FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A Port St. Lucie couple finally has a generator after a Jupiter company stepped in to help when Energized Electric stopped completing jobs.
After a year of waiting, Annette Speach was finally able to fill an empty space in her backyard.
"This is our new generator," Speach told Contact 5.
Contact 5 first met Speach in November.
"We didn't think we were ever going to see a generator," she said.
Speach and her husband spent about $10,000 with the Fort Pierce-based Energized Electric, according to the receipts they showed Contact 5, and they never received their generator after waiting a year for it.
"It got to the point where they weren't returning phone calls or contacting us in any way," Speach said.
Their story reached Stan Sarzynski with GenerX Generators in Jupiter.
"I actually saw the story on the news at home," Sarzynski told Contact 5.
He said it inspired him to finish out Speech's original contract, for no extra cost.
"We were looking to just, you know, get out in the community, help our neighbors out, and generators are obviously our passion," he said. "So, we wanted to see what we could do to help them."
Dozens of other Energized Electric customers have called Contact 5 since seeing Speech's story, saying they are in the same boat.
Margaret and Gary Cabral spoke with Contact 5 in late February. They showed Contact 5 their Energized Electric contract that they signed last February and their proof of payment. They also spent thousands of dollars with the company.
"I felt bad for that other couple because, 'Oh my God, somebody else is in the same boat as us,'" Margaret Cabral said.
Contact 5 has called and stopped by the Energized Electric office in Fort Pierce several times over the past few months. Nobody ever answered or called back.
In a statement to customers posted on the Better Business Bureau's website, Energized Electric said:
“Due to Covid, unforeseen circumstances, a sudden back out of an investor, Energized Electric has realized they must claim Chapter 11 to help Energized Electric have time to reorganize the company. We are continuing to install generators, tanks and completing jobs. We have the list of every customer, and we will continue to reach out to each customer as their name appears on the list and their installation date approaches and the tentative date becomes clear.”
The GENERATOR MAINTENANCE department is still operating smoothly. We are and will continue to service all our customers that have a generator maintenance plan with our 7 technicians we have in the field.
Again, we apologize for the delays and really appreciate your patience. Sincerely,
Energized Electric
According to St. Lucie County court records, there are currently four open lawsuits that have been filed against the company.
Energized Electric has also been stripped of its BBB accreditation, according to the BBB's website.
"Reach out to us," Sarzynski said. "We obviously can't help everybody in every situation, but we can absolutely do our best to explore what we can do to get your project completed."
Speach said she's pleased to finally have a generator.
"We know there's a lot of people out there that are still in that very terrible situation," Speach said.
