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Appliance buyback contractor folds

HOUGHTON – Houghton County residents who traded in old, energy-hogging appliances to an Efficiency United contractor might have experienced a few nasty surprises when buyback checks showed up in December.

Several checks from Jaco Environmental bounced, Efficiency United has reported, after the Wisconsin company went out of business.

Efficiency United is reimbursing those affected, senior manager Amanda Pawloski reported Monday. They’re also including gift cards to help make up for frustration and any potential fees.

“We’ve made contact, written new checks and given $25 Mastercard or Visa gift cards as well,” said Pawloski. “We’ve contacted all the people that have fallen into the bucket.”

Pawloski said any new checks would clear, though anyone with an uncashed Jaco check from December should call 517-999-2327 rather than risk a likely bounce.

“If it’s old, I would advise them to call me and we would reissue the check,” she said.

Efficiency United is a state program that uses funds from electric bills to promote energy efficiency. Its existence is currently threatened by at least one of the energy bills currently under consideration by the Michigan legislature.

Houghton Energy Efficiency Team Energy Manager Melissa Davis reported the issue in a recent HEET Facebook post. Davis said any affected local residents would likely have turned in their appliances at the HEET Energy Show at the Dee Stadium in October, when local residents turned in about 120 inefficient freezers, refrigerators and air conditioners.

Neither she nor Pawloski could say for sure whether any Houghton County residents had been among those issued bad checks, but Davis said she’d been contacted by Efficiency United about the situation and wanted to make sure anyone who was knew how to be reimbursed.

In the post, Davis said other area residents may have signed up for future Jaco appliance pickups at their homes, something they may now have to wait on indefinitely.

“We don’t have another contractor yet, and can’t pick them up at this point in time,” said Pawloski. “We’ve issued them gift cards as well.”

Pawloski said Efficiency United had already paid Jaco for the bad checks that were sent out, meaning the organization has actually paid twice for many of the old appliances.

Still, she said, the situation could have been worse. Efficiency United recognized and responded to the situation quickly and were able to contact most people who’d been issued bad Jaco checks before they tried to cash them.

“We got out in front of almost everybody,” she said. “There were very few who actually bounced checks.”

She wasn’t sure exactly how many, but said it wasn’t more than “a handful.”

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