GB Energy Supply reviews: Give your feedback

victor2

facade wrote: »

1) They have this idea that they can "help" you by taking 50% more monthly DD in the Winter, and 50% less in the Summer, which is no good if you want to run a monthly budget. (Yes I can get round it by putting the Summer difference in a tin and then using it in the Winter months, but that is a little bit more effort than the "build up a surplus in the summer" system that has worked for many many years.

Companies that do this are just helping themselves and their cash flow.
The whole concept of paying a monthly DD was to spread the customer's annual usage cost evenly over the year.
There are of course people who want to pay for what they use, when they've used it. A properly managed DD account will have a customer in credit for 6 months of the year and a debit balance for the other 6. Unfortunately, it seems to be beyond the capability of many suppliers to set up such a system, just as many customers appear to struggle to understand what a "fixed rate tariff" really means...

facade

victor2 wrote: »

Companies that do this are just helping themselves and their cash flow.

Reading between the lines then, they are running so close to the wire that they can't afford to let me/us/them fall behind in winter :eek:

What EON used to do was check my usage against predictive algorithms, and suggest a change to the monthly DD to end up with the books balanced at the end of the year.
I suppose with these guys I will have to read the meters every month, calculate the cost, and put any difference above the DD in a tin, then I can either have some spare cash, or the money to settle the deficit according to how the year pans out.

The bottom line is, both the unit costs and standing charges are lower on GBEnergy, so apart from the clubcard points, and a few quid discount for dual fuel I must be saving overall.

wintongal_2

I was supposed to switch gas and electricity 3 months ago. Only the gas switched. I'm still getting bills from EDF for electricity. I've phoned GB Energy several times to fix this and also Edf - it seemed the national database have my address in a different format - 2/22 instead of 22B. EDF said they fixed this and GB were informed. GB also said I would get a refund a month ago as I have been paying for dual fuel and getting bills from EDF - I haven't got it yet. I emailed 2 weeks ago explaining all this and got an automated email back saying I should receive an answer in 48 hours - no reply yet. I've sent another email today but Im tired of all the hassle and it has cost me money I can ill afford. I'm comparing again with 2 separate companies. I wish to goodness I'd not got involved with them!

gt94sss2

facade wrote: »

2) They are a small company, and very cheap, dare I say it almost too cheap for a guaranteed 12 months fix. What happens if they go bust?

The same thing that happens when other energy firms have gone bust. The regulator steps in and transfers your supply to another company.

I was perfectly happy with EON, and would have paid a realistic increase (1% to match inflation, possibly even as much as 5%)

Energy prices are falling fast - I would expect one year deals to much cheaper than a year or two ago.. - certainly not price rises atm

Regards
Sunil

facade

wintongal wrote: »

I was supposed to switch gas and electricity 3 months ago. Only the gas switched. I'm still getting bills from EDF for electricity. I've phoned GB Energy several times to fix this and also Edf - it seemed the national database have my address in a different format - 2/22 instead of 22B.

My welcome pack has my Gas supply number MPRN, and electric supply number MPAN on for me to check (and create a hoo-hah if they are wrong), these should be all they need to swap as they are supposed to be unique to me.

They are on the current bills, and yours should have been sent to you for checking in your welcome pack, if they don't know them, they can't bill you, or transfer from EDF. Was the electricity one correct?

TallAde

Decided to give GB Energy Supply a try, as they have great prices and the Energy Club overall customer satisfaction ratings were high. I had noted a lot of website problems reported in the feedback from the early months of this company, but they seemed to be settling down.


I got all the way through my data entry on their site, pressed the "Complete Switch" button only to receive the message "There was a problem with switching you". Got through to customer service in about 5 minutes, their opening response when I reported this was "Why does that not surprise me today?". They could not find me in their systems and told me to check back with them in 24 hours as "our systems take a while to update".


I suspect I will find that their site did not capture my new customer registration and so I will have wasted my time today and will need to do all the data entry again.


A disappointing start! Will keep you posted.

facade

Mine still seems to be going through, I got a confirmation letter about my 14 day cooling off period this week.

I see EON have brought V17 out now. Likely I'd not have switched at all if they had offered it me straight away rather than scaring me off with such a massive rise.

I doubt if there is more than a few pounds difference overall, when you subtract the discounts at EON. However, as GBE have lower unit prices, I can turn the heating on a few minutes earlier

Raging_Bull

Just wondering if this is normal. I started the switching process (still ongoing with readings...) last month and paid my last DD at the start of this month to EDF. However, I also made a DD payment to GB Energy. I enquired about this and they say this 'not paying for gas or electric' but an advance or buffer for the winter months... To me that is a very strange system (paying for nothing). Is this the case with others?

System

Raging_Bull wrote: »

Just wondering if this is normal. I started the switching process (still ongoing with readings...) last month and paid my last DD at the start of this month to EDF. However, I also made a DD payment to GB Energy. I enquired about this and they say this 'not paying for gas or electric' but an advance or buffer for the winter months... To me that is a very strange system (paying for nothing). Is this the case with others?

It is very clearly covered in GB's ts and cs and in the Welcome Pack. Most of the newer - smaller - suppliers ask for the first payment in advance of supply. It will appear as a credit on your first statement so you will pay no more for your energy over the period of your contract. There is nothing underhand going on. I am with GB but I have encountered the same practice with Ovo and Zog.

Raging_Bull

Thanks for clearing that up with your quick reply.