Add your feedback on energy supplier Robin Hood Energy

pimm

Just an update with some explanations which may help people in the same boat. I was just happy to speak to a human being and plough through my list of queries! However, some of the explaining turned out to be not all it seemed.

I settled in the kitchen with a pot of coffee, magazine, coffee table art book, and dialled RHE at 8 am. It took 21 minutes to answer. The chap at RHE was very friendly and admirably unflappable considering the vortex of chaos going on.

I was worried that my switchover gas reading had been recorded incorrectly and didn't match the one given to British Gas. Chap at RHE said that for technical reasons it takes longer to changeover the gas account (Trebor - that's one of your points) and the switchover reading doesn't officially register for some time even if the electricity one goes through quickly. So they just make a number up without telling you! I was assured this wouldn't be a problem, but if it had been explained on the meter reading document why my switchover number was wrong, or that the gas account took a lot longer to process, I wouldn't have got into a flurry of worry about it. I was asked to forward digital proof of British Gas having my reported switchover reading to him personally, although that wasn't a necessity.

That still didn't explain why I couldn't input my new gas reading on the website. Anyway, that was sorted too.

Next up, the recommended switch from variable to the fixed electricity V8 account. The price rise email had contained a link to a special page for customers to change to dodge the price rise. There was a message that said if you click through and answer some questions, the switch would take place automatically, but nothing seemed to happen. Chap at RHE said there was no record of my registering to switch via those links. He asked me to forward him the email to get the links etc checked out, as it seems not to have registered for a number of people (or even all who tried). How many people are twiddling their thumbs wondering when they're going to hear back? Or who believe that they will now automatically be changed over on price rise day? Not good. He said switching would never be an automatic process like that because of data protection protocols, so I have no idea what they are doing.

Finally, I queried the disparity between my expected and confirmed £40 a month debit/cost, and the sudden £50 quoted on the price rise letter, in the attachment - that is, BEFORE any price rise. It was presented as a personal quote i.e. 'Your current monthly cost' and then 'your projected monthly cost after the price rise'. There was no clue as to where this £50 suddenly came from. Chap at RHE had to go and ask someone else, came back and said that the £50 quoted was using low middle and high price banding averages, not a personalised quote, so it wasn't an actual real life charge I would have to worry about. I'm nowhere near medium-average usage level and it was not stated on the letter that the costings were generic. The information was, for budgeting and comparison purposes, useless and it just added another pound of unnecessary fear and stress.

I was satisfied enough with the explanation about generic price banding at the time (not that I liked it), but later I remembered that I had run my details through a CEC comparison again, and that ALSO gave a new calculated monthly cost of £50. So it's not generic at all, but a mysterious extra tenner in the calculation. Something's not right there. What the heck?

I sympathised with the chap that they are faced with an influx of angry people, but he understood why people felt frustrated and confused. They don't have enough staff to cope with the scale of enquiry, and their promises about getting back to you via email or answering the phone are misleading enough to be quite enraging. There is also a shocking lack of clear and complete communication, with too many randomly generated numbers purporting to be personalised hard data. Simply explaining that gas takes longer to changeover, that the start reading is an estimate, or other such details, would take the heat out of much of the anger, but there is still a lot that is down to systemic incompetence. Chap at RHE even used the phrase "flaw within our system".

I do at least now have a personal contact email that I was invited to use in future BUT I don't know if that's something they'd do for anyone or just because I mentioned my conditions. British Gas had a special section for disabled customers which made things a little easier. Yesterday was a dark day. Today is better, but this whole shark tank of convoluted turmoil, panic and confusion that is the modern energy market, can't go on like this much longer, surely. What a mess.

I will almost certainly switch again soon, but I need a rest first, dreaming of daffodils and kittens and the halcyon days of popping into the gas board every three months and just paying your bill for what you'd used because that was just what it cost and that was that. Heaven! :A

Rob_Wills

footyguy wrote: »

I don't agree with this at all, sorry
It can cause so many complications, even if you are in the right ... and if you are not in the right, then you could be said to be in breach of contract.

Just accept that when you switch supplier, there may be the month where you are paying 2 seperate suppliers a direct debit, but it will all sort itself out in the wash. You will only pay once for the energy you have used.

There lies the problem, the consumer has to pay TWICE, when the great majority are already in credit due to overpaying their direct debits. The invoicer / supplier, in my experience, always set the amount of the direct debit well above the actual usage costs. However, this can be stopped by inputting the actual usage in kw hours when setting up the account; I did this and get the correct amount of direct debit taken.

footyguy

Rob_Wills wrote: »

There lies the problem, the consumer has to pay TWICE, ....

Just to reiterate

footyguy wrote: »

... it will all sort itself out in the wash. You will only pay once for the energy you have used.

System

Rob_Wills wrote: »

There lies the problem, the consumer has to pay TWICE, when the great majority are already in credit due to overpaying their direct debits. The invoicer / supplier, in my experience, always set the amount of the direct debit well above the actual usage costs. However, this can be stopped by inputting the actual usage in kw hours when setting up the account; I did this and get the correct amount of direct debit taken.

In all my many many switches, I have never known a supplier set an incorrect initial direct debit. Provided that estimated annual usage is as accurate as it can be - in kWhs not £s - then the initial monthly payment is 1/12 of the annual cost. That said, I do not allow CS reps to get involved in the determination of DD amounts.

Maz1979

Customer Service/Communication Skills Are Rubbish. -Like others on here i switched in Feb and 2 weeks later there was a massive price rise. To date my previous suppliers haven't received details of the opening meter reading so they have closed my accounts with an estimated balance saying i owe them £300. Which isn't the case. Every time I call Robin Hood it takes at least 25 minutes to get through and i've found the staff very unwilling to help me. Today i was told my account was being investigated by the billing team which is what i was told at the start of March. The agent i spoke to couldn't tell me if anything had been done since my last call on 10th March and he wouldn't be a le to get someone to call me ba k with an update. When i asked if he could find out what was going on and call me back he said that would take ages and just to send an email. Utter rubbish!! As soon as all this billing nonsense I am using uswitch to move to Edf. My neighbour moved to them, she feels prices are fair and customer service is good. On checking their tariff i would save £61 a year.

Rob_Wills

Just had a telephone call from a lady at RHE she thinks I have an active account with them and that I am not switching away from them until 19th April.

WRONG...I didn't switch to them in the first place as confirmed by RHE emails but as I cancelled the direct debit from my previous invoicer First Utility and now have one for Iresa I am the one in control.

The secret to switching is: Only have ONE Direct Debit live at any time, the invoicers customer services will soon sort out any incompetence in their administration.

J_B

Rob_Wills wrote: »

The secret to switching is: Only have ONE Direct Debit live at any time, the invoicers customer services will soon sort out any incompetence in their administration.

Are you sure that's right?

A few years back, someone wouldn't 'release' me from the contract till the rather large outstanding balance was paid.

stuart_l

I switched to RHE 6 months ago when Ovo hiked my priced by 15%. I now find that RHE are saying that they are hiking the prices by 17% - but in actuality it's 52%!
This is just far too much - so I've initiated a switch to PfP Energy. I'm just hoping that RHE don't get awkward. I've made a big catch up payment to get the account in order, but just how efficient and co-=operative are RHE when it comes to losing another account? At least I will have a little over 12months at fixed rates that are a lot less that RHE!

Rowandales

Following the death of my husband this was the first time I'd ever tried to switch energy companies. Friends assured me it was easy and I read posts on here before I tried it.

All I can say is how on earth does anyone switch when it's as complicated, painful and expensive as Scottish Power and Robin Hood are making it? I've already lost two full working days in the last month tryng to sort the mess out and I'm no nearer a solution and I'm out of pocket. I've reached the point of trying to think how I can manage without electricity as it's all just too overwhelmingly hard.

• Robin Hood sent Scottish Power a wrong set of meter readings so SP are now sending me two different bills every few weeks yet tell me I'm in credit when I call them. This has changed in the last week when they now say RH need to give them even more readings before they can tell me if I owe SP money or I'm in credit. I've been promised emails and letters to confirm I'm in credit which appears to now have been lies.
• RH hiked my energy cost by 40% within a week of me joining them.
• Their links to register for another tariff didn't register the request
• My request to switch to a better tariff with them by phone wasn't registered
• After I spent a whole day trying to get through again, by calling every half hour, I finally spent 30mins on hold to be told again that there was a better tarriff I could move to, my DD wouldn't be increased and someone would call me within 48hrs to move me over as the tarriff team apparently can't do that. Makes me wonder what the point of them is. All of these statements have been proven to be false.
• My DD was increased despite verbal promises it wouldn't be
• I haven't been moved to the cheaper tariff
• No-one will answer the phone - it now just cuts you off
• Someone rang last Friday, ten days after I was told they would call within 48hrs and when I was out at a medical appointment. They have apparently put in another request for me to be given a call yet it's now over a week later and no call.

The sheer incompetence, immoral price hikes and lack of communication are breathtaking and I can't recommend them to anyone. All I can say is DON'T USE THEM.

Update - I've just done meter readings and calculated my usage and what I owe them and cancelled my direct debit to them. They've taken over £20 more in the first month, via DD, than they said they would and I've used £25 less power than I've paid for. So much for monthly meter submissions meaning they don't take too much from your bank account!

sheff6107

I switched 3 months ago and the switch worked perfectly and the website and billing are fine.

Obviously I've switched away, to Octopus, because of their obscene price rise and things could well go wrong yet.