Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

brewerdave

BernerMom said:

All fine until I moved and requested to close my account. I sent them my final meter readings and received an online statement within a few days which was including and upto the last (closing) reading given, this showed me to be over £100 in credit. Tried emailing twice 8 days apart after receiving an automated response saying they would respond within 3-5 working days and they didn't, tried phoning to be cut off saying no one was available. Funny how you contact them for anything else and the response is pretty much instantaneous, yet try to leave and its a different matter. Absolutely disgusted! Switched to them as a member of the Energy Club, will be very wary of advised switches in the future.

The process of switching is gaining supplier led - They will ask you for meter readings which are sent via a verification step to Avro. Have they done so yet ?? When the switch date is known they should ask for readings around the date.
 Avro should ignore any readings you have given them until they receive the readings, then raise the final bill and as per post from Consumerist, any credit will be refunded within 10 days of the date of the final bill (or you will get automatic compensation). The statement that you had received based on your readings is not the final bill.

Consumerist

Telegraph_Sam said:

"All fine until I moved and requested to close my account.". There is a separate whole thread load of correspondence on this very topic in connection with Tonik Energy and possibly for some other suppliers also. Such account management issues can easily outweigh any marginal cost savings or referral credits and really should be taken account of in the MSE ratings and recommendations.

MSE's Energy Club primarily compares costs and, as far as I know, is the only energy comparison site which does actually give warnings about any supplier shortcomings it has become aware of.

w0z

The issue of how long is allowable to produce a final bill isn't an Avro issue.
Ofgem allow up to 6 weeks to produce the final bill which applies to all suppliers.  When switching my understanding is that the changeover readings are verified through a 3rd party and by the very nature of the process there will  always be either a refund or an invoice, the amount of which can't be known exactly until the final bill is produced. By far the most common cause of dissatisfaction and ire among consumers when switching is the duplication of direct debits, and by far those most disadvantaged are those with the least money.
If people want to complain about this  it shouldn't be to the energy companies, it should be to Ofgem, who could easily change the legislation in particular so that the most vulnerable aren't hit hardest when switching. The timescales could be made very much tighter with allowable exceptions (where for example meter readings are disputed  or not available)  to protect both the energy companies and the consumer. 6 weeks (+10 days)  is unnecessarily  long in most cases, it's been chosen as a catch-all because a small percentage of switches do have issues, but most don't. In my experience the companies I've dealt with have managed to complete the process  in much less time than the 6 weeks allowed.

w0z

Despite having some competitive tariffs, Avro are no longer showing their tariffs on cheapenergyclub comparisons.
I asked mse why and  have been informed that "At the moment, Avro hasn't made us aware of any tariffs available to switch to"   
I've also asked Avro, but had no reply as yet.

Consumerist

w0z said:

. . . 6 weeks (+10 days)  is unnecessarily  long in most cases, it's been chosen as a catch-all because a small percentage of switches do have issues, but most don't. In my experience the companies I've dealt with have managed to complete the process  in much less time than the 6 weeks allowed.

The regulations were set at a time when switching often took six week or more but these days the regulations specify no longer than three weeks or pay compensation. When the new national digital database actually works, it is likely that these time-frames will change. For the time being we're stuck with a status quo.

Alpha_5

I've renewed with Avro for another 12 months today. I've found their system and service to work well. My existing tariff wasn't due to expire until next January, so I'm paying a couple of quid extra per month now, as I'm guessing winter generally isn't a great time to renew tariff-wise. 

oldagetraveller1

I contacted my "losing" supplier about final billing, Direct Debit and time period involved. I received the final gas statement within a week after the 12th July switch. Octopus to Avro.

Their reply -

"Thanks for contacting us about this. I've taken a look at your account and it seems that we're just waiting for the final electricity reading to be sent to us. It can take between 2-4 weeks for this to be sent by the old supplier via a data collector. When we've got this, we'll be able to issue the final bill and will return any credit left on the account. I've put an end to the direct debit schedule, so we won't attempt to take any more of the usual monthly direct debits. You should received the final bill and any credit, over the 4 weeks. "

fejjie

I have a failed gas meter, just posted elsewhere on the forum.  The display is frozen and looks like it might have been for a couple of months, I've been trying to get hold of Avro for 10 days and am getting no response at all.

JGB1955

I've recently switched back to Avro from Utility Point.  I'm not expecting the swap to work smoothly, but neither am I fussed about it.  I got £30 compensation from Avro, last year, for a late refund, £50 from Utility Point for a couple of referrals and (if it happens) might get some more compensation from UP if they don't turn up trumps with their final bill (it's already looking shady - asked me for a meter reading this month, despite them no longer supplying me).  Oh.... and I was getting a decent discount on my monthly Sainsbury's shopping via UP, so, well happy!

Smodlet

Gosh, some interesting news here; thanks, all.  I have just tried those pesky Russian rodents', pretending still to be with e.on and Avro did not show up on there, either.  I do hope this does not mean they are going to the wall; I have not been with them for even a month, yet!  Surely they are too big to be going out of business, aren't they?  

Just checked the CEC and, of course, e.on now have quite a good tariff; not sure I want to go back to them but am hardly spoilt for choice now nPower have been taken over by them and EDF are just not viable due to their utterly unreasonable attitude about smart meters.