Co-operative society energy

elektra

New bill received this afternoon. At first glance I thought it was more than the old one. It was more, but only because they have billed up to today(estimate). The proper rates have now been applied.

Mistake should not have happened but at least they answered the phone instantly and sorted within 2 days.

Mr_Crunch

Having just received the Co-op Energy Newsletter about the fixed price Which? tariff being available to existing Co-op Energy customers until June 14, I checked their website for the tariffs. Not sure if it makes sense to tie in for over a year if Europe is about to collapse and there will be a surfeit of Russian & Qatari gas looking for a home......

And I also checked my existing v2.1 variable tariff
http://www.cooperativeenergy.coop/assets/documents/price-list-v2.1.pdf

To my amazement v2.1 Electricity for Area 14 West Midlands was increased by 3% (10.83 to 11.15) w.e.f. 8 May but I never had notification about this. Not the first time has there been no prior warning.

But is it correct or another screw-up, because it is only Electricity for West Midlands Area 14 which has been changed? Does anyone else on Area 14 know? (kar999?)
There was another thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3952511 but the OP only got responses from people who were in other areas.

Obviously I have asked Co-op directly but no answer yet - it will be interesting to see how their response times have been affected by taking on double the number of customers in one fell swoop!!

meggsy

Mr_Crunch, You should have had an email but it is on the site as well, price increase in electricity for the early customers in the Midlands ..
http://comms.coop/?IFSGEr2QArud9USvz-gfVmiF0e60tOioI

I wonder how many new customers they have taken on ?
I have signed up to the fixed rate via Which before it was offered by Coop, be interesting to see how long the switch takes for an existing customer.

Mr_Crunch

meggsy wrote: »

You should have had an email but it is on the site as well, price increase in electricity for the early customers in the Midlands ..
http://comms.coop/?IFSGEr2QArud9USvz-gfVmiF0e60tOioI

Thank you. Too right they should have notified me. They did not - I check my spam/trash folders every day. This keeps happening with Co-op, I'm not the only one. Pathetic and very annoying. Still haven't had an answer from them directly, either.

Mr_Crunch

Co-op Energy have responded, saying that they sent out the V2.1 May 8 Area 14 West Midlands Electricity price increase notification by post! That really is bizarre - because I never received it, and the post here is brilliant. Something must be wrong with their systems.

meggsy

Mr_Crunch wrote: »

Co-op Energy have responded, saying that they sent out the V2.1 May 8 Area 14 West Midlands Electricity price increase notification by post! That really is bizarre - because I never received it, and the post here is brilliant. Something must be wrong with their systems.

I thought they didn't send anything by post to online customers, not even the welcome pack on joining, I've not had any post.

Could be teething problems at their new call centre in Walsall ?

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2012/05/03/co-op-call-centre-to-create-50-new-jobs/

Mr_Crunch

meggsy wrote: »

I thought they didn't send anything by post to online customers, not even the welcome pack on joining, I've not had any post.

Could be problems at their new call centre in Walsall ?

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2012/05/03/co-op-call-centre-to-create-50-new-jobs/

What they said was:

"Thank you for informing me that you have not received notification of the 8th May 2012 price increase for customer on V2.1. This notification was sent to all customer via post as there is only a small group on this version due to it being available to our early customers only."

syco1

As an existing Co-op Energy customer I am looking into switching to the new fixed price tariff. I reckon it will save me £10 a quarter, but I am a very low user so others should save more. I can't really see prices falling in the next year.

kar999

Mr_Crunch wrote: »

But is it correct or another screw-up, because it is only Electricity for West Midlands Area 14 which has been changed? Does anyone else on Area 14 know? (kar999?)

Sorry only just read this but I did get an email on 4 April 2012 notifying the price increase...... I'm Area 14 Electricticy only

Can I start by thanking you for your support for the launch of Co-operative Energy. You were one of our early 'Pioneer Customers' who helped us establish this exciting new co-operative venture.

At the time of our launch we created a special price band to reflect the fact that we were new to the market. Even today, over a year on, your electricity unit price is 5 per cent lower than the price we charge new customers, which is itself one of the cheapest standard tariffs available.

Since January this year, our costs of purchasing electricity have risen by 9.5 per cent. If we were an investor-owned business, we would probably implement a price increase of this amount to restore our margins. But as we are owned by our customers and given the loyalty you have shown to Co-operative Energy, we are intending to propose an increase in your electricity unit price of 3 per cent from 8 May 2012. tunit rate
(pence per kWh)

Old price10.83p
New Price 11.15p

I was also emailed in May and I subsequently went for their fixed tariff to July 2013 which takes my unit cost back down to 10.38p

Mr_Crunch

kar999 wrote: »

Sorry only just read this but I did get an email on 4 April 2012 notifying the price increase...... I'm Area 14 Electricticy only

Can I start by thanking you for your support for the launch of Co-operative Energy. You were one of our early 'Pioneer Customers' who helped us establish this exciting new co-operative venture.

At the time of our launch we created a special price band to reflect the fact that we were new to the market. Even today, over a year on, your electricity unit price is 5 per cent lower than the price we charge new customers, which is itself one of the cheapest standard tariffs available.

Since January this year, our costs of purchasing electricity have risen by 9.5 per cent. If we were an investor-owned business, we would probably implement a price increase of this amount to restore our margins. But as we are owned by our customers and given the loyalty you have shown to Co-operative Energy, we are intending to propose an increase in your electricity unit price of 3 per cent from 8 May 2012. tunit rate
(pence per kWh)

Old price10.83p
New Price 11.15p

I was also emailed in May and I subsequently went for their fixed tariff to July 2013 which takes my unit cost back down to 10.38p

Thanks Kar. After some discussion with Co-op Energy it seems that yet again they didn't send me a price increase notification! They said that they had sent it out by post as well (I'll take them at their word on that, although that does seem unlikely....).

In the end I decided that although gas and therefore electricity prices ought really to be coming down as a result of economic collapse, counter-intuitively I decided too to switch to the Fixed Price tariff by the mid-June deadline for various reasons (I cannot remember the other justifications now, but there were several!) one of which was because the Japs are switching off nuclear and taking more gas, some of which had been diverted from UK. And Co-op was as cheap as any of the other Fixes.

Whether that was a good move remains to be seen....They are competitive and well-intentioned, but their IT is a disaster...