Uswitch sponsored by Powergen???

Sodium_Noir

I recently changed my Gas supplier from British Gas to Powergen after comparing the prices on several of the comparison services (advised in the newsletter). When I made the switch British Gas tried to talk me into staying and one of thier big things they told me was that I couldn't trust Uswitch (the only name of the comparison services I could remember off the top of my head) because they were "sponsored by Powergen, and would always advise me to go with them!"

I wondered if this was true and if others had been told the same. And if it is true, does it really skew the advice they give? Powergen do still change less per unit than BG anyway?

Xbigman

Its not totally true. Uswitch charge companies to be on their site and to switch online, including BG. So any company you can switch to online is technically a sponsor of Uswitch on the grounds they are paying them.
Companies like Ebico who won't pay Uswitch don't show up on general searches at all.

BG are training their staff to put people of switching with half truths and innuendo, don't listen to them.
Regards



X

Ken68

Powergen told me that EBICO had gone bust.

Sodium_Noir

Thanks for that Xbigman. Makes more sense now.

scope

Sales people will tell all sorts of lies. I am in the process of changing to NPower from Powergen, and when powergen rang me yesterday the guy insisted Powergen came out cheaper than NPower on all the websites - Which is clearly not true, as NPower came out £130 cheaper than Powergen when I searched. I have compared the prices aswell, and NPower will work out cheaper for me.

I also told him part of the reason I was leaving was me being left on the old pre Dec05 prices, whilst new customers (on the same tariff) get better rates. He told me he would change me to the cheaper rates, but even after than NPower will work out cheaper for me. I told him to process the application and move me to NPower.

Geoffo_M

Are you sure you are comparing with NPower SOL5. I found this came out a lot more expensive than Powergen

G

dazza.mk

Best for me was a few months ago when a door-to-door salesman for Npower came round trying to tell me that they had taken over the local customers of BG & Powergen and were just calling round to fill in the paperwork to move everybody over!

Sodium_Noir

Yeah, I had something similar a while back. A guy said he was "from the electric company and wanted to look at the meter". So I let him in and he said something like "Oh, you are on the old tariff and are paying too much. I can get your electric cheaper for you."

I was half way through signing up to this new company (I wish I'd remembered the name because it wasn't one of the big ones) before I cottoned on to what was happening. The entire 'you are signing up to change suppliers' part of the conversation never actually came up.

Xbigman

Ken68 wrote:

Powergen told me that EBICO had gone bust.

BG tries to put you off Ebico by saying they are 'that church company' and PowerGen told me Ebico didn't exist because Uswitch didn't list them.

As for going bust, they were the only company not to raise prices in the last round, which you would have thought they would have done if in financial trouble.
Regards



X

Xbigman

Actually there was a company called zest4 that went bust a few months back, do you mean them?
Regards



X

Ken68

Xbigman wrote:

Actually there was a company called zest4 that went bust a few months back, do you mean them?
Regards



X

It was Powergen lying thru their teeth, just to keep business.Can't believe it is Powergen policy to rubbish the opposition, so figured it was the commission earning retention salespeople.