Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The phone rings at 12:30 am

"Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"When you write a cheque, you put the person's name in the "Pay to the Order to" line, right?
"Uh huh."
"And the line under that? You write out the amount in words, right?"
"Right."
"I thought so. Bye."
"Bye."

He was writing his rent cheque. Either 25 days late or 6 days early. I'm guessing the former.

He just got a Visa card yesterday.
I imagine we'll have a few late night conversations about payment options in a few months.

Three things I'm thankful for:
1. Answered prayer.
2. Late night coversations in mini vans in coffee shop parking lots.
3. My job. I work for an awesome organization.

Question:

I had the most annoying fellow show up at my house tonight, selling me natural gas, at a rate higher than I am paying currently, but, with the assurance that Teresan's rate is going to skyrocket in the very near future and he is saving me money, lots of money, because this new rate will be locked for 5 years. He talked fast, with authority, and assumed I had been waiting for him to show up. His sales pitch was disturbing in its intensity and it wasn't until we were half way through filling out the forms that I began to get nervous about what exactly I was signing up for. Their schtick is: "Register now for a fixed price". "They" are: Wholesale Energy Group. Has anyone out there signed up for this protection against rising prices?
I have 10 days to cancel this contract. Should I?

As we were finishing up, he told me he was a TWU student and is a member at a church close by. He talked about the scandal of the pastor having an affair and how sad that was for him. He wondered if I had a husband. "No. No, I don't."
"You have kids?"
"Yup. Sons."
"Are you divorced?"
"Yep."
"Oh. Wha... That's too bad. It happens sometimes, I guess."
"Yeah, it does."
"But it works out OK, doesn't it?"
"Hmmm."
"Still divorce is sad, isn't it?"
"Uh huh."

He was possibly the nosiest door-to-door salesperson I have ever met.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

All door to door salespeople make me nervous. I think the theory behind it is there are a lot of lonely people out there who just want interaction, and they'll sign contracts in exchange for it...which is why seniors are so often taken advantage of.
But I don't know about Wholesale Energy.
And now I've made you even more nervous with my heresay.

Um. You really need to ask someone more qualified than me!

This is the danger of asking questions on the internet. Every moron with an opinion will tell you their ten cents.

I'll shut up now.

Have a good day Jane. :) S

Anonymous said...

We had someone from Wholesale Energy come to our door as well. He was VERY aggressive and almost sounded, at least initially, like he was from Terasen. My wise hubby said he needed to do his own checking about prices, etc. and found out that these guys are indeed higher priced than Terasen and are ripping people off. (Do a search on Terasengas.com - apparently there's some price comparisons for gas). Not only that, they are not following the 'rules' for offering a competative product. We reported them to the Better Business Bureau and did not sign up with them. There is no guarantee that they will necessarily be lower than Terasen in the future, plus they have no history that you can check on. I'd say get out of it, if you still can. Lots of luck. . .
Love your blog ~