Silly me - stayed with Npower - should I have gone to Eon

Uglymug

My parents are in their mid 80's. Due to the ever increasing energy costs they minimise on their gas and electric use and I recently found them shivering in the cold.


I sat down with my father and compared his energy bills with mine. His per unit costs were very much greater than mine. I'm with Eon and he was with Npower for his electric and British Gas for his gas. He has never changed supplier (doesn't even have a computer or internet access) and is totally confused by this free market just paying whatever these companies want to charge him.


I sat him in front of my laptop and went through various energy comparison sites. One of the consistently cheapest tariffs was with Npower (Price Fix April 2015) closely followed by Eon.
I reasoned that since he was already with Npower for his electric it would be easiest to stay with them for his electric and change his gas from BG to them. How wrong I was - I'm with Eon and I know how easy it is to change tariffs (it's instantaneous). We applied for these changes to Npower on 13th November. After numerous phone calls (having to wait up to an hour to get through) and various e-mails my parents are still on their original Npower electric tariff (I've registered him on-line and viewed his latest bill dated 24/12/13). Why does it take them more than 6 weeks to change tariffs when it's instantaneous with Eon? As for the Gas changeover from BG - God knows how long that will take them.


So, finally, my questions are :-


1) Has anyone actually succeeded in switching to the Npower Price Fix April 2015 tariff, and how long did it take?


2) Should I attempt another switch to Eon and try and get their prices before they increase on 18th January, or am I wasting my time due to Npower's complete and utter incompetence?

sniggings

it pays them to be slow, it puts people off from switching, why would they rush to loose a customer.

I would let one go through before trying to switch again.

No reason to have both with one comapny if two different ones are cheaper, I thought BG was one of the cheapest for electric?

Anyway unless they were on some silly tariff, I can't see a switch saving them that much, have you checked their insulation, boiler, drafts etc that will save them far more and keep them warmer, do they build up a credit in the summer for their winter usage?.

Even on only the state pension there should be no reason at all for 2 old people to be freezing in winter, they will get the winter payment and the warmer home payments, sounds to me, that the problem is not the tariff so much but getting them insulated and setting up a direct debit that they can pay so it covers their usage in the winter, £20 a week all year should be plenty to cover high usage, it will build up a nice credit for the winter and also allow heating when needed throughout the year.

st999

£20 a week all year

I doubt it.

That is only £1040 a year.

I am an OAP and in all day and I am paying £1500 a year for my gas and electricity and by April any credit I have will be gone.


Oh! and it is lose not loose.

I_have_spoken

Why does it take them more than 6 weeks to change tariffs

The Npower billing system is a train-wreck.

I'd message the Npower reps that are on the forum, they sorted my issue OK.

sniggings

st999 wrote: »

I doubt it.

That is only £1040 a year.

I am an OAP and in all day and I am paying £1500 a year for my gas and electricity and by April any credit I have will be gone.


Oh! and it is lose not loose.

exactly, a £1000 on gas and £500 on electric, I was suggesting £20 on gas, not £20 for the two combined.