Prepay Power

andrewbrowne

Hey everyone. Had a sales guy around this evening and was selling prepay power. Done my best to holding him off selling it to me as i hadnt much research done on its use or it pros and cons so on. He hooked me into it and im regretting it already. I used to have them in college and they were expensive which is all i have to go on which made me nervous about it originally anyway. Went through everything over the phone contract/agreement wise. They installation isn't due until the 21st January. Nothing has been done yet just my verbal agreement to it. I want it cancelled. I rang them right away this evening and told them my intentions but their cancellation team isnt around until 9am in the morning. Where do i stand contract wise

L1011

You have a cooling off period to cancel. They'll probably try offer you a voucher and don't be too surprised if the sales person comes back to try convince you again (they are on commission as the bulk of their earnings) - but unless you are in dire financial straits there are always better deals with post-pay providers and you can get a socket meter for 22 quid (or possibly less) and find out exactly what if anything is using lots of power.

andrewbrowne

Cheers. Yeah seemed keen to get the sale though alright. And like are any of the comments online true whereby people saying it ends up actually costing more through prepay (all things been equal of course) than it ever could with post pay. I've always heard mixed stuff about it anyway. Always one for a bargain but hell electricity isn't one to be messing around with. The grass mightn't be always greener on the other side is kinda what im saying

runawaybishop

andrewbrowne wrote: »

Cheers. Yeah seemed keen to get the sale though alright. And like are any of the comments online true whereby people saying it ends up actually costing more through prepay (all things been equal of course) than it ever could with post pay. I've always heard mixed stuff about it anyway. Always one for a bargain but hell electricity isn't one to be messing around with. The grass mightn't be always greener on the other side is kinda what im saying

Prepay powers unit cost is higher then the other providers

andrewbrowne

runawaybishop wrote: »

Prepay powers unit cost is higher then the other providers

That's the key bit, feel a bit silly right now it all sounded so good. No reason so for going prepay if for the same consumption, pay more. Also safe in the knowledge to land home from wherever the lights will still be on, topups and all that ####. TBH im not even going to give them the trial run

andrewbrowne

Just off phone now from cancelling. 12 month contract would be on me and i dont think im at the address for the time plus i told them had a bad experience in college with them, which was the truth. Their counter offer; 170 euro free credit, and also goes on to claim they have the cheapest unit rate on the market.

Still cancelled but overall im still dubious about them despite hearing above, just dont know what it is

whiskeyman

As mentioned above, there's a cooling off period from the point you are signed up. Pretty sure it's 14 days.
I presume by now you were able to phone to cancel the installation?

L1011

They absolutely do not have the cheapest unit rate on the market; and their standing charge is one of if not the highest, by quite a significant margin.

The 170 credit is more than I was expecting their retention offer to be, knew of people being offered 50 or maybe 100.

Watch out for the salesperson returning with a harder sell! Just tell them to go away if they do.

andrewbrowne

Yeah thought i heard the original sales guy other evening say that quite a bit that they were the cheapest unit rate on the market. #### them if that's the way they do business. Surely that's illegal then, false advertising or something. Not that I'm getting my knickers in a twist. Something's too good to be true and all that

L1011

The problem here is the CRU don't really care about enforcing rules. You'll be told to make a formal complaint to the company first, they will reply saying they "can't identify" who you were speaking to and that "it is not company policy to make these claims" and the CRU will accept that as the issue being solved.

Delta2113

Folks just had a Guy from Prepay Power knock into me to say they are doing some work in the area and not to worry my Electricity won't go off.

I thought it a bit strange but he showed me ID and did not try and sell to me.

Since when do they work on ESB Networks stuff?

Jim_Hodge

Delta2113 wrote: »

Folks just had a Guy from Prepay Power knock into me to say they are doing some work in the area and not to worry my Electricity won't go off.

I thought it a bit strange but he showed me ID and did not try and sell to me.

Since when do they work on ESB Networks stuff?

They don't. That was a strange comment for him to make.

L1011

They don't.

The issue here is that if you report him to the CRU, they'll say you have to report to Prepay. And if you report to them you'll get some nonsense apology about them being horrified / it not being their training / can't identify the agent. And they get away with continuing to do it.

Delta2113

Why did he bother knocking in. At most maybe a few houses are getting prepaid metres put in.
He said my Electricity won't go off.

Dropping a letter would make more sense in each house but the whole think makes no sense to me.

L1011

They need to seal the sale themselves to get commission, so a letter in the door is useless. They need to get confidence however they can before baffling someone in to signing up.

There is no use case where you should ever use PPP or Pinergy, anyway. Vastly dearer. If someone is actually in financial difficulty they can get a prepayment meter from their existing provider and pay normal rates.

Delta2113

Agree on all but the fact is that he was not trying to sell anything to me (unless he plans to come back).

I usually wave everybody away but just decided to open the door to him today.

L1011

He'll either be back or you interrupted his pitch too much

cml387

I have a simple rule, if I see a lanyard and a happy expression on anyone who comes to the door I close it immediately.

Mr E

They must be doing a push. I had one of them call to me on Wednesday. He said they were the lowest unit cost on the market and that I'd get €100 free credit. Told him that I never sign up to anything with door to door salesmen and I'd do some research.

You can pay money off your bill anytime you like.
Just set up your ESB bill on your online banking and transfer in 10/15 a week or what ever you want.
Prepay might have the lowest unit rate but you have to pay admin fees on top .
It's a scam that prays on the less well off.

johnire

I know Prepay Power use sales staff to canvass door to door. Does anyone know how much commission they get for each property that get to change to them? I’ve often wondered how much is it.