npower door to door salesman

thriftytracey

Just been visited by an npower door to door salesman (although he worked for a sales company on behalf of npower) They are offering a capped rate until October 2009:-

Gas 1.990p per KWh
Electric 12.99p

No standing charge and free boiler cover and £80 back the first year

We are currently with Scottish Power on a fixed price until September 2008

Gas 2.237 per KWh
Electric 7.554p
Standard charge is Gas 10.95p per day Electric 12.74p per day

We were looking to move to a capped/fixed rate due to the forecast 40% rises this coming winter (although are these being exaggerated by the press/utility companies???)

I checked moneysupermarket and the cheapest capped rate until October 2008 would cost another £223 per year.

I kept confirming the salesman's statements and got him to leave the tariff. I've signed up and got 14 days cooling off period.

The salesman said this deal was not available on the internet and only selected people in the Midlands were being approached.

I'm very suspicious about these door to door salesman.

I am going to call npower tomorrow to confirm everything.

Has anyone else been approached?

Should I be wary?

jd87

That is amazingly cheap, I think... What you are already paying seems to be less than what i'm paying at the minute, so what do I know!

Either way, you are doing the right thing, give them a call and check it out with them.

pixiesmum

thriftytracey... as a general NEVER sign up to anything on the door. Door to door sales men for npower get £7 per customer signed up on the door and will literally do anything to convince you. You should have taken his badge id number, rang npower and asked them about the prices offered etc before signing anything.

Although good prices are stated, dont be too surprised if these 'change' once you are signed up. You may also find that they will change you over to npower before the cooling off period is up, this can result in two bills, one from npower, and another from your current energy supplier.

I only give these warnings because i foolishly worked for a marketing company working on behalf of npower. Needless to say the signing up of customers was unethical and i left after my first week.

NEVER show a door to door energy representative your recent energy bill. Ever wondered what the numbers in the boxes were for on your bill? Well, they tell you many things, supplier, area, etc etc. These salesmen note these numbers down and can change your supplier without your signature. By the time you realise your supplier has changed, the rep has their 7 quid and you have 2 bills to deal with and proving to both companies that you never signed up on the door.

I really hope you have got lucky, but in future, please never sign up for anything on the door. If it sounds like its too good to be true, then it probably is!

sh172

I too had a visit yesterday from a npower salesman. After he said he could fix my energy prices, for 12 months, at less than what I'm paying now I signed up immediately.
Today I sat down with the npower tariff chart and worked out what I would be paying in comparison to what I am actually paying now on the Scottish power discounted on line energy tariff. The result, which took ages to work out with the different charges for the first so many kwh's being different for each company, was that for the period February 08 - April 08:
Scottish power £225 Gas + Electric
Npower £460 G + E.

Now I know that the Scottish power price isn't fixed but the other option with npower is more than double. It's a rip off.

Obviously I have cancelled the contract, as I am entitled to do within the first 14 days.

Plushchris

Are you sure its capped until October?

The only tariff I've heard of from Npower is the "one" tariff and thats FIXED (not capped) until the end of July.

Also, if its no standing charge there should be 2 unit rates for each fuel.

auntypog

I had the same visit. A quick look on an online comparison chart told me Npower's deal was way down the list, valuewise. (You can easily spot it because of the boiler deal.) She also told me I should sign up since Npower don't offer a capped rate online. Can't believe that. I never buy from doorsteppers.

thriftytracey

Thank you all for your comments and advice.

We have done a spreadsheet calculation based on a winter quarterly bill

Scottish power £282
Scottish power - if we moved to their fixed rate to 31 August 2009 - £352

npower first quarter (because of the dual rates as there is no standing charge) - £510
npower second quarter- £313

If you annualise that npower would cost £41 more than the Scottish Power fixed rate.

However, they offer one extra month, free boiler cover and some sort of £80 cashback (OH contacting npower to find out what this is)

Caught salesman on one dishonesty - I asked him if there were 2 unit rates due to their not being a standing charge and he said "No" - it was only later when we looked at the tariff we asked him to leave (and it was his only copy!!!) that we saw the two different charge rates.

monoxideuk

This sounds like the sales person is talking about the npower one tariff, which is avail to switch on the net, due to the 12 month boiler cover.

I would as most people have said be very warey of sigining up on the door, due to the way they earn there money, and plus they dont really work out your consumption and just gustimate it from a bill or two.

Hope this helps

Plushchris

thriftytracey wrote: »

However, they offer one extra month, free boiler cover and some sort of £80 cashback (OH contacting npower to find out what this is)

I would make sure they really do offer an extra month, as the One tariff is only until July 31st.

The "free boiler cover" is subject to conditions, I would imagine these conditions exclude almost everyone (although that may just be me being cynical)

And that £80, its not cashback as such, its your direct debit and duel fuel discounts, and you will only get it credited onto your account after 12 months of being with Npower,

A_fiend_for_life

Found this one online:

http://www.npower.com/At_home/Juice-clean_and_green.html

so the £80 looks like it might be more widely available than just the Midlands.

This bit sounds like the usual patter though:

'The salesman said this deal was not available on the internet and only selected people in the Midlands were being approached.'

Try this page and enter your post code and find out what product you've signed up for:

https://www.npower.com/at_home/savings_calculator/UnitPrices.aspx

depending how you get to the above page you get one of the following pages:

http://www.npower.com/At_home/Juice-clean_and_green/Prices_and_discounts.html
http://www.npower.com/web/At_home/electricity_and_gas/prices_and_discounts/index.htm

it looks like the quote for the 12.99 is for the reduced rate after 728 kWh. The gas prices are a reduced rate after 4572kWh.

Sounds like you've got a quote for the reduced rate after a certain amount of usage. The initial usage is quite a bit higher. Are these the only quotes they have given you??

You need to check against your usage which tariff works out best though.

I've searched the terms and conditions page and I cant find any additional info referring to the £80 discount.

Watch out for this though:

Get up to £80 discount guaranteed

Pretty meaningless I think and the asterisk on the 'Prices in your area' page is not qualified either (see right hand column):

'Pay for electricity and gas by monthly Direct Debit, and get a discount of £80 per year*'

The product should be stated on the signed document. Is the tariff quoted on the signed document?

scousemanblue

DONT EVER USE NPOWER WHEN THEY CALL ROUND YOUR HOUSE.

A few years ago we had them round and from the information looked a good deal. What they didnt tell us their standing charge was dearer than the supplier at the time.

We duly cancelled a day later. A neighbour wasnt so lucky. She got signed up without her knowledge !!

Of all the companies, only Npower are regulars at door to door. I know say I am not interested at least 3 times then close the door.