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Writer's pictureAlan Fung

Watch Out: Door-to-Door Jobs with Electricity suppliers and how painful is it to dealt with.

Hey guys! Sorry if I have been absent from posting for a while. I have been busy with the cold (hopefully not the Coronavirus) and doing a lot of job searching. During the job hunt I have also learned a couple of things along the way.


Anyway, onto the post.

Photo courtesy of Freeport News Network


Let's pretend that happened. Here's Marshall the salesperson, and a very skeptical old lady aware of what's going on with these kind of people.


(Marshall Knocks on the door)

Marshall-"Hey, how are you?" Susan-"Fine, what do you want?" Marshall-"Really quick, my name is Marshall stopping out with the energy company. It's cause.... (continues to say his pitch)"

Susan-"No, I see you guys a lot and I'M NOT REALLY INTERESTED GOODBYE!"


You have heard about the easy-to-hire jobs, like Door-to-door salespeople. You get them at your doorstep every day just like with Susan selling you basic stuff like Verizon, Comcast, and DirecTV those cable and satellite providers trying to tell you like "We are the best TV provider in the Boston Area" or some pitch similar to that one. This company basically sells third-part energy supplier to people who want to be "price-protected."


But, there is one company that I worked for that is completely different from selling internet, cable, and home phone service. That company is Boston Direct, which preys on recent college graduates to convince them, "Hey, we are a direct marketing firm working with customers to ensure we are able to build relationships with great people!"


To be quite honest, when I first started at that company, I first pitched on the how much people could save, because who doesn't want savings to be quite exact? People at first were sold on this great deal, but when we came back to the same areas in the next 4-8 months, people are fed up with us coming back to the same area. Some of the people that we have already signed up still have them, while others had a bad experience and went back to their original supplier, either Eversource and national grid. As I went back to the areas we have pitched before, the neighbors were getting more fed up with us for the most part. The only exception I would have made to this is when you are pitching in a ghetto neighborhood.


Just look at the reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed. I'll even give you guys a link for you to access the reviews (including mines, but I'm not telling you which one I wrote down on). Most of the helpful reviews that are found on Indeed and Glassdoor are negative reviews (reviews with 2 stars or less). Most of the people complain about having to do Door-to-door sales is because of the misleading job descriptions. They tell you its a marketing position for a marketing firm. You then go onto the website assuming it is a great marketing firm, but once you start working for them, you will find out that company is a total lie.


On indeed, most of the reviews are somewhat to not really that helpful to one review that is benefiting all job hunters from applying to the job.



Selling third-party electric and gas suppliers for homeowners isn't a new trend, this has been a trend that has been going on ever since Energy deregulation started over 20 years agoin 1997. Massachusetts has been deregulated since then, but little has been done to help customer save money from "skyrocketing" rates with Eversource and National Grid. Some state lawmakers and a couple of news outlets in Massachusetts such as The Boston Globe demand an end to energy deregulation.


I should've known how bad that company was when I realized I really needed a stable job. One factor that I should've realized were the bad paychecks, which came out usually at around $300-$400 each week, with higher pay on certain occasion. But at that point, this job wasn't going to be financially stable for me, especially after working 50 hours each week and not getting paid for the 10 hours. This could be due to pay being entirely on commission. In an interview, my interviewee said the pay would be $12/hour or commission. Don't be fooled by commission or base pay, everything is commission based. WHY? This company is based out of Cydcor (or THE DEVIL CORP), and preys on Recent College Grads as their target audience to work for their miserable, yet annoying corporations. Next time in What's Going on with Me, I will talk to you guys about Cydcor.


But, there is more. When you interview someone and they get accepted, from what I heard from the company you get paid a percentage of the person's production from last week. I find it kinda skeptical since this might be somewhat a pyramid scheme. Taking a small portion of someone's money is so STUPID! Really doesn't make any sense that nobody tells anyone, you crushed the field, now I'm gonna take a portion of your profit for myself.


Do yourself a favor and AVOID this company or any door-to-door related jobs at all costs. Before applying to a job you want such as a marketing job, read the reviews in addition to researching the company and the website. I'll explain that later on.

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