Budget energy

spike7451

hazelc56 wrote: »

Spike if you have switched to Budget Energy then i wonder if youve noticed that your unit price will be 13.147p if you only top up by £5 whereas if you top up by £10 your unit price will be 12.774p a little cheaper but a saving all the same.Just thought i would tell you as it is easy to miss on the leaflet etc.
Not sure what you mean when you say "Paying !!!!!! Turpin Electricity".Can you tell me please.

Paying NIE/Power NI..:rotfl:
Tho you would think that with the competition creeping here in the Province,they'd do all they can to keep customers,not loose them.

hazelc56

spike7451 wrote: »

Paying NIE/Power NI..:rotfl:
Tho you would think that with the competition creeping here in the Province,they'd do all they can to keep customers,not loose them.

Thought the very same thing myself,maybe they will eventually.

yorkie98

Got a letter from Budget this morning, I assume this has been sent to all who have been delayed...

Dear XXXXXX,

Thank you for agreeing to switch to Budget Energy
Unfortunately NIE T&D, the company that has to phone you to give you your new code to become our customer, can only phone between 50-60 customers a day, five days a week.

This has caused a backlog and a delay with the switching process.

Let me assure you we are doing everything possible to speed up the process.

Thank you for your patience.

Should you have any questions, please cal our sales team on 0800 012 11 77.

Yours Sincerely

Eleanor McEvoy
Managing Director,
Budget Energy Ltd.

So NIE T&D ARE limiting the exodous of customers by claiming they can only call 50-60 people a day. Surely the regulator has the power to order them to do better here?

hazelc56

yorkie98 wrote: »

Got a letter from Budget this morning, I assume this has been sent to all who have been delayed...

Dear XXXXXX,

Thank you for agreeing to switch to Budget Energy
Unfortunately NIE T&D, the company that has to phone you to give you your new code to become our customer, can only phone between 50-60 customers a day, five days a week.

This has caused a backlog and a delay with the switching process.

Let me assure you we are doing everything possible to speed up the process.

Thank you for your patience.

Should you have any questions, please cal our sales team on 0800 012 11 77.

Yours Sincerely

Eleanor McEvoy
Managing Director,
Budget Energy Ltd.

So NIE T&D ARE limiting the exodous of customers by claiming they can only call 50-60 people a day. Surely the regulator has the power to order them to do better here?

I dont believe what NIE are saying.Looks like they are trying to squeeze their last few pounds out of their customers by taking their time.Surely they will have more than one rep dealing with the switchover customers via phone.
On the other hand maybe there are thousands switching,hence the backlog.Is this what Cameron meant when he said he wanted the power companies to make it easier for people to switch.Maybe some people are finding the final stage of the switch a bit tricky with all the number crunching that has to be done during it.
Maybe shortening the 10 day cooling off period to 7 days might help a bit as more could be processed sooner.It doesnt really require 10 days to change your mind.Besides most people have already decided and mulled it over before the pick up the phone to switch.:eek:Finished.

caz2703

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The creation of a Single Electricity Market was meant to lower electricity prices by allowing an all island market for electricity purchasing. Companies such as NIE and ESB in the south could buy their units from any power supply company be it a windfarm in Cork (not sure if there are any but you know what I mean) to the big power stations up here yet in the 4 years since it was created, the SEM hasn't lowered any prices that I've seen.

I know some more ins and outs but I'm not going to air them on here but lets just say thank god we now have competition in the form of Budget and Airtricity as our bills were never going to go down as things were.

D.A.

yorkie98 wrote: »

Unfortunately NIE T&D, the company that has to phone you to give you your new code to become our customer, can only phone between 50-60 customers a day, five days a week.

Hang on a minute here. If they only had ONE person making these calls, that would mean each call lasts approximately 9 minutes - surely that can't be right? And I would imagine that NIE T&D is bound to have at least 5 people doing this surely?

yorkie98

D.A. wrote: »

Hang on a minute here. If they only had ONE person making these calls, that would mean each call lasts approximately 9 minutes - surely that can't be right? And I would imagine that NIE T&D is bound to have at least 5 people doing this surely?

You'd think so too but obviously not. I'd say realisticly, 9-10 mins to make the call and do the computer/paperwork related to each call is feasible. I think they said the call takes about 5 mins, they need to read you (and i'd like to think they double check with you) a number for your temporary top up card and then a 50-60 digit code for the meter.
It does seem though that there is only one person making the calls limiting those switching away to 250-300 per week assuming that this person is doing both the Budget AND Airtricity customers. I'm sure that the providers are applying pressure to NIE T&D and the regulator for them to get their fingers out..
Budget seem quite passive in their efforts to get new customers (most likely finding it quite easy to bring in their allotted 250-300 new customers per week) whereas Airtricty are marketing hard with TV, Radio and print advertising plus reps out in shopping centres. If this is the case, Airtricity must have a serious backlog..

dumbo

dumbo wrote: »

Due to change from NIE to Budget tomorrow, seems quite straight forward, the girl from budget called me to arrange a time that suits me for the changeover. So Wednesday evening between 6pm & 7pm all should be complete. Budget seem to know what they are doing as I oreviously tried to change to airtricity & it took 2 months to get a changeover date & then they told me the changeover could only be done between 8.30am & 5pm, whereas Budget can a rrange a call for me outside working hours. Well done Budget Energy.:j

Switched last night to budget, very easy process, now paying 12.77 per unit. Well done Budget:A

hazelc56

I have already switched to Budget and it does take a little while to complete the last phase of the switch which if you havent got a clear mind at the time may confuse some of us.There are a lot details to be given by you, to them regarding the numbers on your meter which they will walk you through.If you have a mobile phone you can stand beside the meter whilst doing it but if not then take a peice of paper with you to record the details if your phone is a bit away from your meter.
They take a lot of numbers from you then they give you a 90 digit code to put in.At one stage your meter will come down to £1.99/£2.00 but once the numbers have been sorted etc this will come back up again.
You need to have around £5 in your meter to do the switch and your keypad card handy(if i remember correctly)They will give you a new number to top up your electricity with.You should have received your welcome pack with the card in it along with other documents and leaflets etc.
I suppose it does take about 5-10 minutes to complete the process, depending on yourself really.Hope this helps.

D.A.

When we switched from NIE to Airtricity after moving into our new house, we had to point out to NIE T&D that they had completely the wrong address to correspond to the meter number. I can't imagine whose meter they had spent the previous few years reading. :-)

Add to that the fact that they hadn't noticed that our meter hadn't moved in 2 years (when the house was unoccupied) and was obviously broken, and it shows you how on the ball they are. :-)