Energy Suppliers

robj20 said:
It's not, green sources cost more, so you have to pay more, fairly simple really.
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They don’t, wind power is THE cheapest form of new generation and that gap is getting wider all the time.

Bills are going up because a significant amount of our electricity still comes from gas fired stations and the price of gas is creeping up all the time (I know it has dipped at times but generally speaking).

The actual energy cost is only a proportion of your bill. The other reasons are that initiatives like smart meters, green deals, support for those on benefits and deals the government has made to get infrastructure built (Hinckley point C) with a guaranteed energy price above the market rate comes off your bill too. Distribution and management of the grid costs are only going to go up.
 
robj20 said:
It's not, green sources cost more, so you have to pay more, fairly simple really.
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I don't think it's that simple, because I receive the exact same thing (a kwh of electric or a kwh of gas) from the same central supply as everyone else. Green tariff or not.

Point being that I don't see why it's a consumer option/choice, green energy should be pushed centrally as it's far more efficient.

I am not against green energy and I think we should do more with it than we do, I just don't think green tariffs make sense from a consumer stand point.
 
I've just switched to Symbio

Unit rate 14.928
Standing charge 14.500

Locked in for 2 years with a £25 early exit fee.

Reviews don't look too promising regarding customer services and estimated bills but hopefully keeping on top of submitting meter reading everything will be fine
 
Someone like Avro not cheaper? 14.928 isn't that cheap for electric.

Tariff
Simple and SuperGlow
Type
Fixed
Electric Standing Charge
15.75p per day
Electric Unit Rate
13.65p per kWh
Gas Standing Charge
15.75p per day
Gas Unit Rate
2.40p per kWh
 
I recently switched from Bulb to Green.Energy because I was fed up with Bulb constantly getting my statements wrong and trying to overcharge me despite my account being in credit.

I just got my first statement Green and they’ve used an estimated reading instead of the reading I submitted, and subsequently over-estimated my gas usage by 175 units.

Seriously, what the **** is wrong with these companies? How can they all be so ****ing useless?

I now have to waste another 10 minutes of my life dealing with this **** due to someone else’s incompetence.

It really shouldn’t be this difficult. :mad:
 
Irish_Tom said:
I recently switched from Bulb to Green.Energy because I was fed up with Bulb constantly getting my statements wrong and trying to overcharge me despite my account being in credit.

I just got my first statement Green and they’ve used an estimated reading instead of the reading I submitted, and subsequently over-estimated my gas usage by 175 units.

Seriously, what the **** is wrong with these companies? How can they all be so ****ing useless?

I now have to waste another 10 minutes of my life dealing with this **** due to someone else’s incompetence.

It really shouldn’t be this difficult. :mad:
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You know that 175 units is like maybe £6 or so of gas? Also, its an estimated reading, they will probably apply the miss read to your account and credit the small difference...I wouldn't even bother ringing over that. Also, with Blub it was easy to just login to your account and change the direct debit amount, I often did this because referrals meant I had at one point like £450 or so credit.
 
Slade2 said:
You know that 175 units is like maybe £6 or so of gas? Also, its an estimated reading, they will probably apply the miss read to your account and credit the small difference...I wouldn't even bother ringing over that. Also, with Blub it was easy to just login to your account and change the direct debit amount, I often did this because referrals meant I had at one point like £450 or so credit.
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Firstly, it’s the principle — they had the actual readings so why did they use a (wildly inaccurate) estimate?

Secondly, you’re out by almost a factor of 10, it makes more like £50 difference.

Bulb’s ‘change my Direct Debit’ feature was great until they put a limit on how much you could reduce it to, which was still higher than I was willing to pay. I would then have to have an argument with customer services every time to get them to reduce it to an acceptable level.

What I can’t understand is we have the same data. I know how much energy I’m using, they know how much energy I’m using, so why do they insist on using some random estimate to double, or even triple, my ‘expected usage’ and then claim they need to increase my DD? I just got sick of it and, unfortunately, it looks like I could well have to deal with the same **** with Green.
 
Irish_Tom said:
Firstly, it’s the principle — they had the actual readings so why did they use a (wildly inaccurate) estimate?

Secondly, you’re out by almost a factor of 10, it makes more like £50 difference.

Bulb’s ‘change my Direct Debit’ feature was great until they put a limit on how much you could reduce it to, which was still higher than I was willing to pay. I would then have to have an argument with customer services every time to get them to reduce it to an acceptable level.

What I can’t understand is we have the same data. I know how much energy I’m using, they know how much energy I’m using, so why do they insist on using some random estimate to double, or even triple, my ‘expected usage’ and then claim they need to increase my DD? I just got sick of it and, unfortunately, it looks like I could well have to deal with the same **** with Green.
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Have you tried asking for variable payments. First thing I ask when I change most are happy to do it.
 
bloodiedathame said:
Because they like to spread the cost of your yearly usage over the year rather than pay for what you use exactly each month.
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robj20 said:
Have you tried asking for variable payments. First thing I ask when I change most are happy to do it.
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I have no issue with an average figure spread out across the year, paying more than I use in the summer to equal out in the winter.

The issue I had with Bulb is them claiming the DD needed to double based on their projections, when their projections bear no relation to my actual usage, as shown by two years of metre readings that both of us have access to. And then, when I finally got them to concede that their projections were wrong and the put my DD back to a reasonable level, they did exactly the same thing the next month.

As for variable payments, that wouldn’t help in the case of my latest issue with Green as they would have just taken an extra £50 based on an erroneous estimated statement even though I had submitted a reading on the day they asked for it.
 
I had issues with meter values when swapping from SP to Avro, for some reason Avro were using an estimate from somewhere, rather than the values I gave SP on the last day of being with them.

In addition, SP accepted Avros idea of the estimate, even though I gave SP the actual ones. Avro didn't ask for me for opening ones either which didn't help.

Wound up being underbilled by SP and overbilled by Avro as a result, bit of a mess to sort out, but in the end I got some cash off my final bill with SP as they were billing me based off some fictional values.

I'm now in credit with Avro for about £100 so I need to see about getting that back off them!
 
I just don't get where all this nonsense of fixed monthly payments came from. Clever of the energy companies they must make a decent profit on any interest.
So glad octopus just take what I owe each month so my account is always at £0.
 
robj20 said:
I just don't get where all this nonsense of fixed monthly payments came from. Clever of the energy companies they must make a decent profit on any interest.
So glad octopus just take what I owe each month so my account is always at £0.
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It's a good question, I've always paid my suppliers the same monthly DD, trying and guess where my average is expected to be over the year. Overpay in summer, underpay in winter. I've usually wound up owing them a bit so don't have balances sat in credit.

But with the new smart meters and things it's not really a big deal to issue them monthly readings, and as such estimated billing or averaging should be a thing of the past really.

May look into asking them just to take what is owed, but it's much of a muchness as long as I am not building up a large credit.
 
I just don't like the principle of it, why should they have even £10 of my money if it isn't owed when I could keep it.
A while ago I had a huge £400+ credit with eon I think it was it was silly they just wouldn't set my direct debit at something sensible.
Plus as soon as a contact is up I like to be able to cancel the direct debit.
 
I’ve had smart meters installed through Bulb, my account is now £250 in credit because they keep having issues taking automatic meter readings.

Also I’ve consistently been using around £35 worth of gas and electric a month, they tried to change my direct debit to £75 last week, more than double what I’ve been using.
 
Never had any issues with Bulb. They read my smart meter with no issues an my DD is what I have set it at and never had them try and change it.
 
Octopus get slated and possibly rightly so, but I've not had a bad experience with them since joining. Sensible dashboard, a free monthly lottery to win some amount of money (£1 to £512, IIRC) simply for submitting a meter reading, and the tariffs are sensibly priced and explained.

A couple of referrals can make a big difference to both people's bills. ;-)

If I was a heavier leccy user (e-car or big white goods user / local battery storage) I'd probably benefit quite a bit more from their EV or Agile tariffs.
 
~cw said:
Octopus get slated and possibly rightly so, but I've not had a bad experience with them since joining. Sensible dashboard, a free monthly lottery to win some amount of money (£1 to £512, IIRC) simply for submitting a meter reading, and the tariffs are sensibly priced and explained.

A couple of referrals can make a big difference to both people's bill. ;-)

If I was a heavier leccy user (e-car or big white goods user / local battery storage) I'd probably benefit quite a bit more from their EV or Agile tariffs.
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They get slated?
 
Yeah, some issues with SMETS2 fittings early on (though they did a lot of investigation into SMETS2 problems and identified a cause with the method of QC testing! which they blogged about). Apparently some trials with some customers getting decent customer service and meter-related stuff sorted.

I've personally never had an issue, but I've never needed a smart meter or any meter-related work doing. Tariff I'm on is fine, no exit penalties on their fixed terms. I've heard of billing issues for some people who've moved (or moved out). I've also read about some issues with getting service at very new builds.

Customer service seems to be suffering during lockdown1&2, fortunately I've not needed to talk to a human. In the past they've been very responsive and added me and SO on to the account with our emails so we both get account related info.
 
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