New Gas Supplier Needed

Premier_2

1carminestocky wrote: »

...Any 'expert' worth their salt would also have logged in their memory bank the fact that Ebico have changed their policy with regard to price rises and now align more clearly with SSE. Plus, of course, past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

I'm not sure the OP is an expert, hence the question, and I'm certainly not, just a current customer of the company pleased to answer the question posed by the OP.

This is the statement you refer to, provided by Phil Levermore the MD of ebico in August 2007

At EBICo, in addition to ensuring that we offer the fairest electricity and gas prices in the UK, we’ve also always tried to keep our prices stable - overall that means cheaper - rather than constant changes in price which costs customers money. Over the past 4 years, on average our competitors have changed their prices 7 times – and most of those were increases. In the same period we’ve moved the price of EQUIGAS and EQUIPOWER on just 2 occasions. However, we know that recently other companies have put their prices down. And we want you to know that we have been thinking about how to do the best for you the customer. So we are pleased to announce that we will now “benchmark” the price of EQUIGAS and EQUIPOWER. Essentially what this means is that we’ll match the moves that Scottish and Southern Energy make to their general gas and electricity tariffs. We believe that in benchmarking our prices to those of a major energy company whilst at the same time continuing our not for profit ethos – which means us not having to return money to shareholders - we can continue to deliver competitive prices and help those for whom paying for energy is a major headache. If we can make your home energy package better value we will, and we are always looking for ways to do this. EQUIGAS and EQUIPOWER will continue to remain the best deal for pre-payment meter holders and our promise remains; to be fair, honest, and the cheapest we can.
Phil Levermore
Managing Director
EBICo Limited
17th August 2007

Interestingly, the first price change announced since this statement was made by SSE on 01 April 2008, (announced 19 March 2008) with ebico then quickly announcing a similar change (but not identical iirc) effective the same date.(this change was announced by ebico 28 March 2008)

[SSE change effective 01 April 2008: Electric +14.2%, gas +15.8%
Ebico change effective 01 April 2008: Electric: +14.8%, gas +12.2%]

Since then SSE have announced a further price rise effective 25 August 2008 (announced 21 August 2008), but, although over 2 weeks have now passed since the effective date, no official statement yet by ebico giving details of any change by them.

Kirsty is a relatively new employee at ebico, (joining about the start of the summer) to provide additional customer support and answer customers queries.
I think it's safe to say she is not empowered to set the companies tariff rates.

As I said, ebico have not made any official decision yet on changing prices, when and/or by how much.


As a final thought, all dates and figures about ebico are available from their own website, (as is the statement issued by the MD) and dates and fiigures about SSE readily available via google.
The only place the comments attributable to 'Kirsty' that you are relying on are from posts made by another user here on MSE, and such posts should be considered "a bit like someone has told you something at the pub"
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=13065

1carminestocky

Err, who claimed Kirsty was 'empowered to SET the company's tariff rates?' Like you stated in your well researched response, she's in customer services and answers people's queries. I'm sure she's in a far better position to give info regarding the timescale for future rises than me and you. Theres' a little bit of a difference between SETTING the rate and ANNOUNCING when it's liable to be increased, I would suggest.

And Mr Levermore's quote backs up my earlier suggestion that future Ebico rises (or decreases, of course, lol) are likely to be very much more frequent than previously.

PS Are you suggesting the poster in the thread which reproduced Kirsty's email was in some way telling porkies? Why would you wish to give that impression? I'm genuinely confused as to why you would imply that...

1carminestocky

Cardew wrote: »

2 more negative posts on this thread I note, plus an attempted 'wind-up' of Premier!

Your hypocrisy is quite extraordinary! :rotfl: Question: Have you ever accused me of being 'challenged'? I'm assuming that was done with the best of intentions and was in no way an attempt to wind me up? :rolleyes: And stop following me round the forum, please, you are getting extremely tiresome.