Southern Electric doorstep selling

Energyman_2

bullshine wrote: »

I work for a major supplier and (at the risk of being ridiculed) amongst other duties, sell door to door. I am employed directly by the energy company and not by an agency!

Not all sales people are the same but I have to admit, most energy sales persons conduct their business very poorly. I have seen fraud and miss selling on a grand scale from both competitors and agents working with my company.


To the guy thinking of doing this job... Give it a try! You may help change this industry for the better. The more honest reps out there the better. If you cannot do the job honestly then be honest with youself and walk away rather than resort to underhanded sales tactics.

I started out in the industry as an unemployed chemist 9 years ago - I very quickly found out I was quite good at it and have worked in the industry ever since. I don't do domestic houses but for selling to businesses the job can be very rewarding (not just financially) - I meet a lot of people and enjoy passing time with customers and giving advise (not just about utility matters) and learning about their businesses.

Try it - you may be suprised! - but please do the job ethically and don't lie or bullsh*t or you will be sacked. Out of 100 people who worked with me 9 years as far as I know only 3 are still in the industry.

Energyman_2

Lakey38 wrote: »

Had an "interesting" experience today with a southern electric doorstep saleman myself this afternoon, and also a hard time complaining about it..
I'm at home ill - so I was in bed and not expecting anyone when someone knocked the bejeezus out of my front door and I mean the kind of knock usually reserved for people trying to tell you your house is on fire or theyr'e about to be eaten by wild dogs.

So I rushed to the door thinking something really serious was up..only to find a bloke with a clip board who flashed a card at me and said his name so quickly I couldnt make out either...all I did get was that he was from the Southern electric in a town a few miles away and "my name had come up on a printout because I was paying too much for my..."

At which point I tried to stop him by telling him "I am very happy with my present suppliers, I'm not well and not in the mood, so please go away". He didn't - I couldn't shut the door in his face as it would have been that - literally in his face because he was right up to the door frame, his hands and clipboard technically in my hallway.

He kept on telling me I would be so much better off if I signed up, asking why I was happier with my present supplier etc...I kept telling him I was not interested.....for about five minutes or more..eventually I lost my rag and told him to "please p@ss off will you, I am not interested!" and I managed to close the door on him, only to be greated with a long barage of abuse through the glass, and a lot more offensive than anything I said to him!

I opened the door and asked him what he had just called me (The gist of which was that I am an particularly uninteligent example of sexually active female organs, described in three different ways,and I should go and try to mate with myself immediately..) he looked terrified ( I'm 6'3" and 18st) and quickly skulked off to the next house without answering!

..

Call the police and persist with your complaint - these a**holes need sorting out

dwez

We had a Southern Electric door-to-door salesman come November/December last year. Now we were with British Gas and on their fixed till 2010 deal from the first time they massively increased their charges and to stop the flood of people leaving tried this to keep them, which was us.

The advantage was that for a good few years we've dismissed cold-callers and phone things with the 'we're tied in till 2010' line. Of course I was dreading when that ended and suddenly we had to face charges some folks had been facing for years.

Anyway Mr SoutherElectric seemed genuine, he was nice, was not intimidating in any way and despite the wife's surprise at my going along with it we signed up. He'd showed we could save about £4 a month on electric and £8 a month on gas [or the other way around, I forget]. I'm pretty sure there was some mention of charges not going up and throughout he was looking at our last British Gas bill and so he knew how much we were using and what saving's his charge's would make. Of course he also pointed out we would have to pay a fee to leave the fixed British gas product but the savings we would make on the year would still be more than those charges.

Cut to today and we're being told that after our first quarter we're currently £294 behind on Electric and £156 on Gas. They want that money and they want to up the DD. We've only just cleared our overdraft with a HSBC loan, we can't afford £450 on top of energy bills we've already paid. The wife is furious that we switched, you know that look she'll be giving me, I can see it from work and it's 40 miles away from were we live!

Clearly there were some 'half-truths' in his sales patter but where do we stand? Can I argue that I was mis-sold the package, in a hope not to pay this £450? Is there anything I can do or should I just lick my wounds and fess up. Suffice to say I will be looking to move to a different energy supplier, although the wife is keen to go straight back to BG.

However BG still want some monies they say are outstanding though we requested a fully itemised bill before we would pay because their final amount seemed ridiculously large and we wanted to ensure it was correct. Strangely they've never sent it or requested the money since.

dwez

Just an update, Southern Electric admitted that the salesperson mis-sold us the product. They suggested if we approach British Gas they will reinstate us and SE will pass our custom back to them. I'm not entirely sure if they said they would drop the £450 outstanding, but as BG won't take us back on the Price Protection 2010 where we were paying something like
14p per unit 1st tier
6.5p per unit 2nd tier :shocked:

Not to mention the charge we had to pay to leave what I now realise was probably the best charges you can currently get, and would have been on till July next year. Well they can just sing for their payment because their blatant lies have cost me dearly. I can't believe I was so stupid. New unit price is

22p and 10.5p which is still cheaper than SE in the long term but what was I thinking :huh: BG will be laughing inside, they got the leaving fee and one of their customers onto a higher tariff, an expensive lesson learned.

dwez

More news, if you're interested. Sothern Electric sent us 2 cheques at the weekend refunding 4 months worth of payments for gas and electric. Which is great as we only made 3 months worth of payments.

It doesn't make up for the deal we lost out on but it goes some way to paying it back and we've had 3 months of utilities out of them n'all. As good a result as one can expect given the circumstance.

Canucklehead

Good afternoon: just been doorstepped by a very unpleasant young man from Southern Electric: I used my standard response to cold calling i.e I'm not interested in whatever it is you are selling or promoting but he was obviously unfamiliar with the EnergySure Code of Practice and was reluctant to leave my doorstep before spewing a torrent of abuse...so much for a quiet afternoon reading with no distractions:mad:

I contacted Southern Electric on 0800 048 3518 , reported him, requested a letter for a permanent record and asked for my address to be removed from their hit list.

Thank heavens for MPS and TPS...what we need now is a DPS;)

Canucklehead

markowen58

My advice is to interupt them and say you work for 'x supplier'.

It instantly implies you know what they can and cant do in terms of selling, you have a direct mechanism to report their abuse or activity for company reasons, that you know what the cheapest deal is or that at the very least you are with x supplier as you work for them and unlikely to shift.

granted I have the advantage of actually working for a supplier, but then I dont see the harm in lying to the them if you dont...

Canucklehead

markowen58 wrote: »

My advice is to interupt them and say you work for 'x supplier'.

It instantly implies you know what they can and cant do in terms of selling, you have a direct mechanism to report their abuse or activity for company reasons, that you know what the cheapest deal is or that at the very least you are with x supplier as you work for them and unlikely to shift.

granted I have the advantage of actually working for a supplier, but then I dont see the harm in lying to the them if you dont...

Good evening: the direct approach...'not interested...goodbye' suffices as I don't need to explain myself in any way, sort or form to a doorstepper...what he chose to do after the fact is a reflection on Southern Electric, in particular their hiring and training practices.

My actions will speak louder than the doorstepper's words;)

Canucklehead

freesha

This thread reminds me of a doorstep visit I had a year ago, hilarious.

It was late afternoon and I was doing my Davina McCall workout DVD thing on my trampoline when the doorbell went. I answered it to a woman peddling some energy company (can't remember which one).

She gave me a very strange look as I was obviously very sweaty and bright red and out of breath from my workout and asked me if I was ok.

"Fine thanks" I replied, "I've just been jumping on my trampoline".

She replied quick as a flash, very seriously but patronisingly "oh dear, are you trying to keep warm because you can't afford to put your heating on because your supplier is too expensive"!!!!

Was probably not the funniest story unless you were there but she sent me into hysterics with her reply. I mean, I know they have to have stock answers for people who don't want to switch but come on, it was July!!

Full marks for effort though, didn't manage to convinve me to switch :-D

alsmutko

We do - most of us - realise that the poor saps on the doorstep are only trying to earn a crust. Not a job I would ever want (I have done tele-sales, but only to registered customers) However. It's the way they do it (some of them).

When Mr salesman wasn't getting anywhere with me in selling another utility company he then asked to speak to my husband. At which point my politeness wore off completely and he was told to go forth and multiply.

It's not just doorstep sellers. My local shopping precinct often has whatever electricity or gas company there with a stand, trying to get people to switch suppliers. These people are so desparate, really. One young man chased after me when I said 'no thanks', shouting after me 'can you tell me who your current gas supplier is? How much do you pay?' but too late, I'd dashed into Next to get away from him. 'No' to them clearly means 'maybe yes if you're persistant'.

Which won't work with me either.

I've tries all sorts of answers to doorstep sellers (you can at least shut the door on them, on the street it's more tricky), including 'no thank you' and 'I've just switched and don't want to do it again anytime soon' , 'leave me some literature and I'll have a look and get back to you' or 'I work for N-power' (I don't). I would like to know how to stop them coming back at all.

But it's the lies and deceit that get me. Trying to make out that they are there due to a government scheme. That they are from your own supplier and only want to save you money. Even, on one occasion, that they were there to read the meter and then, having done that, telling me how we can save 'around £40 a month' which would be difficult as we are currently paying around £32!