NPower Doorstep agent

FatDickie

Had a guy knock on my door this afternoon from NPower.

He said that they have a new promotional tarriff and could save BG customers around £200 per annum in a house like mine (1960's 3 bed terraced).

I explained that I was with Scottish power on their Online Energy Saver tarrif with dual fuel, direct debit etc..

He did a quick calculation based on my monthly payment of £70..

Then claimed to be able to save me around £80 per annum against SP, if I switched to them.

He filled in the form and left me with glossy brochure etc and explained that the tarrif was lower than normal Npower users would get etc.

When he left, as i don't have paper bills, I logged on to Scottish Power and had a look on line at my last bill.

I Annualised my Scottish Power consumption and what do you know NPower came out £163 more expensive..... :mad:

Have I justification to complain?

If so who to?

I will be phoning NPower in the morning to cancel the switch, is there a freephone number as the one that I have is 0845..... and I will need to pay for that one.

Terrylw1

Check your T&C's to see if you have a "cooling off" period to cancel the contract. If so, cancel immediately if it's going to be more for you.

If you haven't you will have to go down the complaint route with Npower stating that you have been mis sold. If you have his calculations, even better.

If after that you get nowhere with them, contact Energywatch (on the back of your bills) and make a complaint against Npower. See if they can get you back to SP.

It would be best if you can cancel prior to the swapover or you may lose out with SP again if you are on any preserved tariff deal.

I'm sure you have a cooling off period with the contracts now, I can't remember offhand what the timescale is but it will be quick.

wowsavings

All home energy customers get a 7 day cooling off period when they switch.

I would advise calling npower to cancel, but would also put it in writing in case they claim to have not had the call.

If you have any problems, energywatch is your best bet.

FatDickie

I cancelled this morning, no problem...the guy I spoke to agreed that the savings that were promised are unobtainable against my current tarrif...

but I am still concerned that an NPower sales rep can make a promise of savings, which turn out to be untrue and more expensive.

scousemanblue

I have NPOWER knocking regularly.

A few years ago, Npower knocked on all the houses in our street saying they would be able to beat the price B Gas were charging.

They signed me up after showing me the literature. It was only when I checked at the time their standing charge did I see that it was actually the same price. I duly cancelled no problem.

What did amaze me was they signed up a next door neighbour WITHOUT HER SIGNING PAPERS. She only knew they had signed her up when she got a letter from British Gas.

I will NEVER sign up for anything at the door now irrespective of any cooling off period.

Terrylw1

Well these guys tend to be commission only so they do everything they can to hit their targets and then probably move onto the next job and never look back. So, a lot of them probably have questionable ethics to say the least.

Scousemanblue - I've seen that before plenty of times when I was in the utility industry (never been a sales rep I might add and never will be!) and what will have happened is one of 2 things:

1 - someone else signed up and the Supplier got your neighbours MPAN by mistake and registered it. A genuine yet incompetant error. Or,

2 - the salesman just filled it in on his own. I have seen this before.

I remember a few years back a lot of call centre sales & door knockers filled in customer contracts on their own without even speaking to the customers. They were all on pre-payment meters and the company was offereing £40 commission a sign up.

Needless to say, a lot of people got the sack for the mess they caused.

I always felt sorry for the customers and tried to give them some compensation (as well as an apology for the morons who made their week a bad one!)

Poppycat

These salesmans should have a sticky on the head saying "ignore what I say as I may lie"

If they come to my door, I would say no thank you and goodbye I dont trust what any of them say

Terrylw1

In my opinion they should stop this practice as it annoys more people than it serves.

I feel sorry for some of them as they have got a tough job because of all the complete idiots that have come before them.

Some of them are very genuine.

But then with any job on commission you can expect to draw a fair share of completely self serving idiots...

Poppycat

They also target shoppers now, mind you they ain't the only parasite, you can never go anyway without someone approaching you these days, I no they got a job to do, but I respect my privacy at home and I dont want to go shopping and have to say to some pushy salesman or charity "no"

magyar

The sales agents are ridiculous, and generally make ludicrous claims they cannot guarantee. This applies to ALL energy companies, certainly not just npower.

You always have a 7 day cooling off period and if you have been deliberately missold based on comments from the salesman you should complain to Energywatch. The companies all take their level of complaints very seriously.

The moral is, of course, don't believe anything someone tells you want they want to sell you something - check it for yourself.

Terrylw1

I know Npower have had a salesagent management team for a few years tasked with weeding out some of these dodgy companies they use. as well as Energywatch, your complaint could reach them.

The companies do take the level of complaints seriously and resolve them quickly but what a shame it's only when someone's watching them. Shame they also don't stop it happening to the next person. I mean that more generally i.e. a lot of the posts on this site happen daily to customers and nothing ever seems to change.