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moneysense.ca, 28/08/08
This and That #107
- The big banks announced earnings this week but TD Bank was the only one to raise its dividend. Canadian Banks and Insurance blog has extensive coverage of earnings from our banks and insurance companies.
- The Dividend Guy discovers the joys of not checking how his portfolio is doing.
- Million Dollar Journey on the “pitfalls” of index investing. Ha!
- Four Pillars is holding a giant book giveaway (ends tomorrow).
- Being an engineer (we really take Dilbert’s maxim that “a well-dressed engineer has no credibility to heart”), I’ve never heard the expression “dark suit, grey suit and blue suit”. Thicken my Wallet applies it to personal finance.
- Preet continues his DFA series with an explanation of the CAPM theory and a slight problem with it.
- Money Grubbing Lawyer on five places not to scrimp and five places not to spend.
- Congratulations to Gail Vaz-Oxlade, whose Til Debt Do Us Part show has been nominated for a Gemini award.
- Ellen Roseman reveals a sleazy tactic employed by Direct Energy agents.
- Steadyhand’s Tom Bradley is the Dos Equis man of mutual funds.
Have a great weekend everyone! Regular programming will resume on Tuesday.
moneysense.ca, 28/08/08
When I hit the “publish” button on that post, I was very interested in reading your reaction CC.
Thanks for the mention CC – have a great long weekend!
Thanks for entering the giveaway!
Mike
I worked for a very short time (about one week) as an agent for an energy marketing company. I was annoyed by the script I was given to recite to potential customers. It didn’t involve overt, bald-faced lying, but it did present a spurious, emotion-manipulating argument as to why a person should buy gas at a fixed rate. In retrospect, I always thought it was a good product (and when you look at where energy prices went since 2004, the justification of fixing your gas price would seem even more compelling), but my stomach churned a little bit every time I recited that dumb script. It made me feel like a phony.
I only managed to sign one contract in the time that I did the job. I was never cut out for sales anyways. When I did the job, agents were paid a flat amount for each contract they signed (they don’t earn a salary or hourly wage). It doesn’t surprise me that sales agents would resort to misrepresentation in order to get business; though I wonder if the agents were actually lying, or just ignorant?
Energy contracts are usually a bad idea. Given that Enbridge sells gas at cost, and Direct Energy and their competitors need to make money to cover salaries and other expenses, plus turn a profit, it’s no wonder that those who stick with Enbridge usually end up ahead.
Couple that with their complete lack of customer service and shady sales practices, and this is one company that I’m going to stay far, far away from.
Robillard,
It’s interesting that you weren’t succesfull at the sales job AND were staying as honest as you could given the training/scripts you were provided. I would take a leap and say cause and effect are in play there. Glad you moved on.
An energy salesman showed up at my house while I was deployed overseas and got my wife to sign up. When I saw the details (all fine print) it was pretty ugly, including stiff penalties for cancelling and rates about 70% above current market. Luckily a posting to a different area cancelled the contract.
One of the interesting parts of the unbundling of natural gas sales here in BC was that the existing supplier was required to run ads stating ‘choice was good’ but were not allowed to advertise their market costs to allow a consumer to easily compare. Only now about a year later, are we hearing the ads that explain to consumers how the commodity pricing works. It appears that the energy resellers have been given an unfair entry into the marketplace.
The only thing we will sign at the door is delivery reciepts, and we only engage in phone solicitations if we initiate them!
DAvid
In addition to the points Ed makes, gas resellers probably buy natural gas contracts in the commodity markets and resell it to the customer at the profit. There is no reason to think that an average customer can make a better guess on the future prices of natural gas than the market. So, as long as a household can absorb any spike in heating costs, it is probably a good idea to stay away from energy contracts.
Thanks for the mention, CC!
Thanks sweetie!