Essentials Tarrif - Essentially a rip off!

neil9313

SwanJon wrote: »

Any particular reason? I'm not selling to anyone, nor can I gain in anyway if anyone follows my advice.

Don't see your employer in your profile though...

Im not giving advice, as per the rules you need to state yr interest! :money:

Cardew

neil9313 wrote: »

Well you really need to put this on yr profile, ie you work for BG. :rolleyes:

SwanJon has several times stated that he works for BG and as far as I am aware has always used his knowledge of BG and the energy supply industry for the benefit of people on this forum.

There are several Utility Company employees on this forum who do not put their occupation in their profile.

Similarly there are many contributors in the financial and holiday industry who contribute to those sections and do not put that they work for Barclays, BA etc in their profiles.

In fact if Swanjon(and the others) did put their occupation on their profile, any comments they make could be construed as Company Policy.

If I understand the rules of this site correctly, as long as the poster is not advertising their company they are allowed to comment as they wish. - the exception being Utility Warehouse because of the structure of that organisation.

Perhaps the Mods might like to comment on this point!

At this point I should make a declaration! I do not, and have not worked for any utility company in any capacity whatsoever!!!!

Smartmart

Personal interests aside, if someone phones up and is already on Click Energy 5 then they should be informed firstly that the Essentials Tariff is more expensive. That did not happen to myself. The operator did not know and agreed with me wrongly that their social tariff must be cheaper. I think this point has been made further back in the string but it is worth restating. The term "Standard Tariff" was not clearly understood by myself and is probably a common mistake. A simply paragraph on the website would clarify this.

SwanJon

I'm happy to agree that the agent you spoke to should have done a bit more checking into the prices. That said, there might be a time between now and April 2009 (when the essentials cap ends) that essentials will be cheaper than click.

IMO though I'd stick with click (but keep an eye on the prices, especially if a new click appears.

Cardew

Smartmart wrote: »

Personal interests aside, if someone phones up and is already on Click Energy 5 then they should be informed firstly that the Essentials Tariff is more expensive. That did not happen to myself. The operator did not know and agreed with me wrongly that their social tariff must be cheaper. I think this point has been made further back in the string but it is worth restating. The term "Standard Tariff" was not clearly understood by myself and is probably a common mistake. A simply paragraph on the website would clarify this.

I couldn't agree with you more.

However your case perfectly illustrates the problem when you have call centre staff on a commission/performance structured salary. Objective advice, which they obviously should give, means they lose money.

This is why they will also entice the naive with artificially low initial DD payments.

To be fair to BG, all the other companies and particularly the comparison sites, do exactly the same, and any company that didn't try to 'hoodwink, customers would lose a lot of custom.

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

I couldn't agree with you more.

However your case perfectly illustrates the problem when you have call centre staff on a commission/performance structured salary. Objective advice, which they obviously should give, means they lose money.

This is why they will also entice the naive with artificially low initial DD payments.

To be fair to BG, all the other companies and particularly the comparison sites, do exactly the same, and any company that didn't try to 'hoodwink, customers would lose a lot of custom.

This really is news to me! Are you saying the call centre actually profit from their sales?? If so, even more reason why the people on here who work for an energy company really should make readers aware of this by placing a statement in their sig.


As to your earlier point about people thinking it may be company policy it doesn't take a literary genius the like of Thomas Hardy to word it in such a way that it's entirely clear that what is said by the poster is in no way comapny policy, so hardly a huge hurdle to overcome.

1carminestocky

SwanJon wrote: »

I'm happy to agree that the agent you spoke to should have done a bit more checking into the prices. That said, there might be a time between now and April 2009 (when the essentials cap ends) that essentials will be cheaper than click.

IMO though I'd stick with click (but keep an eye on the prices, especially if a new click appears.

How about also checking the prices of other organisation's new tariffs?

Gavioli_UK

posting deleted

SwanJon

1carminestocky wrote: »

How about also checking the prices of other organisation's new tariffs?

Ok, let me rephrase - I'd stick with an online tariff.....

firsttimeholmes

Dear Miss Holmes,

Phil Bentley forwarded your e-mail to me recently and asked me to respond – I am Strategy Director of British Gas and wanted to personally respond to your concerns below.

Firstly I apologise for the clarity of the information you have been given and hope that your issues with British Gas have now been cleared up as I understand you have now been switched back to the Click 5 tariff. Your understanding of our tariff is correct and indeed Click 5 is currently cheaper than Essentials. It is certainly not our intention to confuse, and whilst the Click tariff is currently cheaper there is no guarantee that it would stay this way – prices for gas and electricity are subject to changes, but Essentials has been guaranteed at its current level until April 2009 and this is the advice you should have been given. This feedback has been given to the agents you spoke to and we will continue to improve our service over time.

Essentials is a tariff we launched 18 months ago and we are in the process of improving to give our customers who are claiming benefits both the lowest standard (offline) tariff and a whole raft of other advice and help to allow them to manage their fuel bills as efficiently as possible. In particular a guaranteed no price rise until April 2009 and an initiative to offer all our Essentials customers a free home energy audit to advise on insulation and other energy efficiency measures you could take to control your bills. It will also advise customers on the best (often free) deals on insulation and will be able to refer customers to an advisory service on maximising your income from the benefits system should you want to take up this offer. We feel that as a package this is the best mix of advice, help and assurance for our Essentials customers and is not available to Click customers. Customers are free to change tariffs and we try and make both our website and our customer service agents as clear about the options available and the terms and conditions of those tariffs as we can.

I have tried both your numbers on our system but both are not connecting I’m afraid – if you would prefer a conversation, or there is anything else I can do please let me know what number would be best for me to contact you on or feel free to e-mail me back.

Kind Regards

Oliver Kunc
Strategy Director, British Gas Residential