Talk:Stream Energy

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I'm surprised there is nothing in discussion and nothing in the article mentioning the charges that Ignite is a pyramid scheme because the people who make the most money in the organization make most of their money through getting more reps to join the company.

The management of the company is notable for having managed the billion dollar telecom bust Excel Telecom, which ran a similar marketing scheme and was the target of many Attorneys General, the FCC, and lawsuits from it's salespeople.

Dallas's BBB notes Excel's scandals, but Stream Energy (unsurprisingly) is not a member of the BBB in its hometown of Dallas. I fear that this wiki was put up by the company itself and people trying to find out if it is a scam have a hard time finding out about the management of Ignite. I'm not too familiar with wikipedia, so I'd appreciate it if someone more familiar went ahead and helped hash out the site. I know there are a lot of people on the internet who are very antagonistic towards Ignite; perhaps one of you could provide an objective source. I don't want to just jump in and do what could be construed as vandalism due to my inexperience. Thanks. 70.112.87.232 08:36, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I agree I think this page needs much more objectivity.Thegiantpaperpanda (talk) 17:33, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

I disagree with the comment about a pyramid. Pyramids are illegal and do not offer a product or service. It is a MLM business. I have a home business with a MLM company and it has been working for me for about 7 months. I am looking for another company that doesn’t compete with my current company and am currently investigating Ignite (Stream Energy). In the research that I have done I am impressed with the compensation plan and the history of their growth. The problem with some folks is that they do not understand that when you work with a team you can get much more done than working alone. It is marketing products as a group instead of marketing alone. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.219.59.76 (talk) 20:11, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

OK, so since it is a MLM...multilevel marketing company....let's call it what it is. I've made the edits, and a number of other edits to the page to more accurately characterize the company for what it says it is. The profile still reads like someone from the PR department at the company wrote it. We should add the comments above about Excel and the fact that they are not a member of the BBB of Dallas. We have an obligation to inject these concerns into this profile that is really a free ad for the company that does not seem to cover both sides of the concerns. BTiddleybocker............... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.35.174.247 (talk) 17:45, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Stream is a member of the Better Business Bureau with an A+ rating. . I suggest reflecting this fact. Lauren (talk) 18:08, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

Generally, routine facts like this require solid, secondary sources explaining context before they can be included. If there is a reliable source which is independent of Stream Energy that explains why a BBB listing is significant to the company, then it can be considered, but it's otherwise giving undue attention to a fairly commonplace detail. Grayfell (talk) 19:43, 3 September 2015 (UTC)

References

Suggested Edits and Additions

I would like to discuss making some changes to this page – as stated in my user page, I am a company rep. As the page currently stands, I believe that undue weight is given to lawsuits, while valid information is missing from the page. Below are my suggested edits/additions, along with relevant third-party sources.

The company rebranded earlier this year and now goes by Stream, not Stream Energy - I suggest changing the page name to Stream. The logo is also different and I would like to see it updated (I have the file and can make the change once approved to do so). Suggested copy discussing the rebrand, under the multilevel marketing section:

Between 2014 and 2015 Stream Energy merged its separately branded multi-level marketing arm, Ignite, into the Stream brand. The rebrand from Stream Energy to Stream reflects the company’s diversification of services.

I suggest adding the paragraph below to the multilevel marketing section as the first paragraph:

Stream obtains customers through a network of independent consultants called Independent Associates who recruit customers. Stream uses a multilevel marketing, or direct selling model and is a member of the Direct Selling Association of America, a public relations and lobby organization that represents the interests of multilevel marketing companies is the United States.

As the page currently stands, it reads that Stream just offers energy, which is no longer the case. Suggested revised intro paragraph for the entry to reflect diversification of services:

Stream is an American direct selling company that provides life-essential services, including retail electricity and natural gas, mobile phone service, identity protection, tech support and credit monitoring services. Energy Services by Stream are available to residential and commercial customers in select states with deregulated energy markets. The company is headquartered within the Infomart building in Dallas.

Stream’s Energy Services were made available in Washington, D.C. in 2012, so I would like to see that added to the appropriate sentence in the “History” section:

The company has since expanded to other states, and also operates in Georgia (2008), Pennsylvania (2010), Maryland (2011), New Jersey (2011), New York (2012)[1] and Washington, D.C. (2012).

I would also like to see the following added to History, again to provide more accurate information about Stream’s various offerings and company milestones.

In 2013 Stream introduced its customer referral system, Free Energy. Stream customers receive free energy credits when their referrals enroll as Stream customers.

In 2014 Stream added Protective Services to its offerings, including identity protection, credit monitory and tech support.

In January 2015 Stream became a mobile virtual network operator and began offering Mobile Services nationwide.

I believe the suggested changes are fair and will better reflect the company's current offerings. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. Lauren (talk) 16:23, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

References

Before delving into the minutiae, please note that link #3 does not contain the full press release and therefore cannot be used as is to back up the statements you proposed. Secondly, there's too much ambiguity with the MLM vs direct selling aspect. The two terms are not synonymous and direct selling is an umbrella term of which MLM is only one minor component. So it would be advisable to use MLM to avoid ambiguity. Rhode Island Red (talk) 21:15, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict)There's a lot here, so I'll go over it bit-by-bit:

• The term Stream already has both an article, and a disambiguation page. It looks like there are at least three, and probably more, companies which use the name "Stream". Stream Global Services uses "stream.com" which suggests that Stream (company) would cause confusion and be too generic. Per Wikipedia:Article titles, I think the current title is a valid natural disambiguation. A parenthetical disambiguation is possible, but I can't think of one off-hand.
• Marketing Sherpa doesn't look like a reliable source, and is flimsier than the current, less than ideal source (although the link needs to be fixed). Any company that uses the name of an ethnic group to be cutesy loses a lot of credibility in my eyes, but ignoring that, they don't seem to have an established reputation for fact-checking and accuracy, per WP:RS. Can you find a better source? Saying that the branding now reflects a change in the business is non-neutral, rather, it is intended to reflect the change. How successful it is remains to be seen.
• "Life-essential"? No. Not a chance, that's a terrible buzzword unbecoming of an encyclopedia. Even suggesting that a phrase like that is appropriate suggests a misunderstanding of the function of Wikipedia. A sentence can be added suggesting that the company also offers other products and services, but it should never involve that kind of promotional language.
• "Protective services" is too vague or euphemistic. What other article could we link to to explain what that meant? It should just be referred to as that. A WP:SECONDARY source would also be nice.
• "Mobile virtual network operator" is also cryptic. The source says that Stream resells AT&T and Sprint mobile phone services. Why not just say that?

I hope that helps. Grayfell (talk) 21:54, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

Removal explanation

Grayfell: Opening this discussion based on your request on 1/28. I see the issue with my "built on the idea" wording. Trying to paraphrase that from the accompanying DS source tripped me up, and will defer to your judgement that it's outside the ideal encyclopedia style. How would I word that in a more appropriate manner to illustrate the company's use of "independent associates" at its onset?

As for the removal, I found that that section sways away from Stream Energy's specific use of MLM strategies. I'm not sure if this is the right policy to have in mind (Synth) was guiding my thinking in these revisions, as it starts to touch broadly on a general MLM sales associate's job. I also noticed that only the Georgia sign-up cost is mentioned. Looking at (sales catalogues) I couldn't find a justified reason to include the cost for just one of the states they're in. Looking through the sources, this reads like recruiting for Stream. Thanks, Kendrickhaveadream (talk) 23:35, 19 February 2018 (UTC)