MSE News: Will the energy big guns follow Ovo's price rise?

Former_MSE_Helen

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Ovo has bucked the trend of falling gas and electric prices by announcing up to 90,000 of its customers face rises..."

Read the full story:
Will the energy big guns follow Ovo's price rise?

Plushchris

So what is it? 10,000 or 90,000?

Typical "news" from MSE..

The report earlier said it was 10,000 ( http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/utilities/2012/03/energy-blow-as-ovo-raises-prices ) and that probably didnt whip up enough of a storm so why not make another "news" story speculating that other suppliers may follow suit and increase the number this is affecting to help that story...

Dave_C_2

A company who I've never heard of until I read the story puts prices up.
So what?
I'll worry when the big boys do it.

Dave

Consumerist

Plushchris wrote: »

So what is it? 10,000 or 90,000

My understanding from the article is that Ovo have 90,00 customers of which 10,000 are on their variable tariff and will be affected by the rises. The other 80,000 are on fixed tariffs and won't be affected until their contracts end.

Plushchris

Consumerist wrote: »

My understanding from the article is that Ovo have 90,00 customers of which 10,000 are on their variable tariff and will be affected by the rises. The other 80,000 are on fixed tariffs and won't be affected until their contracts end.

Thats my understanding of the original article, this one seems to ignore the 10k and go straight for 90k to make it sound more dramatic.

Consumerist

Dave_C wrote: »

A company who I've never heard of until I read the story puts prices up. So what?

The Big Six energy suppliers tend to act like sheep - as they did when Ovo reduced prices and they quickly followed suit. Given the paltry reductions they reluctantly passed on to customers, it is reasonable to believe that they would latch on to any excuse to put prices back up again.

Consumerist

Plushchris wrote: »

Thats my understanding of the original article, this one seems to ignore the 10k and go straight for 90k to make it sound more dramatic.

Frankly, it beats me why MSE needs two articles to cover one subject although one is more or less factual whilst the other is journalistic hype and pure speculation.

Sometimes I think MSE wants to generate panic so as to reinforce its reason for being. Perhaps the opinions of the comparison-site spokespersons was designed to quell fears of the Big Six increasing prices. Who knows.

Dave_C_2

Consumerist wrote: »

The Big Six energy suppliers tend to act like sheep - as they did when Ovo reduced prices and they quickly followed suit.

This could be a Post Hoc logical fallacy, just because A precedes B does not mean that A caused B. In other words Ovo price cuts did not necessarily cause the big 6 to cut prices.

Given the paltry reductions they reluctantly passed on to customers, it is reasonable to believe that they would latch on to any excuse to put prices back up again.

Now that I agree with
Dave

Plushchris

Dave_C wrote: »

A company who I've never heard of until I read the story...

Have you not done a comparison in the past three years?

Until recently Ovo have been in the top 5 of almost every comparison I've done

MillicentBystander

Judging by just about all the tariffs at the top of the switching sites being fixed deals my understanding was that energy prices may be coming down again, lol. Not really sure what to make of this move by OVO, tbh. As I read it, it's actually on both fuels as well?

Consumerist

Dave_C wrote: »

This could be a Post Hoc logical fallacy, just because A precedes B does not mean that A caused B. In other words Ovo price cuts did not necessarily cause the big 6 to cut prices.

I didn't say, or even imply, that Ovo's price reduction caused the Big Six to follow but merely that they did.

You, however, erroneously inferred a causality that simply was not there. .