Dear Airtricity,

Some evening during the week, one of your sales representatives rang my doorbell with a view to persuading me to change from my current electricity provider to you. I did not enjoy the experience.

I found it intimidating to be honest. Ultimately, while I recognise that Airtricity might be less expensive than my current provider – which is in fact ESB, the fact remains that I was so put off by the behaviour of your sales rep that I will not at any stage in the near future consider Airtricity as a possible electricity supplier.

Amongst the reasons that your representative gave me for signing up immediately on the basis of her say so as to what my saving would be was that if I were to choose to do so later at a time of my own choosing, such as after I had taken the time to properly check the savings you were offering me versus the reality of my own bills, it would take four to five weeks for Airtricity to get around to doing the switch over, whereas it would be much faster if I did it now. I am not sure how much faster it would be but that’s not the point. The points are this 1) I felt as though I were being bullied into making what is effectively a financial decision and 2) if you are not able to service a telephone or internet based sales request in under a month then I don’t have such a good impression of the efficiency of your company.

Despite replying several times that I would prefer to look at more detailed information on your own website and in my own time, your representative persisted in attempting to get me to sign up immediately. I realise that this is a sales rep’s  job; however, on this occasion, the attitude was such that I personally have decided that I have no interest at all in doing business with your company. There is another supplier besides the ESB and yourselves, after all.

I realise that you are up against it in terms of getting people to move from an incumbant near monopoly provider to yourselves. I have been an ESB customer for more than 10 years and while their service has had some lacunae on one occasion, I have not been subject to any poor attitude on the part of their staff. I found your sales agent overbearing and intimidating. The net result is that I am now set against moving to Airtricity as an energy supplier.

Best regards,

Windsandbreezes.