MSE News: Warning for Scottish Power customers on fixed rate deals

cw18

Well, I'm already dual fuel and operating on-line - get the best savings that way. So the Energy Saver 6 appears to be the way to go for me......

3% less than standard prices, rather than standard price or current rate (whichever is the higher), so would have to be a steep increase to take the ES6 price above the capped one - and if I read the article correctly the energy companies are under pressure to reduce the prices. And the protection on it is only a month less, so paying an extra 3% for 11 months to gain 1 month of protection on the capped rate seems daft

galba

Sadly it's all become a game of smoke and mirrors.

KTF

I originally signed up to the Online Energy 4 tarrif and comparison sites are now saying that it is cheaper for me to move to the new Online Energy 6 tariff.

According to My Account my current product is 'Online Saver' (not that I ever requested to move to this or is it just a new name for Online Energy 4?) and I can see no option to change the tariff to Online Energy 6 as only Online Energy is available which seems to be different product again?

Has anyone managed to upgrade to Online Energy 6 or do I need to phone them up (or just shift away to EDF or nPower who are coming up cheaper again but have their own pro and con)?

cw18

nPower are the ones I turned away earlier this week - they don't get a particularly good rating on the comparison site, and aren't cheaper by enough to take the risk

Have to admit EDF is tempting - especially if I can't (for any reason) get the OS6

Scottish_Power

KTF wrote: »

I originally signed up to the Online Energy 4 tarrif and comparison sites are now saying that it is cheaper for me to move to the new Online Energy 6 tariff.

According to My Account my current product is 'Online Saver' (not that I ever requested to move to this or is it just a new name for Online Energy 4?) and I can see no option to change the tariff to Online Energy 6 as only Online Energy is available which seems to be different product again?

Has anyone managed to upgrade to Online Energy 6 or do I need to phone them up (or just shift away to EDF or nPower who are coming up cheaper again but have their own pro and con)?

Hi KTF,

As far as I am aware customers on the various versions of Online Energy don't see the version number on their bills etc.

If you are in any doubt please call us directly on 0800 400 200 for advice.

Craig @ ScottishPower

1carminestocky

To be fair they should call themselves Spanish Power and see how many customers they get. OK, I'm joking (I think)...

thingamaBob

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi KTF,

As far as I am aware customers on the various versions of Online Energy don't see the version number on their bills etc.

If you are in any doubt please call us directly on 0800 400 200 for advice.

Craig @ ScottishPower

This seems to be the biggest problem with SP, actually finding out what tariffs are available and what the details of each tariff are. If you don't know a particular tariff is available you don't even know to ask for it's details. Are SP trying to keep full details of Online saver hidden so that too many people don't apply?
I'd never heard of Freshstart until I saw it mentioned on another thread a short while ago and that's a better deal than Online Energy Saver 6.....If you qualify.
The website should list and explain ALL tariffs available.

thingamaBob

KTF wrote: »

Has anyone managed to upgrade to Online Energy 6 or do I need to phone them up (or just shift away to EDF or nPower who are coming up cheaper again but have their own pro and con)?

I sent an email last night saying I didn't want either of the options given and would rather go on Online Energy 6 and have now received a reply saying:-
"I have arranged for your account to change to online energy saver 6 from 01/09/09 as requested. No further action is required by yourself."
So yes, contact them if you want to go on this tariff.

KTF

Yes it is very confusing. If you look at the current products available there is no mention of online energy 6, just online energy:

http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/Home_Energy/Product_Information/

Yet if you go to the product prices there is an option for both online energy and online energy 6:

http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/Home_Energy/Product_Prices/

So how do you sign up for online energy 6 online if there is no mention of it being available or being one of the options that you can choose when you go through the signup process? Crazy...

Toxteth_OGrady

thingamaBob wrote: »

I sent an email last night saying I didn't want either of the options given and would rather go on Online Energy 6 and have now received a reply saying:-
"I have arranged for your account to change to online energy saver 6 from 01/09/09 as requested. No further action is required by yourself."
So yes, contact them if you want to go on this tariff.

I did the same when opting out of the Capped Sep 2010 offer. I asked to be put on Online Saver 6 on 1st September. Unfortunately, unlike thingamaBob, the email reply I got from SP refused to put me on Online Saver 6 on 1st September, stating the reason being that the OS6 tariif may no longer be available on that date. They did however have the gall to offer me an immediate transfer should I wish to pay the early termination fee to get out of Fixed Price 2009 before 31st August.

It is quite worrying that a company does not even know what products it will have to offer in a couple of weeks time. Even worse is the disparity and misinformation from the company by customer services representatives by phone, email and on this forum. At best their internal training must be extremely poor.

:cool:

TOG