I intend with these posts to document everything that happens in my work day and walk you through my day. I am hopeful that by showing everyone my way of working I will be given the opportunity by you, to organise your friends & families business energy contracts.

Please note all customers mentioned in this are real however their names have been changed in order to protect their identity. If you happen to read about yourself and are happy to be named then I can do so and will also attach your business information to your name.

Let Yesterday Begin – 19/09/2016

Monday started well, very well. Up from 6am, didn’t bother with a coffee, I was pumped. I’m hopeful that by waking up early and replying to all my emails, writing this blog post, doing some exercise and planning my day – I will be able to work more efficiently and be able to call all the people I have scheduled for that day.

Chris – Forgot Me Again

In 2014 it took me about twenty calls to sign up Chris, 2015 it took about twenty to thirty and this year I’ve called him fourteen times so far. I’m willing to call him another 20-30 times before I give up. Chris is lovely, he costs me 45 seconds a day so I don’t mind calling him. He only uses 3,200 kWh a year, so my commission is about £20 but who cares. I like the guy and I want to get him a better price. I don’t mind making £20 a year off Chris for the next ten years.

Bob – Oh Crap Erm!

You may remember Bob from Hamed Daily #2. He’s a fantastic guy. I hadn’t spoken to him since I messed up on the voicemail I left him a week ago. Thankfully this morning he picked up and he was delighted to hear from me. Thankfully he didn’t mention my awkward voicemail! I asked him how things were with his current supplier and he claimed they were really good, no issues at all. The only problem he’s had is that they’ve sent him a letter claiming that because he uses a low amount of energy, they want to change his tariff and break his contract – I’m not impressed. He’s now not sure if his contract finishes in January like it was supposed too or if he can leave them next month when they change his tariff. It’s something I’m not aware of so I promised that if he gets me back the letter of authority I would ask the question to see if he can leave sooner rather than later.

I then asked concerning his new contract and if he would allow me to get some prices for him again this year. Thankfully he agreed and I gave him a call back within 15 minutes with some prices. His current supplier refused to quote as his contract end date apparently was too far out.

Side Note: This is another boring tactic suppliers use in the hope that you would wait until right before your contract ends. This tactic works superbly firstly because if you wait until six or seven weeks before your contract ends, you may be busy doing other things, then forget about it and end up being rolled over for a further twelve months. The amount of customers I know that have fallen for this is ridiculous, I try to warn them but who am I? The second reason it works so well is that even if you don’t forget, by the time they give you your price, you have three weeks to deal with it so you feel the pressure. You think; “should I cancel my contract, go on out of contract, wait a week or two or just agree to renew with them?” Nine out of ten times, the person renews with their current supplier.

Returning back to Bob, I asked his opinion concerning a two or three-year contract as I had managed to get a price that was cheaper than what he was currently paying on a two-year deal but he requested the one-year deal, (which are most times cheaper.) Thankfully ten minutes later, Bob was a happy customer, I went through the verbal script with him and all was gravy. The only issue now is that as I’m writing this, Bob still hasn’t emailed me back a signed letter of authority. The problem with this is that I am unable to process the contract without a letter of authority, so now (7am Tuesday morning) if the prices I agreed with him change, then we’ll have to run through the verbal contract again.

Please, guys; as a request from all energy consultants – send us back a signed letter of authority ASAP. We can’t do anything without it!

Carl – I Love Pharmacies

Carl runs a small pharmacy in Wales, he’s a really nice guy – I know I say that about everyone but I do like the Welsh. I signed up one of Carl’s two meters eighteen months ago and truthfully I was supposed to call him back in May this year but I completely forgot. I spoke to him yesterday and he had no clue who I was but was cheerful buying diazepam 10mg none the less. After doing some story telling, he remembered or at least pretended to and I continued to try to establish his current situation. It appears he didn’t know much about the two contracts either so he may have been automatically renewed for both. The only way to know for sure would be to ask him for a bill, he said they’re at home and he’d be bringing them in on Tuesday so hopefully today goes well and we can get some clarity.

Mr Smith – “Never Call Us That Again”

The title of this post is regarding Mr Smith. He’s a great guy but accidentally, he’s fallen trap to the tricks of brokers. I quoted Mr Smith last week at 11.2 pence p/kWh for his electricity. Another broker has come along and quoted him 11.5 pence p/kWh for three years. Which sounds like a good deal but wait, it’s an annual price review contract. I mean it’s all in the name – Annual Price Review. Each year the company will send you a letter sixty days before your contract ends informing you what your new prices will be for the following twelve months. If you don’t say anything to them, they will automatically put you on those prices and if you find a better price, you can leave if you terminate your contract thirty days before your contract ends. Sounds familiar? Of course, it does because it’s just a one-year contract made to sound like a three year one.

Mr Smith isn’t the only one to fall for this contract, I’ve lost a few customers to this tactic. I did my best to explain this to Mr Smith but obviously he instead probably thought, Pssh Hamed you don’t know what you’re talking about. Regardless he’s a good lad, owns a launderette and is quite relaxed. He supports Bristol Rovers, who just recently got bought out by a Jordanian Billionaire. Obviously, he’s excited and hopes they’ll get to the Premier League, he even took a dig at my crappy team (Manchester United) – which they deserve since they’re performing horribly. We had a good chat about his football team and I made the unfortunate mistake of calling Bristol Rovers, “Bristol.” He then laughed and warned me; “Never call us that again, we are the Rovers! We all hate being called Bristol, it’s like calling Nottingham Forest, Nottingham.” I just laughed, football is indeed a funny game and us football fans are a little bit silly.

May – Tell Me More About You

I’ve been trying to pin May down and get her to look at my prices. Often the biggest misconception with my job is that most believe my job is to switch customers from one supplier to another. Now don’t get me wrong, that is 80% of what I do. However, there is still a big part of my job which just involves renewing customers with the same suppliers. May has been speaking to me for the last week constantly telling me she is happy with Npower and wants to stay with them.

Today she decided to have a bit of a rant about her water bill, she wanted me to get her a better deal on her water. It’s not a market I’m looking into right now so I said I couldn’t help. She then randomly decided to give me more attention and said: “Please tell me more about you, your company, I want to know how you are able to get a better price from Npower than what I’m paying.” I then realised she had actually checked my price and became excited. I asked her if she knew what she was paying so I could compare and work out her consumption. She said she would dig out a bill for me on Thursday so things are looking good with her.

Omar – No Bank Details

You may remember I worked until 8pm a week and a half ago with Omar to sort out his gas and electricity. Sadly lately it was a bit wasted because Omar didn’t have his bank details on him when we did the contract. As I only take peoples, account numbers and sort codes, I’m used to most people having them memorised. Omar rents out the restaurant so he wanted to use the bank details of the people he rents the restaurant out too which is fair enough. He had a few family problems and took ten days to send me the bank details. The prices changed massively over those ten days so now we will have to recontract him. The supplier we agreed for him to switch too, prices had gone up by about 3% and I also managed to get him prices from two other suppliers which was actually 3% cheaper than what we agreed. Obviously, I recommended switching to the other two suppliers instead. Now I’m just waiting on a response from him for what he wants to do.

Usually, I go out for a walk during the work day as a break but yesterday I ended up working straight through from 6am to 5pm. It was a fantastic day and I’m hoping for more of the same today.

Speak to you soon!

Hamed
0208 050 5456