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Comparison shopping for home services goes online
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There is nothing new about websites that offer product comparisons between different models of products or manufacturers. Sites like www.bizrate.com, www.nextag.com and others have been around for quite a while. They typically offer ratings based on the number of consumers who’ve bought and used the product. Sometimes the rating comes with comments—a blog of sorts. Sometimes you just get a list of products that fit the category with pricing information reported by online distributors. There are hundreds of sites that offer information about products, served up with plenty of advertising and sometimes pop-up ads.
What’s new in online comparison shopping is www.whitefence.com, a site that compares essential home services including electricity, natural gas, phone, cable TV, Internet, insurance, warranties, credit cards, maid service, lawn car and another 20-30 categories including some of the major stores and brands usually seen at shopping websites. This site will not only present a list of service providers in your area, but if you want to see any two on the list compared side by side, just select the two you want to compare, and you are only a click away from a matchup.
The website not only enables consumers to compare available service provider offerings available at their home address, but also allows users to immediately complete some of their home service transactions through one easy-to-use online platform instead of touring a multitude of sites to accomplish the same thing.
If a service is usually considered essential, is going to have recurring monthly fees, and a limited number of service providers, it’s probably on this website. But don’t look for dry cleaning or laundry pickup, carpet cleaner or other service provider in industries with lots of providers. If you happen to live in the Miami area, don’t look for choices with electric and natural gas companies either.
Independent Energy Consultants, Inc. (IEC) is an independent energy service company that specializes in helping local municipalities to create and manage electric and natural gas. The IEC points out that deregulation of the electric and natural gas markets came on the heels of deregulation in the airline and telephone industries. Today, airfare and phone rates adjusted-for-inflation, are considerably less than they were in the 1980s and many new products and services exist. Eventually, the same thing will happen with electric and natural gas.
For now, if you live in South Florida, you are most likely served by Florida Power and Light because Florida is one of many states that has not deregulated electricity. FPL hookup also isn’t available through the Whitefence website. Consumers will still have to call FPL direct to establish, move or cancel service.
Even though natural gas has been deregulated for consumers in Florida, competition between service providers doesn’t really exist. City Gas Co. of Florida, A Division of NUI Corp., is the primary Natural Gas provider for the southeast coast of Florida. It is currently not available through this service. You can establish service with City Gas by contacting them at (305) 691-8710. If you happen to have a condo on the west coast of Florida your primary natural gas provider is Peoples Gas System, A Division of Tampa Electric. You can’t establish service with them through this website either.
Still, if you are looking to find or change some of your other recurring home services, or if you are moving your entire household to a new city or state, you might save yourself some time and check out all the options and prices at www.WhiteFence.com. They can provide quotes from moving companies just by filling out one online form. Ditto for insurance, banking, home security, credit cards, cell phone service and equipment, home phone service, and a bunch of other categories.
Even if the category you are seeking isn’t well populated with listings, keep your eye on this website. They are intent on adding content and have a lot in development, working out the kinks. I stopped by for a quick peak and found myself there for more than an hour. Among other things, I found I could get a BlackBerry 8703e from Verizon Wireless for free after an instant discount with a new Verizon Wireless account. People were standing in line at Best Buy for that same phone not too long ago when it was first introduced and retailing for $449. Who knows what you will find if you are a savvy comparison shopper.
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