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| Posted: 01 Sep 2010 09:01 AM PDT Home > The Ticker > Archives > 2010 > September > 01 > Entry The state comptroller's office will hold a second appliance rebate program to divvy out $10 million in funds that remain unclaimed, despite a chaotic launch earlier this year in which thousands of Texans overwhelmed a website and phone bank. Meanwhile, the Minnesota company hired to run the $23 million program for energy-efficient appliances will be paid only a fraction of its original contract, after state officials said it bungled the rollout. Helgeson Enterprises Inc., a rebate fulfillment company, will receive $250,000 of the $876,000 contract, said Allen Spelce, a comptroller's office spokesman. "It was pretty obvious that they dropped the ball on April 7," he said. When the rebate program launched on that date, thousands of Texans could not get through to phone banks or a website set up to handle requests. Nearly 78 percent of the calls were dropped. A Helgeson spokesman did not immediately return phone calls for comment Wednesday morning. Prior to Texas, Helgeson had similar problems running appliance rebate programs in Minnesota and Iowa, where high demand crashed websites and jammed phones. Comptroller's officials have said they tried to take steps in an effort to head off a repeat in Texas. Before the launch, Helgeson assured state officials that the website could handle 25,000 people at one time — and sent load test results to prove it, Spelce said. Excess users would be redirected to an additional website, which would tell them to try again in a few minutes. But when the program launched, Helgeson's servers were quickly overwhelmed. Many of those Internet users then tried to call a phone bank, which in turn was also swamped. The website was taken down and brought back online later in the day, but it was only able to handle about 15,000 people, Spelce said. After the problems, the comptrollers office went to Helgeson and negotiated the lower payout. "They were agreeable to our demands," Spelce said. The long wait times and dropped calls led to frustrated Texans and angry lawmakers, some of whom derided the program's launch as "pathetic" and a "screw-up." In the end, about 28,500 people got reservations for energy-efficient appliances and another 27,500 were on a waiting list. Of that total, about 70 percent of people on the reservation list actually sent in applications along with 30 percent of the wait list, Spelce said. After those rebates were paid, there was about $10 million left over, he said. The second rebate program — which will be a mail-in program — will take place in December or possibly January, he said. A vendor has not yet be selected. More information on the new program will be available in the future at http://texaspowerfulsmart.org. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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