npower keeping it quiet

schiff

I can't see that this has been mentioned before which is a surprise.

On November 18th npower introduced a new tariff called 'Online Price Fix Dec 2016'. It is very attractive. Check it out online. I have a suspicion that they knew about the MSE Energy Club offer to come!

I asked them what publicity this new offer had been given and the answer was disappointing - it is shown on statements, bills and online accounts. Now bearing in mind that not many people check things on the website from the receipt of one quarterly bill to the next, this amounts to it being hidden. An unfortunate customer with a bill dated say November 15th wouldn't have spotted it for a full three months. So I asked for my criticism to be fed back to hopefully someone who will do something.

To put it into more perspective I was lucky in that my bill was dated November 20th and it did in fact show the huge saving by switching.
My previous quarterly bill made it clear that there were no better tariffs to switch to.

ExtraMask

It'll be expiring this weekend.

Biggles

It does come up on the comparison sites. But it was superseded yesterday (for my usage) by first:utility's 'iSave Fixed January 2017' tariff.

schiff

ExtraMask wrote: »

It'll be expiring this weekend.

Could I ask how you knew about this offer. From what I was told there was no general publicity, except if you had recently had a bill or checked the comparison sites as the post above proves. But that would be restricted to the very lucky ones if, as you say, it is soon to expire.

Had it been publicised it's the sort of news that would certainly have been in Martin's weekly e-mail.

AndyPK

I had a similar issue a couple of months back.

My September bill said I would be better off by £8 if I was on Price Fix June 2017 Elec DD - Electricity tarriff.

When I looked up the tarriff I had missed it and hadn't been flagged by comparison sites.

I wasn't so much bothered by the small saving, but the longer lock in.

I suspect the problem is that the regulator states companies can only have 3/4 tariffs available at one time, so npower can be seen to offer it openly.

Southernbell

Hi yes this new tariff came to my notice quite by chance this week when I rang npower last Monday to complain that I couldn't log into my npower online account the previous day, Sunday 22nd, and I have changed my existing gas tariff with npower to this one! Also, has any other Forum member who has an npower online account, noticed that it isn't always possible to log into their online account on a Sunday morning? This is the second consecutive Sunday I've tried to log in and I just get an error message saying try again later, even though there is no reported maintenance scheduled preventing login. Apart from planned 'maintenance', online accounts are supposed to be accessible 24/7!

schiff

Southernbell wrote: »

Hi yes this new tariff came to my notice quite by chance this week when I rang npower last Monday to complain that I couldn't log into my npower online account the previous day, Sunday 22nd, and I have changed my existing gas tariff with npower to this one! Also, has any other Forum member who has an npower online account, noticed that it isn't always possible to log into their online account on a Sunday morning? This is the second consecutive Sunday I've tried to log in and I just get an error message saying try again later, even though there is no reported maintenance scheduled preventing login. Apart from planned 'maintenance', online accounts are supposed to be accessible 24/7!

I've been on OK this morning.

ExtraMask

I know someone who works for them. Today will be the last day it'll be available, based on what I've been told.

Southernbell

Hi Schiff, interesting to see you were able to log into your npower account on Sunday morning 29th Nov, when I rang npower again this week to report that I hadn't been able to log in for the second Sunday running and quoted the error message I got (01365) they told me this error message would have shown to all users trying to log on and are monitoring it for me to see if error occurs again next sunday 6th Dec. There was also no 'planned maintenance' scheduled for Sunday 29th Nov.

schiff

Southernbell wrote: »

Hi Schiff, interesting to see you were able to log into your npower account on Sunday morning 29th Nov, when I rang npower again this week to report that I hadn't been able to log in for the second Sunday running and quoted the error message I got (01365) they told me this error message would have shown to all users trying to log on and are monitoring it for me to see if error occurs again next sunday 6th Dec. There was also no 'planned maintenance' scheduled for Sunday 29th Nov.

Isn't the simple solution to try to log on when it isn't Sunday?