british gas... why is it that....

whitewash

whitewash

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Yes
they insist of putting adverts on tv telling me how much i can save by doing this that and the other only to find that my gas and electric bill prices have gone up YET AGAIN...... if i could actually be bothered id change my supplier, but then im sure theres not enough in it to make it worthwhile
 
Yeah - that advert made me laugh aswell, talk about hypocrisy :cautious:

:)
 
Yeah, I know what you mean. I want some of that lovely clean Scottish Water too. If I change my supplier from Anglican Water (holy?) to Scottish stuff. will it come through my pipes so our appliances don't fur up? It's one huge political con to make it seem that all these previous monopolies were broken up.

But tell me this.... why was there only ONE Monopolies Commission? :LOL:
 
Warspite said:
Yeah - that advert made me laugh aswell, talk about hypocrisy :cautious:

:)
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they sent me a leaflet last week stating " energy prices rises. we want to make everything CLEAR"

yeh its ****ing clear thanks, im gonna have to skrimp even tighter from my £65 disposable income to ensure i can pay all my bills! *******s.....
 
British Gas are one of the most expensive gas suppliers of them all IIRC. Like you say, hypocrisy really.

I switched away from BG and powergen last year to EBICO (lowest for prepayment prices), and I'm more than happy.
 
British Gas send someone round to my place every month or so to try & convince me to change back to them (I'm with Scottish Power btw) I refuse to answer the door now as they don't understand "go away" "not interested" "happy as I am" etc but yesterday I had two salesmen from Scottish Power call on me :eek: who I tore into for not checking who their existing customers were already - ejits ... Paul ;)
 
YOu really should switch suppliers. British gas are the highest by far!! I was paying them 170 gbp a month!! I have switched to EDF and now I pay 85 gpb per month. Can you believe that! It cost me aver 1200 to heat my house last year (I have storage heaters) it was all of our holiday money!

Ok rant done.
 
Marcel said:
I switched away from BG and powergen last year to EBICO (lowest for prepayment prices), and I'm more than happy.
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Their prices just took a hike though Marcel, might be worth checking the situation again.

British Gas aren't always the most expensive either, dual fuel deals are, by and large, the wrong thing to do. It takes slightly more effort but you will normally be better off by having seperate deals for electricity and gas, especially if you're a higher user.
 
Darksaber said:
whitewash = www.uswitch.com - simple and easy to do. I switched to EDF like Renee and I think we pay £35 for the leccy and £15 for the gas.
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What you pay per month doesn't necessarily mean they're the cheapest though. Increases over the last 12 months have left thousands of people with unexpected arrears, especially if price rises happen to coincide with poorly estimated invoicing.
 
we've always been owed money at the end of the year but as you say the prices have gone up so we might get a nasty shock.

I've just uswitched myself again and it says I can save £90 a year again by switching, I'll see how the next few months worth of bills go first though.
 
dod said:
Their prices just took a hike though Marcel, might be worth checking the situation again.
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I did.

The problem is, I want to stay with a prepayment meter, which is where they all go horribly expensive (or dont do them at all), so EBICO is still working out the cheapest, even with the price hike :( Got me over a barrel really.
 
Be very wary of online comparison web sites. Think about how they are funded ;) Not all will advise you of the cheapest supplier but only the cheapest of those suppliers for whom they keep data. There used to be a couple of independant comparison web sites out there but I can't find one of them anymore. the other is engerylinx.

There is a far better and little known solution. A well kept secret you may say. All is about to be revealed ;)

Whitewash - you are with one of the most expensive suppliers and switching will be of benefit to you. The problem you have is that you don't want to switch to a supplier that, whilst significantly cheaper today, has been amongst the more expensive in the past and therefore, probably, will be again at some point in the future. What you need is a supplier that consistently gives good value and has a track record for doing so thereby giving customers peace of mind.

Keep watching ;)
 
2blue4u said:
Not all will advise you of the cheapest supplier but only the cheapest of those suppliers for whom they keep data.
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If you use one of the sites listed on the energywatch site they should be genuinely independent and provide a full comparison service. The whole market though is full of snake oil salesmen :bang:

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/links/index.asp#20
 
dod said:
If you use one of the sites listed on the energywatch site they should be genuinely independent and provide a full comparison service.
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Not so, I'm afraid. They can only provide a comparison between suppliers for whom they hold data. And (most) will only hold data on those suppliers that pay them. Some suppliers prefer to minimise tariffs instead.
 
It is true about the monthly bill and then oweing allot in the end, but I talked with EDF about this and I gave them the reading for our worse month (February) and all monthly bills are based off of that consumption. I only have electric which tends to be more but this year we are only going to heat the downstairs with the two fireplaces as storage heaters are just way to much to use!

Renee
 
2blue4u said:
Not so, I'm afraid. They can only provide a comparison between suppliers for whom they hold data. And (most) will only hold data on those suppliers that pay them. Some suppliers prefer to minimise tariffs instead.
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Sorry 2blue4u, they should be independent. If you know of anyone not following the requirements you should report them to energywatch, although they're as much good as the proverbial motorbike ashtray. The problem is the code is a bit slack. Most sites direct you towards the suppliers allowing online transfers (and consequently less administratively troublesome commissions), the information is normally there, you just need to dig a bit.

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/uploads/confidence_code.pdf

In practice I agree with you, I don't trust any of those sites at face value and I trust the suppliers even less.

Edit: here's the approved sites
http://www.energywatch.org.uk/help_and_advice/saving_money/price_comparison_services/index.asp
 
Watch out for Scottish Power's online account too. After a year we found out that despite submitting meter readings and email confirmation of them our DD amount wasn't changed to match the usage and we were £1500 in arrears.

Scottish Power said they only changed the DD amounts yearly yet the confirmation emails said the DD would be changed as and when necessary.

I since heard that Scottish Power were deliberately letting customers get into arrears so that they could stop their customers switching suppliers.
 
dod said:
Sorry 2blue4u, they should be independent.
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You would like to think so - especially as they are linked to by Energywatch. But why should they be independant? Most are commercial concerns and accept payment from suppliers. They're not going to list suppliers that don't pay them, are they?
 
So what you do is get as many comparisons as you can from all the services and choose from there.

Fact is though that you are not likely to save huge amounts of money if you do swap since all these suppliers have to make a profit. What swapping does is keep the suppliers on their toes which helps keep their prices lower than if we all just stayed put.
 
2blue4u said:
You would like to think so - especially as they are linked to by Energywatch. But why should they be independant? Most are commercial concerns and accept payment from suppliers. They're not going to list suppliers that don't pay them, are they?
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If they're on the energywatch list they have to, they may not make it easy to find the alternatives but they are normally there. Bear in mind that being listed is a huge marketing advantage, guarantees traffic and generates business. The domestic and small business markets are simply a low commission high numbers game.
 
pxl8 said:
Watch out for Scottish Power's online account too. After a year we found out that despite submitting meter readings and email confirmation of them our DD amount wasn't changed to match the usage and we were £1500 in arrears.

Scottish Power said they only changed the DD amounts yearly yet the confirmation emails said the DD would be changed as and when necessary.

I since heard that Scottish Power were deliberately letting customers get into arrears so that they could stop their customers switching suppliers.
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I'm sure I saw on a programme the other night that a woman got a complete refund for a similar thing.

Or was I dreaming....:thinking:
 
Brains said:
I'm sure I saw on a programme the other night that a woman got a complete refund for a similar thing.

Or was I dreaming....:thinking:
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We complained and went through energy watch but they don't have any teeth. We had, after all, used the gas & electric. I guess if Scottish Power had half decent CS they would have done something about it, or at least change their systems. I guess they've found a way to trap customers that's legal and that's all that matters :(
 
pxl8,

I can't speak for the electricity market, but I know with BT, we can't stop a customer leaving regardless if they have an unpaid bill or not...It seems a bit crazy that someone can run up a big bill and then skip to another company but thats what happens...And once they've switched, I can only imagine that getting them to pay their "old" bill is a nightmare...

regards,

Pete
 
Pete I think it's different with telephone suppliers.

I know you can't switch gas/elec suppliers if you're in debt with them.
At least that used to be the case.
I remember a supplier (forget exactly which one), cold called me at the door and as soon as he found out we were in debt with our current supplier, he couldn't get away fast enough, saying we couldn't switch until we were straight.... That was a few years ago though....
 
The debt thing is the best way to get rid of the cold callers.. every cloud ;)
 
The budget scheme can lead to a false sense of security for some. People will often ensure the supplier receives the meter readings and believes that this is sufficient. It usually was until about 18 months ago when energy prices started to go haywire. But nowadays the budget scheme has to be checked more frequently than the automatic annual review. Some suppliers will carry out an on-request review - the customer simply phones and asks for one.

It only takes some fairly simple arithmetic, and at least a years worth of previous bills, to work out if your budget scheme payments are keeping up with both consumption and tariff changes. But people lead busy lives, don't have the time to do this or don't retain their bills. Another problem is that many suppliers have confusing bills containing little useful information. I do know of one supplier that actually shows, on the bill, how the budget scheme is working and how far 'out of step' it has become.
 
Marcel,

We currently left suppliers in debt by about 140gbp we just had to set up a plan with them to have it paid off in 6 months in order to switch. Seems to me you should be able to do the same thing.

Renee
 
Suppliers can block a customer move to a new supplier if there is a dispute or an unpaid bill. Was the £140 'debt' just the final bill or the current state of a budget scheme? That would make it a part of a 'current' bill rather than an historical debt. If it was an historical debt and they agreed to a repayment plan knowing you were leaving then this is most unusual.
 
2blue4u said:
If it was an historical debt and they agreed to a repayment plan knowing you were leaving then this is most unusual.
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Virtually unheard of in fact ;) OFGEM is looking at removing debt as being a valid reason for blocking a transfer but I'm not convinced yet that it would actually be a good thing, or be in the customers' long term interests.
 
You are right 2blue it is not historical debt just the last bit we owed them when we left... Didn't realise there was a difference. Ignore me...
 
Yeah mine was an historical debt. We ran up a bit of a bill, and then had a prepayment meter put in, which was being used to pay off the old bill and pay for our gas at the same time.

I didn't want to switch at the time anyway, it's when 'switching' was relatively new, back 96/97 or so I think.

As it stands we switched last year to the cheapest, and we're away from BG and Powergen :D
 
Dod - Do you work in the Electricity or Gas Industry ?
 
SDK^ said:
Dod - Do you work in the Electricity or Gas Industry ?
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Worked with Scottish and Southern for 17 years and been consulting for last 7 years. Mainly industrial and large commercial stuff, the general public are a PITA to deal with :D
 
dod said:
Worked with Scottish and Southern for 17 years and been consulting for last 7 years. Mainly industrial and large commercial stuff, the general public are a PITA to deal with :D
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your telling me. i door knocked for southern electric and npower.
 
Ohh a pro on board :)

I buy around 7 million Kw a year of the bl**dy stuff, mainly through the IPE.
 
dod said:
Mainly industrial and large commercial stuff, the general public are a PITA to deal with :D
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I couldn't disagree more. I sell utilities to gen pub and thoroughly enjoy it. Far from being a PITA, most are happy to recommend me to their friends/family/colleagues whoever.


brummie said:
your telling me. i door knocked for southern electric and npower.
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I couldn't do that. cold calling takes a special kind of wierdo ;)
 
2blue4u said:
I sell utilities to gen pub and thoroughly enjoy it. Far from being a PITA, most are happy to recommend me to their friends/family/colleagues whoever.
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I'm being slightly tongue in cheek ;) But having spent years dealing with the domestic market there's no way I'd even consider taking our business down that route, too much hassle for the return you get on an individual basis.
 
Just look at Cable & Wireless not only did they get rid of all there domestics (bulldog) they even got rid of their small fry buisness accounts too (and a whole bunch of employees - me included).
 
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