Maybe it’s where I live, but we do get an awful lot of door to door sales (as well as illicit cold phone calls). Reading this article in the Times spurred me to write here. As in the Times article, I have had Talk Talk around trying to get me to sign up wit them, but I find Southern Electric a much worse culprit.
Only this weekend a man with braces (on his teeth) came knocking on my door. He started by telling me that I was paying too much for my electricity and that Southern Electric ’supply’ the power to my home (which I know is not true, it’s EDF who maintain the infrastructure around here), which means that they can give me cheaper electricity. Apparently he had a ’special’ deal for people in the area. I told him I wasn’t interested, not wanting to enter into discussion. He then persisted to ask me if he could have a look at my meter. ‘No!’ I told him, ‘Why not? We own it!’, he said. This is a blatant lie, it was British gas who came to fit a new meter recently, and it clearly states on it ‘Property of Capital Meters Ltd’. And even Capital Meters couldn’t just turn up on my doorstep to look at the meter. So I told him that he couldn’t come in whether he owned it or not, and sent him on his way.
In the past Southern Electric have used other tactics, like telling me nothing will change when I switch providers (yes it will, my money will go to someone else, and probably in different quantities), and that I should compare prices after I have signed up with them (before would be more sensible). What concerns me is that a more vulnerable person could be trampled all over by salespeople like this. My advice: Never sign up to anything from cold caller, tell them you’re not interested. If you want a better deal, do the comparisons in your own time.
look poeple all these sales reps who dont know how to sell end up geting into stupid arguments with customers which is realy wasting they time, the customer jus needs to say they are vary happy with they current arangements and they would be left alone, in sales as a rule you take three no’s before you move on, now if you think a sales rep is lieing to you, you can phone they company up wit they badge number and comfirm the truth, if you hav been miss qouted you should of seen the price and compare them with your triff, if you are too stupid to be able to do this then dont complain about door to door sales poeple they are making a living just like you do, dont listen to all these poeple who tell you to ignor sales poeple they dont pay your bills, so everybody talk for your self, remember if a company is more expensive they wont talk much about the unit prices, remember any company who is not local to would give a better deal then your local one, and all this crap about british company is rubbish the british owners would not give you any profits they make and being british does not make them cheeper or better all the companies invest and run oprations from the uk.
Hey,
I work for Southern in the “door to door” sales team.
This individual should not be aloud to represent the company, at all.
He is going against everything we were taught before knocking in an intense training course, and if reported Southern will have absolutely NO hesitation to say goodbye to him, remove his energy sure license and make sure he will never be selling gas and electricity for any company again.
I’m sorry you’ve had a bad experience, but with the new regulations you can feel alot more trust in the industry not lying to you.
Love how the Southern chap cant even spell allowed
Oh yes, like your bad grammar starting a sentence with ‘Love’ ? I’m a District Sales Manager too, please don’t tar us all with the same brush either. The majority of people we respectfully engage with on the door are pleasant and willing to discuss their energy requirements, however there is a small minority of people who spend too much time indoors watching Watchdog, reading the Daily Mail and playing round on price comparison sites who seem to think they know everything about the domestic energy market! I find such specimens of society amusing and they brighten up my day at least! Isn’t it funny how people shop around for cheaper car insurance? cheaper flights? cheaper petrol etc etc, but when a polite and courteous person comes to your door offering to see if they can save you money on your energy bills, why is it they are treated by the weak minded with such disdain? To be honest, i couldn’t care less, the people who grumble are in such a minutia of a minority of self-important whiners. So there you go.