Dodgy doorstep sellers were issued a legal warning this week.Surrey Trading Standards successfully prosecuted the energy giantScottish and Southern Energy for misleading selling practices. Inshort, one of the company's salespeople knocked on doors with asheet of paper which he claimed showed that people were overpayingon their energy with a rival supplier. In fact the print-out showedno such thing.
"The seller didn't actually have a clue but the sales script wascleverly designed to put potential customers on the back foot and toopen the door to a sale," explains Steve Playle, the Surrey CountyCouncil trading standards officer who led the investigation. "Energysupply by the big six firms is obviously highly competitive but itis a complex market with hundreds of different tariffs that makemeaningful price comparisons quite difficult."
Unscrupulous salespeople often rely on bamboozling people withbogus facts and figures to scare them into signing up for what couldwell be a bad deal. Talking to people on their own doorstep oftencatches them unawares, and particularly forceful salesfolk canbadger people into buying something without them really realising.
You're never going to stop people trying to sell door-to-door butthere's a world of difference between some chancer trying to flog afew clothes pegs and a slick sales person tricking someone intosigning a deal which could leave them hundreds of pounds out ofpocket. The energy industry has been notorious for dubious salesever since deregulation meant that suppliers could compete againsteach other across the country.
"Misleading doorstep energy sales have been a nightmare forconsumers for years, leaving many switching to a worse energy deal,"according to Audrey Gallacher, head of energy at Consumer Focus."This verdict has revealed a deliberate tactic by SSE, not thebehaviour of a rogue salesperson. It should make all energycompanies look long and hard at how they sell on the doorstep. Ifthere is one thing that will drag the reputation of a company ormarket through the mud, it is deliberate and wilful mis-selling toconsumers."
And yet still it goes on although, to be fair to SSE, the mis-selling occurred in 2008 and 2009. The sentencing of the verdict inthe Guildford court will take place on 27 May, and is likely to seeSSE fined, according to Consumer Focus. Hopefully it will be asignificant amount, at least enough to send a clear warning to therest of the energy industry and others that use dubious doorstepsales tactics.
"Energy firms have had years to sort out this issue and yetconsumers are still misled and tricked on the doorstep," saysGallacher. "The verdict sends a clear message that they must cleanup their act on sales scripts and revise their pay and incentivessystem for salespeople to make sure that customers can rely on anhonest and fair service on the doorstep."
I'd like the Government to go further and ban doorstep selling ofcostly financial arrangements. Until that happens we must all bewary of that knock on the door.
GROUP BUYING SCHEMES are appearing on an almost daily basis, buttheir offers are increasingly looking less than attractive. The ideabehind the schemes is simple: they negotiate discounts withdifferent companies and suppliers in return for delivering hundredsof customers. All you do is sign up for the schemes and startreceiving daily emails offering half-price meals or other offers.
That all sounds good until you discover that your email inbox isfull of deals that actually aren't all that good. While it's easy tosimply delete them, they can quickly get annoying. So I wasinterested in an Advertising Standards Authority adjudicationpublished this week on one of the giants of the group buyingindustry, Groupon.
The firm, which has a global presence, published internet adswith unlikely offers. One stated: "All you can eat in London for 3,"while another featured "XXL - Bouquet of Flowers in London" andshowed a bouquet of roses with a price tag of "from 8".
The ASA concluded that the ads were misleading as such offersweren't available. Groupon has now withdrawn then, but the practiceis designed to persuade you to sign up for a service that may proveto be nothing more than an annoyance.
I'm reserving judgement on these schemes. We all like a bargain,but I suspect that many of the group buying schemes are simplyselling "discounts" on products and services that may otherwise behard to flog. I'd be interested to hear your experiences.
s.read@independent.co.uk
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