Direct Energy Scam?

[onetwo_threefour]

I'm a little surprised at the emotional response in this thread, especially to my post. There is nothing inherently unethical about the negotiation tactic I described. You might even want to try it. When you go meet some guy to haggle for a used car, ask for a glass of water or if you can go inside to get out of the heat/cold while you talk. Your negotiating partner will most likely comply and you are actually making a more receptive bargaining partner. If you all think that is an unethical 'tactic' then I don't know what to tell you. Whether you then decide to lowball or somehow scam the guy is a totally separate issue.

I'm not defending scammers who switch services without consent, I'm saying that the reason those sales guys are walking around with sample bills taped to their clipboards is because it's a tool to help a barely trained, unskilled door-to-door salesman break the ice and get a potential customer to interact with them. The kids and barely employable schlubs they have out selling these contracts don't have the skillset to do it with out a crutch and a rote pitch they learn in their two hour training session.

As for 'who hasn't heard of this tactic?' You're making a mistake I've often made, overestimating the intelligence/awareness/knowledge of the average consumer. There are a lot of people who don't know that it's a tactic and that it works. I never claimed that it was an honest request to be able to compare the bill. The mere fact that the potential customer agrees to grab the bill is the tactic I'm talking about, whether the salesman even looks at it or not. I would argue that vast majority of people don't realize that this is a negotiating tactic all on its own.

I'm not offended by these companies/individuals who use this tactic to sell, although I find them just as annoying as anyone else. For the record I'm on variable/variable and don't give these guys the time of day.

I think 'taking the handgun to the bank' or 'give the girl a roofie' are both pretty hyperbolic comparisons.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by fotze

Its gets emotional because they have interrupted your life, they have come to your house. Others that come to your house are family and friends. We don't seek these people out. We didn't knock on Jim Henson's door to enquire about our gas rates. When someone knocks on your door, I guess a lot of of us feel that we are owed respect and honesty not tactics. You are opening your door to your home, there is a vulnerability there and there will be some protective instincts that kick in.

I bet these companies could actual add value and make sales if they were honest and didn't use tactics. These gas bills are hideous to look at. Spend some real time making a super clear concise bill that does not span 14 pages and then ask for the bill to compare how they look. Show that their billing is about honesty and what all those riders mean, etc. Get a graphic desgner to work on this bill to simplify it. Use this time to show the rate difference and how your company can actually be compared to the existing one.

Maybe these nozzles should spend less time wondering why these "tactics" evoke such strong emotional responses and recognize that coming to someones door DOES evoke strong responses and change things up. If your tactic consistently results in your employees crying on the job an average of every second worknight. Maybe its your tactics. Hoping people will 'just be nicer' is just time wasted. How people react is a known and it isn't changing.

This x1000.

A sales person comes to my home, uninvited, they not only waste my time attempting to sell me something I don't need, but they are dishonest & disrespectful in their approach.

The "live & let live" philosophy goes out the window the second I ask some one politely to leave my property (either by saying please leave, or no thanks) and they continue trying to sell me something. Once they've refused to stop with the sales pitch then as far as I'm concerned they deserve any and all verbal abuse until they leave.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by CedarMeter

A guy came to my house too. He wanted to look at my bill. I wanted to know if was a scam so I gave him the option of looking at my bill or my Wife's breast. He took the bill, right then and there I knew it was a scam. No guy takes bills over breasts. I told him to beat it!

Quoted for your wife's boobies.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by fotze

Its gets emotional because they have interrupted your life, they have come to your house. Others that come to your house are family and friends. We don't seek these people out. We didn't knock on Jim Henson's door to enquire about our gas rates. When someone knocks on your door, I guess a lot of of us feel that we are owed respect and honesty not tactics. You are opening your door to your home, there is a vulnerability there and there will be some protective instincts that kick in.

I think you are misunderstanding, the tactic he is talking about is asking for something minor before asking for something major.

It is pretty common and apparently works well.

The tactic of coming to someones house, lying to them about various things including the price of electricity or gas, how expensive it will be soon and how you will be better off to sign a contract for 5 years with a $1000 termination fee, and if they don't agree just taking the number from their bill and doing it for them anyway - that tactic is bull####.

[onetwo_threefour]

^ I'm on exactly the same page as you fotze, I detest pushy/deceitful marketing/sales in any form. When I go to a store I don't even want to talk to a staff member unless I seek one out. But rathji's right I was talking about asking for something small before asking for something big and discussing why that would have them asking for a bill to look at. All the other crap, including coming to my door in the first place pisses me off too. A lot of times I can be a little too good playing devil's advocate.

I hate the form of marketing and most of the tactics, I just thought that people were weirdly focused on the one particular tactic of asking to see your bill when there are far more objectionable things they could be or are doing at the same time. Probably wasn't clear from my posts.

[red sky]

Originally Posted by fotze

I am actually a real easy sale.

I think you get it from your mom's side

[red sky]

Wait, we are brothers?

[Minnie]

After not having them out and about in our neighborhood for a while, they were here last week. They came to the door and asked for my husband while I was out, and my son told them he wouldn't be home until later so the guy said he'd come back later. It happened to be a night my husband was working late, and the guy showed back up just as I was heading out again, in the early evening, and my husband still wasn't home.

He asked if my husband was home yet, I informed the guy he was not and then inquired as to what the guy wanted. He started off on his spiel and I just cut him off and said we weren't interested. "Oh but I need to speak to your husband about this..."

Uh no, dear, you don't. He has the same opinion as I do. He tried to get a bit pushy but I just told him to get off the property, reiterated that we weren't interested and if we were, we knew who to phone. "But, but, but..."

But nothing. Get off my driveway so I can back my car up. He left and we haven't heard from them since.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

I've dealt with these idiots recently too. I can't think of a worse sales tactic than a 20 year old door to door salesman who wouldn't know a thing about owning property trying to lecture me about fixed rates.

He would not take no for answer, "I just need your info to cross your name off the list so that we know you've been informed". I finally just told him to get off my property and closed the door in his face.

[dubc80]

I kind of wonder who takes these crappy door-to-door jobs. You must be really hurtin' for $$$ and must have no other options to take this on.

I can't imagine how crappy it must be to get up in the morning and all you have to look forward to is getting denied, have doors closed in your face, and getting told to SCRAM!

You'd think students would be able to find something better. New immigrants perhaps? But then again, they might be ESL and trying to sell something while ESL is a recipe for disaster.

Door-to-door is a tough job and in this day and age, probably shouldn't be a sales strategy anymore. Bottle drives for Scouts is maybe the only acceptable door-to-door approach.

I've known people who have volunteered and gone door-to-door for charity things like Easter Seals, STARS calendar, etc and even they get treated like crap sometimes.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by CedarMeter

A guy came to my house too. He wanted to look at my bill. I wanted to know if was a scam so I gave him the option of looking at my bill or my Wife's breast. He took the bill, right then and there I knew it was a scam. No guy takes bills over breasts. I told him to beat it!

Not sure if your tryin to tell a story or just bragging.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Not sure if your tryin to tell a story or just bragging.

More people should brag with pictures like that.

[Ironhorse]

Great, from the sounds of it my mom got sucked in by these idiots last week. Now I have to figure out how to undo the damage...

[Nammer403]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Great, from the sounds of it my mom got sucked in by these idiots last week. Now I have to figure out how to undo the damage...

I think you got 10 days to cancel!

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by onetwo_threefour

^ I'm on exactly the same page as you fotze, I detest pushy/deceitful marketing/sales in any form. When I go to a store I don't even want to talk to a staff member unless I seek one out. But rathji's right I was talking about asking for something small before asking for something big and discussing why that would have them asking for a bill to look at. All the other crap, including coming to my door in the first place pisses me off too. A lot of times I can be a little too good playing devil's advocate.

I hate the form of marketing and most of the tactics, I just thought that people were weirdly focused on the one particular tactic of asking to see your bill when there are far more objectionable things they could be or are doing at the same time. Probably wasn't clear from my posts.

Honestly it's the asking to see the bill as an opening statement. Like I haven't even agreed to discuss my energy supplier and their asking to see my bill. And the language they use is "I need" to see your bill, which makes it sound more like a demand/requirement then a request.

[V]

I must have had a bad DE sales guy today. I was grabbing something from the truck in my driveway when he showed up, he said "Hey" and I said "Not interested", then he says "I'm with Direct Energy", so I said, "Yeah, I gathered that from your Direct Energy shirt. Still not interested." So he just says "Okay" and walks away. That was disappointing. I wanted to use my "I work for EPCOR and know more about my energy bill than you ever will" line, but the conversation didn't get that far.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by dubc80

I kind of wonder who takes these crappy door-to-door jobs. You must be really hurtin' for $$$ and must have no other options to take this on.

I can't imagine how crappy it must be to get up in the morning and all you have to look forward to is getting denied, have doors closed in your face, and getting told to SCRAM!

You'd think students would be able to find something better. New immigrants perhaps? But then again, they might be ESL and trying to sell something while ESL is a recipe for disaster.

Door-to-door is a tough job and in this day and age, probably shouldn't be a sales strategy anymore. Bottle drives for Scouts is maybe the only acceptable door-to-door approach.

I've known people who have volunteered and gone door-to-door for charity things like Easter Seals, STARS calendar, etc and even they get treated like crap sometimes.

this is a little dramatic. It's just a guy at your door. You don't have to answer it. It's like when telephone marketer dudes call you, just don't answer or if you do hang up, who cares? If this is your big problem in life, I think you're doing alright.

When I cruised into this job I was pretty useless, didn't really care what I did at the time and was in university in full party mode, it paid decent, I didn't really care if doors got slammed in my face, and it wasn't near the apparent scammyness that seems to be prevalent as what's being reported here. Got to walk around outside all day, meet people. Not all people were stuck up jerks like you... it was actually a really fun job to be honest.

Originally Posted by V

I must have had a bad DE sales guy today. I was grabbing something from the truck in my driveway when he showed up, he said "Hey" and I said "Not interested", then he says "I'm with Direct Energy", so I said, "Yeah, I gathered that from your Direct Energy shirt. Still not interested." So he just says "Okay" and walks away. That was disappointing. I wanted to use my "I work for EPCOR and know more about my energy bill than you ever will" line, but the conversation didn't get that far.

One of the more hilarious times I remember walking along a route and seeing down the road some door-to-door Mormon dudes. Our paths were certain to cross. I wasn't particularly interested in their crap, and they weren't in mine, but we both heard the others' pitch on the sidewalk. Pretty hilarious having rival door-to-door sales people sell each other !@#$ neither wants.

Realistically though, if I ever heard a person say not interested, I'd move along, I wasn't really interested in pushing people, and funny enough it was usually when I just walked away the people came after me asking me what it was all about.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Great, from the sounds of it my mom got sucked in by these idiots last week. Now I have to figure out how to undo the damage...

That's not the only sucking your mom did last week.

LOL!!! Ironhorse's mom!

[Nage Waza]

I think the door to door sales people in this thread are forgetting that they are on our property and we don't want them there. I have yet to meet a person that wants people to ring their doorbell to try to sell them some useless product.

I am at home, I worked hard for my home - do not disturb me, period. My time is money.

I can't wait for there to be a ban on door to door sales people.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

I think the door to door sales people in this thread are forgetting that they are on our property and we don't want them there. I have yet to meet a person that wants people to ring their doorbell to try to sell them some useless product.

I am at home, I worked hard for my home - do not disturb me, period. My time is money.

Part of it is that we live in such a connected age - if we want useless ####, we know how to find it and buy it.

The door to door sales thing should have gone the way of the dinosaur by now. If I want to buy something, I know how to find that information and make the purchase myself. If I want to change my utilities, I can phone the company. I don't need nor do I want a door to door salesperson interrupting me at inconvenient times (typically, they show up at meal times) - it's the real life version of telemarketing.