Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

gillhunt

Switched to avro via the cheap energy club, quoted £96 per month in October 2018 and has now gone up to £117. Not impressed at all.

Biggus_Dickus

Consumerist wrote: »

<Ofgem's proposals for automatic compensation from energy suppliers>

It's due to become active from spring 2019.

Edit
You could start the new supplier's complaints procedure and then just keep on badgering them with emails until you get a result. Whilst it may be true that the delay has been due to verification processes, it is the responsibility of the new supplier to chase up delays.

If you follow the compliant through to the Ombudsman, he/they may decide that £30 compensation is due even if not automatically paid by the suppler as will soon be required (Well, we'll see).

As I mentioned in a previous post my recent switch from Avro to Yorks.Energy could not be fully completed because my final gas meter reading took over 7 weeks to be ‘industry verified’.

I asked Yorks.Energy how the industry verification companies actually operate but the only thing they could tell me was that they themselves had to wait 8-weeks before they could start chasing-up the verified readings;...I’ve no idea if that statement was correct or they were just trying to appease me.

Does anyone know who these gas and leccy ‘industry verification’ people/organizations actually are?;...are they licensed by OFGEM?...will they pay compensation if a switch is delayed as a result of ‘industry verification’ failures etc?

...are these verification Svengali's answerable to anybody‽

Consumerist

gillhunt wrote: »

Switched to avro via the cheap energy club, quoted £96 per month in October 2018 and has now gone up to £117. Not impressed at all.

Unfortunately, CEC bases its monthly values on the basis of 12 equal payments over the year whereas Avro increases the DD if you join them during the winter (as lately imposed by Outfox the Market). The DD should reduce in the spring but there is a good chance you will need to chase it up..

AbbieCadabra

cranford wrote: »

Anyone waiting for a refund or reply from Avro can whistle for it for at least the next 10 days. According to their web site they are already closed for the duration and will only open for ONE day on the 28th Dec before the 2nd January.
Very very poor customer service and not a good sign.
I think you can expect rather a long backlog and even longer waits on the phone once they reopen.

I've been waiting on a refund from mid-December, was advised it would be received within 10 working days. No refund received so I contacted them again on facebook messenger, they've advised that the refund wasn't even processed due to a backlog & would now be done tomorrow & supposedly received within 2 days.

lots of other similar complaints on their page, some people still waiting 2 months later on larger refunds.

within the last hour they've deleted all my comments i'd made (only 2 or 3 posts trying to warn others) & blocked me from commenting on any posts or contacting them via messenger. I've been very polite in any comms with them & haven't even been particularly vocal so I can't see that I've been singled out, I can only guess they're blocking anyone with a valid complaint from having any public interaction on their page. I think as soon as i'd mentioned 'ombudsman' complaint after the 8 week point, I wasn't going to be allowed to have a voice any longer...

someone has already posted today that their financial year end was 31st Dec so it's obvious they've withheld customer credit to make their figures appear better than they really are, so deceitful too!

our account is already closed with them but if we were still with them, i'd be looking to switch now as there are major alarm bells for this Company going bust sometime soon...

Consumerist

Biggus_Dickus wrote: »

. . . Does anyone know who these gas and leccy ‘industry verification’ people/organizations actually are?;...are they licensed by OFGEM?...will they pay compensation if a switch is delayed as a result of ‘industry verification’ failures etc?

...are these verification Svengali's answerable to anybody‽

As far as I can tell, the verification companies are Xoserve for gas and Elexon for electricity. They are appointed and licenced by Ofgem.

What can be done by customers, if anything, to hurry them up, I haven't a clue.

Leear

They are chessing me off now.

I gave them my meter readings on the morning of the 31 December and just got my estimated bill dated the 30th December!

I have also asked them for my actual useage for the whole year for both fuels, in kWh and cost as it was not supplied.

Consumerist

Leear wrote: »

. . . I gave them my meter readings on the morning of the 31 December and just got my estimated bill dated the 30th December!

I have also asked them for my actual useage for the whole year for both fuels, in kWh and cost as it was not supplied.

If you miss the statement date by just one day, they seem to use estimated readings instead of actual readings.

My statements only provide estimated annual usage. For actual usage you will need to refer to the statements already received.

The estimated reading they used for 30 Dec should not be too different from the actual reading on the 31 Dec and should correct itself for the 30 Jan statement. If you pay by DD it's just a difference on paper anyway.

Nebulous2

Our energy usage was overestimated - not Avros fault, we've been living away fairly regularly, with the heating on a frost setting, and we've changed all our bulbs to leds.

However a credit of over £300 on a DD of £87 has built up, with December bill and almost certainly January one as well, showing a credit for the month, nevermind on an annualised basis.

I contacted them to ask for a refund on 17/12/18 with a promise of a response within 10 working days. That would be around now, but I don't have a reply.

Has anyone been successful in getting a credit refunded, without switching away?

I'm reasonably pleased with them otherwise, I'm getting to like submitting monthly readings, the tariff is good, my statements based on my readings help me to track accurately and the website is relatively straightforward.

I don't want to leave them with what is heading for 5 months DD if they are struggling however.

gokarna

Having trouble getting through to Avro, the phone just cuts off when you press the option buttons. I have emailed them and although the recorded phone message says if you emall support they will get back to you within 24 hours the automated email reply says they aim to reply within 5-10 working days! Hoping to get a refund of the credit on my account but it is difficult to get any response from them.

Update 7 Jan - I did manage to get through on the phone after a short wait of around 10 minutes. Was advised to wait for the credit until my current deal expires in a month's time.

Consumerist

Nebulous2 wrote: »

. . . I don't want to leave them with what is heading for 5 months DD if they are struggling however.

You'll be better off to stay with a credit balance than risk them going bust after you have switched away. In the former case any new supplier should honour your credit balance but you will be a low-priority creditor if Avro goes bust.

I'd suggest starting their complaints procedure, preferably by email, if you want to get their attention.