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.
I just had a rep at the door. He asked me who supplied my electricity (which started alarm bells ringing) then said that E.on buy the electricity from Southern Electric and sell it to me. I could cut out the middleman and buy direct cheaper. It didn’t sound right so I told him I wouldn’t sign anything on-the-spot. He asked if he could show me a comparison to show how much I could save. I said yes and he marched into the hallway. I then said I was busy and had changed my mind – I showed him out!
We just had one of those guys come to the door five minutes ago. I had to immediately look online to see if anyone else had heard of these guys.
As said above, this guy told us that we already get our electricity from them. It sounded like a scam, so we turned him away. Checking on here, I can see I was right!
Hi,
I am a long standing Southern Electric emplyee, i am one of the Area Sales Managers, and i can, without hesitation tell you that in 99.9% of cases, we are guarenteed to be cheaper than your current supplier. Not only that, we have the best customer service record in the UK without a doubt (independant audit), and being the ONLY TRUELY BRITISH ENERGY SUPPLIER left in the market, we have allot more to offer the customer than just saveings.
ALL of us are trained to use an OFGEM (office of gas and electric markets) and ENERGYSURE approved script, we are all asked to pass an energysure test before we are allowed to knock on doors, after which, a newstarter will be mentored for no less than 3 days with an experienced rep to ensure he knows how to conduct himself professionally and work bills and tarrifs out properly.
I am a realist, there are a few unethical reps out there, but we weed them out very quickly with zero tolerance on por ethics.
Those of you who have a tainted view on door to door sales people or don’t like them calling, are too ignorant to realise that we are there to help you, and at the end of the day, knowledge is power, and even if you don’t sign up, give us the time of day and we are guarenteed to inform you of at least one thing that could aid you.
Lastly, under new laws, if any of our agents call on you, check their credentials by ringing the number on their badge, make sure they give you a WRITTEN estimation and make sure you know what prices you are being quoted.
We arent all criminals, and i have never had personal complaints ans have less than 2% cancellations to business written. Give us the time of day, but be sure our agents are legitimate.
re Billy:
i work in winback for eon and im not saying our reps are saints but your field sales reps are the worst!
customers up and down the country being told that you supply the electricity to us and we sell it on to the customers!!! come off it!
they pressure alot of old people into signing up to southern as they claim to have benefits for the older generation. not true!
also for being only british company left… we were told they are french and american owned.
I don’t comment on SPG as a rule, Billy, but I have to say that considering you’re an Area Sales Manager your spelling is appalling. Did you not think about at least proofreading that? The sad thing is I want to believe you. Only just this afternoon I’ve had an encounter with another of your sales people with whom I’m afraid I was rather short. I didn’t even give him the chance to get into his patter; I just asked him to leave, to not waste my time and to close the gate behind him.
My wife told me I was a bit rude to him, and she was probably right, but the fact is that in the past we’ve experienced extremely underhand sales tactics at the hands of Southern Electric. He may, as she said, have only been doing his job (and I daresay they said the same thing at Nuremberg) but the ‘job’ as I’ve experienced it is to acquire customers by means of manipulation, deception, intimidation and in some cases borderline blackmail. The wealth of online complaints about S.E. at the expense of all other suppliers cannot be a coincidence, and I’m afraid that I’ve had too many encounters with unscrupulous salesmen to believe your claims of “zero tolerance on por ethics”.
I realise that you are simply representing your company, but the passive-aggressive stance in that post – as well as the aforementioned spelling – only reinforces my already low opinion of your company. Your sales team need to learn that no means no – and if their militant tactics are the result of some sort of insane commission-based pressure from on high (as I suspect it might be) then there is something very wrong within the Southern Electric infrastructure. Your rates may be low, and you may indeed have something genuine to offer, but that’s no excuse for poor manners. I should know: I’m wallowing in shame at my own.
Well I was visited by a guy from Southern Electric, the prices seemed good. I told him to come back tomorrow after I had spoken to my partner, we decided to change to them but he never came back !
My father had a gas leak over the weekend and a chap turned up at his door saying the neighbours had complained about it. He asked if he was the engineer and he was told he was much, much higher than that: he was the district manager. The chap then gained my father’s trust, until he started saying that British Gas doesn’t exist and that it’s actually Centrica based in India. Then came the spiel about Southern Electric being the cheapest. I find it disgusting that they have to resort to these tactics to prey on the elderly. For 10 mins he made out he was a manager for British Gas! (This was in the Derbyshire area and trading standards have been informed so please be vigilant)
Help is at hand people. There is a company who can put a stop to these annoying door to door reps. Find them on facebook ‘the Electric Stig’
or just click my name
I am a new employee of SSE and seriously without any doubt this is a best company to work with. I just make some comparisons and signs up the customers.
billy says that southern are 99.9% cheeper than your current supplier, this is rubbish. It will depend on how much you use, how you pay, where you are in the country. for example southern are not the cheepest for the avg consumer as set by ofgem in the Manweb area paying by DD with df, southern would be 3.1% more expensiv than edf and also e-on and british gas are bith cheeper to. Southern are awfull misssellers
I get sales reps from southern electric come around periodically… They always come during the day when most people would be working and are usually quite surprised to see me (late 20s, male) answer the door. It’s clear that they are hoping to catch vulnerable pensioners and the like.
They also tend to be rather persistent, ringing the bell multiple times or banging on the door very loudly.
I work from home most of the time, so i’m usually around when they (and other similar people) call…
I really do not appreciate being disturbed by anything that demands my immediate attention (telephone calls, callers at the door) and they always try to pressure you into signing up for something on the spot. It’s my experience that if someone is trying to pressure you into signing up on the spot, they usually aren’t offering a very good deal or they would be perfectly happy to let you think it over and do your own comparisons.
If i want to change my electricity (or anything else) supplier i will do the shopping around myself. I will not buy anything where i’m put on the spot, and really don’t appreciate anyone demanding i drop what i’m doing to listen to their sales patter.
there are so many scams running on the internete so watch out.’`
I totally agree with Bert (30/06/10) I really do not care if the bills work out cheaper with Southern Electricity when I have come home from working nights fallen asleep on the sofa and some silly fast talking salesman knocks on my front door offering advice about something I had not requested
advice about.
RE: Billy
Is this man dillusional?????? I have been doorstep selling since it started working for southern electric in the days when they made the sales reps dress like meter readers and learn a script word perfectly before they went on the door..the same script i believe they use now..it goes something like “it appears you qualify for reductions on your gas and electric but haven’t yet applied for them, any reason you wouldn’t want the reductions at all?”.
Southern are the worst door knockers in the industry mainly due to there crap commision and hard sell tactics..yes usually they have a price message however it does’nt always beat everyone. my tip is avoid like the plague..unless you live in the north east as my company is cheaper so sign up and i’ll save you money later lol
I am a southern electric doorstep salesman. I have held this position for just over a month. I get a real buzz from saving elderly people money when they have been mis-sold gas & electric by other suppliers.I get sick of people treating me like the scum of the earth, when all i’m trying to do is pay the bills & the mortgage. If I dont make 15 sales in a week, I don’t get any comission at all, If I don’t make 20 sales a week, I may lose my job. Is it any wonder that southern, if not all energy salesmen, use underhand tactics to make comission when they are under that kind of pressure to perform. Ultimately, if there is anyone to blame for pressure sales, it’s the management of the sales team, who are answerable to the board of directors. In a fairer system, we would get comission on all sales that we make, not just those above the threshold. But the board of directors want us to sign up a certain number of customers every week. And so we have the situation as it is. An almost unbearable job with unsociable hours & a sales force driven by the neccessity to hit targets based on the greed of their masters. Personally, I can’t wait to get out of this business.
How many field sales people do EON employ
What are your kpi’s ? The chap before said 20 sales and you will loose your job so what are you bechmarked / targetted to do ?
What is the norm sales conversion rates
Exactly the same happened to me. The salesperson spouted blatant untruths about my metre being faulty in exactly the same was as the poster explained. So Mr Southern Electric Representative – your company is obviously training your salesman to deceive people in a systematic way. I feel sorry for these poor salespeople forced to lie to earn a crust – I was annoyed at being lied to and expressed this to the person but it’s the management who should be ashamed. I will never use Southern Electric as these underhand tactic must be endemic in all areas of the company. I judge companies on the first contact if they can’t be bothered to be honest at the outset why should I believe they will be after this.
My wife was confronted by Mr Southern Electric Bullying Representative today, he was sent off with a flea in his ear. My wife however was somewhat disturbed by his attitude and tactics he was using. So to all you guys who represent Southern Electric, and particularly you Billy, people like us are not ignorant, we just don’t like trumped up little bullies telling us we have to buy from you when we don’t want to. Also to suggest you have good customer service leaves me stunned, using aggresion to get business isn’t customer friendly now is it? You WON’T ever supply anything to this property my friend.
do you think the salesman really cares if they dont sale to you. theres always someone down the road that wants to save some money… now if i had a polite caller come to my door and he was actually telling me the truth and that he could actually save me some money and prove it … i wouldnt say no ???? and i dont think its right everybody treating them like scum because everyone isnt perfect!!!
i live in the Tamworth area and 2 weeks ago a southern electric sales man called R.Turner cold called me , all the previous shpeel that has been mentioned about saving me money, my outstanding amounts would be transfered to southern and i would be paying via direct debit, this is a complete lie, i did verify this mans identity, and it was correct, however, if this idiot is giving wrong information…or should he just be called a LIER…when the potential customer has found out he’d lied, he forefits his commission or whatever he earns.
2 years ago i changed back to Southern Electric Oh boy have i been screwed over we foolishly also changed our telephone provider from BT to SElectric Talk what a sham Talk speil well i leave that to your imajination for years i had a phone no problems three weeks into the new supplier my phone calls are restricted why “I HAD REACHED MY LIMIT”
was never ever told that there was a limit!!!!!!!!!!! the up shop no phone
££s in debt cant call Doctor or indeed anybody but am assured i can call 999???????? cant get away from Southern as through them and dispicable sales am in ££££s debt this has never happened to me before
I am over seventy still got my marbles but must have had a senior moment when Sothern appeared in my life and as for customer services with any complaint forget it NO HELP NO SUPPORT I make no apologies for any bad spelling!!
Moral of the story read everthing ignore Tele sales ignore Cold calling if there company is reputable and truthfull they would not need either
I have learned a bitter lesson
Good Luck to you all
The bottom line is that OFGEM have now put new measures in place to prevent misleading and “untruths” within the direct sales market. I have had to re-train all my team members and get them geared up for it. Now lets talk figures….My team of 11 has a complaints to sales ratio of less than 0.9%. We sell to on average 3-5 people a person, a day. In my region, IF ANY AGENT COMES ACCROSS AN OVER 60yr OLD CUSTOMER, THEY MUST GET PERMISSION TO SIGN THEM UP FROM A MANAGER FIRST, AND I NEED TO SPEAK TO THE ELDERLY PERSON FIRST TO MAKE SURE THEY KNOW THEY ARE CHANGING AND ARE HAPPY TO DO SO.
Listen guys,i know the few have made it bad for the many, and my industry is shaded in negativity, however…not all of us are conmen and fast talking-out for a buck- cowboys…this is a career, and i challenge anyone to encounter myself or one of my team members in Bedfordshire and have something to complain about. Bottom line, ofgem is making life allot better for the consumer and more difficult for us, which i am all for…all im saying is, protect yourself, be aware of who your talking to, and do some research before you change.
Oh and REVEREND61: Get knotted, before you take the piss out of someone for their grammer, spelling or general “english”… ask the right questions, im South African, and English isn’t my first language… but atleast i have the brain capacity to have the ability to speak more than one language. And if you “proof read” the last line of your second paragraph, you’ll seethat you also made a mistake. So lets grow up, stop getting personal and discuss the matter at hand…this is a debate, not a reason to get at eachother.
I can’t believe so many people on here are so scared of having someone at their door that they come on here and seem to cry away their problems…I dont think i have ever seen so many depressive adults. I think Billy has the right idea, there is too much legislation out there for anyone to truly be affected by any kind of door-to-door sales. Yes there are bad people out there but is it really worth crying about? I mean, come on, ive had so many people at my door before. if Im interested I listen, if not I tell them where to stick it, simple. Who cares about all the crap that’s said inbetween, at the end of the day everyone ive spoken to has been completely transparent about the facts, because at the end of the day they’re black and white. If they show that their gas and electric is cheaper on paper then it clearly will be? And another thing, if anyone’s smart enough to do some research they will know that no one company actually ‘supplies’ gas and electricity, its all done through national grid, even distribution networks such as EDF’s don’t supply, they just ensure the networks maintained, whether you’re with them or not, its a legal obligation. I’ve had EDF at my door before telling me they supply my electric, I said no you dont, you own the distribution network, what do you charge? Whats the bottom line? He couldnt beat my current price and he knew it so he left it, wow. Big deal. If, by chance he could, i would of saved money, happy days.
So in conclusion maybe the problem isn’t the people at your door but yourself for not doing enough research into your own utilities and not even knowing where you stand. At the end of the day, if you knew what was going on with your utilities, car insurance or banking then it would infact be impossible to be miss-sold to.
- Oh, and P.S, how bitchy is it to completely ignore the topic at hand and pick out grammar and spelling errors. I’m 22 and clearly more mature and have more knowledge in general household things than some of you on here. Grow up and actually use your brains? Peace.
We were conned by someone representing Southern Electric a couple of years ago. We said we didnt want to swap and then he proceeded to tell us that we would get a load of benefits with other companies for switching. Our gas meter was in the livig room and he told us southern electric only charge £40 plus VAT to move it outside so, as British gas were charging £350 plus vat, swapped to southern electric, on this footing only. After a few weeks we contacted southern electric to ask about someone coming to move the meter, only to be quoted £400 plus vat!!!!! CON ARTISTS!!!! Bad company to deal with!!!!
If I am living in London in the London Electricy Board region, spend £900 on electric and £500 on gas per year, paying monthly DD to British Gas for both fuels, how much can save by switching to Southern electric?
If the savings exceed £100 then it is worth while but if the saving are going to be £6.66 it is not worth while. So what can I can I save?
Unfortunately people like Bert above, don’t seem to care about the old or those that are easily conned.
I’ve just had someone from EDF at my door lie to me and tell me that EON and EDF are the same company, saying they used to be powergen. I know this is a lie, but I live in a village where there are a lot of elderly people who may fall for this.
I have fallen foul of Southern door step callers and i really thought iwas getting a good deal being told that £40 per month would cover my G/E bill i must say that i thought that odd but was assured that at as my husband and i where over seventy it was OAP rates so of course we went for it like lambs to slaughter and bloody slaughtered we were and of course got into debt nearly causing me a breakdown with worry we now pay £40 per month for Gas and £85 for electic per month to pay of the arrears equals a whopping £125 per month Southern has not given us an apologie “it just the way it is”we cannot change suppliers because we owe them!!!! not my fault BILLY disgracefull “got to make a sale” tactics” Customer services S–T!!!! what makes it more of a kick in the guts we have worked all our lives never ever received a penny and indeed never asked for help and make our pension which we earned work for us so BILLY and the other idiot that cant spell enjoy your Sunday roast and bottle of wine and please spare a thought for us who often sit down to a dinner of soup and spuds so get your sales persons re trained and be honest and dont work on the vunerable!!!!!
I book appointments door to door for a home improvement company. I took the job because I was desperate, but it’s surprisingly enjoyable. People are generally polite and are either interested or not, I don’t push anyone that says no, I also get offered lots of cups of tea! It’s quite interesting to have a cup of tea and a chat with a complete stranger now and then.
Well I’v been working for SSE for 3month now and really its a mixed bag, to be honist there are people who will answer the door spewing hate and vile in evry direction but then again there will be people who answer the door happily invite you in for a cup of tea and listen to what you have to say.
Now in the time I’v worked here I’v not told a lie to any coustomer and I’m very proud of this because at the end of the there is nothing better then being able to save sombody a new exrta quid, and I meen why on earth not?
It should also become clear that only people with very high opinions on both the pro and con of this debat would ever post on this wall, simply because thats the very nature of the internet and the middle ground is never well reprsented.
But really in summary there are bad sales people SSE will have them so will ever sales company ever made I meen come on lets be resonable here. But theres no reson to group us all together when a lot of us really do this job because as I said before its a good fealing to help people.
Oh also Ann, I dont belive a word if it. Sort of sounds a little bit em well melodramatic to say the least. I meen come on -enjoy there sunday roasts and bottles of wine whilst you have soup and spuds. Right well I think you have some masive misunderstandings about our pay packet for one thing.
I love how Mr. Jones does not use proper punctuation.
I work for a energy company. Have you people got nothing better to do than rant on about how bad the company is! Every company have salesman who all work for one thing! COMMISION! Get over it! If you was as clever as you thought you all are you would get the unit rates and work out the difference for yourself! For people who think they know so much about which energy company own what and which company does which you arnt clued up enough to work things out for yourself! …..Solve the problem for yourself Learn unit rates …give the salesman some respect see what they have to say and what there unit rates are and save yourself some money! If they cant save you money say thanks anyway but no!…..At the end of the day the people who answer the door slam it on your face and tell you they know it all are the ones who will pay over the odds and if you ask me due to there horrible attiutude they deserve too!
SSE AM BASTARDS I LEFT THEM AFTER THEY STARTED TELLING ME TO FIDDLE WITH THE FIGURES!!!!
SSE am the worst!they lie too much!!!!i worked there and there scamming thieves!!
SSE have the most retards working for them, A Retarded looking chap named Liam Graham approached my house in Tamworth sayin i wasnt ‘claiming my full reductions’ he looked a such retard i sent him packing!!! SSE AND OTHER DOOR STEP SALES SHOULD BE BANNED!!!!!!
You lot are a bunch of moaning, self rightious, narrow minded bunch of twats i have ever has the displeasure of listening to. I agree whole heartedly with Dean, if you f**kers are to dormant to know which company belongs to which, who is German who is French, who is British and more importanly who is cheaper than who, then you deserve to be taken for a ride….soup and spuds my big fat one you ignorant fool, i make more money selling door to door and managing my team than quantity surveyors, and guess what, shock horror…i do it honestly, because we have a good product! and good prices!
ANN- if you think that £40-00 i enough to keep your house heated and lit, give me what ever you are smoking you f**kwhit…OAP’s in a 1 bedroom bungalow dont even pay that little these days…your and idiot.
The next time someone calles unannounced and uninvited, ak for a copy of their company’s unit rates, what percentage off for direct debit, paperless billing ect and make an appointment for him/her to come back another day so that you can do some maths, hop on the internet and do a comparison, and make an informed descision…instead of being the typical LAZY, ignorant uninformed joe public that you are happy to be, and get it sorted, try playing them at their own game.
Door sales BANNED Mr. Collins… can you spell multi billion pound industry, get real.
I worked for the birkenhead branch,scamming thieves,Shut the door 2 door buisness!!!!!
To Billy
I had a Southern Electric salemans call on me earlier in the week and funny enough I asked all the right questions that you had indicated and I then asked him to call back when I had managed to check all the details out. He was not a happy man and twice asked if he could come in and go though all the details of the contract and when I firmly said no he left in a huff muttering under his breath. This is the sign of an ignorant man, the people who have raised issues on this chat page are definitely not a ‘bunch of moaning, self rightious, narrow minded bunch of twats’ but are decent ordinary people airing their views and do not need to resort to insults and bad language as used by yourself.
yeh yeh ,we tell them any old shite,2 customers a day is 1300.00 per week…all our team mis -sell sse employee
I used to sell gas and electric in the 90′s, and earned good money from it.
I signed all my family and friends up as it was a much better tariff than what British Gas were offering.
Best thing is that everyone who signed up with me will have saved money, the clever dicks that slammed the door in my face will be over a thousand pounds worse off by now. result!
i remember signing up a 102 year old women,she was tapped,the oloe for sse put it through even though she didnt know what day it was,scamming dirty cunts thats what sse are,i left after to much pressure shut the sse down!!!
I’m with EDF but I keep getting cards through my door from Southern Electricity saying they came round to read the meter and I need to phone them within 24 hours (on a mobile number written on the card) to avoid getting an estimated bill. Suspect it’s a scam to get me to switch suppliers rather than a genuine mistake, anyone else experienced this?
I WORKED FOR SSE!!!LYING CUNTS!!!MY ASM WANTED ME TO FIDDLE WITH FIGURES!!HAVING WORKED THERE FROM WHAT I BECAME FAMILIAR WITH I HAD FOUND OUT EON AND NPOWER AM THE CHEAPEST!!!!THEY USUALLY IN MANY CASES IE IF UR GAS ELECTRIC IS £500.00 YEAR IT WOULD BE £291.00. ELECTRIC AND £321.00 GAS.SSE AM ONLY CHEAPER IF £400.00 A YEAR GAS AND ELECTRIC COMBINED.£161.00 FOR EACH!!!PLEASE DO NOT BE FOOLED!!!
I have worked for Southern Electric for almost a year now and it has been a rollercoaster. I have met some great people and work colleagues and some really horrible people and work colleagues! I do my job honestly and admit i am definitely not the greatest, but feel good about myself when i can save someone( whether it be an old dear or a young person struggling) I have helped people out, even though i haven’t pushed them to sign up for us and it’s actually felt just as good. I do admit i am not a big fan of the job anymore as there are too many sales people out there that would sign their granny up, even if they are not even making her a saving, just for their commission or bonus, which is horrible! Please give us honest ones a chance!!