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About door-to-door sales and phone salesMany people switch retailer because a sales representative knocks on their door or phones and makes them an offer. That’s fine, if the deal offered suits you.
You can just say no though — the energy Marketing Code says a sales representative must leave a property or end a phone call immediately when asked.
If you do say yes to a sales representative from a different retailer, your account will be transferred to a new retailer and you’ll get your bills from that new retailer — some salespeople say your supplier won’t change, but that’s a reference to the distributor (which owns the poles and wires or pipes), not the retailer (which sends the bills).
If you have an account with one LPG retailer and seek to set up an account with another company, you need to terminate your initial arrangement with seven days notice so that the cylinder belonging to the initial retailer can be picked up.
A change of energy retailer can take several months — it usually occurs on the date of the next scheduled meter read (electricity meters are usually read every 3 months and gas meters every 2 months).
If you say yes, you have 10 business days to ‘cool-off’— this means you can change your mind within those 10 days and cancel the contract without penalty (if the contract involves a completely new connection, the cooling-off period is only five business days).
If you say yes to a door-to-door sales
representative, they must provide you with the contract terms and
conditions straight away.
If you say yes over the phone, the terms and conditions must be sent to
you within two business days — if you don’t get them until after the
cooling-off period has expired, phone the company to ask for more time
to cancel without a penalty.
Don’t feel pressured to agree on the spot — you’re entitled to take
time to consider your decision and read the information — in our
experience, it’s not ideal to agree straightaway then use the
cooling-off period to consider the material.
Your consent to transfer to another retailer must be explicit and
informed — and shown by your signature on a contract (for door-to-door
sales) or a voice recording (for phone sales) and kept by the energy
retailer.
Return to Switching energy retailer
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