Who is calling me?

I would like to think that the majority of energy consultants act in a professional manor. Unfortunately, as the years go by, I am finding this to be far from the truth. The one common complaint I am receiving from our clients is the drastic increase in the number of cold calls from energy brokers. Before I get into how to stop this, first let me tell you some of the dangers of engaging with these “rogue” brokers that may be contacting you, and some of the deceptive practices they are using.

The majority of these brokers are attempting to win your business, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is the manner in which they are doing this that is the real problem. Here are just a few of the different methods that some of our clients have reported to us:

  • Broker pretending to be the supplier.
  • Broker pretending to be the their existing broker calling to renew contract.
  • High pressure sales tactics attempting to verbally agree a contract.
  • Doctoring a recorded phone call in order to pass it off as a verbally agreed contract.
  • Attempting to extract sensitive company information and current contract details.

We have had a number of business customers duped by these tactics and ended up on very expensive contracts that were nearly impossible to get out of, so please beware!

In order to protect yourself, we recommend all business owners sign up with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). What exactly is the role of TPS? It’s the official register in which you can log your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls, aka “cold calls”. It is a legal requirement that all organisations not make such cold calls to businesses registered with the TPS without their consent. Once registered this should stop the bulk of the pesky calls that you may be receiving. Unfortunately there are still a number of unscrupulous brokers that throw the rules out the window and still call you. Simply informing them that you are on the “do not call list” with the TPS and you intend on reporting them will get them to leave you alone very quickly!

If you find yourself at the receiving end of one of these phone calls and feel that some of these illegal tactics are being used, please report them to the Utilities Intermediaries Association or directly CONTACT US at Direct Power to see if there is anything we can do to help out.

Check with us before being duped by cold callers...