Ebico
Comments
-
Hi jrio,
Have you just switched to Ebico from a different company, or are you part of the 'internal' switch from Ebico/SSE to Ebico/RHE?
If the former, then can I ask why you chose Ebico? Was it because of the lower energy prices?Clearly they have nothing like enough staff to deal with demand
Did you do your research before switching - and see that Ebico are a very small company (which partly explains their low costs) and are in the middle of transferring thousands of customers from one supplier to another in a bureaucratic process imposed on them because 'their' customers are not really considered to be their customers by the system our energy supply operates under.
If longer hours of availability from call centres, or calls being answered within 5 seconds, or emails being replied to same day are important considerations, then there are plenty of other suppliers out there, but customers may have to pay more for those benefits.
That said, the Ebico call centre opening hours on the website don't seem to be correct when you try to call them. That is poor customer service. However, it is an 0800 number and there is a recorded message which does give the correct hours so you won't be left wondering why your call isn't being answered, and know when to call back - free of charge.
As per Dave's issue - presumably your lights are still working, your kettle still boils, you haven't been wrongly debited large amounts of money, you have a confirmed switching date... it might be a bit inconvenient not to be able to log on to your account, but what is the immediate problem?
A bit of inconvenience is nothing compared to saving a considerable amount of money on your energy bill - if that is why you switched to Ebico in the first place.
"In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"0 -
Hi jrio,
Have you just switched to Ebico from a different company, or are you part of the 'internal' switch from Ebico/SSE to Ebico/RHE?
If the former, then can I ask why you chose Ebico? Was it because of the lower energy prices?
Did you do your research before switching - and see that Ebico are a very small company (which partly explains their low costs) and are in the middle of transferring thousands of customers from one supplier to another in a bureaucratic process imposed on them because 'their' customers are not really considered to be their customers by the system our energy supply operates under.
If longer hours of availability from call centres, or calls being answered within 5 seconds, or emails being replied to same day are important considerations, then there are plenty of other suppliers out there, but customers may have to pay more for those benefits.
That said, the Ebico call centre opening hours on the website don't seem to be correct when you try to call them. That is poor customer service. However, it is an 0800 number and there is a recorded message which does give the correct hours so you won't be left wondering why your call isn't being answered, and know when to call back - free of charge.
As per Dave's issue - presumably your lights are still working, your kettle still boils, you haven't been wrongly debited large amounts of money, you have a confirmed switching date... it might be a bit inconvenient not to be able to log on to your account, but what is the immediate problem?
A bit of inconvenience is nothing compared to saving a considerable amount of money on your energy bill - if that is why you switched to Ebico in the first place.
The reason most people choose Ebico is because they have low consumption and the firm have a zero Daily Standing Charge.
They are also a 'not for profit' company, and don't?(didn't) penalise pre-pay and quarterly pay customers.
It is also pertinent to point out that their customer service was excellent, albeit because SSE handled the accounting.0 -
I email Ebico today to update my direct debit details, a simple query I thought.
I got a very quick responce (10mins) the email said it has noted the new bank details they said please confirm I was happy with the direct debit amount of XX per month.
I replied I had signed up to the quarterly direct debit (RH) tariff so XX was wrong.
After several more email back and forth, they seem to be telling me that they can't do quarterly direct debits.
One bizarre email said quarterly billing doesn't mean quarterly payments, which contricts the welcome pack that says DD will be taken 14days after the bill is produced.
Not sure if this is teething problems with the new RobinHood tariffs, or poorly trained staff.
Starting to wish I hadn't moved to Ebico.0 -
bubieyehyeh wrote: »I email Ebico today to update my direct debit details, a simple query I thought.
Other reports say there is nobody in the Ebico office on Saturdays, so maybe you were talking to someone at RHE?bubieyehyeh wrote: »...they seem to be telling me that they can't do quarterly direct debits.
They can and do. I asked for quarterly DD payments and that's what I got. I even get the direct debit discount, which I thought might be reserved for people paying monthly.bubieyehyeh wrote: »One bizarre email said quarterly billing doesn't mean quarterly payments...
I would LOVE to see that email
Are they saying you get a bill once a quarter but pay monthly? "In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"0 -
You have two DD options.
Fixed DD monthly.
Variable DD on receipt of bill. If you are on quarterly billing the latter can be quarterly.
Robin Hood's Ebico line is open 8am to 8pm weekdays and 9am until 5pm on Saturday. The Freephone number is on the Ebico site .
Its 0800 028 66990 -
I did wonder if I was communicating with RHE rather than Ebico, since RHE do fixed and variable DD, but always monthly DD.
This was a quote from the bizarre email from ebico....Please be advised that there is a difference between quarterly billing and quarterly payments.
Your billing package is set to be quarterly anniversary, meaning you will receive your bill on a quarterly basis, however, this does not mean that your payments will be taken quarterly as well.
I have set up your payment schedule at the amount of XX.00 per month, as our system, at the moment does not allow setting quarterly payments.
Good to hear the quarterly variable DD (which is a big reason I switched to Ebico) is possible. I suspected it was a staff training issue.
My latest email asked for the email to be reviewed by someone senior, so hopefully someone which sort it out on Monday.
0 -
bubieyehyeh wrote: »This was a quote from the bizarre email from ebico....
Given the Ebico office opening hours, and the confusion over monthly/quarterly billing and payment, I think it is likely the email was from RHE and not Ebico. As you say, RHE only do monthly DD so it is quite possible an RHE employee is familiar with monthly DD's and either didn't understand you were an Ebico customer or wasn't aware Ebico Zero allows pay-on-bill quarterly DD.
When I transferred to the new Ebico/RHE arrangement I selected monthly DD because I thought you had to to get the extra DD discount. When I phoned to confirm my switch date the Ebico CS person said they noticed I'd changed to monthly DD and was I aware I could still pay quarterly if I wanted to. So you should be Ok if you speak to Ebico.
Hopefully you'll be able to get it all sorted tomorrow."In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"0 -
bubieyehyeh wrote: »I did wonder if I was communicating with RHE rather than Ebico, ....
Surely the email you claim to have received states who it is from??? :huh:0 -
Surely the email you claim to have received states who it is from??? :huh:
Unfortunately life isn't that simple as an Ebico customer. Some functions such as billing are carried out by their 'supply partner' which is being changed to RHE. With their previous partner SSE some, but not all*, communications were branded as 'Ebico', generally by including the Ebico logo somewhere. So it isn't always obvious who sent a particular email or letter.
* E.g. a letter telling me my meter was due for exchange was branded SSE with no mention at all of Ebico."In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"0 -
Unfortunately life isn't that simple as an Ebico customer. Some functions such as billing are carried out by their 'supply partner' which is being changed to RHE. With their previous partner SSE some, but not all*, communications were branded as 'Ebico', generally by including the Ebico logo somewhere. So it isn't always obvious who sent a particular email or letter.
* E.g. a letter telling me my meter was due for exchange was branded SSE with no mention at all of Ebico.
Whenever I've received an email from Ebico, it always clearly stated who sent it by inclusion of their personal name at the bottom.
(personal emails only, not general ones such as newletters or order acknowledgements, but these clearly state they are from Ebico too )
There is (or certainly was until recently) only 7 employees at Ebico, and that included the directors.
Of course, the email address they use is usually a give away too
Other ways to identify who correspondence is from is by the address included.
It it's from Oxfordshire, its probably Ebico
If it's from Nottingham, its probably from RHE
If it's from Berkshire and/or has a return address on the envelope of Perth or Birmingham, it's probably from SSE
It's not rocket science. If you struggle with this simple principle, do not attempt to switch energy supplier as it will simply baffle you completely.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.1K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.2K Work, Benefits & Business
- 607.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173K Life & Family
- 247.8K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards