Does Martin Lewis know ...?

backfoot

broxis11 wrote: »

I don`t need to know what the overheads are to understand the fact that this is the reason that online deals are cheaper.

. Oh dear.

It's not just me saying it. Consumer Focus wrote an open letter to Ofgem on 2/12/2010. This is very much part of the current Ofgem investigation into the non effectiveness of the Retail Energy Market.

This topic was directly covered:

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Issue 9: Suppliers excluding best deals from face-to-face marketing
[/FONT][/FONT]Consumer Focus will not comment specifically on concerns about suppliers’ current marketing practices, as Ofgem is already investigating four of the Big Six for alleged breaches of the new licence condition.
Our issue is with the more fundamental problem of the doorstep selling process, where suppliers do not offer their most competitively priced tariffs via this sales channel. Doorstep sales agents are required to market tariffs the supplier is willing to sell that particular week eg a fixed price offer, standard direct debit, prepayment, etc. Their most competitive offers, namely online direct debit deals, are never sold through this sales channel. Nor do suppliers allow, or accept sales from, independent brokerage activity on the doorstep. The supplier rationale is logical, albeit not necessarily fair to the trusting consumers. From the supplier perspective, these consumers are willing to sign up to a tariff that offers a £60 saving over their current supplier. Why would the supplier bother to tell them about their tariff that offers a £160 saving over their current deal?
By contrast, a consumer using an independent price comparison site will have access to all the deals in the market. A consumer looking at the supplier’s website will be able to view all the available deals on offer. Consumers who are not online do not have access to this information at the point of purchase. Given the socio-economic and age profile of the remaining thirty percent of the population who lack access to the internet, this is of significant concern.
Ofgem’s recent Consumer First Customer Engagement research showed that over half of switches were triggered by a salesperson’s visit or call, which means that these consumers wouldn’t have been offered the supplier’s most competitive deal. Given that prepayment meter or more vulnerable consumers were most likely to switch using this method, this is of significant concern.
Consumer Focus’s recent research showed that consumers didn’t understand that suppliers offered a wide variation of tariffs to monthly or quarterly direct debit customers. Consumers assumed that they were automatically on the cheapest available tariff for their payment method. This trust is clearly misplaced. Any consumer signing up to a doorstep deal won’t even be offered the cheapest deal by their supplier.

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Consumer Focus view: [/FONT][/FONT]Suppliers must sell all tariffs to consumers when conducting face to face sales or clearly inform consumers that there may be cheaper tariffs available and tell them how they can sign up to these deals.

Our alternative will be recommending to consumers that they do not agree to a face to face sales contract because it may not offer best value for money.


No mention whatsoever,of overheads because there are none other than initial marketing cost of the sales agent. This is a discretionary spend by the Suppliers and should not be passed onto any one particular market segment.

Consumer Focus clearly get the problem issue, (as they normally do). As I said,if sales agents sold competive tariffs in a fair manner, then it would be a useful process in opening up competition.

You are simply defending the appalling status quo with a made up not supportable reason regarding overheads.

Would you now accept that?

broxis11

[FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]Consumer Focus view: [/FONT][/FONT]Suppliers must sell all tariffs to consumers when conducting face to face sales or clearly inform consumers that there may be cheaper tariffs available and tell them how they can sign up to these deals.

A customer can activate any tariff they like if they are on a Standard tariff. As I mentioned before, I can advise on all tariffs and the customer could decide which they would like once they become a customer.

jamespir

nice pink writing

backfoot

broxis11 wrote: »

A customer can activate any tariff they like if they are on a Standard tariff. As I mentioned before, I can advise on all tariffs and the customer could decide which they would like once they become a customer.

Yes you can :T. I bet you don't. I certainly bet the others don't. You would never get a signature, if you did it properly.

People don't sign up on the doorstep in order to make a subsequent change. They sign up because they've been conned.

We are talking about a flawed process. You surely can't keep on denying it? You might not like my explanation of it, but do you also think Consumer Focus have got it wrong?

broxis11

My recommendation is more likely to be the 4% online saver tariff with energysmart as this helps a customer to reduce the consumption as does the free insulation measures. As I mentioned before, I believe this is the one which would actually save the most money as it works with the customer to reduce their spend. The 6% tariff is cheaper but it wouldn`t work with the customer to reduce consumption.

As I mentioned before, we don`t take signatures from customers as the customers go through a verification call.

I do feel I`m repeating myself here. For the avoidance of any doubt, we don`t con people. We provide customers with proper information to allow them to make informed decisions. There is no hard sell and the fact that I`ve never had a complaint backs this up. People on here seem to like the idea that all field sales consultants are commission based liars. This is not the case.

backfoot

Take a deep breath. Think about it.

How much better,easier and more useful your job would be if you could adopt and put forward your companies most competitive offer.

How revolutionary.:D

broxis11

backfoot wrote: »

Take a deep breath. Think about it.

How much better,easier and more useful your job would be if you could adopt and put forward your companies most competitive offer.

How revolutionary.:D

It`s not all about price.

macman

broxis11 wrote: »

It`s not all about price.

I think 99% of consumers would disagree with that.
How many people would sign up on the doorstep with an opening line like 'We're not the cheapest supplier, but...'?

broxis11

So customer service, energy saving initiatives, brand, repuation, recommendation, meter readings, payment method etc doesn`t come into then?

Plushchris

broxis11 wrote: »

So customer service, energy saving initiatives, brand, repuation, recommendation, meter readings, payment method etc doesn`t come into then?

Certainly not as far as BG are concerned! :rotfl: