NPower - tasked with checking people aren't paying too much?

kjsmith7

closed wrote: »

How does a sales target make our prices cheaper?

Here's an idea to make our prices cheaper, stop paying cold callers to annoy/deceive people, on the phone, and at the door.

A customer will agree to anything, if they've been told their direct debit is going down to £xx/month, doesn't mean it will cover the bill, and is unlikely to be the cheapest deal on the market for any length of time, if ever.

I completely agree - but at the same time, surely that's also the consumers fault for being blind? "Ooh, you can do it for £20 a month DUAL FUEL!? Wow, where do I sign?"

Haarlem

ricky9 wrote: »

This is part of the problem other peoplesYes they have targets to meet if they did not the price we pay for our fuels would be a lot higher.

I doubt that very much. I worked in the industry until 5 years ago. The cost of gaining a customer (advertising, commission and the admin charges that had to be paid to all involved) was estimated at £380, and therefore great effort and further expense was made to retain customers.

The energy industry now supports far more "hangers on" at a cost that probably matches the perceived inefficiencies of the nationalised industry.

skiTTish

magyar wrote: »

Exactly my point. Look, to everyone who thinks energy suppliers are evil, do you REALLY think that you would ring up and report someone and they'd just go "Oh, let's ignore it, another mug will for the scam?" Do you REALLY think that they want their company's name dragged through the mud?

If you don't report them, they just go and rip someone else off. Complaining to Ofgem just add '1' to npower's statistics.

I can prove from personal experience that the companies do not give a flying fluff what dirty tactics their employees use to get customers and the employees are thus given a free reign to do/say as they wish but with the knowledge that when the **** hits the fan they are on their own and the company will deny all knowledge !!

magyar

skiTTish wrote: »

I can prove from personal experience that the companies do not give a flying fluff what dirty tactics their employees use to get customers and the employees are thus given a free reign to do/say as they wish but with the knowledge that when the **** hits the fan they are on their own and the company will deny all knowledge !!

Well, sounds like it's your personal experience vs. mine, and I can only repeat my experience is quite the opposite.

kippen_noedel

Plushchris wrote: »

Or so they would like everyone to believe!

If the last fine they got for doing this repeatedly and systematically was £1.8million, I wonder how much it will be this time around.

The only way dodgy practices will become rare is if enough people complain and the companies get fined repeatedly it will become unprofitable to continue. so get your complaints in.

So next time you get a dodgy salesman, take their details, and report them to the ombudsman. If they refuse call the police and tell them someone just tried to trick their way into your house and they are still in the street.

mattcanary

NPower are the lowest of the low - they do not worry about treating their customers well or being fair with people at all.
Their billing system (charging more in the winter than the summer for gas) and their appalling attitude to booking appointments (all day slots when many competitors offer 4 hour slots even after not coming at all the previous day when they should have done) sums them up. They also give wrong info on where you can buy keys for prepayment meters.
NPower are happy to gain as many customers as they can, fair means or foul. They then rip them off mercilessly.
Not that many of the other suppliers are much better....

It would help if the industry regulator was not so lily-livered. They may as well not even be in existence, for all the good they do.

And people that come on here saying they really know how the industry works, should tell them why that is - ie: who do they/did they work for. They shouldn't hide behind the anonymity of the internet

magyar

mattcanary wrote: »

And people that come on here saying they really know how the industry works, should tell them why that is - ie: who do they/did they work for. They shouldn't hide behind the anonymity of the internet

No. The most significant advantage of anonymity is that you can blow the whistle if you know something untoward is happening. I will go as far as to say that I work inside the electricity industry, but that's it.

And I would potentially say exactly how I know how the industry works if I thought it would make the slightest bit of difference. The people on this forum are predisposed to believing that all suppliers are evil by nature, and if I was to say "I am the CEO of 'whoever'" then it would make no difference whatsoever.

Plushchris

magyar wrote: »

I agree that would stop it, but equally that would also stop a lot of people from switching to cheaper tariffs. Not everyone is aware that you can switch.

It would also stop a lot of people from switching to more expensive tariffs.

Every time I've had a salesman darken my door they have persisted in trying to convince me they are cheaper when I know for a fact they are not. I very much doubt its only me they do this to.

A lot of people on here blame the comparison sites for switching people to more expensive tariffs but I cant see how they can be anywhere near as bad as door knocking liars.

magyar

Plushchris wrote: »

A lot of people on here blame the comparison sites for switching people to more expensive tariffs but I cant see how they can be anywhere near as bad as door knocking liars.

I agree with you there.

I still say the best way to deal with this is make the tariffs themselves less confusing and complicated.

brewerdave

ricky9 wrote: »

A customer will agree to anything, if they've been told their direct debit is going down to £xx/month,

What are you saying that customers only think about how much there DD is every month.
I dont think so.

How does a sales target make our prices cheaper?

Over 90% of customers change suppliers by someone calling on them.
If these 90% did not change they would still be with there host supplier paying more.
Open competion

Unfortunately ricky9, there are myriad previous threads from people who have believed that there bills will go down simply because they are told they can reduce their DD - after 6 months they are suddenly presented with an enormous increase in DD and promptly post on here !!!!