Bord Gais House calls

holy guacamole

Has anyone recently had Bord Gais representatives call to their house looking for you to make the 'switch'?

The reason I ask is I've just had the pleasure of them calling to my flat, which incidentally is an inside flat and shouldn't be accessible from the street, and I have to say that they seemed if not bogus then certainly fairly suspicious.

When I heard the knock outside I called out to ask who was there and received no response just further knocking. When I finally opened the door I was faced by a seemingly genuine Bord Gais rep who proceeded to inform me of why I should make the oft mentioned switch. As I wavered one of her colleagues arrived and hit me with endless figures and stats, all strengthening their claim.

When I said I was unsure as to whether I'd like to change and would prefer to think it over they got really pushy and said it'd only take 90 seconds, got to the stage where it didn't appear like they were willing to accept no for an answer. Eventually my girlfriend came to the door having listened to the whole thing and told them where to go (yes I need to grow a pair I know) and they meekly scurried off.

At no point had I ever considered leaving them into my flat and I'm still unsure as to whether they're fraudulent but the manner in which they approached their work was imo highly questionable and I wouldn't like to see how they'd deal with a frail old lady living on her own.

AdMMM

They're sales reps that "work" for third-party "sales and marketing" companies and are only paid by commission. They are genuine in their offer and what they have to sell but been found to tell lies in order to make sales.

The first girl that called to you was probably on their observational day which is what explains the seemingly more knowledgable person that intervened after a while. They'd be the person that has recruited the girl and they earn a % of the commission earned from the sale.

They got pushy because they only get paid if they make the sale. They probably have an entire neighbourhood to cover and won't have time to call back so if they don't get you to commit in the few minutes that you are there, they've lost the sale.

I remember someone called to our house last year and I told him that he had convinced me but I'd have to talk it over with the people I live with and would order it by phone later on. He nearly hit the roof and started spouting rubbish that the offer was only open until the end of the day and how he was able to offer a better discount. I just laughed him off my doorstep.

As a general rule of thumb, if a company (in this case Bord Gais) contracts out a third-party to sell products on commission, that commission is more than likely going to come out of your pocket rather than theirs e.g. you may have to pay an installation fee whereas if you ordered over phone it would be free.

If you are interested in the Bord Gais offer, I'd suggest you check out the Bord Gais website (and at the same time Airtricity would be worth a look too) to see the actual benefits of both services for yourself in black and what rather than hear twisted and selective words of a sales person who will happily lie to you to get their commission.

holy guacamole

Very interesting stuff AdMMM, more or less answered every query I had and explained why they were acting in such a pushy fashion.

I figured that somewhere along the line I would've found myself out of pocket because what they were saying was far too good to be true and in this life you get nothing for nothing.

I still find it staggering that Bord Gais can allow themselves to be associated with people who behave in this manner though and tbh it's put me off ever even considering making the switch if this is how they conduct themselves.

Great answer though cheers.

AdMMM

Most, if not all, of the utility companies are involved in this kind of door-to-door selling. There's quite a lot of savings to be made by changing to the likes of Airtricity (who ironically enough, called to my house this morning) and I wouldn't let the door-to-door aspect of their sales strategy to put you off from saving significant amounts of money!

Kracken

the best thing to do is contact the corporate head office to give a complaint, that way they can get something done