The gas salesman always rings twice?
Yesterday evening we were expecting guests for dinner. We had
everything ready and set up in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. But
it was our guests out there, not quite yet. It was “Steve” from the Ontario Energy Savings Corp.
My wife had originally answered the door, while I was in the kitchen
considering to get the food going, since I thought out guests had
arrived. When I realized that there was someone else at the door, I
figured I’d join the conversation.
I started off by pointing at the “No Soliciting, please” sign on our
door, asking him if he had seen it. Yes, he had seen it, but he said
was not selling anything. He was just verifying our registration, which
would protect us from future gas rate increases. He actually asked to
see our gas bill to verify. I asked him why he was doing this on a
Sunday afternoon, to which he replied ‘when are most people home?’. Of
course he also used the ever so popular ‘your neighbours have already
been verified’.
I started smelling a rat (is that really the saying in English for ‘den
Braten riechen’?). So I asked him: So you are actually selling a fixed
rate natural gas plan, to which he replied “no, I am just verifying
your registration to protect you from future rate increases.
He did actually leave me his ‘independent agent’ name and ID, so I was
able to complain about the sales practises today. While I feel sort of
sorry for the people who fall for the promise of ‘easy money’ and
accept purely commission based positions such as his, I don’t really
feel sorry for his ignorance. I am was actually under the impression
that he didn’t really know himself how and what he was selling. The
constant use of certain ‘trained’ phrases supports this impression.
So if you live in Ontario and need to file a complaint with the Ontario Energy Board about sales practises such as this, you can give them a call at 1-877-632-2727 (toll-free)
or 416-314-2455. There’s also information on the Code of Conduct for Gas Marketers on their site.