Co-operative Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Consumerist

boobbby wrote: »

. . . yet I have also taken out the Fix for longer September deal. . .

On balance, a wise choice, methinks.

Wholesale prices have been increasing in recent months so it is likely that the better deals currently on offer will be disappearing soon.

FOREVER21

boobbby wrote: »

Seems very little on the forums these days so is everybody happy with the Co op now or is this new type MSE forum a bit more tricky to use ?

My guess is that most people who had experienced problems, have switched providers, I for one did.

boobbby

Just been informed I have been credited with £7.77 for the poor service I have received from the Co op energy. I am so excited : I can't think how to spend it, so has anybody got any suggestions ?

Consumerist

boobbby wrote: »

Just been informed I have been credited with £7.77 for the poor service I have received from the Co op energy. I am so excited : I can't think how to spend it, so has anybody got any suggestions ?

You could complain that you were not the chance to reject such a paltry offering. That might cost you £7.77 if they agree with you.

Consumerist

I have just received a "General Update" email from Co-op Energy, as follows:

As a growing business, we sometimes have to make minor changes to important things to ensure the smooth running of our business. We recently made a few changes to our General Terms & Conditions (T&Cs).

There's nothing you need to do, we just need you to be aware that the new terms and conditions now apply.

You can find a copy on our website:

So they have made "minor" changes to "important things" in their Ts&Cs but if you want to know what they are, you will need to download a copy and then pick through it and compare it with previous Ts&Cs.

I don't trust this lot any more so does anyone know what these "minor" changes are?

peachyprice

I only joined co-op in May, was previously with Sainsbury's whose CS was excellent, but the price increase was horrific after the BG debacle.

I won't be staying with co-op long, their website is abysmal. I got an email 2 weeks ago telling me to submit meter readings, couldn't get on the website through the 'give a meter reading' link so had to do it by phone. Got an email today telling me my bill is ready but I can't get into my account to view it. If I had wanted paper billing and have the time for telephone contact I would't have gone with an online tariff. Absolute shambles.

boobbby

peachyprice wrote: »

I only joined co-op in May, was previously with Sainsbury's whose CS was excellent, but the price increase was horrific after the BG debacle.

I won't be staying with co-op long, their website is abysmal. I got an email 2 weeks ago telling me to submit meter readings, couldn't get on the website through the 'give a meter reading' link so had to do it by phone. Got an email today telling me my bill is ready but I can't get into my account to view it. If I had wanted paper billing and have the time for telephone contact I would't have gone with an online tariff. Absolute shambles.

I have been with the co-op since March 2015 and your remarks actually describe the normal goings on with the Co op. The only thing they have got right is the bill so that is why I have stayed plus they do have a low tariff and it would cost £60 to move.

peachyprice

boobbby wrote: »

I have been with the co-op since March 2015 and your remarks actually describe the normal goings on with the Co op. The only thing they have got right is the bill so that is why I have stayed plus they do have a low tariff and it would cost £60 to move.

I couldn't tell you if the bill is right or not, cos I can't view the damn thing :rotfl:

Sosumi

Co-operative Energy is the supply company that I would recommend wholeheartedly to my worst enemy.

I was with Co-operative Energy for 13 months.

We used Energy Helpline, via Quidco, to initiate a switch (from “Scottish” Power) in late December of 2013 and got a pleasant little cashback of £30 from Quidco for doing so.

Things with Co-op Energy got off to a good start and the switch was completed thoughtfully on the final day before our (cheaper) fix with SP expired at the end of February 2014 – so we got the full advantage of that one, right to the end.

And, to begin with, everything was fine with Co-op Energy. They did things efficiently, the customer support staff were friendly and helpful and the Co-op Energy website’s interactive online account system, although fairly basic, worked well. I was content and impressed but, mercifully as things turned out, I didn’t encourage anyone else to switch to them.

I take weekly reading of our meters and keep track of our energy consumption and account, using a spreadsheet: for the first nine months it always tallied exactly with the bills and statements supplied by Co-op Energy.

It was as well that I did this. Things changed within Co-op Energy early in 2015 and I was mighty glad I had that spreadsheet fully set up and functioning on Co-op Energy’s tariff when they did.

On 9 March 2015, Co-op Energy lost the plot. By chance, I tried to log into my account that very morning and was met with the message that, with no advance warning, Co-Op Energy had switched overnight to a completely new (and clearly untested) accounting system. I was instructed to re-register, by a ridiculously complex and malfunctioning procedure, into the new online system.

Co-op Energy soon conceded that there were “teething problems” with it but promised that all would be sorted within four days and that I would be able to register into the new system by 12 March. And, to be fair, I succeeded – at 6 pm on the evening of 12 March. It was the last promise Co-op Energy ever kept.

I was, it seemed, from an avalanche of complaints posted on here, one of the few people who did actually manage to register into the new system and get my account up and running within the specified time period.

The problem was that the running that it did do was round in circles...

By Sunday, 15 March – the Ides of March – things had gone from bad to worse and it was apparent that Co-op Energy had completely lost control of its accounting system. That was also the final day to apply at Energy Helpline for a collective switch to E.ON. So, I did. I figured that doing this gave me 14 days of cooling-off period to see whether Co-op Energy could get its act together. It didn’t, of course, so I duly let the switch to E.ON go through.

As an aside, I have to declare that I was reassured that I had done the right thing in leaving Co-op Energy by the fact that Consumerist, whose past postings I had read, and whose subsequent postings I have also read, was recommending people to stay put. :T

Another bonus was the fact that my new E.ON tariff was £92 a year cheaper! :money:

E.ON extracted me efficiently from Co-op Energy within three weeks and I’ve been with them happily, on one collective fix or another, ever since. From the ridiculous to the sublime. E.ON's been brilliant.

Co-op Energy quite obviously didn’t have a clue what the actual balance of my account was. Bizarre amounts of money, hundreds of pounds, all different and tagged as “Adjustments”, were credited and debited to my account for no apparent reason.

Had it not been for my trusty spreadsheet, I would have had no idea what my true position was with Co-op Energy.

Fortunately, I had kept a close eye on my Direct Debit amounts and adjusted them fairly precisely before Co-op Energy dropped the box. I knew that on the day I left Co-op Energy I was just under £15 in credit for energy and could prove it, to the penny, if necessary.

I also knew that I was supposed to have to pay Co-op Energy £50 (£25 per fuel) in Early Exit Fees. So, from the safety of E.ON, I simply sat back and waited to see what would actually happen.

In the meantime, terrible tales of woe were appearing from aghast customers who had stayed with Co-op Energy. You can read them on here... People were spending hours on the ‘phone, trying to get through to Customer Services. If and when they ever did, they were given promises that never happened. Truth went out of the window; most notably from Co-op Energy’s CEO, Ben Reid, OBE.

I did nothing and just waited. Six moths after I left Co-op Energy, I was surprised to receive a “Final Bill” from Co-op Energy, informing me that I was owed over £200. A week or so later, a cheque for that amount duly arrived. A month after that, I received another cheque; for about £20. The latter was for my Co-op dividends on the 13 months I had been with Co-op Energy.

Throughout the whole horrible mess I watched unfurl, I was, and remain, amazed that Co-op Energy’s auditors have not been called to account, that the company was permitted to continue to operate, in complete chaos, and that its CEO, Ben Reid has not been stripped of his OBE and declared unfit to serve as a company director.

But that’s just my opinion – and, with that proviso, I’m entitled to express it.

Those still with Co-op Energy post on here that things remain in chaos.

Avoid Co-op Energy like Ebola. After so much dishonesty, incompetence and damage to its customers, it doesn’t deserve still to be trading.

No amount of “savings” would compensate you for all the hassle that you get and the amount of time, effort and frustration it will cost you to sort out its screw-ups. Not for nothing does Co-op Energy languish currently in the bottom three of the Citizens Advice Energy Supplier Performance Table – between nPower in 18th and Extra Energy in 20th. ‘Nuff said.


A final thought that seems to typify the whole Co-op Energy saga. The Co-op Energy site still lets me access my closed account with them. I can read all the pages on screen but, since it changed its website a year ago, it has never been possible to print any of them out. I had to take screen-shots of them and print those out instead. :mad:

An online-only account that displays everything in a format that doesn’t print out? :wall: That’d be Co-op Energy.

Consumerist

Sosumi wrote: »

. . . As an aside, I have to declare that I was reassured that I had done the right thing in leaving Co-op Energy by the fact that Consumerist, whose past postings I had read, and whose subsequent postings I have also read, was recommending people to stay put. :T . . .

So what is your point in the deliberately offensive aside?

Edit
Already answered. I see from some of your other posts that you are just an objectionable malcontent. I guess it takes all sorts.