Customers 'Duped' By Energy Switching Deals

Sledgehead

canterswest wrote: »

... It would not surprise me if we have a company build up large amounts from customers in direct debits, directors withdraw or move money elsewhere, the company then has to buy enough gas and electricity to supply customers but it says it cannot afford to, it has been losing money it says, wholesale prices have gone up and are now more expensive than the fixed rates it signed customers up to, and it goes bust.

What a sensible person you are. There seems to be a meme doing the rounds that says essentials should be, what's the word? Free. Yes, I think I'm right when I say that. What could possibly go wrong? Apart from your well made points (directors profiting, companies failing, jobs lost, pensions hit). And how do we actually benefit? It seems to me that the people who benefit short term (the consumers) don't think about the fallout. So they use the money they did not spend (I won't be tricked into saying 'savings') to buy rubbish, foreign holidays and inflate the value of UK property. Only the last has a permanent effect, and I'm not sure I can see the benefit.

Meanwhile, MSE is doing itself no favours by making this topic in the News Blog (on the homepage) the only one that does not link to a forum discussion. The link at the bottom of the story just takes you back to the top of the story. Naughty, naughty.

Voltaire7

Of course it's a scam and MSE make an awful lot of money out of people switching.

Cheap Energy Club? That's the giveaway right there!

Pincher

No salesman can make a living by being fair and helpful.
They all had their consciences surgically removed at these training seminars.


You are just sheep with wool on. They fleece you today, wait till you grow some more, and then they fleece you again.

Widelats

Wow, why don't you all just switch to solid fuel, install yourselves a proper fire that heats up your water at the same time, no standing charges, no freezing in your home as your meter has run dry of credit, no more fuel poverty as basically anything will burn, no more direct debits, bills from energy companies that are always wrong, horiffic customer service that might as well not exist, etc etc etc.

[Deleted User]

Widelats wrote: »

Wow, why don't you all just switch to solid fuel, install yourselves a proper fire that heats up your water at the same time, no standing charges, no freezing in your home as your meter has run dry of credit, no more fuel poverty as basically anything will burn, no more direct debits, bills from energy companies that are always wrong, horiffic customer service that might as well not exist, etc etc etc.

Illegal to burn what you fancy in my area, smokeless only, cost a bomb, its inconvenient , time consuming, and labour intensive

dollydiva

I posted about being unhappy with MSE so-called Cheap Energy club in May 2014 - I ended up paying far more by switching as advised than I did with my previous Energy supplier. And it should have been LESS again as we'd had a brand new more efficient boiler installed.

Tried giving MSE the benefit of the doubt and used them again to switch in October last year and now then they sent emails saying that I can Save over £100 a year if I switch only a month after switching! You utter Bast*ards.:mad::mad::mad:

Utter Con and I look forward to getting a refund from the Energy Club!

:money: Clean your house Martin cos right now it's made of glass and we have stones...

dollydiva

sacsquacco wrote: »

Illegal to burn what you fancy in my area, smokeless only, cost a bomb, its inconvenient , time consuming, and labour intensive

Ditto. And I know the horror of trying to light a fire when your wood has gotten damp from being in a freezing cold house all day when you're out at work.

Widelats

sacsquacco wrote: »

Illegal to burn what you fancy in my area, smokeless only, cost a bomb, its inconvenient , time consuming, and labour intensive

Well, i know rather than freeze in a house or go without hot water, especially when kids are in there or old people, i would burn ANYTHING!! To hell with the laws i would use common sense.

If you got plenty cash though its still worth while to go solid fuel, avoiding them energy companies is always a good thing.

redux

MSE's big slogan with its most recent switching campaign, repeated frequently all over the place, including Martin Lewis's Twitter account, was "cheaper than the cheapest".

This was only true in less than half of the regional supply areas. Where I live the CEC Sainsburys tariff was 8th cheapest.

I remember just after the autumn MSE big switch campaign, people were posting to say they'd just discovered they would lose their Warm Home Discount, as the new provider didn't participate in the scheme.

Maybe such people might be amongst those tempted to enquire about compensation.

geordie_joe

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Talking of the CEC, I still don't understand why they require your FULL address?

To ensure the power companies play fair.

Many people who use cashback sites complain that sometimes they don't get the cashback because the purchase doesn't "track" to them.

When you run a comparison site, what normally happens is an anonymous person clicks on one of your links, goes to a retailers site and buys something, or doesn't buy something. You then have to trust that the retailer plays fair and pays you your commission, as you have no idea who the person was, or if they actually bought something or not.

So the retailer can save a bit of money by making sure some of the purchases are not tracked back to the comparison site.

By having the persons details, and them being a member of your club, you can make sure you do actually get paid every time. Because if the retailer says the person didn't actually switch then you can check with the person.

If you didn't have the persons details you would just have to accept what the retailer says.