Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Consumerist

wrongplanet said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

The CEC is something of a minefield when it comes to getting accurate and up to date price comparisons, imho. 

Easy enough to put together a simple spreadsheet that takes the tariff details and consumption to produce the annual and monthly costs plus take into a account any cashback. Makes comparisons easy and here it's always agreed near enough as makes no difference with any site's figures I've entered.

The problem, it would seem, is that you need the tariff to be listed to get that info from CEC.

onlyfoolsandparking

Consumerist said:

wrongplanet said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

The CEC is something of a minefield when it comes to getting accurate and up to date price comparisons, imho. 

Easy enough to put together a simple spreadsheet that takes the tariff details and consumption to produce the annual and monthly costs plus take into a account any cashback. Makes comparisons easy and here it's always agreed near enough as makes no difference with any site's figures I've entered.

The problem, it would seem, is that you need the tariff to be listed to get that info from CEC.

Indeed you do and I cant understand why CEC doesn't show Orbit for me but CAB comparison does?? when I'm obviously inputting exact same postcode.

Biggus_Dickus

onlyfoolsandparking said:

Consumerist said:

wrongplanet said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

The CEC is something of a minefield when it comes to getting accurate and up to date price comparisons, imho. 

Easy enough to put together a simple spreadsheet that takes the tariff details and consumption to produce the annual and monthly costs plus take into a account any cashback. Makes comparisons easy and here it's always agreed near enough as makes no difference with any site's figures I've entered.

The problem, it would seem, is that you need the tariff to be listed to get that info from CEC.

Indeed you do and I cant understand why CEC doesn't show Orbit for me but CAB comparison does?? when I'm obviously inputting exact same postcode.

Orbit’s tariffs are certainly out there;...they appear on Citizens Advice, Energylinx, Uswitch and probably most, if not all, the other comparison sites,...except the CEC.

Orbit’s very cheap tariffs will probably, but not necessarily!, appear on the CEC at some point in the future;...in your own time Mr Lewis.

youravinalarrrf

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't CEC supposed to be providing a Gas & Electricity price comparison service covering the whole market for members?

For whatever reason it appears that CEC are unwilling or unable to put in the required effort and resources to keep the tariff information on the Gas & Electricity market up to date which for me renders the service totally unreliable, untrustworthy and unusable. Once we find one blatant lie such as that below it's only natural that you begin to ask yourself how many more lies have been included in CEC's FAQ's.

https://help.cheapenergyclub.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000341128-Do-you-include-all-tariffs-on-the-market- 

Do you include all tariffs on the market?

Yes we do - we don't exclude any tariffs, nor do we do what some comparison sites do and have a default setting where you only see those that pay us. Though of course if you select our 'top picks' tab - as is explained there - you'll only see a limited number of tariffs based on those we think, for editorial merit, you should also consider but may miss if you're just looking at pure price.

It's important to note that there are also 'collective switches' available sometimes, and we can't include those (except our own). A collective switch is where a trusted intermediary such as a council or other organisation asks energy firms to bid to provide a tariff for it.

Often these can offer deals better than the market’s cheapest, but regulator Ofgem’s rules means you have to register for these schemes before the tariffs become available (you’re not obligated to take the tariffs once you’ve registered). 

So it is possible, on occasion, for an 'exclusive' elsewhere to undercut the winner of our open market comparison - yet, if you are considering one, do make sure you compare it.

Gerry1

youravinalarrrf said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't CEC supposed to be providing a Gas & Electricity price comparison service covering the whole market for members?

For whatever reason it appears that CEC are unwilling or unable to put in the required effort and resources to keep the tariff information on the Gas & Electricity market up to date which for me renders the service totally unreliable, untrustworthy and unusable. Once we find one blatant lie such as that below it's only natural that you begin to ask yourself how many more lies have been included in CEC's FAQ's.

Sadly, the CEC's response is basically 'if you don't like it you can lump it'.  This is what I received this morning (I've highlighted the BIB.)

Thanks for getting in touch. The way that energy comparisons work is that we're reliant on suppliers to share the details of their tariffs with us so that we're able to key these into our system for you to select. Frustratingly, some small suppliers aren’t particularly good at doing this and we haven't had anything from Neon Reef yet. Over the past year or so, there has been an increase in the number of new smaller providers entering the market and it’s difficult to track this. Some of these suppliers have shared their tariff details with us and we’re working on adding these to our system, but due to the number of new suppliers this will take some time.

Unfortunately this means that for now, you wouldn’t be able to update your account. I appreciate this can be frustrating and it’s not ideal situation, but we’re working on it and once we have updated our system (providing your supplier has shared its tariff details with us) we will try to get in contact with to let you know.

However, due to the number of new suppliers and the difficulty in tracking all of them, it may be a good idea for you check your account regularly to see if your supplier and tariff have been added, however if you'd like to delete your Energy Club account you may want to register again when we have your supplier listed.  I hope this information helps.

Thanks

MSE Beth

onlyfoolsandparking

And therefore I wonder how much I've overpaid over the years by only using CEC?? I have over the last few years logged into CEC, done a quick comparison explored the companies and then (usually) not bothered switching as the offers have been with either companies with "bad" reviews or ones I've never heard of!! OR the savings have been negligible, what fool am I.

Interesting that we've uncovered this anomaly with CEC,still I wont make that mistake again, that's a fact.

wrongplanet

Gerry1 said:

This is what I received this morning (I've highlighted the BIB.)

That seems fair enough - if companies want their tariffs listed they have to tell the comparison sites. That said I'll certainly look at other sites in future and also bear in mind that MSE/CEC is the same as MoneySupermarket.

Consumerist

Gerry1 said:

Sadly, the CEC's response is basically 'if you don't like it you can lump it'.  This is what I received this morning (I've highlighted the BIB.)

, however if you'd like to delete your Energy Club account you may want to register again when we have your supplier listed.

But don't you have to be registered to see if a supplier is listed on CEC ?

What manner of people are running CEC ?

Edit

I wonder how Advertising Standards would regard the CEC claim to compare all of the market ?

youravinalarrrf

MSE Beth said:

Thanks for getting in touch. The way that energy comparisons work is that we're reliant on suppliers to share the details of their tariffs with us so that we're able to key these into our system for you to select. Frustratingly, some small suppliers aren’t particularly good at doing this and we haven't had anything from Neon Reef yet. Over the past year or so, there has been an increase in the number of new smaller providers entering the market and it’s difficult to track this. Some of these suppliers have shared their tariff details with us and we’re working on adding these to our system, but due to the number of new suppliers this will take some time.

Unfortunately this means that for now, you wouldn’t be able to update your account. I appreciate this can be frustrating and it’s not ideal situation, but we’re working on it and once we have updated our system (providing your supplier has shared its tariff details with us) we will try to get in contact with to let you know.

However, due to the number of new suppliers and the difficulty in tracking all of them, it may be a good idea for you check your account regularly to see if your supplier and tariff have been added, however if you'd like to delete your Energy Club account you may want to register again when we have your supplier listed.  I hope this information helps.

Thanks

MSE Beth

If that response is true you have to ask yourself the question as to how the other energy comparison sites are managing to successfully update their websites with new providers and new tariff changes when CEC can't or probably more correctly in this case just can't be bothered?

In a competetive comparison site market place I find CEC's response to be extremely shortsighted, mystifying and worrying. It's quite clear that CEC need to adapt to the changing market conditions promptly or they will rapidly get left behind as users stop using the service and move to other comparison sites.

wrongplanet

If that response is true you have to ask yourself the question as to how the other energy comparison sites are managing to successfully update their websites with new providers and new tariff changes when CEC can't or probably more correctly in this case just can't be bothered?

Don't forget that the MSE/CEC is a rebranding of MoneySupermarket's energy comparison site.