Consumer Power: Have your say on energy contracts

Plushchris

capondoug wrote: »

About every 2 years Scottish Hydro come knocking. The salesman says SH supply the rest of the industry and therefore one must be cheaper buying direct (cutting out the middlemen being the other suppliers); says they are a Scottish company and therefore profits stay in Scotland (the callcentre isn't in Scotland!); says the Scottish Government want people to be with SH.
All he needs is you direct debit amount and he does the rest - calculates your monthly amount and savings with SH, fills in the forms and phones the office for you to confirm the switch. All very easy.
He left the tariffs and I calculated my bills with SH compared to my current supplier, based on my actual usage. Guess what - SH were more expensive. Why? because they conveniently ignore any discounts you get for online management.
I immediately contacted them to complain about mis-selling - the salesman is to be trained properly - and cancelled my contract.
I know my 3 immediate neighbours had signed up and 2 cancelled - unfortunately the 3rd had gone on holiday.

Funnily enough I have heard almost exactly the same story only from a Southern Electric salesman (part of the same company - Scottish and Southern Energy)

Only this guys sales pitch referred to them being an English company (I wouldnt want the money I pay going abroad would I) He also told me they were the regional supplier so whoever I was buying my energy off were getting it from SE (again lies, my regional supplier is EDF as I'm in the Seeboard region)

He used the introduction "I'm here because you are on our list as paying too much for your gas and electricity" then went on to ask who my current supplier was and how much I pay!

When I asked how he could possibly know I was paying too much when he didnt know how much I was paying he said with a smile "Because you are not buying it from us!"

This highlights the fact that these "salesman" MUST have been trained to say these things, how else could a salesman in Scotland say almost word for word the same thing as a salesman in Kent? Unless it was the same salesman (unlikely)

Doorstep sales must STOP. Not be more heavily regulated because that will never happen.

Gerrard_8_lfc

I had Eon round today just chatting to the guy as you do then the usual crap started coming out.

BG are now owned by EDF.
BG charge standing charges
EDF's price increase affects me because they own BG Now.
BG electricity is not of the same quality as Eon's

just the usual bile that come out there mouths. He tried to make a swift exit when I told him I work for BG howver I hadn't finished yet I then started giving him an "energy consultation" about BG, he was not impressed. What can I say I had too much time on my hands today.

He also told me he could set me up for there cheapest tariff. what save online I said... He replyed Eon Save at the door plus my £100 new customer bonus. (This guy was actually being seriouse.) According to him it was the same tariff different name.

Idiot

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

I agree Gerrard, this is total rubbish and I'm sorry you were inconvenienced in this way.

The only thing I can think he was referring to is our Energy Plan. This is our standard tariff but with an introductory offer of £52.50 per fuel awarded after 12 months.

As you rightly say, this is certainly not the same tariff as Saveonline 3. Neither is there any such product called E.ON Save at the door.

I don't want to waste more of your time but I'd certainly complain about this.

As a BG employee, I'm sure you're aware of the guidelines we have to follow in respect of face to face marketing. From what you have said, I'd say our guy has broken quite a few of these.

Whether this was deliberate or down to ignorance is not really the issue. Wrong information was given and this needs correcting.

Malc

Plushchris

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Whether this was deliberate or down to ignorance is not really the issue. Wrong information was given and this needs correcting.

Malc

In all fairness Malc, do you really think that that lot could be possibly be ignorance?

And if it is deliberate, surely that is just as much of an issue, if not even more of an issue..

I've actually had no problems with E-on reps myself (never had any knock on my door) but these are the same lies that most energy salesmen come out with, usually because the salesmen go from company to company and spout exactly the same garbage for each company.

However much the Energy companies say this is unacceptable practice it has been proved that this sort of things is picked up in training (I refer to Watchdogs investigation on Southern Electric there, not E-on)

There is absolutely no way of quality controlling door knockers, they can and do say anything to get the sale and consumers are left high and dry in a "your word against theirs" system.

drrdf

In April this year I signed up to a change of my Electricity and Gas supplies via the U-Switch site to British Gas. On that site the dual account offered was for Quarterly Billing with an Energy Smart account. That is what I signed up to. I sent e-mails to U-Switch at the time because I could not find these Energy Smart terms for any quarterly billing account on the British Gas web site. I therefore queried this sign-up with U-Switch, since there were indications that there could be problems with the agreed tariffs. U-Switch replied to my query on 5th April 2010 confirming that the account I had signed up to via their site was with Quarterly billing.

I then thought nothing more about this assuming that it was confirmed as OK. Indeed when British Gas sent me their formal confirmation of the tariff on 7th April I assumed all was OK. British Gas sent me the Energy Smart Electricity monitor as offered on the tariff I had signed up to, so it all looked right. Then suddenly British Gas sent me a Prepayment Gas meter card! I sent a query to them to ask quite what they expected me to do with that. It then took them almost 5 months to address their errors and to determine that I had both quarterly meters for Gas and Electricity and that they did not offer their Energy Smart accounts on a quarterly billing basis. On 17th May British Gas Customer Services sent me an e-mail stating that they had placed me on the wrong tariff.

The culmination of this history of bungling is that British Gas now claim they have put me on the wrong tariff and they will not honour their stated original agreement to keep to the contractually agreed tariff until May 2011, because they do not in fact offer that account with quarterly billing. One of the key features of this account was that there were no penalties for moving to another supplier within any period. I have therefore refused to pay the Gas Bill at the higher tariff now charged, although I have already paid the Electricity bill which was billed correctly at the agreed tariff, but which they now state was wrong and will be "corrected" (increased).

I therefore now have had to make a grave formal complaint. It seems that either there was some problem at the interface between the U-Switch and British Gas digital sites at the time I signed up to this tariff, which they eventually decided that they did not offer, or someone is attempting to use dirty tricks? Other customers could also be affected by this problem. The issue is that if British Gas had been honest as soon as I raised the problem I could have just selected another provider and avoided all of this hassle.


After British Gas informed me of these errors I checked the U-Switch site again a few days ago, and the British Gas accounts to which I signed up via U-Switch were "Dual Fuel with EnergySmart" with quarterly billing. The payment conditions are further stated as "Pay on receipt of bill by monthly direct debit, on-line banking or by debit or credit card." Thus also in these conditions only payment by direct debit is stated as being monthly. I was intending on the basis of the stated conditions to pay via on-line banking. Additionally British Gas sent me a paper bill for Gas as well as an on-line one, whereas all transactions were supposed to be on-line. I had already printed out my on-line Gas bill as I did previously with the Electricity one as under the account terms!

So it may be that because BG assumed for some erroneous reason that I had a prepayment Gas meter that they took me off the Dual Fuel with EnergySmart terms and placed me now on their standard terms, since that is one of the conditions. However of course they were wrong to do that, since I do not have and have never had a prepayment a/c and I did not sign up to a standard tariff account.

I have again checked on the U-Switch site this morning and the situation is still the same. If one selects "Quarterly billing" with payment on receipt of bill the British Gas Dual Fuel with EnergySmart a/c is still offered on those terms to which I signed up, although the unit rates of both Gas and Electricity have gone down since I signed up. So it appears I have lost out as a result of this debacle in all possible ways. I have checked the next more expensive a/c offered by another provider and it is only less than £6 per year more expensive than the British Gas one offered now this morning, and less expensive than the British Gas rates which I signed up to but which British Gas are now welshing on. The obvious answer is therefore for me to move to that other provider.

It is clear therefore that either this is a case of an interface error between U-Switch and British Gas or someone is playing dirty commercial tricks. Whichever it is this is clearly an example of mis-selling.

Anisceline

I've had a massive headache with nPower and have taken it all the way upto the CEO as I was that angry and I still am. He sent it onto Executive Complaints but the resolution left me even unhappier and I have now moved to Eon.

My point is this. I had a salesman at the door a few years ago. I think I was with Powergen atthe time for both utilities. I switched to nPower for my gas and electric on the basis I would save money and receive a better service, and I specifically asked if i would be kept in the loop if there were better tariffs for me within the company to keep me saving money, he said I would be. It was important to me as it is hard work to keep abreast of changes in such a competitive marketplace and I want to be able to trust my suppliers.

I stayed with nPower for a good couple of years and did a LoveMoney price comparison out of curiousity and was shocked to see they offered a SignOnline tarriff that would have saved me over £200 a year!
There was NEVER any mention made anywhere in the account spiel sent to me off this, nor any mention in my account review that took place a few months earlier.

I was told baldly by Executive Complaints that the web address sign off was sufficient comms to visit the site where I would have been made aware of such deals. I thought that was so unbelievably bad as an argument, as ALL companies nowadays end notes with URLs. If we all looked at URLS all the time we'd never be off the internet!

I wanted a refund of the balance based on the fact they did not allow me to make an informed choice as a customer and I was missold their service on the door.

They have refused on both accounts. Their goodwill gesture of £30 is sore consolation in the knowledge i have lost hundreds of pounds and I definitely want this investigated by Ofgem. Customers should be allowed to make informed choices and be advised honestly and correctly by door to door salesmen.

I was also overcharged on my direct debit in my last month with nPower and not refunded as is policy with direct debit agreements. I had to complain again about this too despite flagging it up on a phonecall, all again at my own cost.

elainec

• Date of contact: End August 2010
• Type of contact: phone call
• Name of previous provider: Scottish Power
• Name of provider suggesting you move: e.on
• Details on why you think you were missold: I received a phone call from e.on as i had been with them previously and moved to Scottish Power just over a year ago. The women on the phone gave me lots of figures and advised they could do my deul fuel deal cheaper £70/month instead of £80/month so i decided to go ahead and change. I then received a letter 2 days ago to say my dd would be £112/month when i phoned up to query i was advised there was actually a 2nd letter on way to say dd would be £162/month. She could not explain why this was and where figures came from. She advised would put dd back to £80/month but i explained i was wary of then underpaying and being left with a large bill at end of year. All she could say was the new dd amount must be a mistake!
• I have now decided that i will go back to Scottish Power as soon as i can as at least i knew where i was with them.

CobraN

elainec wrote: »

• Date of contact: End August 2010
• Type of contact: phone call
• Name of previous provider: Scottish Power
• Name of provider suggesting you move: e.on
• Details on why you think you were missold: I received a phone call from e.on as i had been with them previously and moved to Scottish Power just over a year ago. The women on the phone gave me lots of figures and advised they could do my deul fuel deal cheaper £70/month instead of £80/month so i decided to go ahead and change. I then received a letter 2 days ago to say my dd would be £112/month when i phoned up to query i was advised there was actually a 2nd letter on way to say dd would be £162/month. She could not explain why this was and where figures came from. She advised would put dd back to £80/month but i explained i was wary of then underpaying and being left with a large bill at end of year. All she could say was the new dd amount must be a mistake!
• I have now decided that i will go back to Scottish Power as soon as i can as at least i knew where i was with them.

Similar story for me, with Npower paying about £70 per month DD, duel fuel, was previously with Eon who called and said they could do it for £60 per month, I asked if that was sustainable, they said yes so I signed up. got £68 back from nPower so I was in credit, a few months later I'm told it need to be higher so switch to £80 per month, and now a few months later I'm £200 debit with them and they want to increase again.

I feel very aggreaved that they basically lied just to get me signed up, now to move over I'd have to find £200 I just don't have.

All this has done for eon is ensured I will move when I can and never go back, and I'll happily put anyone off joining them if asked, I hope my current custom is worth it.

kpchocco-nut

Date of contact: August 2008
Type of contact: house call
Name of previous provider: british gas
Name of provider suggesting you move: southern electric
Details on why you think you were missold A gentleman came to our door explaining all the benefits of switching to Southern electric, we had been with british gas since we moved in to the property 4 years earlier and had noticed an increase in our bills so thought a new company may be the way forward, The salesman took details of our current bills and calculated an amount that we should pay a month. We felt the amount he suggested would not cover our fuel bills but he insisted it would be sufficient so we signed up on his advise. He did explain that they could not guarantee the fuel prices would not rise but he could guarantee they would remain cheaper than British Gas.
Turns out the amounts he calculated did not cover our bills and we accumalated a debt. In addition they failed to notify us in writing of the big price hike they implemented so we did not know to increase our payments accordingly. We ended up over £600 in debt.
When I phoned and complained the telephone advice given was to increase our direct debits by a substantial amount. I explained that we were a young struggling family and could not afford the extra expense each month but unfortunately was given no helpful advise and was basically made to feel the whole thing was my fault so my problem. Eventually I spoke to someone else who was a little more helpful and he suggested I increase the direct debits as much as my budget would allow. We left southern electric this year but are still paying off the debt and will be for some time. we are a family of 5 so this is areal struggle for us.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

elainec wrote: »

• Date of contact: End August 2010
• Type of contact: phone call
• Name of previous provider: Scottish Power
• Name of provider suggesting you move: e.on
• Details on why you think you were missold: I received a phone call from e.on as i had been with them previously and moved to Scottish Power just over a year ago. The women on the phone gave me lots of figures and advised they could do my deul fuel deal cheaper £70/month instead of £80/month so i decided to go ahead and change. I then received a letter 2 days ago to say my dd would be £112/month when i phoned up to query i was advised there was actually a 2nd letter on way to say dd would be £162/month. She could not explain why this was and where figures came from. She advised would put dd back to £80/month but i explained i was wary of then underpaying and being left with a large bill at end of year. All she could say was the new dd amount must be a mistake!
• I have now decided that i will go back to Scottish Power as soon as i can as at least i knew where i was with them.

Hi elainec


Must admit, I'm a little puzzled by this.

If we didn't contact you until the end of August, your account will only just have transferred to us. In this case, the Direct Debit will have been set up to the amount agreed.

Direct Debits are reviewed after each bill is issued. Again, as you have only just joined us, a bill will not yet have been issued.

Consequently, I'm at a bit of a loss as to why your arrangement has been reviewed once let alone twice.

We did have some system issues a few days ago and it's possible this could have had an impact here.

I fully appreciate your wariness about setting payments below usage and running up a debt as a result.

If you would like me to check this out for you, please drop an email to the address in my Profile. I'll be happy to do this.

Malc