Approved Company Representatives Poll

jimexbox

My view is simple enough. If you work for any company that is anyway related to you post, whether its posted in a personal capacity or not. You should inform the reader of your interest.

Not to do so is totally unacceptable, you may think you are giving impartial advice, though I would contend its for others to judge that.

1carminestocky

Rian1988 wrote: »

I don't see why I should post who I work for, there are many opportunities where I could push the company I work for forward, such as who can change meters for free, but I do not mention the company I work for in anyway.

I have absolutely no reason to represent the company I work for, and I would rather not give out personal info such as my name, where I live or even where I work,

Who's asking for your name? If you don't make clear you work for British Gas (is that the company?) in every post then you are breaking the site rules and riding roughshod over the site owner's rules. It's not my decision, Rian1988, it's Martin's. You have already started responding to the Eon rep's provocative posts regarding British Gas so I'm not sure how you can claim to be not 'pushing' your company. At the very least you are defending it. And that makes the whole thing unacceptable in my book. If we let this continue all we will get on here is employees of the various energy companies arguing with each other. It's happening already (and you have been involved).

jhp

The rules say this.

FORUM USERS’ OPINIONS DO NOT CONSTITUTE ADVICE

Forum users are asked to make it clear if discussing a topic they have professional knowledge of that they work in that field (but do not tout for business). However, please do not give advice. This is particularly (but not only) relevant on the Pure Money, Health, Old Style, In My Home and Is It Fair? Boards.


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/faq.html?faq=new_faq_item#faq_new_rules

They dont say you have to disclose who you work for ,unless your a company rep of course.

Vestra

1carminestocky wrote: »

Who's asking for your name? If you don't make clear you work for British Gas (is that the company?) in every post then you are breaking the site rules and riding roughshod over the site owner's rules. It's not my decision, Rian1988, it's Martin's. You have already started responding to the Eon rep's provocative posts regarding British Gas so I'm not sure how you can claim to be not 'pushing' your company. At the very least you are defending it. And that makes the whole thing unacceptable in my book. If we let this continue all we will get on here is employees of the various energy companies arguing with each other. It's happening already (and you have been involved).

This is exactly my point you can't even tell where I work for because it is irrelevant, no it's not British Gas actually. I feel the advice I give here has nothing to do with the company I work for, if someone asks what do to in such and such situation what difference does it make where I spend 37 hours a week in?

If martin wants to ban me from posting advice because I won't give away personal information in my posts then he can do that if he likes.

1carminestocky

Rian1988 wrote: »

This is exactly my point you can't even tell where I work for because it is irrelevant, no it's not British Gas actually. I feel the advice I give here has nothing to do with the company I work for, if someone asks what do to in such and such situation what difference does it make where I spend 37 hours a week in?

If martin wants to ban me from posting advice because I won't give away personal information in my posts then he can do that if he likes.

LOL. So, that's Eon and BG out of the equation. 4 to go. Why is it such a secret?? If you have nothing to hide, what's the problem with putting which energy company you derive your income from in each post in this forum? I'm assuming you aren't denying you DO work for an energy company? They all have many thousands of call centre staff, why worry about your privacy being compromised?


Here's WhistleBlower's signature:

NPower employee. (Specailising in Collections and Billing)
Debt free: January 22nd 2009!
My details are so fuzzy cos i actually like my job, or more accurately i like my wages. I'd rather not get fired.

At the very least you should place in your sig that you work for one of the Big 6 energy companies. Anything less and you open up yourself to accusations of subterfuge. Witness your 'stepping in' in the Eon decreases thread. The casual reader would have probably read your posts in a different light knowing you clearly work for a rival energy company. Not healthy, and if allowed to continue it will all end in tears.

Mike_by_the_Sea

As a representative of the utilities underclass, I would welcome the opportunity to be able to respond to questions raised for the company without having the inevitable tirade of comments, often close to abuse, that goes with the territory. I believe that the opportunity to be able to get some feedback from a representative of a company can add a lot to the debate, the one thing I would suggest, that works well on other forums, is to create a thread for each of the companies that are represented, and allow people to post on that thread without the need for others to jump in with un-neccesary and biased opinions. If somebody posts a relevant question elsewhere, they can be directed to the "company" thread.

The representatives will be judged on their performance at the end of the day and we are all capable of making up our own minds as to the quality / bias of the responses.

Vestra

1carminestocky wrote: »

LOL. So, that's Eon and BG out of the equation. 4 to go. Why is it such a secret?? If you have nothing to hide, what's the problem with putting which energy company you derive your income from in each post in this forum? I'm assuming you aren't denying you DO work for an energy company? They all have many thousands of call centre staff, why worry about your privacy being compromised?


Here's WhistleBlower's signature:



At the very least you should place in your sig that you work for one of the Big 6 energy companies. Anything less and you open up yourself to accusations of subterfuge. Witness your 'stepping in' in the Eon decreases thread. The casual reader would have probably read your posts in a different light knowing you clearly work for a rival energy company. Not healthy, and if allowed to continue it will all end in tears.

I've said before I will not disclose where I work, I don't see you saying what you work as in your sig?? No I'm not denying I do work for an energy company and there is more than 6 energy companies. That post in the Eon decrease thread was a general question, I do NOT represent the company I work for outside work and don't plan on, I do feel it was a pathetic excuse and wished to have a reply from an official representitive from an energy company.

And how does me giving advice end up in tears?

karenbee_2

Mike_by_the_Sea wrote: »

As a representative of the utilities underclass, I would welcome the opportunity to be able to respond to questions raised for the company without having the inevitable tirade of comments, often close to abuse, that goes with the territory. .

I agree with this. I am new to this website (after having a nasty financial shock a couple of days ago!) and have found a lot of this forum difficult to read for the sheer amount of people with some kind of bitter vendetta against various companies. It seems to me that the whole forum is some massive b*tch fest with incredibly biased views from consumers. I don't feel I can get any proper advice on here. No wonder people working for power companies don't want to disclose who they work for when giving impartial advice (for example broken meters and what could be wrong with them) because if they did some people would jump down their throat and declare anything they say to be utter cr*p because the company they work for once got their bill wrong.

People on here have put me off this forum.

As for the girl who was saying she didnt feel she should mention who she works for in her signiture when using this website. I have to agree. Thats personnal info she has the right not to disclose on the internet. I would never make available to the public who I work for on the internet but I would say something general like "I work in a pub". That way even if you could tell what my name weas and my town you would not know what pub I work in.

Joyful

Karenbee

Please don't let it put you off the Forum. I've found lots of help on MSE over the months especially on how to save money. Yes there are people who just seem to !!!!! but that is their problem. People who are either consumers or employees are great on this forum helping with conserving energy and general advice.

Mikebythesea
I don't want it to change though to separate threads for companies. This should only happen if those companies officially put a spokesperson on the forum. As we all know problems like Direct debit increases happen through all the companies so there is a lot of general help.

Mike_by_the_Sea

Joyful wrote: »

Mikebythesea
I don't want it to change though to separate threads for companies. This should only happen if those companies officially put a spokesperson on the forum. As we all know problems like Direct debit increases happen through all the companies so there is a lot of general help.

Hi Joyful

I agree with the general issues that arise and I wouldn't want to change that, I was suggesting there could also be a specific thread where company-specific issues could be addressed and would be easy for people to find if they needed it. I have the impression, rightly or wrongly, that the "Approved Company Representative" might be an "expert" for that company and could support / advise on specific issues or concerns.