Scottish Power door caller con?

donny909

Can I just get clarification on this, would we just have to have BG provided topup cards for the meters (which they are) or do the meters themselfs have to have been provided\installed by BG?.

Joyful

You only have to have 2 pp meters being billed by BG. BG do not own any meters.

bills_2

Door salesmen!! How annoying they are lying to people to get information. They can't possibly say that they are cheaper when they don't know what your consumption is and what your current tarrif is.

If I was you I would cancel the switch and start from scratch yourself by finding out your annual consumption from your current supplier an looking on the comparrison sites to see what options are actually coming out best for your usage. You get a 14days cooling off period to cancel as someone else has mentioned.

I would also complain to SP about the nature of the guys sales tactics.

wr1ght

betwin123 wrote: »

Just curoius to know why salesmen have to use tactics such as posing as meter reader, pretending to be from the same company, the government has sent them, etc, etc. If they were totally honest upfront with something like:

"I am from Scottish Power. Though we are not your provider we reckon we can save you money on your gas and electric bills."

Will people not be interested?

this annoys me as i am a meter reader and when you call to read the meter some customers say oh it was read last week when in fact it wasnt it was a sales call :mad:

timmmers

betwin123 wrote: »

Just curoius to know why salesmen have to use tactics such as posing as meter reader, pretending to be from the same company, the government has sent them, etc, etc. If they were totally honest upfront with something like:

"I am from Scottish Power. Though we are not your provider we reckon we can save you money on your gas and electric bills."

Will people not be interested?

Nope, not usually they aren't. i know because I was a feild manager for a utility company running a team selling lecky and gas to households just prior to deregulation. The canny (and usually affluent) people showed interest, the normal guys didn't really...people dislike doorstep callers.

As for the tactics of reading the meter...it's much much harder now to sell utilities so to make their bosses happy they resort to sneaky methods. I've had guys turn up "Hi! I'm calling on ex BG cutomers in the area...." as an intro to the pitch. Of course that would be ALL houses since we were all BG customers once weren't we?

One guy that worked for me way back, he seemed to be able to talk to so many people during the day, rare for the rest of us to see too many as they were at work...he was earning way over a grand a week and I wanted to know why this was since he wasn't all that as a salesman. Turned out he didn't see many people at all...he saw a LOT of meters though, and just got the details from them and signed people up withoiut asking. He and a few others also told people that BG was changing it's name, or some new legislation was making the customer change to our company.

Don't let door to door salesmen see your meter, keep them on the doorstep and ask for ID which will blow their cover. Remove those really silly "No Hawkers or salesmen" stickers BTW too...they are seen as a challenge and a weak householder who will fold easily ...which in my experience is generally true.

While you are talking to a doorstep salesman he is working...the moment you don't talk, his hope is gone. If you aren't interested say so and close the door straight away and don't feel sorry for them...it's normal and expected. While you're talking your possibly going to be sold.

The online services have made doorstep sales very hard ...so they try harder and use some sneaky techniques. Truth is, they always have that's why I quit long ago when lying was advised as a normal tactic.

t