Add your feedback on energy supplier Extra Energy

Catslovelycats

Biggles wrote: »

I wonder if anyone has had their tariff increased after cancelling their DD?

This is partly why I was asking a few posts ago if anyone had gone over to the pay-by-bill option.

I know I'm in credit but haven't the time nor energy (pardon the pun) to switch and chase for my money. I'm foolishly staying with them until my 12 months are up at least but thinking of cancelling the DD. I just remember a previous poster saying EE charge £12 each time they have to contact you about cancelled DDs and I can see how that could create its own problems, even if they have been informed why it is cancelled!

Hope I'm making sense.

tuggy12

Hern wrote: »

To judge by the sheer volume of consumer complaints about this company.

What is your source for this?

lisa110rry

Hern wrote: »

Brilliant, Lisa. Just brilliant! You've obviously a strong grip on this and can manage your energy accounts as well as (and better than) any supplier. . . which means that yes, you're perfectly placed to exploit the, um, generosity of suppliers now fighting amongst themselves to make a profit.

Would that every consumer had a similar grip: it's surely not that difficult to make a monthly gas and a monthly electricity meter reading a couple of days before each monthly Direct Debit is taken? Sadly, for some, that appears impossible. And thus they unwittingly play into the hands of the energy companies . . .

Hern, it's much better to read your meters a few days after your DD comes out of your account. If you read it a few days before you pay, you have maximised your debt which throws off the DD calculations in the Energy Company's favour. If you read the meters (and report them on the website) a few days after you have paid, your debt is at its lowest and this works to your advantage.

I've been doing these calculations since around 2000 or 2001 (when Virgin Energy took us over without our knowledge and caused us problems for years) which is why I can get it so close. I know on average exactly how much gas and electricity we use in a year. We are heavy users because my husband's heart condition and thus lack of exercise means he cannot regulate his body temperature and while I'm in a tee-shirt he may be in a jumper!

hillybilly22

My fix finishes end of September, joined them in October 2014 and have never been billed. I'm switching to first utility (within last 49 days so they can't charge early exit fee). A couple of days after cancelling DD I got this email:
Your Direct Debit has been cancelled


We’ve received notification from your bank that you’ve cancelled your Direct Debit instruction. This means we won’t be able to collect your agreed payments.
Please provide your new Direct Debit details as soon as possible, by calling us on 0800 953 4777 or 0330 303 4777, so that we can set up a new Direct Debit instruction for you.
If you’ve missed a payment we’ll also need to take this from you, so please have your debit card available just in case.

We don't want you to pay more


It’s important that you contact us as soon as possible. If we don’t hear from you within 10 working days of the date of this correspondence, we’ll automatically switch you to non- Direct Debit prices. This means you’ll pay more for your energy.
In addition, if the payments you’ve made so far don’t cover your usage, you’ll need to pay the outstanding amount.

Keeping you informed


Below are the prices you’re paying as a Direct Debit customer and those you’ll pay if you’re moved to a non-Direct Debit payment method:
Direct DebitReceipt of Bill20.298 pence daily standing charge for gas34.682 pence daily standing charge for gas3.380 pence per kWh (Day) of gas3.380 pence per kWh (Day) of gas19.547 pence daily standing charge for electricity33.931 pence daily standing charge for electricity11.372 pence per kWh (Day) of electricity11.372 pence per kWh (Day) of electricityIf we have to contact you again, there will be a £12 charge added to your account to cover the cost of us doing so. We won’t charge this if you contact us now.
We really want you to continue enjoying the benefits of paying by Direct Debit and hope to hear from you soon.


Yours sincerely,

Ben Jones
Managing Director of Operations
extraenergy


I've sent them a message online informing them I'm in the process of switching, hence cancelled DD, will of course settle the bill when I get one (!) and don't expect they need to be in contact with me and so won't expect to be charged £12 if they do.

Boohoo

Quote:
Originally Posted by hra
Are they still up to their little wheeze over inflated calorific values? (Haven't seen a bill since May when this was spotted).

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4924424
It's a bit more than a little wheeze....it's a nice little earner for them if left unchallenged by customers! :mad:

After a long and drawn out complaint I finally got them to agree that they had used incorrect calorific values on their bills and had in fact been overcharging each and every customer. They finally agreed to cancel/credit my previous bills and re-invoice using the correct calorific value for the period concerned.

I think bills after May have been using correct calorific values but all previous bills have overcharged each and every gas customer.

Of course they should now do the same for every gas customer who have been billed prior to May but somehow I don't think this will happen and raising a formal complaint is probably the only way for gas customers to get this rectified.

One other major thing to note is that whatever formula they are using to recalculate monthly direct debits is a complete joke which produces both spurious increases and decreases in monthly direct debits. Extra Energy were unable to explain or justify the large variations (both up and down) shown on the bills I received eventually agreeing to manually adjust it to the figure I had previously calculated.

I think I asked the question first about CV's and when I got my 1st and only gas bill in May this year which was for May to October 2014 I compared it to my old NPower bills and EE was a lot more. I called and emailed them but never got an answer.
I am leaving at the end September and I am looking at switching now but I have not get a letter/email saying I am nearing the end and having seen 100's of horror stories on MSE I have worked out I will be £150 in credit if I leave on 30/09/2015 and they don't take October's DD but as I have had a DD taking out twice in 1 month from EE I wont hold much hope in that not happening.

Biggles

hillybilly22 wrote: »

Below are the prices you’re paying as a Direct Debit customer and those you’ll pay if you’re moved to a non-Direct Debit payment method:

Direct Debit: 20.298 pence daily standing charge for gas, 3.380 pence per kWh (Day) of gas, 19.547 pence daily standing charge for electricity, 11.372 pence per kWh (Day) of electricity

Receipt of Bill: 34.682 pence daily standing charge for gas, 3.380 pence per kWh (Day) of gas, 33.931 pence daily standing charge for electricity, 11.372 pence per kWh (Day) of electricity

Interesting. I suggested at #2030 the likelihood that they would increase the tariff for anyone who broke the contract. But all they actually do is increase the daily standing charge by a total of 28.8p a day, just £8.75 a month. A lot less than I thought, and will have very little impact on a higher user in particular.

fizz07

Surprise surprise, called them today to make sure my bill was on its way, was told it hasn't been requested by some hyper over inflated non operator (if that). Just ridiculous, looks like ill be going small claims in order to get my credit of nearly £500 back the problem I have is still not a bill, however according to my calcs I owe them around £70.

Can't believe they are allowed to do this, just imagine the elderly (if they are with them). This shouldn't be allowed.

molerat

Boohoo wrote: »

I think I asked the question first about CV's and when I got my 1st and only gas bill in May this year which was for May to October 2014 I compared it to my old NPower bills and EE was a lot more. I called and emailed them but never got an answer.
I am leaving at the end September and I am looking at switching now but I have not get a letter/email saying I am nearing the end and having seen 100's of horror stories on MSE I have worked out I will be £150 in credit if I leave on 30/09/2015 and they don't take October's DD but as I have had a DD taking out twice in 1 month from EE I wont hold much hope in that not happening.

You can only compare the CV with a CV for the same period. The CV of gas is variable and often changes over the 2 readings each day let alone over a longer period. You can download the CV for your region from the NG website and calculate the average for a period yourself. I do it and my figure works out the same as on my bill. Some suppliers have been using a figure with up to 4 decimal places where the regulations state that they only use one decimal place and not rounded so 39.0945 is 39.0 and not 39.1. I assume this is where the overcharge is coming from. I have only ever had one major discrepancy and that was with EDF who never successfully answered my query.

Hern

@ Biggles, earlier: "Well, no, you won't have broken the law. But you have almost certainly broken the contract"

Bit difficult to break a contract that has already been vacated by the other party. Extra Energy rendered the contract null and void through the serial breaches it committed before the customer cancelled his / her DD; cancellation was a "reasonable" response to unreasonable behaviour.

bondy01

So , for those of us fixed until the end of september from what I read in the when can I switch thread we should be getting a letter informing us that the tariff is coming to an end within the next week. Place your bets..... I personally expect this to be another ee mess.