off, while others called the company or the state's Office of Consumer Advocate. As of Tuesday, no Green Mountain customer has threatened to switch companies because of the phone number mix-up, officials said. Green Mountain is negotiating to buy the phone number from Tulsa, Okla.-based Primetel Communications to avoid future problems from another misprinted phone number or customers' errant dialing. Meanwhile, the company has sent customers letters with the correct number and an apology. Green Mountain has about 500,000 customers in seven states with deregulated utilities markets -- California, Connecticut, Ohio, Oregon, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas. ------ On the Net: Green Mountain: http://www.greenmountain.com