Consumers warned over door to door energy sales people
August 18, 2009 by admin
Filed under News, News Utilities
Consumers are being warned to watch out for door to door sales people that call around trying to get them to switch their gas and electricity suppliers.
According to officials this is not the way for consumers to get the best deals on their energy prices, and therefore they are advising consumers to avoid signing up to these deals simply because of hard core sales tactics from the sales people. Many energy firms send out sales people to call door to door during the summer months, as they hope to find more people at home.
The job of these sales people is to make the deals that their energy supplier is providing sound like the best ones, and to persuade the consumer to switch from their current supplier to a new one.
In some cases incentives may be offered for switching, but consumers may still end up getting a raw deal by signing up to these deals. According to the energy regulator Ofgem around 40 percent of consumers are persuaded to switch their supplier through this door to door sales technique, and often they miss out on better deals because of this.
Research has shown that the majority of those that switch following a call from a door to door sales person do not end up getting the best value prices on their energy deals.
In fact, the research found that the best value deal offered by door to door energy sales people was nearly £90 more expensive that the best value deal that could be found online, suggesting that consumers are better off using the Internet and comparison sites to get the best deal.
Tags: comparison, energy prices, energy supplier, research, energy salesmen, Technology Internet, cheaper deal online, door sales techniqueOne consumer said she had signed up after a door to door sales person had called but had then discovered from her friend that she could have got a far cheaper deal online.
She said: ‘I felt a bit silly I had signed up to switch on the doorstep rather than first checking out it was the best deal I could get. I went online and found an even cheaper deal – the British Gas online Websaver 3 tariff. It means that I will make a further saving of £5 a month.’
I once had a problem with those door to door salesmen. Until i came across an Australian site that sells “No selling” stickers. I purchased one and stuck it to my front door and havent had a problem with door-to-door solicitors since! Family and friends comment on it saying “Thats a great idea” and about its nice design. Just sharing my experiences.. check it out dontselltome.com im really pleased with the sticker, it worked for me.
There are indeed some interesting products out there to stop door to door salespeople. Knockstoppers are worth checking out and so are your local councils as they can sometimes give out free signage for your door!