British Gas:Dodgy Selling

Davesnave

Contacted last week by BG who gave me some sales spiel, asked about my present supplier then asked if I had any questions about my new Price Protected 2009 contract...oh and would I give the caller my bank details? Pointed out I'd not agreed to anything, and no I don't give bank details over the phone. Two days later I was phoned again about my 'contract' so pointed out more forcefully this time there was none. Agreed I'd look at sales literature, that's all.
Today the 'sales literature' arrived....a contract, all filled-in with the signature space pre-printed 'As agreed over the telephone' plus a rather sinister letter telling me they 'must make sure I understand' I've entered into a contract. If I do nothing, its assumed after 7 days that the switch can go ahead. A quick check on the switching sites showed me whata lousy deal it would be ( as we might expect with a guaranteed frozen price over 3 years from the end date!)
Two points come out of this:
1. Who are the people who give their bank details to someone who cold calls by phone?(and should any respectable company ask for this?)
2. Who are the people who become entrapped in this manner, perhaps not knowing how or why their supplier has changed?
In both cases the answer would seem to be the elderly and vulnerable....groups which utility companies with any claims to respectability should be protecting, not preying-upon.
So....while I'm not worried, I'm not happy with this either & would urge anyone who is contacted by the BG sales team to put the phone down quickly, as in this case politeness will not be rewarded...and neither should they be.

Xbigman

Always say 'no thank you' politely and hang up. If you get into any sort of conversation about tarifs they will try to switch you.

If they try to switch you then write them a letter and send it recorded delivery saying you have not agreed to switch and have no contract with them. Put the contact in the envelope and write 'not requested, no contract applicable' on it. Do not sign OR date it. Then phone them and get the name of the person you are talking to, write down the date and time AND save your itemised phone bill as proof you called. Tell them you have not agreed a contact and you have confirmed this in writing. Do not let them tell you you have a contact, just repeat you do not have a contract and hang up. Do not get into a discussion about anything else or say you only asked about tarifs or for 'more literature'. Then phone your current supplier and report it as an 'erroneous transfer' and get it blocked or called back depending on how far along it is.
That should do it but you sometimes have to repeat this several times for it to sink in.
Regards



X

COS

Xbigman wrote:

Always say 'no thank you' politely and hang up. If you get into any sort of conversation about tarifs they will try to switch you.

If they try to switch you then write them a letter and send it recorded delivery saying you have not agreed to switch and have no contract with them. Put the contact in the envelope and write 'not requested, no contract applicable' on it. Do not sign OR date it. Then phone them and get the name of the person you are talking to, write down the date and time AND save your itemised phone bill as proof you called. Tell them you have not agreed a contact and you have confirmed this in writing. Do not let them tell you you have a contact, just repeat you do not have a contract and hang up. Do not get into a discussion about anything else or say you only asked about tarifs or for 'more literature'. Then phone your current supplier and report it as an 'erroneous transfer' and get it blocked or called back depending on how far along it is.
That should do it but you sometimes have to repeat this several times for it to sink in.
Regards



X

Any cold caller I get, I simply put the phone down as soon as I reconise its a random call. These people will call you when they expect you to be in ie: Meal times, evenings and weekends a number of customers are rung at random by there system and the first pick gets the spiel, not wasting my time i'm a fraid, its your private phone and your time be rude put the phone down why be polite after disturbing you.

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk

Davesnave

Thanks XBigman & Cos for your replies. Its a good idea to contact your existing supplier & tell them. I now have a British Gas internal number to give them grief if I need to, but my wife is going one better and putting a warning out to the old folks etc on local radio consumer programme. As I said, I can take care of myself, but this is almost criminal in the way it could affect the vulnerable.
British Gas are a pain anyway....My old Dad paid a year's subscription to their 3 star maintenance scheme, then died, but will they come and service his boiler now they know he's gone? Will they hell....!

Adrian_london

When i get a call like that all i tell them is that i don't want to change supplier because i LOVE paying really high prices for my gas and electricity. Then whoever is calling me, i tell them that they are FAR FAR to cheap for me compared to the supplier i use and that i insist on paying the most i can for my utilities.

This usually shuts them up as they don't know what to say after that.



The other one i do is let them go on and on and on and on and then get vrey close to thinking they've got a deal. Then i tell them no. (I only do this if i've got time to kill) This way at least i know they're not harrassing someone else.




The last one i do is keep them talking for a while and then tell them that i'm interested. I then ask them what time they finish work and what their mobile number is. I then tell them that i'll give them a buzz when they're at home watching tv or sleeping and see how they like it.

Xbigman

My brothers says that if you are rude he just puts you on repeat callback and you get loads more calls. And it costs nothing to be polite.
Regards




X

COS

Xbigman wrote:

My brothers says that if you are rude he just puts you on repeat callback and you get loads more calls. And it costs nothing to be polite.
Regards




X

All good and well for your brother to do that if he or the company he works are happy to be sued for Harassment and other breaches of the law under the telephone and wireless act.

bellybabe_2

I've had three problems with utilities companies in the past week. First it was Scottish Power saying that since I pay my gas bill to them by Direct Debit, they'd like me to pay my electric bill too. Which I don't because I'm not a customer. I pointed out I'm not a gas customer with them either, because I switched to London Energy; he then stood arguing with me about the prices, and stormed off in a huff when I said I was happy with EDF!

The following day, I got a phone call from EDF, saying they were very sorry to hear I was switching back to...Scottish Gas! I said I wasn't aware I was switching, and they said that Scottish Gas had put through a transfer reuqest, and had I been speaking to anyone from Scottish Gas recently? I said no, only Scottish Power, and there's no way he could have interpreted our conversation as an agreement to switch anyway. So Scottish/British Gas were putting through a transfer with no contact with me whatsoever. Never mind ethical, surely stealing customers against their will must be illegal? Like you, Davesnave, I was concerned about more vulnerable people they're using such practices with.

And finally, all this prompted me to check thorugh my bills very carefull, and I discovered that we still haven't been refunded the credit from Scottish Gas for when we switched back in February. Another phone call, and it turns out that because it's over £250, it has to be signed by a manager, and nobody bothered passing it to a manager to sign, so we simply weren't going to get it. How may other people aren't getting their money back because British/Scottish Gas can't be bothered sending it?

Can't say I'm impressed.

smartie1976

Please report any miss-selling directly to the companies.
This is the only way that miss-selling can be tackled efficiently.
Sadly, sales people are bombarded with targets and some will do anything to get their targets. If you have the agents name on your literature make it a formal complaint.

Do remember that even if you receive a "contract" to sign, simply call them (or put it back in the post if you prefer) and advise them you are not taking up the contract, and that you have called/ sent a photocopy to your current supplier advising them to block any transfer.

Better still, advise the caller that you have already requested not to be contacted, and that they are now in breach of data protection. They'll soon bugg@r off and not call you again.

Davesnave

My formal complaint to British Gas was upheld when they listened to the recording of the 'phone conversation. I got an apology out of them & the assurance that disciplinary action was taken. Hmmm.... maybe.
Next thing, I had a guy at the door from Powergen telling me he was surprised that I had been put on their 'European' tariff & that I could save lots of dosh. I told him I was with NPower not Powergen, so how could he know? He replied that NPower are 'German' !!!! The conversation was getting silly, so I told him the War ended about 50 years ago & to go forth & multiply. That seemed to work.