Bulb Energy Reviews: Give your feedback on the energy supplier

roddydogs

With all thes people circulating between bulb, pure planet, and octopus just for the bonus/amazon vouchers, its surprising any of them makes a profit! Re the above post I dont think you get the £50 if you use CEC,

[Deleted User]

jamese wrote: »

I have recently signed up to Bulb Energy through the Energy Club, I only have Economy 7 and not Gas. Do I qualify for Bulb £40 bill credit.

Thanks
James

Are you referring to this weeks newsletter offer for Bulb?
You would get whatever the Energy Club offer was at the time you signed up to Bulb via the club and the cashback offers would have been mentioned at that time.
Just checking the offer, I did notice that the mention of £40 extra vanished when I went from dual fuel to electricity only in the Cheap Energy Club so that offer looked like a duel fuel only offer anyway.

donovanh

Although Bulb claims to deliver renewably sourced energy to our homes at reasonable or even better prices than the big 6 energy suppliers, from my experience, the reality is a different story. It felt good to switch from one of the “big, bad suppliers” to a cozier, friendlier and greener one, based mostly on energy from renewable energy sources. And apparently the energy costs for our home would remain the same or even lower. And guess what? It did, for a while. For over a year, we were happily cruising along with energy bills under 100 GBP – incl. both electricity and gas. Note this is for a semi-detached 3BR house in the Manchester area, with little to no energy use during the weekdays (we’re all at work).

Then, after an updated “smart” meter reading, Bulb claimed our gas usage was higher than estimated and began sending us bills of over 200 GBP per month – for gas alone! They claimed we had not submitted meter readings for some time, and that our gas usage was underestimated over this period. But we had submitted an initial reading, of course, when we switched to them in the first place. So it should not be that far off. Although subsequent gas bills have tempered a bit, they are still very high – 100 GBP pcm or more in some cases. They seem to have “settled” over 100 pcm - recent one at 133 (remember – considering gas bill only here).

Why the bait and switch? Even if the initial gas bills of approx. 40 pcm were a bit low, doubling and tripling that amount makes no sense. I’m confident that increase does not reflect our actual usage, which has not changed in any significant way. If one looks at average UK national gas bills for a 3BR house, those seem to be in 50 pcm range. So even if our usage was on the high side, maybe could be 70 or 80 pcm?

So why don’t we simply switch suppliers? Oh yes, they have that covered as well. Apparently, due to their new, faulty estimates, our account is in debit and must be paid off before we can do so. We tried switching and they blocked it. We of course wrote to Bulb directly several times, but with no result. They continue to claim we have this high gas usage, which is 3-4 times higher than we started (what we were billed for over a year). We also wrote to the consumer advice centre, but they did not continue following up with Bulb and nothing has been resolved.

Guess we’re now stuck with significantly overpaying for our energy with Bulb - trapped - and cannot escape. But hey, at least we’re saving the world, right?

Donovan H
Energy Drained in Manchester

wclifford

Just my 2 cents on trying to sign up to Bulb today -

Called to ask if they supported single rate tariff with economy 7 meter and was told that they do not support this - i said that's odd as every supplier i have ever had has but they told me it was not supported due to the way they buy energy wholesale... ???

A quick search of this thread shows a reply from Bulb in 2017 saying they do , but other people talking of issues with more complex meters.

Life is too short - I don't want to sign up and then spend hours fixing my account so no go here. As an aside , telling people its an average wait time of 4 minutes and then being put on hold for 15 is rather annoying!! :mad:

Lets see who is next on the list of cheapest energy..!

nigelbb

donovanh wrote: »

Although Bulb claims to deliver renewably sourced energy to our homes at reasonable or even better prices than the big 6 energy suppliers, from my experience, the reality is a different story. It felt good to switch from one of the “big, bad suppliers” to a cozier, friendlier and greener one, based mostly on energy from renewable energy sources. And apparently the energy costs for our home would remain the same or even lower. And guess what? It did, for a while. For over a year, we were happily cruising along with energy bills under 100 GBP – incl. both electricity and gas. Note this is for a semi-detached 3BR house in the Manchester area, with little to no energy use during the weekdays (we’re all at work).

Then, after an updated “smart” meter reading, Bulb claimed our gas usage was higher than estimated and began sending us bills of over 200 GBP per month – for gas alone! They claimed we had not submitted meter readings for some time, and that our gas usage was underestimated over this period. But we had submitted an initial reading, of course, when we switched to them in the first place. So it should not be that far off. Although subsequent gas bills have tempered a bit, they are still very high – 100 GBP pcm or more in some cases. They seem to have “settled” over 100 pcm - recent one at 133 (remember – considering gas bill only here).

Why the bait and switch? Even if the initial gas bills of approx. 40 pcm were a bit low, doubling and tripling that amount makes no sense. I’m confident that increase does not reflect our actual usage, which has not changed in any significant way. If one looks at average UK national gas bills for a 3BR house, those seem to be in 50 pcm range. So even if our usage was on the high side, maybe could be 70 or 80 pcm?

So why don’t we simply switch suppliers? Oh yes, they have that covered as well. Apparently, due to their new, faulty estimates, our account is in debit and must be paid off before we can do so. We tried switching and they blocked it. We of course wrote to Bulb directly several times, but with no result. They continue to claim we have this high gas usage, which is 3-4 times higher than we started (what we were billed for over a year). We also wrote to the consumer advice centre, but they did not continue following up with Bulb and nothing has been resolved.

Guess we’re now stuck with significantly overpaying for our energy with Bulb - trapped - and cannot escape. But hey, at least we’re saving the world, right?

Donovan H
Energy Drained in Manchester

It seems that you have not taken or submitted any meter readings other than initially so you have no idea whether your estimated bills are accurate or not. You could even still be underpaying & getting deeper into debt. Why on earth aren't you taking meter readings? It is the only way of checking what your true energy consumption is.

Al_Ross

What can't people not grasp that it is the tarrif price i.e the cost of a unit of gas or electric that determines who much they will be paying,and of course how much actually use and not the amount your direct debit is set at.


Bulb are about the cheapest there is for gas at the moment.

rich_shot2003

Are they fitting the new smart meters yet as i signed up to the waiting list for one months ago and still no word on when they are installing them.

fatbelly

rich_shot2003 wrote: »

Are they fitting the new smart meters yet as i signed up to the waiting list for one months ago and still no word on when they are installing them.

I've had the email and decided to ignore it:

We're installing smart meters in your area

We got in touch recently to let you know we’re installing the new generation of smart meters (often called ‘SMETS2’) in your area.

If you didn’t have time to book there are appointments available in the next few weeks, so don't miss out.

Our smart meters:
•Can be read by any supplier, even if you decide to switch in the future
•Take meter readings automatically, which means no more estimated bills
•Give you the information you need to help cut your bills and reduce carbon emissions

Appointments are first come, first served, so book today to reserve your slot.

What to expect on the day

We’ve written this quick guide on how to prepare for your installation and what to expect on the day.

Smart meter installation is free

Because you're a Bulb member, there's no charge to have smart meters installed.

The engineer will do everything they can to make the installation a success

If they can’t complete the installation they’ll explain why, and we’ll be in touch as soon as we’ve found a solution.

All the best,
Team Bulb

PaschalFun

Al_Ross wrote: »

What can't people not grasp that it is the tarrif price i.e the cost of a unit of gas or electric that determines who much they will be paying,and of course how much actually use and not the amount your direct debit is set at.


Bulb are about the cheapest there is for gas at the moment.

I'm not sure Bulb will supply gas only, will they?

So I took a look at the East Midlands region, based on a dual fuel tariff.

For gas, they charge:
3.345p per kWh
20.44p per day (£74.62 per year) Standing charge.

I would urge you to check any comparison site. There are several cheaper suppliers/tariffs than that for gas, either as part of dual fuel, or as gas alone.

For an average user, ideally look for a tariff that is <3p/kWh and about 15-16ppd maximum - several to choose from

bristolleedsfan

PaschalFun wrote: »

I'm not sure Bulb will supply gas only, will they?

So I took a look at the East Midlands region, based on a dual fuel tariff.

For gas, they charge:
3.345p per kWh
20.44p per day (£74.62 per year) Standing charge.

I would urge you to check any comparison site. There are several cheaper suppliers/tariffs than that for gas, either as part of dual fuel, or as gas alone.

For an average user, ideally look for a tariff that is <3p/kWh and about 15-16ppd maximum - several to choose from

I dont think Bulb will supply Gas only, as you say other suppliers are cheaper, take a look at Utility Point both fixed and variable tariffs, I have a Gas switch in progress from Bulb to U.P with standing charge and unit rate cheaper than Bulb