Add your feedback on energy supplier Flow

swinton18

Has anyone using flow enrgy checked their portal for money outstanding as the Company say the information is wrong? It has been for some time and meter reads are not reliable either using the online system. Best to email reads to ensure you have a record of what you are using.

Charlie234

Flowenergy claims transparency with their customers (at least on their website). I've applied for standard tariff they've switched it promptly and sent welcome pack confirming I'm on a standard tariff. Sometime later I received a bill showing different charges from the welcome pack and actually showing they moved me to economy7 tariff increasing my annual bill by at least £100/year. I've notified them about the situation and they admitted to moving me to another tariff as a result of my meter being economy7 meter.

Please be aware of their practices before you move. I've sent a complaint letter (email) two weeks ago and still waiting to receive even acknowledgement.

On the bill they seem to be perfectly capable of producing a sum of my consumption from both tariffs so it shouldn't be a major difficulty to apply a standard charge to it.

DC2010

I doubt very much whether anyone in the last 6 months or so has switched to Flow given the various reports of incompetence.

I've been with them since 13th July 2013 and they are so incompetent that I'm really surprised there hasn't been more publicity about it. They are not fit to run an ice cream van let alone supply energy.

After the usual signing on by email for both gas and electricity, I then had an email to say the gas transfer would be delayed for a few weeks. In August I contacted them by email - I tend to do this so I have a written record - to ask when the gas would switch only to be told it had switched on the 13th - as if I was stupid. I did phone once but they failed to follow it up so I didn't bother again.

I also made the mistake of contacting my previous supplier Sainsbury's Energy to enquire why the final meter readings I had supplied were not used for my Final Bill. Only to be told these readings had been supplied by Flow.

Sainsbury's kindly re-submitted the bill with the correct readings and I paid it. Happily it will be Flow that are out of pocket because they are working on readings I never even reached till August.

I asked Flow what they were up to and no reply. I wrote 6 emails in total about the various issues and only got a single reply to one email - 6 weeks later.

I also had an email to say that the first Direct Debit would be delayed a month.

All this time it had been impossible to check my account online as the system hadn't been set up.

I always laughed every time I checked their website because they adore their own Customer Service which they say sets them apart from the industry. They can say that again !

Months later I finally got on to my account only to find that they showed no gas bills despite sending a guy around now and then to take readings off both meters. I enquired why they were not including gas on my statements but of course there was no reply. It is now almost February and I'm just waiting for the 31st August to get shot of them. It would be great to think that I will get away with free gas for a year but even this stupid Company might wake up when the new Supplier wants the final readings.

Really there should be some organisation I can report Flow to - maybe the Energy Ombudsman. If it could get me out of my contract with Flow and stop anyone else from joining these idiots then it would be worthwhile.

sterlingsafeguarder

I switched to FE in June (Electricity) and July (Gas). It would help consumers if the switch date was synchronised for dual fuel contracts, thus making meter readings and keeping tabs on consumption much easier. Is it too much to ask of energy companies to manage this aspect?
It would also make life easier if the DD payment was the same as the switching date. FE bill on a beginning to the end of the month basis. This fine in principle but they don't keep up to spec on customers meter read data and fall back on unreliable estimates to bill us. This is repeated on a regular basis. Because of this I send in two readings per month, the DD date and the end of the month. Despite this FE rarely get the bill right. I then have to write to them with total usage/costs from the two switching dates, for elect/gas, to prove their figures wrong.
Having said that, they have made no attempt to raise my monthly DD's, so there must be someone there who recognises actual data info.
Like other customers FE missed an elect DD that resulted in a higher debit balance on my bills this winter.
Their website is easy to navigate, and meter reads are reasonably easy to enter. As I said my main gripe is the inefficient and inaccurate billing information online, something that they trumpeted would be spot on when they entered the energy market.
Finally, I am awaiting with interest their promise of new tariffs in 2014. They'll need to do better to keep existing customers after September 2014

topicalcat

Flow are back in business, new tariff launched today at same prices as last year! I have switched today as there is a £100 saving and I am desperately hoping that they have sorted out all the gremlins reported so far.

I have flowenergy shares in my ISA (doing nicely) I want a flow CHP Boiler and really want this to go well. I hope the closed period from last August till now when they stopped taking on new customers (deliberate policy so they could bed down systems) has worked and they will get their act together.

If they can they will be massive once their CHP boiler comes on the market within next 6 months.

I have no connection with flow apart from being a happy shareholder (and from today a customer)

monkei

Hi, never heard of Flow or microCHP boilers before and just reading about them.

So there are people already running or going to run Flow's CHP boilers? If so what was your annual gas usage to be eligible for the 'free' CHP boiler? and how much was installation?

On their website it says you need to use between 28,000 and 52,000 kWh of gas a year for the Flow boiler to be suitable. To generate 2000kWh of electricity a year you need to use about 35,000kWh of gas a year. Isn't this quite high?

So are CHP boilers only really for quite high gas users? and not suitable for your average home? I live in a larger than average detached house with an old boiler and didn't make 25,000 kWh of gas last year, granted it was a mild winter.

So I'm guessing Flow would only really be interested in supplying the free boilers to those with quite high gas usage otherwise they would not recoup the cost of the boiler back via FIT over 5 years and turn a profit (they're a business afterall). Or could they up their energy prices during the 5 years you are in with them if they see you're not using enough gas/ generating enough electricity??

topicalcat

monkei wrote: »

Hi, never heard of Flow or microCHP boilers before and just reading about them.

So there are people already running or going to run Flow's CHP boilers? If so what was your annual gas usage to be eligible for the 'free' CHP boiler? and how much was installation?

On their website it says you need to use between 28,000 and 52,000 kWh of gas a year for the Flow boiler to be suitable. To generate 2000kWh of electricity a year you need to use about 35,000kWh of gas a year. Isn't this quite high?

So are CHP boilers only really for quite high gas users? and not suitable for your average home? I live in a larger than average detached house with an old boiler and didn't make 25,000 kWh of gas last year, granted it was a mild winter.

So I'm guessing Flow would only really be interested in supplying the free boilers to those with quite high gas usage otherwise they would not recoup the cost of the boiler back via FIT over 5 years and turn a profit (they're a business afterall). Or could they up their energy prices during the 5 years you are in with them if they see you're not using enough gas/ generating enough electricity??

I have some Flowenergy shares in my ISA so I see the press releases etc. This is a quote from a release to the stock exchange which starts off by saying that they have CE (BSI) quality mark allowing them to start commercial production. Jabil are by the way a supplier to APPLE amongst others so are used to making quality products.

, "In addition, Flowgroup announces that Jabil is making significant progress in preparing its manufacturing facility in Livingstone, Scotland, to begin manufacturing of up to 390,000 Flow boilers from H2 2014. Jabil has purchased and commissioned test equipment, designed production line layouts and employed key staff with specialist skills. Flowgroup's supply chain has been connected to the manufacturing facility and Jabil is now placing orders directly with the Group's suppliers"

They are due to make a further announcement in the next few weeks so I can share anything which helps us decide.
As you quite rightly ask, will my/your gas consumption be enough to justify this new boiler? Hopefully we will know soon. When I get a shareholder update I will post the info. They will never attract the mass market if you need a big house or like the heating turned up to tropical levels to make this viable.

monkei

topicalcat wrote: »

I have some Flowenergy shares in my ISA so I see the press releases etc. This is a quote from a release to the stock exchange which starts off by saying that they have CE (BSI) quality mark allowing them to start commercial production. Jabil are by the way a supplier to APPLE amongst others so are used to making quality products.

, "In addition, Flowgroup announces that Jabil is making significant progress in preparing its manufacturing facility in Livingstone, Scotland, to begin manufacturing of up to 390,000 Flow boilers from H2 2014. Jabil has purchased and commissioned test equipment, designed production line layouts and employed key staff with specialist skills. Flowgroup's supply chain has been connected to the manufacturing facility and Jabil is now placing orders directly with the Group's suppliers"

They are due to make a further announcement in the next few weeks so I can share anything which helps us decide.
As you quite rightly ask, will my/your gas consumption be enough to justify this new boiler? Hopefully we will know soon. When I get a shareholder update I will post the info. They will never attract the mass market if you need a big house or like the heating turned up to tropical levels to make this viable.

From the little info I've gathered it doesn't look like this is something for your average household in terms of being eligible for Flow's free boiler and in terms of benefiting from mircoCHP boiler tech in general.

To benefit you need to be using a lot of gas (for heating or hot water, obviously excludes cooking) or you would need to see energy prices increase very significantly, or we need to enter another ice age

But like you say (in the other thread) we'll have to wait for Flow's boiler launch to see the finer details and to see how they intend to roll it out to the masses.

s231187

I just saw that Flow Energy was over £500 cheaper on annual usage of :
Gas 31597
Elec 5053
but when I put my details in on their website and ran the calculations it said :

Important Message Our domestic energy calculator is unable to provide a domestic quotation at this level of gas consumption

???

Am I too big, too small, or dont they like my face. I dont imagine my usage is anything unusual. Any clues?

Mickboy

Switched to flow energy from edf. All went smoothly. Got emails showing progress and asking for meter readings and transferred on 13 May 2014. Edf sent me my final Bill on 28 May. My fixed tariff with edf finished on 30 April. So quite easy to transfer. can't understand why more people don't switch and save. I've been with Atlantic,Eon and edf and now with flow energy.