Southern Electric say BT is Indian Owned

backfoot

Much amusement yesterday as Southern Electric's Doorstep Seller tried various idiotic techniques to sell me their gas and leccy.

All sorts of rubbish that prices from EDF had gone up and Southern were miles cheaper.Quoting me rates which don't appear as part of any tariff on their price lists. Giving me sob stories about his business going bust. Why is it always their birthday?

The funniest, however, was the British is best theme. They are the only UK owned company apparently. When I disputed the fact and told him their biggest shareholder is a Californian Investment Bank, he was still insistent.

Amongst desperate attempts to extradite himself he claimed BT was now owned by India. :eek: After insisting about 10 times it was true,he checked his booklet and realised they had some Indian Call Centres. :doh:

Close but not close enough......:rotfl:

Amusing sport I'd say.:D

MillicentBystander

LOL. They are unbelievable, aren't they?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2008/11/dishonest_doorstep_tactics_dis.html

Gerrard_8_lfc

Ive never had the pleasure of Hydro / Southern, Scottish Power are horrendus up here for salesmen I had one guy saying how his gas was just 3 pence a Kwh (waving 3 fingers at me like I was a clueless muppet).

backfoot

Yes, but apparently it's all been tidied up. Except, in the space of two months I personally have been fibbed to by two separate Companies. Yes you guessed it Npower were the others.

Seriously,it should be banned. Full stop.

backfoot

Gerrard_8_lfc wrote: »

Ive never had the pleasure of Hydro / Southern, Scottish Power are horrendus up here for salesmen I had one guy saying how his gas was just 3 pence a Kwh (waving 3 fingers at me like I was a clueless muppet).

Perhaps he took into account you supported Liverpool.

Sorry mate,couldn't resist.:)

Yolina

They normally don't make it to my front door as the porter sends them packing, however quite a few years ago, one rep (forget which company though) weaseled his way in. He knocked on my door and said that he was from the "gas board" and that he was able to offer cheaper gas/electricity and could I please fill in the form so that they could send me all the details - said form was actually a direct debit mandate. After I stopped laughing, I basically told him where to go.

Premier_2

backfoot wrote: »

...The funniest, however, was the British is best theme. They are the only UK owned company apparently. When I disputed the fact and told him their biggest shareholder is a Californian Investment Bank, he was still insistent....

The investment company may be the largest single investor, but they only own about 5% of the company

... and, as the name suggests, they invest other peoples money.
Like most investment companies, they take money from around the world to invest. How much of that is British money is anyones guess.

... a bit like knowing how much of the remaining 95% of the SSE shareholders funding is British?

I guess it ultimately depends on how you define a British Company. I would suspect that most interested in such detail would simply define it as where the company is based/operates from and so pays their taxes to. Some may also be interested in the location it operates in as it would provide employment to those locals.
I doubt many care where the original capital has come from to fund such enterprise ... but if it has come from overseas, so much the better :beer:

penrhyn

Funny, I always thought BT was owned by Cowboys:rotfl:


I'll get me coat.

MillicentBystander

It's certainly run by them.

backfoot

Premier wrote: »

The investment company may be the largest single investor, but they only own about 5% of the company

... and, as the name suggests, they invest other peoples money.
Like most investment companies, they take money from around the world to invest. How much of that is British money is anyones guess.

... a bit like knowing how much of the remaining 95% of the SSE shareholders funding is British?

I guess it ultimately depends on how you define a British Company. I would suspect that most interested in such detail would simply define it as where the company is based/operates from and so pays their taxes to. Some may also be interested in the location it operates in as it would provide employment to those locals.
I doubt many care where the original capital has come from to fund such enterprise ... but if it has come from overseas, so much the better :beer:

I think you are agreeing with me, that the sales trick of suggesting they are British is really quite meaningless in this context. Their ownership is completely varied ranging from Institutions, Pension funds and individual shareholders. The mix is totally irrelevant to their performance as a business. The claim is at best stretched.

Foreign call centres is an issue for some customers,so they should stick to that ,if they so wish, but it does smack a lot of reaching out for people's prejudice,in many cases. One of the best customer service experiences for me consistently is from ICICI Bank, an Indian Company offerring savings products in the UK.

I think nearly all the Energy companies actually operate most of their businesses in the UK. To stretch their sales pitch towards an offshore call centre of BT, is really a poor comparitor. To be frank,the call centre performance of most UK Companies, is totally frustrating, whichever sector they are in.

Anyway,this salesperson,and he was a District Manager you know,:eek:, didn't know his onions from his garlic or his cabbage from his Sauerkraut.

Selling energy at the door or over the phone is simply utter nonsense.