Raise the Hammer

A blonde, brown-eyed youngish girl named Jennifer Schram came by my house tonight, trying to sign us up for a plan with Direct Energy. Of course, her spiel was misleading in that she wanted to see our bill to check that we're getting the savings we're supposed to, or something like that.

Basically it sounded like a misrepresentation; definitely, I thought on first listen that she was with our present utility. Only after I saw her name-card said "Direct Energy", and explained to her that we were with Union Gas and Horizon and NOT Direct Energy, did she stop trying to misrepresent herself.

And, of course, she couldn't leave an information brochure with us, when I asked; her job isn't to inform us about our choice for energy supply, but just to sign us up. She probably gets a per-sucker commission.

Why would anyone sign up for something just because somebody shows up at the door, anyway? It could cost them hundreds of dollars per year. I mean, it's not like Direct Energy gives you a guarantee that you'll save money with them. You can't even make an informed choice - why go ahead and make an uninformed one?

I would have loved to have broken through Jennifer Schram's spiel and talked to the person behind it; I would have asked her "So, why do you do this kind of shitty job? You know you're just trying to trick suckers into signing up for this company's plan. If it was my mother you were talking to, would you have any qualms about signing up a little old lady for some energy plan that she obviously won't see any savings from?"

Because, of course, that's the truth. My mother was suckered into a contract with Direct Energy before, and when we finally managed to get out of the contract, we found our gas bills were quite a bit less under the Union Gas floating rate. Oh, and this was in the middle of winter. When natural gas is supposed to be expensive. Interesting, eh?

But, there was no way I could have broken through. Jennifer Schram was a happy little salesbot, glad to do whatever it took to sucker me in. You won't find anyone more brainwashed even in North Korea. All she wanted to do was get her $10 per signup, or whatever she's paid for a finder's fee; she obviously didn't care that people were getting bilked out of a lot of money afterwards.

I didn't show her our bill; matter of fact, I remember when it was in the paper that several little old ladies had their signatures forged by door-to-door shysters once they saw the name on the bill. I wasn't going to give her the opportunity to commit fraud, even though I had her name. I don't know if she WOULD have committed fraud; but considering she did misrepresent herself as being with our utility and not with a reseller, and considering she's desperate enough to take a crappy job like this in the first place, who knows?

What really disconcerts me is that Jennifer Schram - I love repeating that name, and you'll see why below - possibly doesn't see herself doing anything wrong. All she's doing is signing people up for some plan that she herself can't guarantee will save anyone money.

And that's why I'm sending this out to anyone who cares. Posting it all around the local message boards.

If you know Jennifer Schram, please tell her your opinion about the job she's working at right now. Is she a good person to misrepresent herself and sign people up in a high-pressure sales pitch with no information to go on, just so she can take a bit of money home? How do her friends and relatives feel about her working high-pressure door-to-door sales?

Hopefully people reading this won't get suckered into this scummy Direct Energy door-to-door high-pressure "you-must-sign-this-minute" scheme. Hopefully, some people reading this will think twice about working at a per-lead scam that essentially attempts to defraud consumers. And hopefully Jennifer Schram will find a better job.