Bulb Energy Reviews: Give your feedback on the energy supplier

N1ckS

I've been with Bulb for 6 months now and overall I'm happy with their service. Not quite up to Ovo's standards but near enough that their competitive tariff keeps me on their books.

roddydogs

But they are now being undercut by "outfox"!

editor1

roddydogs wrote: »

But they are now being undercut by "outfox"!

OutFox the Market are undercutting everyone and only allowing 400 people to Switch to them per day, which, would mean maybe 200K plus customers by the year end. Of course, OFGEM issues licences to one man and his dog, which does raise concerns. I hope OFTM proves me wrong as OVO and FU need to get competitive again.

N1ckS

Personally speaking, Bulb aren't undercut by anyone given the credit I've received from referring friends and family. Customer service is also really important and as I mentioned Ovo have also been good for me recently and surprisingly EDF were actually quite good last year.

moxter

moxter wrote: »

I switched to Bulb from Good Energy a few weeks ago.....

Almost a year with Bulb now. My needs are simple so I've actually never needed to have any direct communication with them whatsoever - not a bad sign. Their T&Cs say they review your monthly payments a couple of times a year. I've had no review, and was bracing myself for a phone call to argue about how much I would pay each month, but it's a lot simpler than that: log on to the website and you can set your own monthly payments (!) They have suggested that they think I should be paying (£44, which is down on the £65 they set me up with to start with). Given that my account is in credit by a couple of hundred quid I felt I could safely pay less than their suggested amount as it'll take a while for the credit to drop down, and I was able to do this with no hassle at all. Impressed.

Meter readings are easy and they've added an app to the website - interface is very simple and although both app and website are pretty sparse, that's because they just have the information you need (tariff, usage, etc) rater than clogging it up with rubbish.

They have recently upped their tariff but it had come down over the course of the year, a quick check of uswitch reveals they are still one of the very cheapest green suppliers out there (the only one who is a good bit cheaper for a modest user like me is Solarplicity, who seem to be having some issues at the moment).

As an aside, if you are trying to work out tariffs you are far better plugging in your actual usage in kWh into price comparison websites (or a spreadsheet) than you are messing around with the "I live in a 2 bedroom flat" nonsense - far more accurate. Get hold of some bills, work out what you've actually used in the last 12 months, job done. (Credit to uswitch for allowing this, and credit to them for including suppliers they can't switch for you, at the touch of a button...fair play).

astrok wrote: »

Not impressed with casual assumed use of my firstname, I want to be a customer not suddenly become their 'mate'.

Hey dude, could you send us a postcard from the 19th century?

crashingout

I have just changed over to Bulb and it was a very smooth process. I was kept up to date by email during the changeover, very smooth.
And I received my £50 referral on the day of my changeover which only took 17 days.
Impressed so far.

islasgranny

A hip little company with efficient customer service BUT I'm now really angry about their 'non participation' in the Warm Home Discount scheme. Like most people in my position I rely on this payment and when I receive a letter from the DWP saying that the money will be paid via my energy supplier I look no further.
Bulb do not state in their promotional material that they do not take part and if they had done so I would have gone elsewhere. I did not get the relevant information until I asked why it hadn't shown up on my statement.
I'm older and wiser now and looking for another supplier.

ailz95

I've been with Bulb energy for a year now. I joined them because they promised not to give any money towards fracking. Everything has been good - though I've not needed to contact their customer service at all. I give a reading once a month and they send an invoice saying how much we've used.

They put their prices up and down when there's any change in cost. I'm happy with them.

fatbelly

islasgranny wrote: »

A hip little company with efficient customer service BUT I'm now really angry about their 'non participation' in the Warm Home Discount scheme. Like most people in my position I rely on this payment and when I receive a letter from the DWP saying that the money will be paid via my energy supplier I look no further.
Bulb do not state in their promotional material that they do not take part and if they had done so I would have gone elsewhere. I did not get the relevant information until I asked why it hadn't shown up on my statement.
I'm older and wiser now and looking for another supplier.

Hold on. Have they made an announcement to say they won't get involved?

They have to join the scheme when they get a certain size (is it 250000 customers?) and AFAIK they are not there yet, but are saying they will join the scheme voluntarily for the next round in 18/19.

I checked - the last announcement was on 15 March:

Currently we do not offer the Warm Home Discount so you can not apply for it yet. Once we offer it for the winter of 2018/19 you will be able to apply for it through us. We will make this process as simple and as clear as possible.

That seems pretty clear to me.

System

One of the reasons why smaller suppliers can undercut larger suppliers on price is because they do not offer WHD. In my view, this should be added to the list of things that Ofgem needs to address.

FWiW, I was with Bulb for 3 months. I would not hesitate to return to them if their price remains competitive. I only switched to a fixed deal with another supplier as I could see that prices are once again rising. Bulb's takeover of my supply; its account management and final billing were without fault.