The insider's story (NPower)

Member Name: Rogerbyname

Product:	NPower
Date:	27/06/07 (345 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's easy to join them

Disadvantages: It's very hard to leave - like checking in to the Hotel California

I have been an Npower customer in the past, and I should admit at this early stage that I used to work for them too, selling gas contracts door-to-door. Yes, I was one of those irritating and pushy hawkers.

In those days, the summer of '99, Npower was changing its identity from Calortex with whom I had had my own distateful experience. At the time there was much coverage in the press about mis-selling and abuse of vulnerable members of the public. And it is true that the occasional salesperson got sacked after letters of complaint reached the sales office.

It is useful to know a little of how the Npower operation works nationally. The people who come to your door are not employed by Npower, they are self-employed salespeople working from a central office which runs on commission-only payment. Incentives and promotion are offered to successful sellers. Promotion involves being given new recruits to train and promotion to Assistant Manager with the idea being that further promotion can be obtained should your team all meet certain targets. You can see then that there is extreme personal motivation to sell, sell, sell - and of course the temptation to step over the line is strong for some people.

Before inadvertently joining the sales team (which happened to be working at that time for Calortex) I had been mis-sold a gas contract myself. In those days, not long after de-regulation of the industry there were a bunch of new gas suppliers fighting it out to convert customers from the former nationalised provider British Gas. It was true then that the new providers offered cheaper prices as British Gas was capped high to promote competition. And if you wanted to save money, then yes it was a good deal. Now, several years on, most companies are scrapping in a much more competitive market, with the big suppliers now offering loyalty deals, or direct debit discounts. I was supsicious of the sales person who knocked on my door. Even after I compared prices I was reluctant to sign a contract there and then on the doorstep. However, he assured me that I could simply sign for a trial in which there would be a price comparison. I would stay with my current supplier but would receive a courtesy note from Calortex stating a price comparison. Well, that sounded good, so I gave him my name and address and signed up for that.

Only I didn't. He had conned me into signing the gas contract necessary for me to authorise Calortex to shift my supply from British Gas to them.

Coincidentally, I briefly worked with this same salesman when I started working for Calortex myself. Small place London!

Another little known fact about all of this is that the name on top of the bill has no relevance to your actual gas supply. This is still provided, as it always has been, by a former part of British Gas, now Transco. All that changing your supplier actually means is that you change the company who sends you a bill. If there is a company out there with low overheads (overseas call centre, few staff, low-skilled and low paid employees?) then their bills may well be cheaper. But perhaps there may be a knock-on effect in the quality of your service too. Don't be surprised.

For me, my brief association as a sales person for Calortex and Npower and as a customer did not last long. It was easy to walk out of the exploitative, low-paid and dead-end job selling for them. It was not so easy leaving them as a customer. It took about three months, plenty of time on the phone and several letters before they conceded defeat. There main reason for refusing me termination of supply contract with them was that there was a balance in arrears on the account. This was nonsense as I paid by direct debit and was ready to pay any outstanding balance. They then wrote to my proposed new supplier cancelling my rrequest to join them saying that I had agreed to stay with them for the same reason - or perhaps that I was a bad creditor. I was fortunate that at the same time there were some rumblings about consumer problems of this sort in parliament. Eventually they conceded defeat and let me leave. But the episode left a very bad taste in my mouth. From talking about my experiences to others, I learnt of many other people having bad experiences with them too.

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, I would not go back to this company, whether they were cheaper or not. Perhaps times have changed and they are now either more ethical, or more tightly regulated (Ofgas came after my experiences). But I cannot in all truth recommend them.

Summary: Spine chillingly bad