Shortly after I posted my piece on AGL’s marketing tactics, I received a call from an AGL marketing rep. He was able to explain why my original cold caller had gotten it so badly wrong, and that AGL wasn’t out to deceive customers. Essentially, the system had broken down within the call centre, and the agent thought I was in a different distribution area than the one I actually live in. Had I been in the other distribution area, the rate offered would have been a discount on my current rate. There were a few other mitigating factors as well, and the AGL rep was upfront in acknowledging the mistake was entirely AGL’s. He also said the system would be fixed so this wouldn’t occur again.
I was quite satisfied with this response, and I do intend to withdraw my complaint to the ACCC should the regulator ever work it’s way through the list to my complaint. Nonetheless, the whole episode has fruitfully highlighted the practices at work inside AGL and presumably many of Australia’s other energy retailers.
For the record, I wasn’t asked to make any corrections or changes to my original post (and I don’t intend to, except to note the existence of this post) but I am quite happy to provide this update as I said I would. This perhaps ought to be a good lesson for any company that finds itself on the wrong side of a keyboard warrior – apologise profusely and explain openly and you’ll probably get some good press out of it.
