beware Energyhelpline

orshoya

I switched through Energyhelpline to Scottish Power Online Energysaver 7 in Nov 2009, was quoted £45.00 as my new dual fuel charges. This sounded quite a bit of saving compared to £60.00 I used to pay to EON before. I was quite surprised as to the difference - £180.00 - but was assured by the adviser that he had the information about my usage on record. I received a letter from Scottish Power in December that the direct debit for the amount of £45.00 was set up.

To my dismay in January 2010 I was advised by Scottish Power that my direct debit needed to be increased to £86.00 a month, almost double than originally quoted. I thought that the reason was the coldest winter for a long time, but I was advised that the amount is based on my yearly usage.

I found out since that I was not even switched to the best available deal as the Online Energysaver 9 package is cheaperfor my area. Having complained to Energyhelpline I had a call from Scottish Power. The person dealing with my complaint explained that the reason for the “misunderstanding” was that the Energyhelpline advisory service is operated from India. The compensation offered was a waiver of the penalty charges if I wanted to switch again.

I am still awaiting a written reply from Energyhelpline.

Bark01

Online energy Saver 9 only came on sale this month, can you explain how the advisor would have switched you on to it in November 2009? Online saver 7 was on sale until the 16th of December 2009. It was Scottish powers cheapest product at the time so I can't see what the problem is.

When you signed up to it you entered into a contract that had a cancelation fee. Cancellation fees of £30 (inc VAT) for electricity and £20 for gas apply if you terminate before 30th november 2010. So you are stuck in it for the rest of the year unless you think that the savings made by swithcing to anouther product outweigh the cancelation fee.

I had a quick check for you and without knowing your region or consumption, i have just used averages..... but you could save about £60 by swapping to BG's web saver 6 DF tariff, nut most of that saving will be on the gas side so you probably won't see it as byt the time you change it will be spring.

JasX

Does anyone else get irritated by all the 1 post count posters wo see fit to wander on here and post

"Beware company X" I believed every word a 3rd party commisssion based salesman said about saving money and didn't bother to check any facts myself and now have a worse deal than I had before.... I appauled how this could possibly happen"

Antispam

And they rarely return afterwards, although the OP probably will as its sods law

JasX wrote: »

Does anyone else get irritated by all the 1 post count posters wo see fit to wander on here and post

"Beware company X" I believed every word a 3rd party commisssion based salesman said about saving money and didn't bother to check any facts myself and now have a worse deal than I had before.... I appauled how this could possibly happen"

markharding557

Why do people take direct debit quotes as the actual cost

Antispam

People are gullible until they learn from us not to take DD as gospel we all been there, done that have t-shirt

Plushchris

OP when you did the comparison was it based on your Kwh usage or on your direct debits that you were paying at the time?

If it was based on your direct debits then it could well be the case that the figures you were paying at the time were not covering what you were using.

Once Scottish power had an idea of your exact usage then they set the direct debit according to that.

I would imagine you were indeed switched to the cheapest tariff available to you at the time, the version 9 tariff has been launched since christmas so that wouldnt have been available for the advisor to switch you to anyway.

Energyhelpline's call centre is based in the UK although I do believe they have an outbound call centre in India, not that that should really make any difference at all.

Cardew

OP,

All comparison websites have one aim, to earn commission!

The call centre operators earn commission!

They earn this commission by getting people to switch supplier!

If you go on-line, and enter your consumption in kWh, you will get accurate comparison data.

If you telephone and just give your Direct Debit payment, you are simply cannon fodder! You will be switched to a company(usually the one paying them the best commission). The Direct Debit payment will always be lower(for a while!!)

Premier_2

JasX wrote: »

Does anyone else get irritated by all the 1 post count posters wo see fit to wander on here and post

"Beware company X" I believed every word a 3rd party commisssion based salesman said about saving money and didn't bother to check any facts myself and now have a worse deal than I had before.... I appauled how this could possibly happen"

The thing is, this particular OP hasn't just recently wandered onto this site, but has been lurking here for well over 2 years - refer to the sign-up date.

I wonder how many other IDs they have used on MSE???

Otherwise, if they've only used this one, I'm surprised they haven't read all the advice offered over the last 2+ years on this forum.

Plushchris

Cardew wrote: »

OP,

All comparison websites have one aim, to earn commission!

The call centre operators earn commission!

They earn this commission by getting people to switch supplier!

If you go on-line, and enter your consumption in kWh, you will get accurate comparison data.

If you telephone and just give your Direct Debit payment, you are simply cannon fodder! You will be switched to a company(usually the one paying them the best commission). The Direct Debit payment will always be lower(for a while!!)

When I enquired the one and only time I phoned energyhelpline I was told the advisors didnt earn commision from the call but their bonus is dependant on volume targets (amount of switches they do in a month/week) and it didnt matter to her who I switched to as long as I switched. Unfortunately she couldnt count me in her bonus that month though as I didnt switch, I certainly didnt feel under any pressure to either.
Maybe I was lucky or maybe thats why EHL is Martin's top pick, hard to say, but I thought it was a pretty good service myself, I did the comparison based on my Kwh consumption too.