Npower-Energy Online October 2013

Phillip_A.J._JAMES

I took up the above contract with Npower last July. I was led to believe that the prices would be fixed till October 2013. And, should I wish to terminate, I would have to pay a penalty of £30.00 for gas and another for Electricty. January 2013, I have received a letter from Npower advising that the 'fixed' prices would increase with effect from 1st March. Anybody else out there had similar experiences? I have complained and refuse to acknowledge their price increase. Join me?
Phillip JAMES

molerat

Energy Online was never a "fixed price" tariff. It has a guaranteed "fixed discount" off of standard tariff prices. Next time I suggest reading what you are signing up to, when I was looking at switching I realised what it was so did not take that option.

notbritishgas

Phillip_A.J._JAMES wrote: »

I took up the above contract with Npower last July. I was led to believe that the prices would be fixed till October 2013. And, should I wish to terminate, I would have to pay a penalty of £30.00 for gas and another for Electricty. January 2013, I have received a letter from Npower advising that the 'fixed' prices would increase with effect from 1st March. Anybody else out there had similar experiences? I have complained and refuse to acknowledge their price increase. Join me?
Phillip JAMES

Yes this person has


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4407873

And the answer to you will be the same, the tariff you signed up to was not a fixed tariff, it was a tariff guaranteed to be 3% below the standard tariff. So when the standard tariff rises so will yours.

davehsug

I'm on this tariff & I was delighted when the price didn't go up in November as I was well aware that it was "fixed" below standard, not FIXED. I'm disappointed it's going up, but am actually pleased to have got a bonus few winter months at the much lower price.

minx69

Npower suggested this tarrif over the phone to me, they never told me it was a percentage below standard fix, where would I stand ref complaint?

Hard_Saver

I feel like I've been mugged. Got letter today, two pages of verbiage "explaining" their rise, the essence of which was "we only promised you 3% under the standard rate / We didn't say anything about raising the standard rate, ha ha, got you!"

I was sold this by Npower on line. To be honest I had stopped paying attention to Martin's nudges to "Switch Now!" because it was beginning to sound like someone crying wolf. Sure enough, a few months letter it would be "If you haven't switched, switch now" or "If you haven't switched by now, don't bother, you're too late!" then later: "No you're not, switch now!"

Whenever I did look on U switch or wherever, the most I would save was about £30 per year. Sorry, it's not worth bothering with. Now my dual fuel will go up 10%, amounting to about £50 over the period to November when the current deal expires. There will probably be a penalty for switching to something else now, for a meagre saving. So either way I'll be out of pocket. It's not strictly mis-selling. or mis-buying on my part. but something somewhere is "missing" for sure!

It doesn't seem to matter where you look these days, you have to chop and change with this ludicrously volatile market. But I can't help feeling, most of us will be scr***ed in the end whichever tariff we choose.

It's the same with cable, ISAs, home insurance, car insurance, phone contracts. There's no loyalty any more. Companies really don't care who signs up or who leaves provided they can create the next market segment to bamboozle anew. I hear myself being very offhand with salespeople now and I don't like myself for that, but everytime a deal is closed I think "right, you know and I know, I'll only be with you until renewal, in 12 months, I'll be off somewhere else, so why should you bother about service? And why should I bother even to be polite?"

And then you get the email...or text... "On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is good and 5 is supercalifragilisticexpialodocious, please rate the degree of friendliness in the tone of voice of our agent in your recent call."

dogshome

Smoke and Mirrors of Utility Marketing
This tariff was never 'Fixed' to the end of the contract period - It was 'Fixed' in the sense of a guarantee that it's prices would be X% below those on the Standard tariff.

Standard prices go up and so do those of Energy Online, but so long as they are still the X% below Standard prices, n'power are following the contract terms

All is not lost
After heavy pressure was applied by some other members of this site,Ofgem took action on this scam and brought in rules
With this price rise on a Fixed Term Contract, you can leave n'power and they cannot charge you exit fee's, but to do so you must follow the the rules :

You must WRITE to n'power rejecting the Price Rise and advising them you are Switching to another supplier
Once this is done you are free to Switch - n'power cannot charge Exit Fee's -
Even if your actual Switch is a few days after the Price Rise Date, n'power can still only charge you your old tariff prices till you are switched

minx69

Thanks for the advice will be penning a lovely letter at the weekend and jumping ship before the rise.
:T