The doorbell sounded yesterday. My housemate answered and shouted up that it was for me. At the door was a man who stated, 'I'm from the local electricity company SSE, and I've come to do a rate check' (or words to that effect).

In the UK the electricity industry is divided into companies which own the wires (the DNO), and the retailers of electricity (the supplier). DNOs are a regulated monopoly, but each customer can choose their supplier.

The objection I have is that my caller was being a bit misleading to imply that it was a technical, statutory check that needed to be done, when really he was trying to get me switch supplier to SSE.