Hamed Daily #8 – I Worked!
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 to arrange 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 – 27/09/2016
Up from 6am, started working 7am, still recovering from my cold and sore throat – it was a morning of mixed feelings. Few teaspoons of honey & a coffee and I was ready to go. I’m really out to improve my own work rate, I’ve decided to push myself and the stats are going through the roof. Monday 27th of September was my best day on the phone since June and I’m glad.
No LOA
It took me over a week to get a signed letter of authority from Claire. She’s in charge of all the paperwork for two garages. Her bosses; Daniel & Dave are sound guys but their strength is fixing cars not chatting with me on the phone so whenever I try to speak to them about the energy they just fob me off. Thankfully Claire sent me the letter of authority yesterday so I was finally able to process the contract I did with her last week. The great thing about switching people to British Gas is the price very rarely changes more than once a month. Had the prices we agreed with her last week changed, Claire and I would have had to redo the contract on new prices.
I submitted everything to British Gas straight away and then got a very silly email. I had been sloppy when going over the prices with Claire. As she didn’t use any electricity at night I only spoke to her about the day rate and the standing charge, completely forgetting there was a night rate on her meter. When we did the verbal contract I forgot to mention the night rate and thus British Gas required I call Claire and confirm she’s still happy to proceed with the night rate.
As with all these problems, they are never quite as simple as they sound. I called the garage and Claire had gone home. Now I’m on the phone to Dave, who wants me off the phone as much as I want a chicken kebab. I decided to take a long shot and ask Dave if he’d allow me to confirm the new prices with him. To my surprise he agreed but persisted in saying numerous times, “Hamed, as long as it won’t cost me any more money and it’s exactly what ‘Claire’ agreed to – I’m happy.” Call recording done, Dave has me off the phone, British Gas are happy and I’m off the hook.
Omar & The Missing Bank Details
I’ve signed up Omar a few times now and unfortunately his situation is a very http://www.buyantibioticshere.com messy one. I have a good solution for him but he’s a busy guy and things do drag out quite a bit. Running a restaurant is no easy task and things have been difficult for him recently so I do my best to be understanding. I like to think of my job as understanding people’s problems and coming up with solutions.
Omar has had a lot of issues with his current supplier, he was even disconnected once, which as a restaurant can be disastrous. He’s currently paying off the debt with his supplier. They have accepted termination from him and we are hopeful his switch will be successful. Omar agreed on a deal with Scottish Power three weeks ago but as he took two weeks to send me the bank details the contract couldn’t be locked in so now the prices have changed.
We agreed to use a different company without credit issues and switch to Scottish Power and Gazprom but now we have the same issue as three weeks ago. I had to process the contract before midnight but Omar hasn’t sent me the bank details so now I’m just holding my breath hoping the prices don’t increase.
Quick tip: If you’re in debt with your supplier, nine times out of ten, your supplier will tell you you’re not allowed to switch supplier. This technically isn’t true. In most cases, if you agree to set up a repayment plan with your supplier’s debt team, for example; twelve monthly instalments of £400, they will allow you to switch to a new supplier as long as you agree to continue repaying them after you switch. I would not advise cancelling the repayment plan thereafter as the debt collection process can get messy from then on and its just not worth it.
Adam & Credit Issues
Adam is a great guy, managed to save him a lot of money last year but this time, round it’s been in vain. His current supplier is offering stupid prices and every supplier I’ve moved him to has refused him due to credit score. He’s a recruitment consultant from home so he doesn’t have all the time in the world for me. I managed to sign him up with Gazprom on a truly fantastic gas price of 2.01 pence p/kWh. I was worried he would fail credit with them and he did.
These credit issues really can cause problems, thankfully there are some suppliers that will pretty much take on customers with any credit score. Npower & Opus are the shining stars when it comes to gloomy nights and gloomy credit scores. The price I got him off Npower wasn’t great, it was an extra £10 a month on top of what he paid for gas last year. It’s not great but its still cheaper than what most pay on a domestic tariff.
I’m confident Adam will pass credit with Npower so hopefully, he can stop focusing on all this energy stuff and concentrate on his business.
Time for me to go and focus on my business, its 9.30am and I’ve got work to do!
Hamed Adefuwa
