E-On cold calling hassle

lucretia_ten

I received a phone call from E-On because I recently went onto a couple of price comparison websites (via this site) - she asked me who currently supplies my gas and electricity, I replied E-On (she had know idea I was already a customer) her retort was "well why do you want to change then?" "Doh, because you've just made an 18% increase"

When I did my price comparisons, I was under the assumption that I wouldn't be contacted unless I actually applied for a new supplier - not for just looking

I'm quite shocked to think that all the suppliers see who you are and can then hassle you.

This experience has made me decide to definitely change supplers (I hesitated as I thought they were one of the better companies for customer service, well now I know differently) :mad:

Has anyone else had experience of this - it's made me very wary and I will not be adding my phone number to any comparison sites ever again.

backfoot

I think it is totally out of order. I agree with your actions. A totally unwarranted and unneeded intrusion.

ihateyes

lucretia_ten wrote: »

I received a phone call from E-On because I recently went onto a couple of price comparison websites (via this site) - she asked me who currently supplies my gas and electricity, I replied E-On (she had know idea I was already a customer) her retort was "well why do you want to change then?" "Doh, because you've just made an 18% increase"

When I did my price comparisons, I was under the assumption that I wouldn't be contacted unless I actually applied for a new supplier - not for just looking

I'm quite shocked to think that all the suppliers see who you are and can then hassle you.

This experience has made me decide to definitely change supplers (I hesitated as I thought they were one of the better companies for customer service, well now I know differently) :mad:

Has anyone else had experience of this - it's made me very wary and I will not be adding my phone number to any comparison sites ever again.

your missing the point....

if you owned a business, and you had wind that customers were leaving, do you not think it is a good idea to call customer, and find out why (lets face it as well all energy companies are increasing prices). and if possible try to retain the customer by offering possibly a better deal, or something to keep the customer.

lucretia_ten

backfoot wrote: »

I think it is totally out of order. I agree with your actions. A totally unwarranted and unneeded intrusion.

Thanks for that Backfoot - I did wonder if I was overreacting

lucretia_ten

ihateyes wrote: »

your missing the point....

if you owned a business, and you had wind that customers were leaving, do you not think it is a good idea to call customer, and find out why (lets face it as well all energy companies are increasing prices). and if possible try to retain the customer by offering possibly a better deal, or something to keep the customer.

No, I think you're missing the point - she didn't even know I was an E-on customer - it was a completely cold call taken from leads from a comparison site - she didn't want to offer any incentive to stay and was quite curt and abrupt in her attitude - like, almost telling me off for even thinking about leaving the wonderful E-On

Mikeyorks

Most comparison sites have several tick boxes towards the end. Which indicate that you're prepared to be contacted by email / phone / letter / share your details with 'carefully vetted 3rd parties'!

it's always worth a few seconds to ensure you neutralise all of them. Otherwise you stand to get a deluge of calls / Emails. Where I've unticked them ........ never had any problems.

Airmike23

lucretia_ten - taking the above points, switching now, the only viable company's with a def cheaper tariff are edf and npower, both yet to announce an increase, so a bit of a false economy unless you opt for edf fixed saver 2 or fixed march 2014 with edf, but those company's both do not get the best marks for customer service. As ihateeyes stated all power co's are in the midst of increasing prices. The way you were spoken to by the individual contacting you is unacceptable, and I would raise a complaint to Eon about it, but unless you opt for one of the above edf deals, there's nothing out there from any of the other power co's eon can't compete with on price.

backfoot

ihateyes wrote: »

your missing the point....

if you owned a business, and you had wind that customers were leaving, do you not think it is a good idea to call customer, and find out why (lets face it as well all energy companies are increasing prices). and if possible try to retain the customer by offering possibly a better deal, or something to keep the customer.

They don't offer better deals. The OP like many are using comparison sites to independantly study the market.

The answers are put before them. Any intervention is designed to prevent free choice by using confusion/marketing scripts and false promises usually by quoting lower numbers than is possible given KWh inputs.

Eon should be ashamed of themselves for pursuing such a policy.

Apologists explaining opt out clauses are the ones missing the point.

MillicentBystander

A few months ago I got a call out of the blue from a very Indian sounding chap (although he said he was called Gary, lol) purporting to be from energyhelpline and trying to get me to switch suppliers! Apparently it really was energyhelpline IIRC and they employ an Indian call centre to cold call people. This sort of thing really has to stop.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi lucretia_ten

I'm sorry the agent who called you was rude and didn't know you were already a customer. Totally unacceptable on both counts and I would follow Airmike's advice and raise a complaint about this. Details of our complaints procedure are on your bills.

With some of the comparison sites, there are tick boxes which need to be unticked to prevent any follow up. I agree with Mikeyorks, make sure you remove the relevant ticks.

Sorry again for the unacceptable attitude of our agent lucretia_ten.

Malc

Plushchris

lucretia_ten wrote: »

No, I think you're missing the point - she didn't even know I was an E-on customer - it was a completely cold call taken from leads from a comparison site -

Erm, sorry but I dont think thats right.

Why on earth would the comparison site hand over your details to an energy company so they can switch you directly therefore forgoing the commission money that keeps them going?