Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Consumerist

SavvyShopper98 said:

Warning! My first direct debit is planned for 12 days after I confirmed I wanted to switch, not the 21 days as it says on the MSE/Avro tariff information. This is 8 days before my switch - how can they ask for money so far up front before the switch date? I had deliberately held off switching so that when I did do it the 21 days would be after my next payday. I now have to cough up a month's direct debit before I get paid. Grrr.

That's odd. I switched recently and they took their first DD 12 days after sign-up and I expected it to be 12 days.

Their <Ts&Cs (Sect. 9)> also specifies 12 days.

It's one of the small inconveniences you have to put up with if you want competitive prices.

Weybridge78

I switched to Avro Energy from Octopus Energy in May and am not too happy so far. I have called them numerous times this week to ask a question about credit balances, however the phones have not been answered each time. I emailed almost a week ago, although this has also not been acknowledged.

This is disappointing, though Avro Energy is currently the cheapest supplier for us.

Consumerist

Weybridge78 said:

I switched to Avro Energy from Octopus Energy in May and am not too happy so far. I have called them numerous times this week to ask a question about credit balances, however the phones have not been answered each time. I emailed almost a week ago, although this has also not been acknowledged.
This is disappointing, though Avro Energy is currently the cheapest supplier for us.

It is likely their normal acknowledgement system is disrupted in the present circumstances. I think, perhaps, all we can do for the moment is to just wait it out. Maybe email again in week - use a different subject line.

Good luck.

BooJewels

I was trying to contact them recently too - as the account I manage with them has become a deceased account, so I needed to make changes.  The phone wasn't being answered, so I emailed and after a few days I got an email answering the questions I'd posed, with a form to complete and a list of the information they wanted - it was all then sorted within the same day.

I just think they're up against it, like most suppliers at the moment, variously being short staffed, some working from home and perhaps a greater demand than usual on their resources.  I've spoken to people working at different places than they usually do, in their gardens, kitchens and back bedrooms.  So, I think we need to cut such companies a little bit of slack just now.  

I posted quite a number of pages back about my billing with them being out of sorts and I never did quite get to grips with it - I said I'd follow up on it, but it only actually got sorted yesterday.  Having to close one account and now continue with them in my own name for the same property, it forced me to really study it properly and get out the calculator and pencil.  I think it boils down to a number of factors - firstly, the tariff for the period of time when I wasn't looking after it was rather higher than I had noted and more recently, the tariff dropped, but the rate displayed in the profile, wasn't the same as the one confirmed in writing - combined with their insistence of giving an estimate for 24 hours after you'd submitted a reading, gave rise to some unfathomable billing. 

Even now, the closing bill was dated 20th April, but featured a meter reading taken last week and the payments made in May and June.  It's no wonder I was struggling to make sense of it.  I understand this stuff, but just couldn't get to grips with it.  Not sure I'll ever understand their billing.  My own electricity is with Octopus and theirs is equally baffling - I think they must use the same daft software.  The bottom line seems to end up right, but they go on a circuitous route to get there.

Looking at how much juice and gas was used in the 19 months of the account and working out exactly how many days at which tariff, I actually get within 2 quid of their closing statement and that's more than explained by the variation in the calorific value of the gas - I'd worked it out at an average.  So I'm happy with that now.  I shall keep a tighter grip on it now - initially, I was just happy to get a massive deficit paid off and back to a more acceptable monthly payment.

bristolleedsfan

SavvyShopper98 said:

Warning! My first direct debit is planned for 12 days after I confirmed I wanted to switch, not the 21 days as it says on the MSE/Avro tariff information. This is 8 days before my switch - how can they ask for money so far up front before the switch date? I had deliberately held off switching so that when I did do it the 21 days would be after my next payday. I now have to cough up a month's direct debit before I get paid. Grrr.

https://www.avroenergy.co.uk/Advice/Topics.aspx?HELP_TOPIC_ID=5

Changing the date of my direct debit

Your initial direct debit payment has to be taken 12 days after you sign up. However, for all subsequent direct debits the date on which this is taken can be changed.

youravinalarrrf

New Simple and SuperGlow Tariff has been launched replacing the Simple and SuperFixed Tariff.

From the quote I got electric has gone up a fair bit and gas is slightly down. For me the overall monthly price goes up from £96 to £100.

Luckily I decided to take the opportunity to renew my Simple and SuperFixed contract back in June.

onlyfoolsandparking

youravinalarrrf said:

New Simple and SuperGlow Tariff has been launched replacing the Simple and SuperFixed Tariff.

From the quote I got electric has gone up a fair bit and gas is slightly down. For me the overall monthly price goes up from £96 to £100.

Luckily I decided to take the opportunity to renew my Simple and SuperFixed contract back in June.

Damn!!! I missed that, I was gonna renew 'Simple and superfixed' a few days ago but thought I would do it this month. I've just had a look at renewal and the new tariff is a little more expensive, my DD would go from £94 to £97 so no point in renewing then I guess. 

Consumerist

This may have something to do with Ofgem's latest proposal to make Covid-19 assistance a permanent feature for the energy suppliers from next winter. See <The Guardian> report 29 June.

davhodg

Just sharing my experience with Avro Energy. I switched to them with the MSE Cheap Energy Club in September 2018 due to the good tariff rate and the good rating for customer service, and the switch went okay.

The issues happened when my home became unoccupied due to changing job and working away from home (in a different country). Despite sending regular meter readings during this time (over a period of 9 months) they wouldn't update the direct debit amount to match the reduced consumption. By the time the sale of my house completed my account was left over £450 in credit.

I was out of the country with work when the home sale completed as didn't have a confirmed sale completion date (exchanged contracts and completed the sale on the same day). But I arranged for a friend to visit the house a week before to read the meters. After the sale I called Avro to close the account and was told it was acceptable not to have a reading on the exact day, but potentially I could be overcharged due to not having the final readings and needing to estimate for the final 8 days with the house unoccupied and no/minimal usage.

However after this it turned out they weren't going to progress with account closure or refund any of the £450 balance until I could get meter readings for the last 8 days of usage for the empty house. Also due to leaving the UK and potentially needing to close my UK bank account, they then wouldn't then have any mechanism to process a refund. In the end I managed to get the final readings so they could process the refund, but it made moving home to another country more stressful.

cbrpaul

Terrible service i received. 
I applied to join Avro, and i had the email to say welcome to Avro , 8 days later no news on the switch progress , i called and after a 20 min wait on the phone i was asked my personal details that i used to sign up with, and they confirmed it was me.
Then i was told sorry we have no record of your application, i replied thats odd as you just confirmed who i was with the details i signed up with 8 days ago, have you got an account no,  not yet i replied , then sorry you cant have that tarriff as its now gone.
But despite the email and the details Avro clearly had of me on their system, I was told i would have to cancel this application and re-apply, of course the rate of the energy prices  had gone up from when i applied 8 days before, and was no longer available, how odd, hmmm  ! 
I certainly wont be signing up to this outfit.