MoneySaving Poll: How do you rate your energy provider? 5 August 2014 at 10:33AM edited 5 August 2014 at 2:34PM in Money Saving Polls 8 replies 2.2K views

Former_MSE_Liane

Poll started 5 August 2014

Is your energy company's service any good?

More horrid reports of energy firm billing errors. We regularly ask for your feedback on firms and have brought it forward, to see how big the issues are.

Please rate your current supplier’s SERVICE (not price) over the last SIX MONTHS (or less if you’ve recently switched). If you’ve gas and electricity with different firms please vote for both.

Vote in this week's poll

Did you vote? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below. To see the results from last time, click this.

If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.

Thanks!


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Consumerist

This poll is also quite interesting to see what the market share is between the suppliers for MSE subscribers. I wonder to what extent MSE subscribers are representative of the country as a whole.

pollypenny

Npower has generally been good. However, we had a hiccough last year when we were hugely in credit and had a bit of a job to get a refund.

victoriana

My mother switched from Co-operative Energy on 6 June 2014. They sent her a final bill dated 1 July, saying payment would take 21 days. No refund cheque arrived. Chased it up and they had sat on it for a month doing nothing, then said it would take another 30 days or more to send a cheque. That`s three months or more for repayment. Put in an official complaint, posted on their Facebook page to let others be warned that I wouldn`t recommend them to anyone. If we owed them they would expect payment within 2 weeks. Told them I expect payment by the end of the week or I will be charging interest on the debt (8% allowable from when debt became due under County Court rules). I will also be contacting Watchdog, and any other place I can think of to give them bad press. My mother`s bill from the new company will be due in three months. She needs the refund to pay the next bill. She is a pensioner and in poor health. This is having a very bad effect on her. Totally scandalous.

Following posting on Facebook, I was contacted by a Public Relations Officer. I informed her that I would be taking the matter to County Court (small claims court), that I have made claims there before and won every case, and am very familiar with their procedures. As well as the 8% interest on the debt they would have to pay costs (around £150). We have since been offered a goodwill payment and the refund is being processed. Post on Facebook - they don`t like their dirty linen aired in public.

Result - cheque arrived this morning and took less than two weeks since I complained. Proves they CAN do it if you stand your ground.

jnm21

Nice to see you left out the NI companies...

Peter333

OMG! Npower!!! 72% of just under 800 people think they are poor. That is dreadful!!!

I am with BG. I found it hard to vote because I wouldn't say 'great,' which would suggest 9 or 10 out of 10 imo, but I didn't want to say just 'OK' either, as this suggests only average (like 5 out of 10.)

I wish there had been a 'pretty good' suggestion. I would give them about 7 out of 10 altogether (if it was a score out of 10.)

Basically, I am happy with their overall service, and their customer services: the staff are always friendly and helpful, and I have not waited longer than 2-4 minutes for someone to answer, the last 3 or 4 times I have called. (Although I do call at non-peak times like 11am and 3pm...)

But I do think that their prices could come down a bit, as I know they have made lots of money in profits, and during a harsh winter, some people I know have had to bump their direct debit up to £80 a month just for the gas bill!

They also whinged because the mild winter has robbed them of some of their extortionate profits.

So to sum it up - as a supplier, I am happy with their overall service, and the customer service too. However, I do find them rather greedy.

In the end, I put 'ok' as there wasn't a 'pretty good' option.

Moireach

pollypenny wrote: »

Npower has generally been good. However, we had a hiccough last year when we were hugely in credit and had a bit of a job to get a refund.

Can you explain what happened and how you got a refund? The same thing has happened to us!

I was paying out a direct debit for 12 months straight with no word from Npower, except from the review after 6 months as promised which told me that my direct debit would remain the same.

After 12 months I'm told that we owe them a grand because we used double the amount we paid for. I couldn't believe it when I saw how much we were in credit, having been told that our direct debit wouldn't even go up after the review! And having not recieved a bill for all of 12 months.

I've tried resolving this with them of course and they're trying to slow me down by telling me they're looking into it and they'll get back to me. Why can't they just deal with it when I call them?

utigers

Looks like NPower needs a new column:

Good
Ok
Poor
Shocking!

Murphybear

We are with Eon with prepayment meter. A few weeks ago they sent me a cheque for overpayment of electricity, a few days later another cheque arrived for overpayment of gas. Total about £50. Not a fortune but nice little unexpected bonus.