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'Do you think you've been mis-sold gas and/or electricity? Please let me know' blog

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This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.




Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.
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  • JimmyTheWig
    JimmyTheWig Posts: 12,199 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Someone tried to mis-sell to me on my doorstep.
    He said that his energy was the cheapest around and was so many percent cheaper than what I was paying. I asked him what I was paying. He didn't know, but knew his was cheaper. I said can I have it in writing that the energy I get from his company would be cheaper than I was paying now. Needless to say, he wouldn't agree to that.
    But was still maintaining that his was cheaper as I was saying "I'm not interested, thank you" and was closing the door.

    Given that I'd recently switched using a comparison website I didn't believe that his was cheapest.
    I can't remember what company he was from.
  • curlycat_2
    curlycat_2 Posts: 37 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    earlier this year I was talked into going onto a capped rate by Scottish Power. They have kept sending me emails saying to ignore the potential rise in prices as I was on this capped rate. This statement also appeared everytime I went on my account on their website. However, this month my payments have increased from £80 to £134. No increase eh ?
    Not so narked about the actual increase, just the messages stating I wouldn't be affected. If I'd checked more thoroughly (yes I'm an idiot, I know for believing them) I could have paid the cancellation charge and moved.
  • maria74
    maria74 Posts: 40 Forumite
    I was 'mis-sold' energy once. Well, I didn't even know I'd been sold it let alone mis-sold it!!
    I was off sick from work - flu symptoms and lost voice etc - I answered the door (silly idea) and it was an energy salesman (can't remember which now) and I categorically said I was happy with my energy company would not change especially on the doorstep without additional information - but said I would look at any leaflets he had and contact the company direct if I wanted to change - there were no leaflets so I said I wouldn't change.
    The salesman appeared to accept this and asked me to sign to say that he had called and I that I had said no - apparently to show he was actually knocking on doors and not skiving off - I agreed to do this - as he had knocked on the door and I had said no - it seemed reasonable to me that bosses wanted proof of 'contact' whether resulting in a sale or not - there was a pub at the end of the road that he could have been sitting in while telling the boss that no-one answered/agreed...
    He gave me a copy and as I was coughing I finished the conversation. Later, when I felt better I had a look at the paper and it turns out it was an agreement to switch energy companies! I was quite shocked and somewhat embarrassed that I had been taken in by this and had been conned - I phoned the 'new' energy supplier and explained the situation (took a while with a lost voice but I got there) and they cancelled it immediately - luckily! I think they must have heard about this con before with the swift way they dealt with it.
    I have the no cold callers sign on my window now (from local police rather than the MSE one sorry) and I haven't had a cold caller for a good couple of years now.
  • savvy06
    savvy06 Posts: 29 Forumite
    Just wonder how many people know they have been "miss-sold". I suspect I may have been, more than once over the past few years, but the pricing is so complicated it is almost impossible to tell. If you find that you are paying more than you used to - but prices have gone up...??? The pricing need to be clearer and much more simple so that we have a chance to actually make a comparison!
  • helrose
    helrose Posts: 6 Forumite
    Scottish power rep told me I would get cheaper gas and electric. I was on british gas paying only £45 a month for both and managing to keep a track ofunits.used. he insisted their prices would mean I would pay £30 a month. I checked their per unit price and it did seem cheaper. Even so I insisted they raise the direct debit to £60 a month so I wouldn't get into arrears over winter. Nevertheless the first bill arrived and was a staggering £500 for one quarter. Having only been declared bankrupt last summer I now find myself owing money again. I'm dumbfounded they can make promises they can't fulfill. I have spoken to them and they say there is nothing they can do. They aren't interested. My direct debit has increased to almost £100 a month as a result.
  • MSE_Helen wrote: »
    This is the discussion to link on the back of Martin's blog. Please read the blog first, as this discussion follows it.




    Please click 'post reply' to discuss below.

    This is a joint complaint towards both E-On and my managing agent. I am a director of a management company and live in an apartment block.
    The managing agent took over management 4 years ago. We were assured that our agents had a dedicated team who sought the best deals for electric, insurance etc. Who was I to doubt them?

    After a year I became a director and got to see the invoices 6 months later. There was no electricity bills, for 18 months. Alarm bells were ringing. I pushed for the reason why and it appeared the property manager had not even registered the electricity meters with E-on. Then 6 months after this came a bill for £3111.60!

    The electricity cost for the Apartment block was forecast to be £650 per year and this amount was put aside in 2008 and 2009 and in 2010 the budget was increased to £800, so that effectively £2100 had been set aside for the anticipated cost. When the invoices were presented in the 2010 financial year it was discovered (and this was the first chance I got to see how much we were being charged per unit etc) that the electricity supplier contracted by the managing agents were charging £482 per year as a standing charge for the two meters provided at the Apartments and that the total cost of electricity was £3111.60. Research by me has shown that there are much better standing charges offered by other companies than that offered by the company chosen by our agents.

    We can not understand how the managing agents could be unaware that the standing charge was so high, and as we understood that their company had a dedicated team whose role was to find the best deal for their clients, an alternative supplier was not used. Two property managers have been sacked during this period of time.

    We were then told that it was proving very difficult to change to a better contract with a different supplier, because our management company's credit rating is poor, apparantly, because invoices have not been paid on time because of a lack of funds in our account.

    We now have another property manager who has told us that Management companys such as ours do not have a credit rating. We had tried to get a better deal 3 months ago but this was apparently not possible due to bad credit score. 3 months on, we have a new contract with E-On which is 60% cheaper and fixed for 3 years. Why we were suddenly able to switch I don't know.. in the mean time it's another 3 months on an expensive rip off tariff.

    We are nearly at the end of our financial year and estimate that between E-On's extortionate pricing and our agents incompetence, that we have paid £3500-£4000 more than we should have done.

    We have complained to the agents who accept they 'made mistakes' (says a signed letter in response to our complaints) but they refuse to foot the bill for their mistake. Without going into detail, we have what we feel is enough evidence to win a case with their Ombudsman, but if this fails than we will be taking this matter up with the Energy regulator.

    If any of this doesn't make sense please do ask, I've written this in a bit of a rant!

    Had anybody else had similar problems with managing agents or been put on a tariff that were 60% more expensive than they should have been? I must point out that I acted on everything here at the first opportunity, e.g. as soon as seeing an invoice. There is a real lag between things occurring and then the point where you can do something about it.

    Thanks
  • Scottish_Power
    Scottish_Power Posts: 1,263 Organisation Representative
    Good morning all,

    mis-selling is something we take seriously at ScottishPower and as such have a dedicated team who deal with any allegations of mis-selling.

    I would ask that if you feel you have been mis-sold to contact our customer service team and rasie a complaint.

    If you try this and still feel that you have unaswered questions let me know and I will see if we can do any more for you.

    Kind regards

    Graeme @ ScottishPower
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of Scottish Power. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • backfoot
    backfoot Posts: 2,700 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 29 July 2011 at 10:32AM
    Npower misold my elderly mother (72) a contract which resulted in an additional £380 p.a.

    Despite being given details of her consumption and existing terms with Staywarm, he basically made up a monthly amount to apparently undercut her existing payments.

    The Salesman breached the Code for dealing with vulnerable customers by not having a third party present. Then he went to a neighbour and somehow managed to get them to sign as a witness to her consent.

    When I found out about it, I cancelled the contract and made a formal complaint. Despite trying to defraud her of £380 they eventually made a derisory offer of compensation of £100.

    I was also told in writing that the agent would be retrained !

    After around two months of complaints and intransigence by NP, I escalated the issue to various quarters and managed to get them to pay her £250 which was her right under the Code Of Practice for Doorstep Selling.
  • About a year ago an NPOWER rep called on our door. He proudly announced that I was paying too much for my utilities and that NPOWER were cheaper than our current provider.

    Having recently switched using a comparison site, I was happy that I was not paying too much and was on the best contract for me. I explained this and politely told him to bog off.

    It was only after the event that it dawned on me how bad his tactics were. Had he called on a more vulnerable member of society, they may have been taken in by his bold, unresearched claims. I did make a complaint to NPOWER, who told me they would look into the incident.

    Door-to-door sales should be banned in my opinion.
  • wsanderson
    wsanderson Posts: 10 Forumite
    This isn't relevant to the topic but I thought that MSE members and Martin would find it interesting.
    I received a phone call from Eon last night and one of their employees said that they had noticed I had been on USwitch to search for a dual fuel fixed deal and wondered if I would be interested in the latest Eon deals.
    I found this very disturbing, the fact that Eon can monitor people going onto a switching site, without their permission.
    I wondered if any other MSE members had experienced the same thing and whether monitoring like this is against the law?
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