Scottish Power Rep - can u help? My Energysaver9 contract is ending

saaya2020

Scottish Power rep - can you help? or anybody???

I am on Online Energy Saver 9 Dual Fuel from ScottishPower. I am 10 months into the contract. The contract finishes on 31st March 2011 and I received an email the other day saying that my prices have gone up (backdated from Nov 25)

What are my options?

I have read that I can cancel my contract without penalties? Is this correct?

If I stay with Scottish Power, what will happen after March 31st?

I hear that Energy Saver 12 is good. The rates are higher than Energy Saver 9 (obviously since the hikes!). I read that you can only get onto Energy Saver 12 by telephone. Is it a good time NOW to do this move or wait?

Help!!

Any advice would be very welcome!

Thanks in advance

macman

You can reject the increase and it will not be applied, but that means you have to initiate a switch to another supplier within a couple of weeks of rejecting it.
After 31/3 you will move to standard tariff, or whatever tariff they advise will apply when yours ends.

Premier_2

I would suggest you consult a comparison site or two. That will give you the best possible deals for you from the whole of market. Scottish Power will only advise on products they offer.

Check there are no early exit fees if you plan to switch before the end date ... or allow for them at least.

asc99c

Another vote for the price comparison option. You may find it is the cheapest anyway. See my thread about almost the same issue. Mine is Online Energy Saver 10, and it seems the price for me actually went up by 24%, but it still appears to be the cheapest deal !?!

I think they have to waive early exit fees if you cancel after a price rise anyway. You signed up based on the prices that were advertised. You didn't sign up for whatever price rise they want to apply (what if they applied a 200% price rise - it isn't a fundamentally different situation from a 10% rise). You may have to argue this case, but it's an argument you can't really lose unless you back down on it.

Premier_2

asc99c wrote: »

...
I think they have to waive early exit fees if you cancel after a price rise anyway. You signed up based on the prices that were advertised. You didn't sign up for whatever price rise they want to apply (what if they applied a 200% price rise - it isn't a fundamentally different situation from a 10% rise). You may have to argue this case, but it's an argument you can't really lose unless you back down on it.

I don't think so. I understand your argument, and morally I think you are correct. But I don't think it'll wash

Here's why I think that.

A customer and supplier agree to an ongoing contract.
The supplier changes the terms of that contract via notice.
The option for the customer is to refuse to accept the revised terms and elect to end the contract (and change supplier)
If this option is taken up, the old terms continue to apply.

And that's the problem! The old terms specified a unit price and early exit fees that applied. The old unit price is held, and as the customer elects to exit early, so do the old early exit fees.


Or put another way, the customer did agree to a whatever price the supplier wants to charge if it's a variable tariff. If the customer didn't want to accept that, then the customer should have purchased a fixed price tariff deal.

Scottish_Power

Hi saaya 2020

The OLE9 tariff was not a capped tariff and was open to price increases / decreases, however your unit rates would always remain at least 3% cheaper than our standard monthly Direct Debit rates. This tariff does come with cancellation charges if you change tariff or change supplier before the expiry date (1st April 2011).

If you have looked on a comparison site and you see a ScottishPower tariff that you would like to change onto now (taking into account that you will receive a cancellation charge), then I would recommend giving us a call and requesting the change to the tariff you require. Alternatively you can speak to our sales team (0800 400 200) to discuss all other tariffs that we can offer.

We will contact you prior to your current tariff expiring to confirm if a further tariff is being offered or whether you will be placed onto our standard tariff from 1st April 2011.

It is entirely your decision on what action you wish to take, just bear in mind the cancellation charge and take this into account when you are working out whether another tariff is financially beneficial to you.

Like macman has stated, I have copied section 9.8 of our Terms and Conditions which address this issue:


9.8
If we increase the price or vary other terms of the Agreement to your significant disadvantage we will notify you of that within 65 Working Days of the increase or variation taking effect. If you do not accept the increase or variation you are entitled to end the Agreement by giving us notice to end the Agreement, within 10 Working Days of receiving the notification from us. If you give us that notice, the increase or variation will not take place. However the increase or variation will come into effect if, within 15 Working Days of you giving that notice to us, we do not receive notification through the relevant supply industry processes that another supplier will begin to supply the Premises within a reasonable period of time after that notice has been given by you.

Your account will still be debited with the cancellation charges if you change supplier before the expiry date.

I hope this information has been useful. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

saaya2020

Thanks to everybody. Really grateful to your all for taking the time to give me good advise!

I did a comparison query and see that Scottish Power Energy Saver 12 and EDF are approximately the same in price. (actually, EDF are cheaper by only £20).
So, will it be possible to transfer to Scottish Power Energy Saver 12 on April 1st ?

This i think seems to be my best option thus maximising my existing tarrif until it expires.

Premier_2

I doubt SP will accept a request today for so far ahead in the future.

As the Online Energy Saver 12 tariff ends 29 Feb 2012, I would suspect v12 will no longer be available to you come April. There'll probably be a v13 (or later) but whether that is be better or worse than v12, I can't say.

Unless you want to exit the current tariff early, I would wait until SP contact you saying which tariff you will be put on by default before trying to arrange anything different.