Gateway Salesperson comes knocking at 8:15pm (sales, 2013, leasing)

[Jerseykids2011]

Is this strange: At 8:15pm we have a knock at the door. Mind you, it is the end of January and about 10 degrees outside. I answer the door and a lady wearing a blue jacket with the Gateway Logo is standing there. (Thursday night is our Family night and we are all watching a movie and eating popcorn when she came, so I explained that it was a very bad time.) The Gateway person said she will come back another time and I kindly said thank you, but that we are not interested in changing our Utilities. She replied : "You already have" and something about the whole neighborhood changing. Well, I am at the open door with the freezing air pouring in, so I just asked her to call or send info by mail, but that it was not a good time, and said bye, closing the door.
I hope I wasn't too rude, but I was freezing, didn't want to invite her in, and was not in a position to discuss her pitch in the freezing doorway.
Is this a "normal" Gateway sales approach, anyway- coming at 8:15pm in the dead of winter and not taking a polite "No thanks"... as well as falsely claiming that I changed my Utility Company (South Jersey Gas) in order to engage a potential coustomer..?

[NJGOAT]

Be careful. I have heard about people going around like this and whether they are actually from Gateway or another 'energy services' company, they are basically scamming people. The scam that I heard was that the person will offer to sign you up or claim that your "area is switching". They will then ask to see a copy of your recent gas or electric bill so that they can "calculate your savings". What they are doing is copying down the numbers off of the bill and then processing it as if you switched. There is surprisingly little proof these sales people need to provide that you wanted to switch. Just having your account numbers is apparently enough to swap you over. Once switched they make it hard to switch back to your regular utility.

[bellmark]

Where I live, door to door sales people are required to register with someone.. police maybe.

I'd consider reporting them

RE NJGOAT's comments

State proposes fines against four electricity suppliers accused of slamming. - Morning Call

[sj08054]

I had someone knocking on my door 2 weeks ago about solar power leasing. Spoke at the door where he tried to convince me that others in my neighborhood are on board and thinking of signing up. Asked me if he could come in to sit down and discuss savings. I asked for a brochure that he could leave with me to review. He said he doesn't have one.. what type of moron does he think I am?

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by bellmark

Where I live, door to door sales people are required to register with someone.. police maybe.

I'd consider reporting them

RE NJGOAT's comments

State proposes fines against four electricity suppliers accused of slamming. - Morning Call

Same thing in my town. They have to go to either the police station or municipal building and purchase a solicitation permit. That permit allows solicitation only on certain days at certain times. The police are quite open that if someone is soliciting outside of the appropriate time or without a permit (which they are supposed to have displayed on their person) or just generally "looks suspicious" you should call the police. There are routinely a couple of solicitors and companies listed in our "crime log". My favorite was the guy who tried to scam the police chief at his house into buying magazine subscriptions. I don't think that one ended well for him, lol.

[Jerseykids2011]

Originally Posted by NJGOAT

Same thing in my town. They have to go to either the police station or municipal building and purchase a solicitation permit. That permit allows solicitation only on certain days at certain times. The police are quite open that if someone is soliciting outside of the appropriate time or without a permit (which they are supposed to have displayed on their person) or just generally "looks suspicious" you should call the police. There are routinely a couple of solicitors and companies listed in our "crime log". My favorite was the guy who tried to scam the police chief at his house into buying magazine subscriptions. I don't think that one ended well for him, lol.

wow- I wonder if she went to my next door neighbor's house; he is a Township Police Officer!