Thursday, 27th August, 2009
5:33 pm : Bizarre door-to-door tacticsI’ve just found this post I wrote after a rather odd visit from an npower salesperson last winter, so thought I may as well publish it. I’d managed to live in my previoous flat for about 18 months without a single person knocking on my door trying to sell me anything, so I was surprised to get a visit from this lady - at 7:30 on a dark weeknight. I was so surprised, in fact, that I gave her 5 minutes to tell me what she had to say. On my doorstep, of course.
Now, I don’t have much experience of such unsolicited visits, so I’m unfamilair with their tactics, but I was expecting some sort of sales spiel, a leaflet so I would remember what she said, and maybe a few special offers when I seemed unconvinced. Admittedly TV has made me naturally suspicious of utility companies, but I was surprised when it didn’t pan out like that.
After telling me that I was surprised at how much my recent energy bill was (was I?), especially as it was more than my previous bill (really? she knows more than I do!), how I could get the same electricity in the wires (!), and the same gas in the pipes (!) for less, she was insistent on asking to see my current bills. I said no, and as I was getting cold by now so cut to the chase and asked what her prices were - she just reeled it off the top of her head - 14.4p/kWh electricity and 2.3p/kWh gas (I think), with a £100 present for signing up for dual fuel. I think she also recited my current energy providers tariff, no idea if she was right or wrong.
I had no idea if that was a good deal or not, although £100 is 2-3 months energy usage for me, so I was interested. But she didn’t have any literature, so how would I remember all that? (I actually remembered by not listening to the rest of the conversation). She started saying that npower would send me a bill, as well as the bill I would get from my current utility company, and I could compare them. At that I decided I wasn’t interested and told her so, and I didn’t want sending anything, and she seemed confused. So I thanked her and said goodbye.
Anyway, a slightly bizarre conversation. I’m guessing she really wanted to come in, have a cup of tea, and have a good nose around in my household bills drawer. So maybe she was just freestlying after I wasn’t interested in that but let her continue talking. I’ll certainly think about changing electricity and gas provider once energy prices have settled, but I can do that on my own thankyou.
