Is MSE really promoting British Gas?

Allanon

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Allanon - do you have any details on the specific salesman. This is absolutely outrageous and I'd like to contact British Gas about it.

Thanks

Martin

Sorry Martin, I haven't. I know I should have taken details but I have to confess to not being the best when it comes to dealing with door-knockers and sort of took the "Yeah, yeah, get on with it and stop wasting my time" cynical attitude. I suppose the guy was only doing his job but he caught me at a bad time.

vixx

actually, if you call BG and give them your address and the date this salesman visited you, they will be able to tell you his name.

i work in customer services for a utility company and i never cease to be amazed at the tricks and lies some salesmen use to lure people in.
unfortunately, it seems to be with every company and not just BG. i wouldnt trust any of them as far as i could swing them

Cardew

vixx wrote: »

actually, if you call BG and give them your address and the date this salesman visited you, they will be able to tell you his name.

i work in customer services for a utility company and i never cease to be amazed at the tricks and lies some salesmen use to lure people in.
unfortunately, it seems to be with every company and not just BG. i wouldnt trust any of them as far as i could swing them

I stand to be corrected on this, but as far as I am aware most of the doorstep salesmen, and those hanging around supermarket entrances etc, do not work(e.g. are employed) for BG/PowerGen/EDF etc etc.

The utility companies engage other companies who pay their salesmen on commission.

Still doesn't stop the buck stopping with the Utility companies though! They are responsible for the actions of people representing them.

SwanJon

dc wrote: »

I doubt if BG can be the cheapest for gas as they are regulated not to undercut others, . . .

I'm fairly sure this regulation was removed a few years ago, in the same way the regulation for 'home' electricity suppliers.

The market was considered open enough to control it anyway.
I think they may not be competetive for gas because of custoemr inertia.

Let me know if I'm wrong.

Terrylw1

Swanjon - it was certainly applied to all ex-PES Suppliers in electricity and it was removed in recent years as it was actually quite anti-competitive anyway!

Not sure about gas, however the gas market has changed in certain ways to mirror the electricity so I would expect that this has ben removed now or BGas are not being allowed to trade competitively. BGas is only a Supplier now anyway. So, I would agree with you.

Cardew - They tend to outsource these operations to sales companies thesedays. I'm not sure if some retain some staff or not. I thought it was just for telephone sales/promotions etc. Of course, Suppliers just respond by sacking that company and going to the next dodgy one (well they have made them so much money they can live with the odd dodgy complaint I guess!)

far

The price controls were ended sometime ago - back on the 1/1/2001 in fact as seen here. For us anyway (Northern region if anyone's interested) British Gas are the cheapest or very nearly the cheapest on gas unit price alone after you take off introductory offers and bonuses of other suppliers. However, given the appaling service of British Gas at least we personally have had, paying a higher price overall for gas is a small price to pay to leave them.

Bufflowbill

Cardew wrote: »

I stand to be corrected on this, but as far as I am aware most of the doorstep salesmen, and those hanging around supermarket entrances etc, do not work(e.g. are employed) for BG/PowerGen/EDF etc etc.

The utility companies engage other companies who pay their salesmen on commission.

Still doesn't stop the buck stopping with the Utility companies though! They are responsible for the actions of people representing them.

The Powergen sales people you get in Tesco work for Powergen.

The ones you get in Sainsbury selling Sainsbury Energy (EDF) work for an agency.

vixx

Cardew wrote: »

I stand to be corrected on this, but as far as I am aware most of the doorstep salesmen, and those hanging around supermarket entrances etc, do not work(e.g. are employed) for BG/PowerGen/EDF etc etc.

The utility companies engage other companies who pay their salesmen on commission.

Still doesn't stop the buck stopping with the Utility companies though! They are responsible for the actions of people representing them.

i can only go on the company i work for (SSE) but we have the means to find out salespersons details to track who's working in certain areas, possibly the other companies do it differently. worth a try though

Spark

Even if they are a lot cheaper than anyone else, their appalling customer service doesn't make it worth moving to them.
I'd rather french kiss Hannibal Lecter than going back to British Gas.

Allanon

Well, I looked at the comparison sites and, lo and behold, BG Click Energy 4 came out cheapest for us, reckoning to save us £23/year.

However.......

Scottish & Southern Electric have recently announced a new deal called PriceFix 2008, with prices capped until 1st December 2008. According to the comparison site, signing up to that now will not save us any money at the moment (actually coming in at £12 more/year than we currently pay) but, given that the price will be fixed until December 2008, and prices almost guaranteed to go up in that period, we should be overall winners.

Anyone see a problem with that?

Cheers,

Allanon