"I'm paying more than I was quoted"

JamesMason_2

Hi

I've been lurking here, but have now registered!

There seems to be a lot of "I'm paying more than I was quoted". Which is fallacy because you buy in a set unit rate (and where appropriate) a daily standing charge.

Which has got me thinking. What thought process has the average joe punter gone through to switch, believing they will save, only to discover notionally that they have been "overcharged".

Is it a case of education?

Or is there an element too of perception. So few switch (what are the churn figures for the industry?), but is becoming greater, that all of a sudden, your run-of-the-mill gas and electric becomes a smart phone or car, like a physical commodity at a fixed price. When your supplier bumps up the price of repayments on your car ("actually guv it was £15k but we only quoted you £10k"), I guess you could see why?

Of course by way of a foot note, a car or smart phone attracts variable charges based on consumption ;-) *pop*

I thought worthy of starting a new thread to debate the subject, rather than seeing endless threads saying the same thing over again.


James

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

The call centre staff are on commission; they will set the initial Direct Debit as low as it takes to get a customer signed up.

Try it with any call centre. Phone and say you are paying any figure by DD and the probability is they will offer a lower DD. The same with any door knocking salesman!

Obviously don't mention kWh!

Without question many customers also need educating. A surprising number over the years apparently think a fixed price tariff is like an 'all you can eat' restaurant - your DD is fixed and you can use as much gas/electricity as you like.

The lure of a bottle of champagne or Nectar points is difficult for some to resist.

In evidence given to a Parliamentary Committee the heads of the Big 6 Utility companies said approx one third of customers actually switched to a more expensive tariff.

A major culprit, besides the Utility companies, are the comparison websites who obviously have a vested interest in getting people to switch.

matelodave

I've been offered many a deal which suggests that I can reduce my DD and save £100's, however when we've done the sums using my known Kw usage I've always got a different story.

There are a lot of people out there who haven't a clue how much they are using and believe the hype. If you don't do your own sums then I'm afraid you derserve it if you get taken in