Misleading Quotes

itsnever2lateisit?

Why oh why do companies quote so obviously low, even the site dear old Mr Lewis has put his name to.

As you all know they ask how many bedrooms you have, annual consumption and then come up with a quote £30 a month less than I am currently paying and claiming I will save £24 a YEAR over my current provider

Surely, to truly compare prices all the companies should quote is any standing charge and price per Kw/h?

Anything else is a brazen attempt to con/cheat the customer:mad:

Cardew

itsnever2lateisit? wrote: »

Why oh why do companies quote so obviously low,

Anything else is a brazen attempt to con/cheat the customer:mad:

To answer your question, you need to answer a question yourself!

Why do firms set comparison sites. Is it:

A. They are public spirited and are prepared to spend lots of money employing people with their only objective being to see consumers get a good deal.

Or

B. To collect commission for getting people to switch.

pooch

itsnever2lateisit? wrote: »

Why oh why do companies quote so obviously low, even the site dear old Mr Lewis has put his name to.

As you all know they ask how many bedrooms you have, annual consumption and then come up with a quote £30 a month less than I am currently paying and claiming I will save £24 a YEAR over my current provider

Surely, to truly compare prices all the companies should quote is any standing charge and price per Kw/h?

Anything else is a brazen attempt to con/cheat the customer:mad:

I must say I've not come across any comparison sites that ask for number of bedrooms and details of anticipated annual consumption. Data such as number of bedrooms is normally only requested where you do not provide conumption, so the site can at least take a guess at your usage.
(It's not accurate and will vary from site to site, hence why you should ideally supply your consumption figures in kWh))

They actually only need your anticipated annual consumption figure in kWh and your supply region (or postcode) to provide a quote, plus details of your current supplier/tariff to compare to. I know that is all energyhelpline ask for but some sites do ask for more, presumably for data collection/spam purposes notwithstanding any denials to the contrary. (I would put dummy info in those extra fields if necessary & possible).

It is important to compare the total annual cost as that includes for example discounts not contained in the Standing charge and unit charge details alone.

The initial monthly charge is typically set at 1/12th the anticipated annual charge, although some suppliers, especially the smaller ones, may set it slightly differently so to avoid you owing them a lot of money if you join say just before winter.

Cardew

If you telephone the comparison sites they ask questions and invariably will find a cheaper company!!

Obviously you should go on-line and provide kWh consumption for accurate results.

Wywth

Cardew wrote: »

If you telephone the comparison sites they ask questions and invariably will find a cheaper company!!

Obviously you should go on-line and provide kWh consumption for accurate results.

I don't follow you on that one, sorry.

The output from any given comparison site should be identical no matter whether you do it yourself online, or call them to ask them to do the comparison for you. The tariffs are set by the energy firms. The comparison sites cannot change those tariffs.

If you use annual consumption figures in kWh (as recommended for accurate output) then there should be no difference between comparison sites either.

Cardew

Wywth wrote: »

I don't follow you on that one, sorry.

The output from any given comparison site should be identical no matter whether you do it yourself online, or call them to ask them to do the comparison for you. The tariffs are set by the energy firms. The comparison sites cannot change those tariffs.

If you use annual consumption figures in kWh (as recommended for accurate output) then there should be no difference between comparison sites either.

As I stated in the post above:

Obviously you should go on-line and provide kWh consumption for accurate results.

However many people don't have a clue about a kWh - let alone how many they use in a year.

So they Phone the comparison company - again as I stated:

If you telephone the comparison sites

As the OP stated, the call centre staff(who are commission earning) will ask how many rooms, occupants, baths/showers, at work all day or home etc etc. Then ask how much are you paying monthly now!

Invariably they will 'find' a tariff with another company with a lower monthly payment. Obviously we anoraks all know that it is just the initial payments that will be lower and the customer will build up a debit balance and face a massive increase in the DD. However by then the call centre staff will have got their commission and couldn't care less.

Some years ago as an experiment, we started phoning one company and pretending to be clueless(not difficult!) got a cheaper monthly payment, rang another and got a yet cheaper quote and finished with the same company as we started; paying about half the figure with which we began the exercise. Obviously only quotes - we didn't switch.

You will get the same response if you phone a Utility company call centre. They are hardly likely to say your present company is cheaper - and thus lose their commission.

Just try it for yourself, obviously act dumb and above all you don't know anything about those 'killerwhots'

In evidence given to the Parliamentary Energy Committee the bosses of the Big six stated a huge percentage(30%?) of customers actually switched to a more expensive tariff.

The lure of a bottle of champagne, £30 cashback or Nectar points should not be ignored!

Wywth

Cardew wrote: »

As I stated in the post above:



However many people don't have a clue about a kWh - let alone how many they use in a year.

So they Phone the comparison company - again as I stated:



As the OP stated, the call centre staff(who are commission earning) will ask how many rooms, occupants, baths/showers, at work all day or home etc etc. Then ask how much are you paying monthly now!

Invariably they will 'find' a tariff with another company with a lower monthly payment. Obviously we anoraks all know that it is just the initial payments that will be lower and the customer will build up a debit balance and face a massive increase in the DD. However by then the call centre staff will have got their commission and couldn't care less.

Some years ago as an experiment, we started phoning one company and pretending to be clueless(not difficult!) got a cheaper monthly payment, rang another and got a yet cheaper quote and finished with the same company as we started; paying about half the figure with which we began the exercise. Obviously only quotes - we didn't switch.

You will get the same response if you phone a Utility company call centre. They are hardly likely to say your present company is cheaper - and thus lose their commission.

Just try it for yourself, obviously act dumb and above all you don't know anything about those 'killerwhots'

In evidence given to the Parliamentary Energy Committee the bosses of the Big six stated a huge percentage(30%?) of customers actually switched to a more expensive tariff.

The lure of a bottle of champagne, £30 cashback or Nectar points should not be ignored!

Which ccomparison site does that? The ones I've called, (energyhelpline & simplyswitch are 2 I remembrer calling) first ask if you have your bill available. If so, they ask you if it states your anticipated annual consumption and if not, do you know it anyway?

(when I moved to Ebico, and so spoke directly to SSE, that asked the same qusetion. i.e. did I know my annual consumption in kWh)

Only if not, they then say not to worry and ask additinal questions to guess your consumption.

Giving anticipated annual consumption figures in kWh. either online or by telephone, should result in the same outcome, no matter which comparison service you use or how you opt to use that service (e.g. online or by phone)