Big Community Switch Bonkers!

Brogden_Fields

I have participated in several (maybe four or five?) community switch auctions organised by the local council. Here is the result of the latest, together with my reply.

First, the eagerly awaited result:

"Big Community Switch together with your council & iChoosr

Ovo Energy offer
Fixed rate for 12 months - Monthly Direct Debit - Online billing
Your estimated current annual cost £1,835
Your estimated new annual cost £2,123

Your estimated annual cost will be £288 more. Would you like to switch? "

And my reply:

"Would I like to switch? Do you think I'm barmy?

But seriously, every time you have done one of these exercises, the cost to me has come out significantly more than I am currently paying - this one is probably the lowest extra amount, but I would still be paying £288 more. I am saving 13.6% on the offered new tariff by NOT switching.

Either I have a very unusual account, or there is something seriously wrong, and I must say misleading, about your process. It appears to me that all the people who could make a saving by switching to the supplier you recommend could make an even bigger saving by switching to the supplier I am using.

If this is the case, and I can't see why it wouldn't be, then you are misleading people into thinking that they have been part of a competitive process that has resulted in them paying the lowest charges available, which just isn't the case."

Each time they have done one of these the cost has worked out significantly more than I was paying at the time, the most was, from memory, about £500 which included a £200 one-off discount for the first year. If I had switched and stayed with the new supplier I would have been paying £700 a year more!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

These communal switches are a nonsense.

There is no way a supplier wants to suddenly take on many thousands of customers at a time, the extra admin costs of taking on many thousands (280,000 signed up for the Which? big switch) are significant.

It shouldn't be this way of course, but the systems and processes that many utility firms have are woeful.

I suspect a number of these "schemes" are just data harvesting exercises, and should be approached with extreme caution.

Brogden_Fields

Someone with a high profile like Martin should highlight this to the media, just yesterday on the The World at One Henry de Zoete was talking about setting up an even bigger scheme called The Big Deal.