Gas salesman sacked over forgery
Energy firm Npower has sacked one of its sales advisors after a widow complained her dead husband’s signature had been forged.
He was dismissed after the company investigated a forgery of John Sykes’ signature some months after his death.
Taken from the BBC News.
I think I wrote a few months back that something similar happened to me. All of a sudden I get a letter from British Gas saying that they are sorry to see me leaving. That was the first I knew about it. And as it happens, it was to Npower that I was allegedly going to. I think at the time Npower would have been the cheaper option, but I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole after that incident. Obviously it is down to shady individuals like this salesman, but I can bet there is a whole culture of this type of behavior. Seeing as I am in the south, and this occurred in the north, it is probably something that is discussed at some shady salesman school. Each salesman have a number of targets to reach, and going through the telephone book and selecting random names, forging a few signatures is a good way to do it. The welcoming letter from Npower merely states welcome to your new lower bills with Npower. It doesn’t make too much of the fact that you have left British Gas, it places the emphasis on the savings on purpose in my opinion.
Rather than just sack this salesman, the industry watchdog needs to take a look at the complete picture. There are probably 1000’s of people who have had their supplies switched without their knowledge. At the end of the day they are probably better off, but it is still underhand and illegal. If I were British Gas for example, I would send a letter to all the people who have left and ask them to verify that they requested the move. Not asking them to come back, but simply asking them to verify that they initiated the change over. The fact that someone is forging my signature is the part that gets my goat up.
