should I go fixed price?

1carminestocky

mech wrote: »

Forward wholesale gas prices have fallen by 30% from their peak, though it's not likely that current retail prices reflect the peak value anyway. The chances are that domestic prices are currently at around the right value to match the wholesale market, so it's what happens from now on that determines the likelihood of utility bills going up or down.

Oil hasn't shown any enthusiasm to fall below $60 a barrel over the past week, and a drop in the value of the pound means that in real terms the oil price has effectively gone up slightly for the UK. Therefore I don't see any downward momentum there, but the good news is I don't see any upward momentum right now either.

Do you work in British Gas' PR Dept? :rotfl:

moonrakerz

iamesbo wrote: »

Oh what's this a gas company shrill bored by talk of a criminal cartel rigging the market?

Well you better get your sleeping cap on because you will be hearing a lot more about it untill prices drop and more calls for them to be imprisoned at the very least.
Same goes for OFGEM, the so called 'regulator'.

Your never ending stream of inane, ill thought out posts really spoil the whole ethos of this site. If you have evidence of a criminal offence being committed why don't you go to the police ?

If you think that calling anyone who points out the sheer stupidity of your posts, a "gas company shrill" does anything to enhance your argument ........................
this seems to be the standard tactic when these hysterical posts are countered with a dose of common sense.

I haven't looked yet, but I am expecting lots of posts about BP's profits rising by 148%.
BP's profit ratio has not changed, the price of the commodity they sell has more than doubled - therefore the total amount of profit has gone up in a similar ratio. Exactly the same would happen if everything sold by Tesco doubled in price.

Now, a bit of hard truth - the oil companies didn't put up the price of oil, it was forced up by a number of factors; high demand, speculators, time of year. Anyone with a scrap of common sense knows that if a supplier just increases the price of his product - then sales fall !

I suppose you are going to tell me that if you thought your house was worth £100,000, but huge demand meant that you had a queue of people outside your door all offering £200,000 - then you would only accept £100,000 !!
Pull the other one, it has B***s on it !

Oh dear ! you've woken me up again.........................

Cardew

moonrakerz wrote: »

Your never ending stream of inane, ill thought out posts really spoil the whole ethos of this site. If you have evidence of a criminal offence being committed why don't you go to the police ?

If you think that calling anyone who points out the sheer stupidity of your posts, a "gas company shrill" does anything to enhance your argument ........................
this seems to be the standard tactic when these hysterical posts are countered with a dose of common sense.

.....

Well said about the ethos of the site! It is a pity that the Mods can't have a 'rant' thread as a sticky.

The Regulator states there is no cartel amongst the Utility companies and there is genuine competition. They specifically investigated this accusation.

So immediately the 'armchair experts' rubbish any report from the Regulator.

The all party Parliamentary Committee on Energy says exactly the same thing; and they certainly pull no punches in their reports.

The now disbanded Energywatch, whist critical of the Utility companies, has made no suggestion of a cartel or price fixing.

According to the same armchair experts, they also simply don't know what they are talking about apparently.

Price fixing like this is a serious criminal offence - look what happened with Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Given the number of companies involved it would simply be impossible to cover up, and there are enough disgruntled employees happy to be a whistleblower.

Yet thread after thread is ruined by inane ranting from posters that 'know' there is a criminal activity and anyone who disagrees with their stupid posts is a stooge for the Utility companies.

They never challenge any facts - because they can't - merely if a poster has any connection with a Utility company, their input is worthless. Stifle any factual debate.

No doubt this will produce another post from 'The Troll' which thankfully I and others do not see; I am surprised that Mech(who posts informed comment all the time) doesn't join the group who also click the 'ignore' button.

moonrakerz

Cardew wrote: »

No doubt this will produce another post from 'The Troll' which thankfully I and others do not see; I am surprised that Mech(who posts informed comment all the time) doesn't join the group who also click the 'ignore' button.

I have considered doing that, but that then gives the "Trolls" a free hand and to use an old saying:- "if you say it often enough and loud enough, people will believe you" !

1carminestocky

For someone who professes to have me on ignore, old Cardew/Hugh Jeego doesn't half like mentioning me a lot. He doesn't read my posts? Course not. And Gordon Brown loves peter Mandelson as well. It would appear this forum has been run as some sort of cozy utility company love-in for too long. Mech has a vested interest so it's half understandable he attempts to defend the people who pay his wages. Moonrakerz as far as I know hasn't said if he works for an energy company or not or maybe I missed it. Cardew is the real conundrum, he seemingly loves British Gas but doesn't particularly like the industry (he certainly relished sticking the boot into BGs main competitor, npower). A strange one, that...

You people really should get out more and see what the majority of the public who don't derive their income from this industry think about these companies. Your reputation is about on a par with estate agents at the moment. It never used to be so SOMEONE'S doing something wrong somewhere...

Edit: It isn't just the public saying this sort of stuff, either. Allan Asher has also made it entirely clear that if there was REAL competition in the energy industry the average bill would reduce by as much as £400 (40%??). Is he what you would call misinformed, eh? Does he know less than Moonrakerz, Mech, Cardew and all the other online self-appointed experts?? Or how aout Philip Wright of Sheffield University, often described as one of the world's leading experts on the gas industry and his damning indictments of the industry? Does he know less than this self-important trio on here? Don't make me laugh. It seems like everybody on this forum who doesn't agree with Hugh Jeego is in some way 'irrational'. Not a great counter argument, is it? Are the people I've just mentioned being irrational, then?

It's also rather ironic that I get labelled a troll and my percentage of thanks to total posts is actually higher than either Mech, Moonrakerz or Hugh Jeego. Hmmm....

busterkeye

If BP are making stacks of cash then Id love to know how much our government is making

iamesbo

Cardew wrote: »

Well said about the ethos of the site! It is a pity that the Mods can't have a 'rant' thread as a sticky.

The Regulator states there is no cartel amongst the Utility companies and there is genuine competition. They specifically investigated this accusation.

So immediately the 'armchair experts' rubbish any report from the Regulator.

The all party Parliamentary Committee on Energy says exactly the same thing; and they certainly pull no punches in their reports.

The now disbanded Energywatch, whist critical of the Utility companies, has made no suggestion of a cartel or price fixing.

According to the same armchair experts, they also simply don't know what they are talking about apparently.

Price fixing like this is a serious criminal offence - look what happened with Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Given the number of companies involved it would simply be impossible to cover up, and there are enough disgruntled employees happy to be a whistleblower.

Yet thread after thread is ruined by inane ranting from posters that 'know' there is a criminal activity and anyone who disagrees with their stupid posts is a stooge for the Utility companies.

They never challenge any facts - because they can't - merely if a poster has any connection with a Utility company, their input is worthless. Stifle any factual debate.

No doubt this will produce another post from 'The Troll' which thankfully I and others do not see; I am surprised that Mech(who posts informed comment all the time) doesn't join the group who also click the 'ignore' button.

Quite frankly that's rubish.

How dare you call legitimate concerns a rant I hope the mods do something about your behaviour.

The regulator it at best a failure, it is not acting as a watchdog because 'it can't see what is going on' - some watchdog.
It even says in it's reports that 'it does not have enough information to determine if the gas companies are rigging the markets because the gas companies won't tell them"!!! boo! hoo!

However even that is not the truth because the regulator is simply ignoring obvious
evidence of price rigging and looking where it knows it won't find it due to lack of
information from the gas companies.

The evidence that the price of gas is being rigged is overwhelming, or maybe the regulator did not notice that the gas supplied to the UK is the only thing in the whole wide world which hs managed to bich the trend in a depression.

It's price *continues* to rise from *record levels* in a depression, only Paul Daniels can do those sort of tricks.

It's no wonder BP the gas supplier anounced record profits of 10 billion dolars,
it could not hide such huge profits even with the best 'accounts' it employs.

And it made those profits when oil was falling!! But GAS WAS NOT FALLING IN PRICE!!


And yes I do considser it a crime and will make a police complaint, I hope they are already investigating it actually, and all those involved are jailed, including the shrills.
(assisting an offender).

The MP's are a bunch of crooks as well, they got rid of the Energywatch when it
became critical - how damming is that.

I like how they deal with corrupt officials in China.

That's what I would do if I was in power - bullet in the back of the head.

iamesbo

busterkeye wrote: »

If BP are making stacks of cash then Id love to know how much our government is making

That's part of the problem, the government is 'regulating' it's own greed, no surprise that
it failed, and no surprise it disband Energywatch and replaced it with a 'regulator' that 'did as it was told'. (OFGEM).

iamesbo

Interesting how the BBC site 'burys' the news about BP's huge profits, it barely gets a mention in the business section. Russel Brand and Jonathon Ross is the 'big story' apparently. BP is the top story in the Guardian's buisness section, and features on it's front page, of course the BBC is governement funded.

iamesbo

Interesting I knew a guy who got a job as a BP salesman, he was told never to compete on price. Nothing has changed.