re: Greedy Gas/Elec Companies: I Have An Evil Plan

loobylou2

tripled wrote: »

I'm not agreeing with the op, or saying that personal abuse is justified, but if you haven't developed a thick skin yet, I'd suggest seeing what other jobs are available! I doubt the job is any more stressful now or any more abuse levelled at staff than around 2 years ago when all the problems caused by the forcing in of SAP/Siebel were at their peak.

Also the OP may well know very little about the energy industry, but as a consumer, all most people care about is getting accurate bills at a reasonable (in their eyes) price. Knowledge of the energy industry is not mandatory to get power!

I agree with what you are saying but I'd say that the job is still as stressful as it was a couple of years ago when there were all the problems with Sap and Siebel. Customers aren't happy now because of the price rises and the DD reassessments they are getting so although the system problems have been ironed out they've been replaced with something else which always seems to be the case with BG. You get rid of one problem but then another one crops up!!!!. Having said that though I still enjoy working for the company believe it or not. I just think that some people would still complain about us even if we gave them their gas and electricity for free but hey then thats life and I was just having a bad day yesterday hence my lack of thick skin, its no fun being yelled at by customers when you are trying to help them!!!!

adprob

winniepooh wrote: »

Don't all boo me but I think us as customers to these large energy companies should all do something about the cost of energy. Me myself personally think the targeting 1 company isn't the best way. They are all very highly priced. There is a group locally that are TRYING to get people to turn all their Gas and Electric ( apart from the fridge) off for a certain amount of time per say say 4hours or something. I agree with that because I'm sure if it was done nationally that would cost the companies huge amounts of money I would of thought. But and its a very big but its the wrong time of year for a lot of us to be doing this.

I think that would cause more problems than it would fix IF you had enough people doing it. I remember this being suggested somewhere before. If a large number of people switch off their elec then demand drops and the grid is cut back appropiately. Then when they switch back on at once this causes a surge which leads to the power tripping off and power cuts. I may be wrong but i'm sure i read that / saw it on a docu last year.

Regarding the original post. This wouldnt put any of the big 6 out of business. If you look at their annual reports, eon & rwe are German owned. They have huge business on the continent. EDF = french govt owned (subsidised). Scot Pwr = Iberdola (Spains largest energy supplier) SSE are British owned and have a large generation base in the UK as well as lots renewable abroad ( i think) and BGas have European arms as well as looking to buy into British Energy.

Plushchris

It wouldnt put ANY of the companies out of business, they do more than just supply domestic consumers. Sure it would hit their pockets but I doubt it would put any of the companies out of business, they make far more money from their generation of electricity etc than the supply of it.

mikeyw

Deej321 wrote: »

i know my idea is a little far-fetched, but if people were a little bit more less willing to roll over and be shafted in this life we'd fare a lot better!

You talk a lot of senses my friend - Why do you think these organisations get away with it ?....because they CAN !!!

Great Britain....Soft spineless Britain more like...

I see you're getting the usual 'it won't work replies'......just as well our Grandparents weren't so pathetic or we'd be part of Germany today

BallandChain

I just wonder if everyone decided not to pay by direct debit if this would make these companies think twice! I got the idea from this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1305135

Companies today push the consumer to go the direct debit route as we were told it benefits us, and yet we see the reverse is now true. If we all decided to pay quarterly instead of monthly direct debit, what sort of response would we get?

WhistleBlower

loobylou2 wrote: »

Thanks a lot for that, Its a nice thought not:mad:!!!! You do realise that if this happened 19,000 people would lose their jobs don't you????? I'm one of them and although I agree that BG can be a nightmare at time both for employees and customer, I don't think I deserve to end up on the unemployment line. If you have a problem with BG why don't you give us a call and see if we can do anything to sort it out??? We get paid to help people if they are having problems with their accounts although from the amount of abuse we frequently get from the public/general media at large you'd never know it. Rather than suggesting getting rid of BG why don't you try talking to some of our millions of happy customers whom we've helped!!!! Durrrr...... sorry but the op has made me really cross.

I work for NPower in their debt collection department (yah, i'm popular aint i) And i have to agree to some extent with looby, i got my job with npower because i'm a student and they were the only place that would employ me. I actually enjoy my job and have recently recieved commendations for "customer focus" (they use so much corporate doubletalk) because i've recieved so many compliments for helping customers who are in debt, rahter than going off at them. Sometimes debt happens, it can be for numerous reasons, we (or at least I do) try to help as much as possible.

Just bear in mind, us poor saps who work in these places *also* have to pay high prices, we don't get a discount.

I can certainly see where your'e coming from and if it's acheivable then it would most definitely provoke a heck of a reaction from the big 6, i doubt total shutdown of a company is possible, but you could certianly make them very nervous. If you think it can be done, go for it! I won't be moving as i'm not with one of the big 6 anyway I'm with EBICo.

Chester_Draws

"I HAVE A CUNNING PLAN"

"Eventually there will only be the BIG 1, and then they will have to put the prices right down .... or is it up ? "

A_Nice_Englishman

Say there was only one energy company and therefore no commission paid to sales reps or websites from customers switching and none of the associated administration.

What effect would that have on prices?

WhistleBlower

Chester_Draws wrote: »

"I HAVE A CUNNING PLAN"

Woo! Baldrick FTW!

littletommytucker

I dont understand why everyone gets so angry that the energy companys are out to make a profit? The fact that they are a private company is down to the UK government!? All the big 6 have shareholders that DO expect a large bonus, otherwise they wouldnt be shareholders in the energy companys... they would invest in another large sector like the banks...oh wait... the banks are all going bust at the moment, and require everyones TAX money to bail them out.

Wouldnt it be great if the energy companies gave everyone gas at a price they could afford, and all go bust like banks? Before BG put the prices up they made £40million over 6 months, now with 16million customers all getting a statement each quarter, I make that out to be £1.25 per customers bill? Not exactly huge money for a company with a customer base of 16M.

Im not employed by BG to help benefit public image, i'd be the first one to blow the whistle if I was to learn of something untoward!

And why does everyone insist on claiming our prices are higher than everywhere else in Europe, when going on the price comparision websites, we come up on average £300 a year cheaper than Spain/France/Germany?? What actually has happened is our rates have increased faster than the rest of Europe, but surely that is what you would expect to happen when we have relied on the North Sea for so long, but now we are having to import more than ever before!?

.........Just my thoughts!?