Contents page 1 — current page 2 the case grew — “In the electricity market is wild” On a page to read
Actually, Martin Baier is no one who can be easily mislead. The 70-Year-old lives in a neat terraced house in Essen, in the lovingly planted terrarium, he holds a few turtles. Agreements and exchange of letters, the former registered Manager of a time work company fine pinned neatly in folders, which he puts in his work room on the shelf. And yet it succeeded to a company in November, the life of Martin Baier mess up – by the same two electricity contracts and gas contract slipped, he didn’t actually have. Martin Baier says: “That was illegal!”
pushed current contracts are a growing Problem. A study of the project “market guardian energy suggests,” the consumer organizations from eight States have participated. They have studied how often people Call or home visit have changed their energy supplier, without you would have agreed to this. “The provider or intermediary before going, sometimes very brazenly,” says Barbara Saerbeck, a consultant in the project “market guardian energy” at the verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband. “Some people don’t indicate on the phone, in whose behalf you are calling.”
the has also experienced Baier. One Morning, I rang the doorbell and the phone, he says. The caller had asked him to call for reconciliation with their records the numbers on his power meter, and then warned that The electricity will soon be 19 percent more expensive, but you could make him a better offer. Three days later, he found three order confirmations of the company Mivolta from Gräfelfing in the letter box – a supply contract for its gas connection and two contracts for the supply of electricity, and for his private connection, and the connection in the stairwell of his house. “The name Mivolta I had never heard,” says Baier, “I was convinced that the lady in the job called my current supplier.”
A costly mistake, such as a table shows the Baier on the Computer has created: Each of the three new agreements was between 14 and 33 percent more expensive than the rates of its previous provider, on the year more than 500 Euro. Contract commitment: 24 months, with the possibility that prices will go up after twelve months even. Baier is sour. “Which would not be allowed to call, that was an illegal cold calls,” he says.
The so-called cold calling should be a thing of the past: The law against unfair competition prohibits companies, to advertising someone purposes call, if has not expressly consented. However, even if companies must fear since the year 2013 fines of up to 300,000 euros, are widely used for such “Cold Calls”, as the study of “market guardian energy”, the opinion research Institute Forsa, more than 10,000 consumers surveyed. After that it has experienced “good, every fourth German that he was contacted without his consent on the phone or at the front door and him products or services in the field of energy offered”.
Some sellers provide, you would be reporting on behalf of the German Federal network Agency calls
Some patients that they had been contacted in the past year, even several times; an indication that the Problem is aggravated. “So far, we knew of this practice, especially in the telecommunications area,” says consumer activist Saerbeck, “but the mesh is, apparently, arrived on the electricity and gas markets.”
This article dates back to the TIME no 51/2018. Here you can read the entire issue.
Who will be called, it is not rare, such as Baier, does not inform the caller not only wrong, but also pressurised. Also, the study of consumer advocates who have interviewed 1,000 of advertising call concerned consumers, once again, explicitly about their experiences. After that, 75 percent of the respondents did not perceive the conversation as pleasant, 58 percent complained that the interlocutor had not presented sufficient, almost 41 per cent felt under pressure, and 35 percent even downright deceived. “The unscrupulous advertiser to play with all the Tricks,” says an expert Saerbeck, “there is that, they are very friendly, and very demanding; in some cases they give the impression that they are independent energy consultants.” In one case, the caller would have set even the order of the Federal network Agency to call.
And, not infrequently, the unwanted calls to a new electricity or gas contract. That this is so easily possible, is a side-effect of the liberalisation on the energy market. She makes it to consumers easily, quickly and without a lot of paperwork to change your energy supplier if you discover a cheaper offer. The increased competition among the providers and makes for low prices. And actually, this works quite well: According to the Federal network Agency, around 4.7 million people alone have changed in the year 2017, the electricity supplier, and 1.5 million of their gas supplier. To switch, it is sufficient, for example, the new provider the name, address and the number of the electricity meter or the customer number of the previous supplier. Thus, the new supplier may terminate the old contract and with the supply begin. The Old provider has to check whether the new provider was really in charge of the termination of the old contract, the new provider must only provide to be in the possession of such power of attorney. A few data are sufficient and a contract is initiating a change.
