Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Gerry1

Biggus_Dickus said:

I assume (perhaps wrongly) that the extra tariff cost on the comparison sites is calculated to offset any commission/cashback etc that Avro would need to pay.

Absolutely, the best deals seldom come with cashback. There's no such thing as a free lunch, as those who get signed up to Bulb by a so-called friend's '£50 + £50 welcome offer' soon discover !

Biggus_Dickus

Gerry1 said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

I assume (perhaps wrongly) that the extra tariff cost on the comparison sites is calculated to offset any commission/cashback etc that Avro would need to pay.

Absolutely, the best deals seldom come with cashback. There's no such thing as a free lunch, as those who get signed up to Bulb by a so-called friend's '£50 + £50 welcome offer' soon discover !

I’ve never had any cashback or received an incentive from any energy company and tbh the whole thing is a bit of a mystery to me.

Every time I’ve looked closely at Bulbs tariffs they always seem pricey.

For instance Bulbs current offering ‘Vari-fair’ would cost me an extra £121 per year compared to my present Avro tariff.

Vari-fair, is also a variable tariff which doesn’t appeal to me;...on the plus side CEC are offering a £25 cashback incentive but you need wait 3 to 6 months to get it. Wow!..not!

Are there any conditions with regard to the cashback?...if you leave after 3 months because they’ve increased the tariff charge would you still get the cashback?

I don’t know how Bulbs £50 + £50 incentives actually work;...when it comes to the Energy business the whole cashback/incentive shebang is something of a Black Art imho;...that’s perhaps because I don’t really understand it.

 

Consumerist

Biggus_Dickus said:

I’ve never had any cashback or received an incentive from any energy company and tbh the whole thing is a bit of a mystery to me.

. . .

Are there any conditions with regard to the cashback?...if you leave after 3 months because they’ve increased the tariff charge would you still get the cashback?

As far as I know, the energy suppliers don't offer or pay any cashback at all. The comparison sites sometimes offer cashback as an incentive to switch using their switching service (on which they earn a commission).

Since the cashback is paid by the comparison site's switching service, it shouldn't matter when or if you switch again but they may not offer a cashback on the subsequent switch - you may have to switch again through another comparison site to get another cashback..

Daz2009

My switch went through yesterday.
Quickest change of supplier I've ever had.
One minor irritation,not with Avro but with my old supplier,Eon.They won't accept the gas reading I've given them online,says it's not within expected parameters or something.....reading in june was 0431 and the reading today was 0444.

victor2

Daz2009 said:

My switch went through yesterday.
Quickest change of supplier I've ever had.
One minor irritation,not with Avro but with my old supplier,Eon.They won't accept the gas reading I've given them online,says it's not within expected parameters or something.....reading in june was 0431 and the reading today was 0444.

Final/opening readings have to go through some mysterious "independent body" who review them for reasonableness, and change them if they see fit. Both suppliers must use the readings as revised by this third party. Last time I switched, they came up with a gas figure that was ridiculous - less than my reading 2 months previous. I had photographs of the meters and both the losing (Avro) and gaining suppliers agreed it was ridiculous and they would use my reading. Except that Avro didn't and instead used their own estimate. Took ages to sort it out.

toothdoctor

Just switched to Avro, no issues at all. Website is a bit basic but apart from that, all went smoothly (switched from Eon)

JohnB47

I'm a dual fuel Avro customer. I've just had a quote for their Simple and Superconnect tariff - around £25 more per year, so no change for me.

Telegraph_Sam

When Avro & co do their quotes do they give you the breakdown - unit rates and annual kWh's assumed with / without any cashbacks, loyalty bonuses, incentives or such bribery (not forgetting exit penalties) so that one can compare apples with apples? At least as far as fixed rate deals are concerned.

Consumerist

Telegraph_Sam said:

When Avro & co do their quotes do they give you the breakdown - unit rates and annual kWh's assumed with / without any cashbacks, loyalty bonuses, incentives or such bribery (not forgetting exit penalties) so that one can compare apples with apples? At least as far as fixed rate deals are concerned.

Avro give a breakdown of unit rates and annual kWh assumed in the total annual cost. Exit penalties are advised but not included in the total estimated annual cost - they assume that you will be with them for the duration of a fix.

Cashback comes from comparison sites and has nothing to do with the suppliers - so won't be included.

If a supplier has included its own incentive then it's likely (never had one, myself) they will include it to make the deal seem cheaper.

Telegraph_Sam

Tonik Energy - separate saga, separate thread - used to give me a "loyalty bonus" but it was anything but obvious to what extent if any it was taken into consideration for the sake of making comparisons. They also offered 3% interest on credit balances just to make life really complicated.