Suppliers never heard of before

oldwiring

I'm doing a spot of number crunching to see if a relative could get a better deal than currently. Kind soul that I am.

Several names I do not know have come up
First Utilty; iSupplyenergy; Ovo; Cooperative; Greenstar; LowCO; Spark; Woodland Trust; Good Energy.

What are the reputations of such suppliers for service and soundness of businesses; does any one have thoughts on the matter? Presumably they willstill have to respond to the recent price hikes?

thenudeone

I have had dealings with Ovo, Co-operative and Good Energy, and have no complaints.

Small suppliers haven't had to comply with quite as many industry regulations (for example the obligation to collect green deal finance repayments through the electricity bill) and pay for energy saving measures in the same way bigger ones have, so they can afford to be cheaper; but that may be changing in the near future.

Mayagirl

For the love of God...do not sign up with iSupply!

Long story short, they made such a hash of switching us over from Scottish Power that we got several solicitors letters and I nearly ended up with a CCJ! Whilst all the time iSupply were advising me to not contact Scottish Power as iSupply were busy sorting it out.

In the end, I lost all faith in iSupply's ability to resolve it - and I called Scottish Power myself. Sorted it out in minutes, and Scottish Power were efficient and fair.

Annoyingly, I can't get out of my iSupply contract as ISupply won't reply to my formal complaints and they ignore my written requests to be released from our contract.

A sorry and shabby shower of sh**s...

spiro

Mayagirl wrote: »

Annoyingly, I can't get out of my iSupply contract as ISupply won't reply to my formal complaints and they ignore my written requests to be released from our contract.

A sorry and shabby shower of sh**s...

I guess you are a business because for domestic customers contracts are not for a fixed period of time.

penrhyn

FU don't enjoy a great reputation on the forum, clue is in the name you might say but I could not possibly comment.

macman

All those suppliers are just reselling Big Six wholesale products, or a rebranding of Big Six companies. For example, Woodland Trust is just a licensing deal with Ovo. Age UK has long had a similar deal with Eon, M&S with SSE. So they're unlikely to undercut the Big Six on price in the long run.
The small players do generally offer much better CS, with the exception of FU, whose customer base seems to have grown rapidly without the ability to properly service it.

Mayagirl

spiro wrote: »

I guess you are a business because for domestic customers contracts are not for a fixed period of time.

No, we are a normal domestic user, and we began a 12 month contract with them in July 2013, based on a well known switching website's recommendation.

We'll just have to suck it up until the 12 months are up. Although I have my suspicions about how hassle free leaving them will be!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Mayagirl wrote: »

No, we are a normal domestic user, and we began a 12 month contract with them in July 2013, based on a well known switching website's recommendation.

We'll just have to suck it up until the 12 months are up. Although I have my suspicions about how hassle free leaving them will be!

You can leave them any time you like, there will be a £30 cancellation fee applied to your final bill though.

penrhyn

The reason the tiddlers can undercut the big boys is that if they have less than 250,000 customers they don't have to put the Green Crap on their bills.

MillicentBystander

Yes, it almost makes the market less competitive as I'm not convinced the tiddlers have any ambition to get to 250,000 customers.

macman

Mayagirl wrote: »

No, we are a normal domestic user, and we began a 12 month contract with them in July 2013, based on a well known switching website's recommendation.

We'll just have to suck it up until the 12 months are up. Although I have my suspicions about how hassle free leaving them will be!

No you won't. If you'll save that £30 (or more) before 7/14 by moving, then switch now and pay the ETC.