Add your feedback on energy supplier Powershop

fewkeste
fewkeste Posts: 534
First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker
Forumite
I'm just in the process of switching from Robin Hood Energy to Powershop and would like to receive feedback and comments about this new supplier. Apparently they are well established in Australia and New Zealand and are operating in the UK under the Npower licence at present.
«134567186

Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 178,076
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    Community Admin
    fewkeste wrote: »
    I'm just in the process of switching from Robin Hood Energy to Powershop and would like to receive feedback and comments about this new supplier. Apparently they are well established in Australia and New Zealand and are operating in the UK under the Npower licence at present.

    An interesting proposition which might suit some people who are happy just to buy energy as and when they need it. It does seem to be additional work for very little financial gain.

    Two downsides for me: one, it is a NPower franchise and, two, there seems to be implicit consent in the ts and cs for NPower to fit a smart meter.
  • fewkeste
    fewkeste Posts: 534
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    Hengus wrote: »
    Two downsides for me: one, it is a NPower franchise and, two, there seems to be implicit consent in the ts and cs for NPower to fit a smart meter.

    Thanks for your comments - I hadn't spotted that point about the smart meter in the T&Cs - I'll go and re-read the PDFs they sent me. Is that a bad thing? (a smart meter) - if so, can you expand on why that might be the case?
  • System
    System Posts: 178,076
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    Community Admin
    edited 21 April 2017 at 8:37PM
    fewkeste wrote: »
    Thanks for your comments - I hadn't spotted that point about the smart meter in the T&Cs - I'll go and re-read the PDFs they sent me. Is that a bad thing? (a smart meter) - if so, can you expand on why that might be the case?

    My mistake. A smart meter is not mandatory but they reserve the right to ask you to change your metering arrangements at your expense and they talk, in Clause 18, about the offer of a smart meter in the future. Unless you have one fitted, then I cannot see how the App will provide any meaningful information on your consumption unless you provide the supplier with daily meter readings.

    Hidden under the well-populated consumption graph:

    The illustration above is based on daily meter reads being uploaded into the app.

    There are pages on this forum about smart meters.
  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,583
    First Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Post
    Forumite
    Please, please dont start the Smart Metering stuff all over again.

    There are reams of it on the forum - it's worse than politics or religion when someone fires it into a thread just to see what happens
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • System
    System Posts: 178,076
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    Community Admin
    This thread piqued my interest. If Powershop UK intends to follow the Powershop NZ model, it would seem that some long-standing customers are starting to have reservations about the lack of price detail.

    https://en-gb.facebook.com/pg/powershop/reviews/
  • EachPenny
    EachPenny Posts: 12,239
    First Post Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    I was trying to understand the Powershop model earlier in responding to fewkeste's post on the smart meter thread.

    At first sight it looks like it is based on something like spot price/forward price buying, but digging deeper it feels more like the equivalent of buying a bundle on a payg mobile. You pay 'x' for this quantity of power. If you haven't purchased enough in advance you fall back onto the (probably higher) standard charges.

    In which case, I don't understand how day-by-day or even week-by-week consumption monitoring is relevant, other than predicting when you next need to purchase a 'bundle' by in order to avoid going onto the standard charges. The website suggests if you don't do meter readings yourself they will do them quarterly - which means a daily consumption figure becomes fairly meaningless.

    Now what would be interesting is if you could buy your power on a true hour-by-hour basis - maybe delay cooking dinner until 9 tonight because the Eastenders 'whodunnit' finishes at 8 and everybody else will be busy cooking and making cups of tea between 8 and 9. Or perhaps leaving the washing until tomorrow because today is extra cold and energy prices have peaked. I suspect this would be a niche market though as most people wouldn't have the time or flexibility to plan their energy consumption to buy at the low points. Far easier to let the energy companies worry about that and for the consumer to just shop around for the best average price.

    I will keep an eye on Powershop though and see how it develops.
    "In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"
  • KGriff
    KGriff Posts: 185 Forumite
    edited 22 April 2017 at 10:50PM
    I have just decided to give powershop a try as I find the concept quite interesting ... buying energy bundle 'offers' in advance... not least, as I prefer to be a small amount in credit with any energy company, because no matter what, in the end, any debt needs to be settled with the supplier eventually anyway.

    The only thing I'm not sure of, is how good the powershop discount bundles will eventually prove to be, or if I can choose to buy lots of 'advance' kilowatt hours at an offer price stated, or if the amount of kWh are restricted to a certain amount.

    I would even be happy to buy a years worth of electric, in advance, if the discount offer price was right... but I doubt that will be allowed... but I'm really interested to see the types of bundles and how much I may save/lose over the period of 1 year.

    I quite fancy the interaction too, via the powershop app, as it may encourage me to use less energy and to 'go green' which has to be a good thing, providing the advanced bundle prices prove worthwhile and attractive. I'm expecting some decent offers as the service is new to the UK and hopefully their aim will be to attract new customers with some shared talk about the discounted bundles.

    I'm looking forward to the powershop experience. I hope I can stay the course and save during the forthcoming year.

    As they say 'watch this space' and let's see what happens.
  • fewkeste
    fewkeste Posts: 534
    First Post Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    EachPenny wrote: »
    At first sight it looks like it is based on something like spot price/forward price buying, but digging deeper it feels more like the equivalent of buying a bundle on a payg mobile. You pay 'x' for this quantity of power. If you haven't purchased enough in advance you fall back onto the (probably higher) standard charges.

    In which case, I don't understand how day-by-day or even week-by-week consumption monitoring is relevant, other than predicting when you next need to purchase a 'bundle' by in order to avoid going onto the standard charges. The website suggests if you don't do meter readings yourself they will do them quarterly - which means a daily consumption figure becomes fairly meaningless.

    I found this on their website

    There are three different types of Powerpack:
    • Top Up Packs give you power to use immediately. These are tailored to your energy use and are always there for you to use as little or as often as you’d like.
    • Future Packs are full of power to use later, allowing you to budget ahead and spread the cost. If you’ve got a bit of cash now you can buy a pack for say 3 months’ time. You’ll get peace of mind, whilst saving yourself some money.
    • Special Packs offer you extra discounts off our standard prices. They’re surprising little special offers that we send through every now and again to put a smile on your face and a quid or two in your pocket.

    I think they need a more detailed view of energy usage so they can tailor the Powerpack offers to an individual's consumption.
  • EachPenny
    EachPenny Posts: 12,239
    First Post Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    edited 23 April 2017 at 5:37PM
    fewkeste wrote: »
    I think they need a more detailed view of energy usage so they can tailor the Powerpack offers to an individual's consumption.

    I might be wrong, but I think you're being a tad optimistic to think they will tailor offers to individuals in that way. More likely they will provide offers according to what they predict the market will do in the future.
    fewkeste wrote: »
    • Top Up Packs
    • Future Packs are full of power to use later, allowing you to budget ahead and spread the cost. If you’ve got a bit of cash now you can buy a pack for say 3 months’ time.

    What wasn't clear to me is if there are expiry dates on packs. The 'Future Pack' blurb suggests to me that if you buy a pack for 3 month's time you cannot use it until then. If they have a 'cannot use before' date then I'd be wary of them having a 'must use by' date too.

    That may make it difficult to benefit by buying a whole year's energy in advance at a low price point - I suspect the 'tailoring' of packs is to make sure you are only buying a month or two of usage to prevent customers from buying only when the packages are cheaper. But I might be wrong about that.

    It reminds me of when VAT was introduced on domestic fuel and people were able to buy gas and electric in advance to avoid paying the VAT later. However, helping customers beat VAT was one thing, if companies allow customers to buy in bulk just before a big price increase (given that increases these days tend to be double digit) then they are going to have to put some kind of limit on advance purchase otherwise they will rapidly go out of business.

    Hopefully when your account is up and running you'll be able to give us some feedback on how it works :)
    "In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"
  • System
    System Posts: 178,076
    Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    Community Admin
    As I posted above, this is what would worry me if Powershop UK intends to follow the NZ/AU model:

    Boooooooo! As per the other reviews. Powershop used to be great but the changes made to the app have ruined it. It's a very deceitful way of selling power when the unit price isn't displayed and we instead get "approximate $ per day" that's less accurate than the actual unit price! Especially for us seeing as our smart (dumb) meter doesn't get a signal and I have to manually enter our meter readings my $per day figures are not accurate! We will be looking at switching providers if this isn't resolved. It's such an untrustworthy way of selling it's like walking into the supermarket and seeing Banana's with a special sign saying "$0.50 cents a day"

    Source: Facebook NZ

    It also seems like a lot of work for no real saving compared to other deals on the market.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.2K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.8K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.3K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.4K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 606.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.7K Life & Family
  • 247.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards