Southern Electric Cold Calling

nichf

I had a moment of madness yesterday as it seems I must have removed my brain just minutes before I opened the door to what I think was a cold caller.

There was a knock on the door and on answering I was greeted by a man who addressed himself as being the Southern Electric area manager and that he was routinely visiting clients who had been 'flagged' as being on a higher than usual electricity tariff. I asked how he knew my personal details as Southern Electric were not my provider. He then informed me that he knew I was with NPower but that Southern Electric provide all electric to all properties but its just simply that NPower bill me. The alarm bells started to ring at this point and I asked him straight if he was trying to get me to sign up to another provider. He said no but that he could advise if I was currently being overcharged. He was then trying to write notes on his clipboard in an awkward manner and so asked if I had something he could lean on whilst he wrote down info on how much I currently pay etc. Basically, he was wanting to come in but I said I didnt want his help as I was more than able to switch provider if I so wished. This conversation went on for five minutes because, to be honest, I was thoroughly confused by his comment that Southern Electric are still my electricity provider with NPower merely providing an admin role by way of them being where my bills come from.

Eventually he got the message that I wasnt inviting him in but can anyone tell me whether: (a) Southern Electric are the only electricity provider in Hampshire with all other companies (NPower, Eon etc. merely just being admin providers for billing purposes) and (b) was this a Southern Electric sales con and he was trying to get me to transfer over to Southern Electric?

Id like to think that Im switched on in these matters but Im having a complete mental block on this for some reason.

Many thanks.

backfoot

He was conning you.

Any sort of rubbish will do.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2963850=

WhiteHorse

Conman. Set the dogs on him.

Airmike23

No possibly you're in the Southern Electric Board region, so they will be the distributor - this means if you have a power cust or potentially probs with elec meter at you're property, you would call you're current biller (npower for you), but ultimately it would be SSE engineers that resolved the technical issue. This has no bearing on what you pay to your power co. I live in former Yorkshire Electric Board region, I get my bill from Eon, but when we had a power cust at start of Dec 2010 (Snow!!) it's YEDL (Owned by Npower) who you call round here to sort it out. These days when you change supplier you are just changing the company that applies their unit rates and discounts to your meter readings, it has no bearing on the physical supply to your home, the gas and electric is coming from the smae place no matter who you are getting your bill from

nPower

Hi nichf

You're absolutely spot on in thinking this isn't correct - Southern Electric (or indeed any one supplier) will not automatically supply every single property in any given area. As Airmike explains, Southern Electric Board may be your local electricity distributor, which means they would be called out if your town had say, a power cut.

Best thing for you to do is call us on 0800 551 555 to check you haven't switched over fraudulently and give a heads up to Southern Electric as other people in your area may have fallen victim to this. They should be able to check if it was one of their agents or someone acting fraudulently at your property.

Best Wishes
Sally

backfoot

I wonder where NPower's Reps were when I made this complaint.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2812834=

Not a whisper !

Also interested to know why nothing was done, when I complained that NPower breached their own Standards of Service, with undue time delay in actually dealing with the above complaint.:(

MillicentBystander

backfoot wrote: »

I wonder where NPower's Reps were when I made this complaint.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2812834=

Not a whisper !

Also interested to know why nothing was done, when I complained that NPower breached their own Standards of Service, with undue time delay in actually dealing with the above complaint.:(

I think it's called 'selective replying'. You're not claiming to be surprised, are you?

backfoot

I'll be honest with you, I've yet to receive a cold call or doorstep seller of energy from any Company who hasn't actually tried to mislead me.

It's just that Npower are the most frequent caller in our area.:eek:

I think it's inbuilt to the process that the salespersons are so driven by commission that they adapt their pitch to suit what they think will work.

The latest one from Southern was from a John Cleese training film.:rotfl:

I honestly don't know anyone who has a good word for this inane process.