Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback 26 November 2015 at 11:31AM edited 7 July at 11:38AM in Energy 1.6K replies 265.4K views

MONFRITE

Disregard the post below. I received a revised renewal the following day showing correct FIXED RATE tarrif

Just checked my original renewal pack and the Fixed term Avro tarrif was variable NOT fixed. Tried several times to contact them: so far, without success.

curlycat_2

Thank you all for your suggestions of contacting Avro via email/messenger. I got a response and within 10 mins, they have updated by account, I have bills and the green/grey chart is now up to date. I'm also in enough credit that I won't be worrying over the winter.
I don't know why I had to chase them to do it, but I'm glad it's sorted.

Leear

Consumerist wrote: »

But seriously though . . .

I agree that once usage has been billed, Avro's estimate for that month has become irrelevant.

And why do the charts always start in January. Most people might be interested in their usage over the previous year so a chart covering, say, Oct 17 - Sep 18 might be of some interest to see a pattern of usage throughout the year.

It is my (perhaps cynical) view that the energy suppliers are doing their best to comply with Ofgem's regulations whilst making sure the information they are required to provide is as useless as possible to the consumer.

When I was with British Gas my monthly energy usage went back years and I could compare and contrast months and years as I wished. Avro needs a much better customer interface as I can't even access the charts from last year

DennisTenus

Curlycat wrote: »

Thank you all for your suggestions of contacting Avro via email/messenger. I got a response and within 10 mins, they have updated by account, I have bills and the green/grey chart is now up to date. I'm also in enough credit that I won't be worrying over the winter.
I don't know why I had to chase them to do it, but I'm glad it's sorted.

Did you use Facebook messenger?

IrvingJV

I have been a customer for a year now. The price is great. Customer service is poor or at times unachievable! The Managing Director should resign as I don't see any evidence of management. The phone system doesn't work, the contact when it does happen is sometimes bordering on rude, the renewal system is long winded and must cause lots of unnecessary communication making the position worse. It has all the appearance of a company not structured to cope with the demand.

Consumerist

IrvingJV wrote: »

I have been a customer for a year now. The price is great. Customer service is poor or at times unachievable! The Managing Director should resign as I don't see any evidence of management. The phone system doesn't work, the contact when it does happen is sometimes bordering on rude, the renewal system is long winded and must cause lots of unnecessary communication making the position worse. It has all the appearance of a company not structured to cope with the demand.

Hi IrvingJV and welcome to the forum.

I certainly agree that Avro's customer service performance is down to bad management from the very top.

I can imagine that their call-centre staff are dealing with complaint after complaint from customers who are themselves less than polite by the time they have got through.

Unfortunately, it's only by customers taking matters to the Ombudsman will Avro management be called to account but this will take time and my guess is that Avro will have gone bust or be taken over by the time that happens.

Jules0145

I switched to Avro a while ago as they were the cheapest around at the time. They are terrible to deal with. They don’t answer the phone. I was number 57 in the queue a number of times - like you have 55 minutes to hang on the phone! Then you email them and either get no response or days later if you are lucky! They refused to give me a refund of well over £100 until I quoted Martin’s Condition 27 of the Gas & Electricity Supply Licence that they are legally not allowed to keep hold of MY money just in case I go into debit. Now they have refunded but only as a “gesture of goodwill!” Can they really do as they wish as I wonder how many other people are in credit but are told - “you can’t have YOUR money back!”

Jules0145

I couldn’t get through on the phone so I jumped in my car and went personally to their address in Hinckley! Got it sorted immediately!!

The_Big_Bamboo

Jules0145 wrote: »

I couldn’t get through on the phone so I jumped in my car and went personally to their address in Hinckley! Got it sorted immediately!!

Brilliant!...did they let you in, or did you converse through the letterbox?

Consumerist

Jules0145 wrote: »

I switched to Avro a while ago as they were the cheapest around at the time. They are terrible to deal with. They don’t answer the phone. I was number 57 in the queue a number of times - like you have 55 minutes to hang on the phone! Then you email them and either get no response or days later if you are lucky! They refused to give me a refund of well over £100 until I quoted Martin’s Condition 27 of the Gas & Electricity Supply Licence that they are legally not allowed to keep hold of MY money just in case I go into debit. Now they have refunded but only as a “gesture of goodwill!” Can they really do as they wish as I wonder how many other people are in credit but are told - “you can’t have YOUR money back!”

My interpretation of the SLCs 27.16 is that suppliers can refuse to give a refund providing they STRIKE]can[/STRIKE do justify it.

27.16 Where any Credit has accumulated under a Domestic Supply Contract and the relevant Domestic Customer requests that the licensee do so, the licensee must, save where it is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances for the licensee not to do so, refund, in a timely manner, any Credit which has accumulated under that Domestic Supply Contract to the relevant Domestic Customer. Where the licensee considers that it is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances for it not to refund any Credit which has accumulated under a Domestic Supply Contract in accordance with this provision, it must inform the relevant Domestic Customer of its view and of the reasons for holding that view.

So I don't know where Martin got his info. Perhaps there is some Code of Practice on this issue but quite often these CPs only apply to the bigger suppliers.