Energy bills are 'unfair to some' - Ofgem

Ken68

I suppose the multitude of confusing tariffs is in there somewhere.
And some things seem wrong, for example a customer being able to switch whilst owing money. Unless of course there is a logged pending complaint.
Hope Ebico's ethical standards were recognized.

Pssst

So Ofgem first creates a problem by liberalising the energy markets and all that it entails and now they are acting like knights in shining armour to fix it all for us. They should thin out the Ofgem office by sacking a good proportion of them IMHO.

Tony_U

An interesting report, of that which I read and though a difficult subject, I don't accept that they fully appreciate the problem. In a sense, they are so involved that it's like an IT Geek trying to explain computers.

They say that we are fortunate to have 6 major suppliers, more than many other European countries. They then suggest that 6 is sufficient based on phone operators and the competition that produces. How can that be true? If we find our telephone bill too high we go to PAYG or text or, and this is dangerous, don't use it! I havent quite worked out how I can do this and boil a kettle or heat the house.

As for switching suppliers; well this may have worked during it's infancy but no more. I have gone through the rigmarole lots of times and switched 4 times. Result? The same bills. I now believe that the sites can not suggest an alternative than the one you are on because individual pricing structures are too complex. The switch is generally based on an annual reading.

Finally, the bills. I may not be the brightest bulb in the box but wow. Has anyone deciphered one of these. I despair at their complexity.

To OFGEM I would say this; forget hedging, complex deals and time lags between delivery and use. Instead just look at their bottom line; profit. If that is grossly more now than in the past, they are profiteering at out expense.

Sorry to have gone on.

marich

It would be helpful to see the figures here . We should not only be looking at energy retailers' profits , but also wholesalers' profits , as well as how the relationships work between them (who buys how much from whom and how open/free the market is ) .
Equally valid would be to go back a level and see the major shareholders in these 'competing' suppliers , because that is where the profit goes for the 'divvy up' .
Do we have a source of information that can give us these figures ?
It is quite possible to look selectively at diced up bits of a situation and 'see no evil' , but to have confidence in 'findings' you need to know the whole thing was inspected .

Corgne

Ofgem never seem to refer to those like me who have no mains gas. We live only 6 miles from a large town, but no mains. We had to choose between oil or LPG. We chose LPG because it is much less polluting (indeed, it is the greenest of all the fossil fuels), and in any case, LPG is supposed to track the price of oil. But LPG has increased in price relentlessly: it goes up when oil does, but it does not come down when oil does! To add to the unfairness, it is mainly rural areas that use LPG, and these areas are generally colder than cities, and the inhabitants poorer. On top of which, VAT is levied on the price one pays for fuel, not on the amount of fuel used - so LPG users get clobbered again. Why can't more people be connected to mains gas? And why is LPG so expensive, when it is essentially a waste product of oil production (indeed, I believe that most LPG produced is simply burned off at source, rather than being collected, thus maintaining an artificially high price, wasting a valuable resource, and adding to global warming)

lindsloo

In my view any profits made by these firms are too much, energy isn't optional unless you want to go back to nature, the fact that these people are allowed to make money off of it is disgusting. We've passed the day and age where fuel is considered a luxury, phone bills; clothes; fuel yep you can save for your christmas party on my money because I won't suffer if I don't have it but for fuel? Nope, that's definitely a liberty.

Even more irritating is how complicated the bills are and being able to understand whether I am receiving a better deal with my previous, current or potential supplier. No matter what supplier I have been with they set a monthly payment and if I think I've found a better deal elsewhere I end up with a huge final bill, personally I prefer pre-payment because then there are no surprises and no debt but with the costs of fuel around 1/3 higher I'd rather risk having a debt (never heard of Ebico before but will check them out).

Ken68

I would sooner trust free enterprise merchants to run a company efficiently, the only thing is they aint going to do it for nowt.
And if shareholders are not making dividends they will just walk away.
If users can't manage, they should economise, make sacrifices, pack up smoking, drinking, cross subsidise whatever.