N Power Street Sales

WestonDave

Normally I don't let myself get caught by the sales people but as I hadn't much to do at lunchtime, and hadn't checked my tariffs with all the increases I let them do a comparison.

At the outset I told the cheerful chappy that I wasn't going to be signing anything on the street but if he wanted to give me some prices I'd go away and think about it, check it out and if I was interested come back and find him tommorow.

Ah he says - this deal is only available from this stand - you won't find this special offer on Uswitch or anywhere else.

So I said to him - that doesn't make any business sense. Why would N-Power pay all the costs of having you out of the street (all 6 of them!) to sell a deal at cheaper rates than they are selling via online sales etc that cost them very little. He couldn't answer that one and just said it didn't make much sense but he was glad they did as it kept him in a job.

Anyway we proceed to an illustration based on standard consumption figures which he wrote down for me on a quote card including the Kwh's the quote was based on. Total cost for electricity and gas for the first year after discount £848 on their Juice with Green Energy bonus tariff.

Came back and checked out on Uswitch using the same Kwh consumption figures and I've now figured out why they pay people to stand out on the street to sign up. N-Power's cheapest tarrif - "Sign Online 19" works out at £724 - in other words he would have ripped me off to the tune of £124 for the first year and possibly another £100 for any subsequent year if the discounts no longer apply.

Moral of the story - companies don't get pay people (remember staff costs are very expensive) to sell things without expecting to make a profit from it. If a company appears to be spending a lot on marketing (big trailer, lots of staff) be wary of how they are recovering the costs.

Oh and the cheery chappy was lying - I can get exactly the same deal on Uswitch down to the penny. (Yes I do have his name and advisor pin if N Power want to do pretend they don't condone this behaviour!)

undaunted

Doesn't surprise me at all! You can make a complaint if you wish.

http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/documents/EnergySureCodeBookwebcopyhighres.pdf

Terrylw1

Not just Npower, they are all as bad for this. Remember, these companies contract sales companies to go out there. So, these sales companies only care about money and when they get the Supplier enough bad press, they get their contract pulled. All that happens then is the move on to the next place or industry and keep going.

Ofgem have been getting these complaints for many years. They continue to do very little.

Anyone who says "only valid today" is talking out of a different hole!

DirectDebacle

Ofgem have set up a hotline via Consumer Focus for complaints of mis-selling.

Ofgem say,

The hotline will be available on the standard Consumer Direct number [FONT=Verdana,Verdana][FONT=Verdana,Verdana]08454 04 05 06 [/FONT][/FONT](when dialing this number customers should choose option 1) and Ofgem will review any evidence of misselling of energy contracts which Consumer Direct passes on.

In April 2008 Ofgem fined npower £1.8m for mis-selling following a Sunday Times investigation. Since then there have been innumerable complaints of mis-selling and plenty of threads on here about it.


Hopefully Ofgem will buck their ideas up and do something to stop it.

The energy companies clearly cannot be trusted to behave themselves so Ofgem should just ban door to door/street selling by enrgy suppliers.


I anticipate that after several months and a few hundred thousand pounds Ofgem will bring out a new code of conduct which is unenforceable and has no punitive powers. The energy companies will promise to obey it and then carry on as before.

Status quo preserved.