Its bad enough this ridiculous business of door-to-door sales-scammers, sorry, salesmen, coming around for whichever company wants to annoy you the most, insisting on seeing your bills for product X and trying to sign you up for some competitors’ offer, presumably one that gives them a commission on every customer converted.
More annoying, if anything, is when they are from a company that I already do business with, wanting to see my bills, which is information they already have. Today it was AGL, insistent and annoying enough that I sent the following to the AGL customer enquiries:
I am currently an AGL customer for both gas and electricity, yet today was visited by a door-to-door salesman purporting to be from AGL who demanded to see my bills as I qualified for some “special offer”. I tried to explain to him that if AGL was offering AGL customers special offers, then AGL already had access to my bills, but he was adamant that he was told to do this, albeit in almost unrecognisable English. I do not show my bills to anyone calling door to door. If I am eligible for his incomprehensible special offer, can you please provide details of what it was, and why you persist in harassing people at their door asking for information that you already have access to.
thank you,
I shall await their response with interest….
The worst culprits in my area seem to be AGL and Optus, but maybe I’m just not home when the other offenders get sent away.
Who knows what happens when at the households nearby where the occupants are either elderly Greek or young Chinese, the intersection of English language skills between them and the sales people must make for some interesting conversation.
There’s a national “Do Not Call” register for telemarketers, there are “No Advertising Material” stickers for mailboxes, both of these have some legislation backing them, time for the same thing for door-to-door canvassers, sales-bodies, charity collectors and assorted other annoyances.
Revisited: :
Thank you for using the AGL website to pass on your feedback to us regarding door knockers.
We value your suggestions and appreciate the time you have taken to raise this concern with us.
AGL can confirm we are able to offer you a 7% discount off your usage for both gas and electricity.
But of course no details on how they offer the discount, other than to “see our website” and a link to the root of the company site, not to any specific page or offer. Much hunting around the website and reading, adding up a years’ worth of bills — only the consumption mind you, all “service charges” excluded and I find I can save about $49 a year if we sign up with them for two years, and footnotes to say they can change the rates at any time so our discount could change. Hardly worth the bother is, it?
