MSE News: Energy salesman told to read !!!!!! to pump up for selling

Joyful

Come on MSE. Talk about scraping the barrel! Although there are still bad apples in this line of business this guy worked in 2002 in it- 9 years ago!!

FATBALLZ

Totality wrote: »

Very tabloidy!

I think the MSE journalists are told to read !!!!!! to pump themselves up before publishing these stories.

FATBALLZ

CautiousWithMoney wrote: »

Bit of a strange article from MSE, particularly since it is someone's experiences from 9 years ago!

More current underhand tactics saw my mum be missold npower energy from a Wilkinsons store - "We'll guarantee to lower your bill by £5 every month"...all they did was take her direct debit down by said £5 per month which left her owing them the difference after a year or so!

To be fair they were almost telling the truth, if they'd said "we guarantee to lower your bill by £5 every month except one, where you'll need to make a large payment for compensate to not paying enough the rest of the time", it would have been ok.

[Deleted User]

whats wrong with mse "news"stories lately?
even the daily mail trys harder !(no pun intended)

dangerousdave927

I have been receiving digest's regularly for some time now,and have never been moved to register before,never mind register in order to comment. Yet some of the comments I have seen on this subject have moved me to do just that.I take issue with cepheus,who seems to be saying that it is a dog eat dog world, and the buyer should beware.Good advice,yet I wonder if He would be so quick to defend miss-selling like this if one of HIS elderly relatives had been lied to and cheated in this way. Secondly,and most fervently, I take issue with Joyful,Timmy85,and Eurmalian,funnily enough,all three employees of British Gas. As was I, and I can state ,from my own experiences of stopping people in high street's, and outside D.I.Y. shops,and outside CO-OP shops (loads of old people there) and of calling on them in their homes, usually "shadowing" , following and learning from more experienced sales people,that the British Gas employees I worked with were, with one or two notable exceptions, the most dishonest,devious,and morally corrupt "sale's people" I have ever worked with. I complained to my team leader about this,and all that happened that I was moved to another team.My new team leader sent me straight out with Her "top sale's man" who drove me in his Mercedes straight to the nearest O.A.P. sheltered housing (his favourite "targets" he told me) He immediately started "hard selling" to the old folks,lying about savings and prices,telling them they wouldn't have to change supplier,(they would) and then refusing to leave when requested to do so,only leaving when a neighbour had summoned reinforcements .I complained to my new team leader and was promptly sacked before I could resign in protest.I could go on,you get the idea by now, I don't want to bore you (any more !) I honestly believe that the only reason British Gas (that' right part of Centrica a German firm) Stopped cold calling,was because their reputation was suffering so seriously,and that if they didn't stop voluntarily,they would be told to so. And the reason that most of our utility company's are owned by foreign firms ? Because they British Government is so poor at protecting the consumer rights of it's own citizens, that some foreign firms see doing business in this country as a license to print money, literally.

SwanJon

dangerousdave927 wrote: »

I take issue with Joyful,Timmy85,and Eurmalian,funnily enough,all three employees of British Gas. As was I, and I can state ...British Gas (that' right part of Centrica a German firm) Stopped cold calling,was because their reputation was suffering so seriously,and that if they didn't stop voluntarily,they would be told to so. And the reason that most of our utility company's are owned by foreign firms ? Because they British Government is so poor at protecting the consumer rights of it's own citizens, that some foreign firms see doing business in this country as a license to print money, literally.

Ok, you'll probably fervently take issue with me too.

I've never worked on the sales side of things so can't confirm/deny your story.
However, the fact that you think that Centrica is German doesn't help you at all. Centrica is, an always has been a UK company, listed on the FTSE. (Usually the story is it's French.) The name was apparantly chosen as it means nothing in any language. Not knowing this casts doubt on you.

There's a part of me that agrees that stopping cold calling was partially driven by poor image, but I'm sure that if there was a good business case to continue (and they were allowed to) they'd continue.

Your story is difficult to read as it is all one big block of text, and this is not helped by your punctuation.
And finally, they do not literally have a license (or even the UK equivelant, a licence) to print money. Words have meanings.

djmark25

I replied to a slick looking newspaper advert about seven years ago offering high earnings in 'sales and marketing'. The person on the other end of the phone was very keen to get me in for immediate interview and I was never told exactly what the job would involve.
I went on a training day and was told the door to door aspect was only a small part of what the job offered. How wrong was that!
After starting this job it dawned on me they were not straight about the renumeration and the only way you could earn any money was via commission. I would start at 9.30am every day apart from Sunday and there would be a morning 2 hour pep talk from the 'leader' - obviously to brainwash people into carrying on the hideous job.
I was ethical in my approach to customers and for a full day's work - getting home again around 10pm at night I would often only make £10 - hardly enough to pay my mortgage. I nearly suffered a breakdown and managed to escape this horrible world by walking into an employment agency and finding factory work.
My new employer believed in what I could offer them and am now a graduate buyer.
I'll never forget my time in door to door sales and every single aspect is misleading - do not trust ANY door to door seller.

gormitiplayset

We had a couple of energy salesman once, who took advantage of the fact that I had my hands full with young children to barge into the house and look at the meter and then asked me to sign a form "just to say that they had been". I couldn't believe what I was being asked. It was a change of supplier document. I slung them out, but now I wish I had taken it further.

andymcrowe

The energy example may have been some years ago but only last week one of my neighbours was visited by an intimidating and patronising double glazing salesman whose first 'offer' was £28,000. Fortunately I encouraged her to make a complaint (she was genuinely fearful that the salesman would take revenge) and the company addressed it well. She ended up paying £5,800. What worries me is that the industry is not regulated and vulnerable people are not protected from these gangsters. Tactics of starting high and then conning people that they are getting 'mates rates' or that they have to 'check with the office' are just so old hat and predictable to those of us with an ounce of cynicism but it's the vulnerable that I fear for.

baldmosher

That article sounds exactly like the nPower salesman who visited my doorstep in 2000, and assured me that nPower supplied electricity to the area, regardless of my contracted supplier, and he would like to "change me over to the new format bills". I closed the door, realised I'd just signed a contract, waited for the new details to arrive, and sent the cancellation form back.

I then received a "sorry to see you go" letter from my current provider, and never had an electricity bill again.

Happy times!