Solar energy - Feed-in Tariff payment delays - your experiences?

GaryMo_2

EricMears wrote: »

Just to show how a decent company works !

Reported readings on 15th May
Money in bank today (1st June)

Company is Scottish Power of course. Why can't the rest work to that standard ?

British Gas, being one of the rest trumped that!
Just over a week between me providing a reading and receiving a cheque!
Also, I've yet to see anybody report a FiT application as fast and pain-free as mine was - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=53377357&postcount=275
I'd read that many horror stories from other applicants with other companies so wasn't expecting BG to be as efficient as they were. A pleasant surprise.

EricMears

GaryMo wrote: »

British Gas, being one of the rest trumped that!
Just over a week between me providing a reading and receiving a cheque!

Still not quite as good as my experience with Scottish Power in April ! I'd sent them an intermediate reading with no expectation of being paid till next quarter (i.e today) but got paid out within a couple of weeks which is of course at least six weeks before I intended to ask for it. :j:j:j

But perhaps I should have said "Why can't the ones named & shamed here for taking months work to that standard ? "

orrery

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Even if E.ON provides the cheapest tariff for your energy usage?

Not a moral I would recommend to anyone who comes to a forum for money saving advice.

Oh, I don't know. I'd have thought that your standard forumite would be a relatively discerning individual who knows better than to go to the cheapest supplier if they turn out to be poor quality.

I can give you a list of the cheapest suppliers that I have ditched over the years to switch to a slightly more expensive supplier who thinks it appropriate that they answer the phone, with a knowledgeable individual, in English, when I call them.

GaryMo_2

EricMears wrote: »

Still not quite as good as my experience with Scottish Power in April ! I'd sent them an intermediate reading with no expectation of being paid till next quarter (i.e today) but got paid out within a couple of weeks which is of course at least six weeks before I intended to ask for it. :j:j:j

I'm genuinely surprised they paid out early as I bet you were when you received the cheque!

EricMears

GaryMo wrote: »

I'm genuinely surprised they paid out early as I bet you were when you received the cheque!

It appears that they decided it was easier to make a payment than to register an intermediate reading. I could live with the disappointment :T

I half expected them to revise my future reading dates but when I asked about it they told me to stick with former schedule. Rather silly really - I'm sure rates will change again next April (or definitely within next 24 years) so they could end up paying me 5 times a year instead of 4.

The_Green_Hornet

orrery wrote: »

Oh, I don't know. I'd have thought that your standard forumite would be a relatively discerning individual who knows better than to go to the cheapest supplier if they turn out to be poor quality.

Quality is in the eye of the beholder and I am always suspicious of people on forums who, just because they feel they have had a bad experience with a particular supplier, wish to instruct others to avoid them at all costs.

One should remember that the payment of FITs and the supply of energy are two separate things altogether. The money you receive from the Feed in Tariff will be the same whoever you are with the only difference it seems is that some suppliers pay out quicker than others, whereas there are huge differences in the supply tariffs across all companies.

Personally, I wouldn't discount a particular company from supplying my energy needs just because they take a little longer in paying out their solar PV customers their FIT payments.

Doc_N

Doc_N wrote: »

If Scottish Power can manage it, so can EON - except that they can't be bothered to. All we get is platitudes from their Company Representative every so often, but nothing ever changes.

The moral - avoid EON for your energy supplies and get your power from a company that takes its customers more seriously.

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Even if E.ON provides the cheapest tariff for your energy usage?

Not a moral I would recommend to anyone who comes to a forum for money saving advice.

A fair point - I took it as read that dumping eon if it meant paying a lot more for your energy would be daft.

If you're comparing eon with another broadly comparable tariff from another supplier, though, doesn't it make sense to go with the supplier that behaves responsibly towards its customers? Eon plainly doesn't give a monkey's about its FIT customers - why should it care any more about its other customers?

The_Green_Hornet

Doc_N wrote: »

A fair point - I took it as read that dumping eon if it meant paying a lot more for your energy would be daft.

If you're comparing eon with another broadly comparable tariff from another supplier, though, doesn't it make sense to go with the supplier that behaves responsibly towards its customers? Eon plainly doesn't give a monkey's about its FIT customers - why should it care any more about its other customers?

Personally, I don't give a monkey's if an energy supplier cares about me as a customer or not. All I ask of them is that I get continuation of supply at the lowest tariff possible with accurate billing.

In my experience, the big 6 are much of a muchness so I wouldn't discount any of them from supplying my energy based on a little recent difficulty on issuing FIT payments.

However, as I have said many times before on this thread, there is nothing to stop anyone from moving supplier if they don't like the way they are being treated but then again I am surprised on how few actually do.

orrery

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Quality is in the eye of the beholder and I am always suspicious of people on forums who, just because they feel they have had a bad experience with a particular supplier, wish to instruct others to avoid them at all costs.

The whole point of posting on a forum is that you don't need to be suspicious of individual motives - you look at all the comments 'in the round'. You always get one who has had a bad experience - and we all have our own personal take on things, but that doesn't make them invalid. All those who've had a good experience can post their views too.

The_Green_Hornet

orrery wrote: »

The whole point of posting on a forum is that you don't need to be suspicious of individual motives - you look at all the comments 'in the round'. You always get one who has had a bad experience - and we all have our own personal take on things, but that doesn't make them invalid. All those who've had a good experience can post their views too.

No one is saying that people's experiences, good or bad, are invalid however I personally have never understood the mentality of someone suffering continual bad customer service and then, instead of taking their business elsewhere, they stay with them and continually moan about it to all and sundry on a forum.

It takes all sorts I suppose....