Bulb Energy Reviews: Give your feedback on the energy supplier

Gerry1

LizzieM16 said:

my new deal with a different firm is an increase of just 70 pence per month.

Doesn't necessarily mean that it will be sufficient to pay the bills, unless it's 1/12th of your measured annual consumption, and even then it's not guaranteed because your usage can increase.  Anyone can promise a stupidly low DD to get your custom, only to increase it later when reality kicks in.

Capyboppy

Does anyone know how long after leaving Bulb I will receive the money I am in credit with? It is going to be tough paying a month in advance when swapping to Octopus. I know it will balance out eventually, but things will be very tight.

SpanishBlue

Capyboppy said:

Does anyone know how long after leaving Bulb I will receive the money I am in credit with? It is going to be tough paying a month in advance when swapping to Octopus. I know it will balance out eventually, but things will be very tight.

I can't remember exactly, but when I left Bulb a few months ago, I received the refund from them about 2 or 3 weeks after switching away.

Gerry1

Six weeks allowed to provide the final bill, another two weeks for the refund, compo if either is breached.

Capyboppy

I am to give final reading on Tuesday with first payment to Octopus 4th October. All very quick so far. 

olliebean

I'm also switching from Bulb to Octopus on 4th October, and what provoked it was an email from Bulb telling me they were going to raise my monthly payment from £80 to around £96. The letter contained a calculation used to explain and justify the rise, and that calculation offset my current credit balance against my expected usage over the next 6 months. The only problem was, the balance they'd used wasn't actually my current balance, as it didn't take into account last month's payment, paid 3 weeks before this email. When I recalculated using my actual balance, it came out to around £83/month, so they were planning to overcharge me by £13/month throughout the winter.

I frankly couldn't be bothered to argue with them about it, as a quick check with the Cheap Energy Club showed I could get a considerably cheaper deal from London Power - aka Octopus - anyway, so I just initiated the switch.

Every month last winter, Bulb emailed me suggesting I should raise my monthly payment on the basis of my briefly lowered balance on the one day between my bill being debited and my payment being credited to my account. I always ignored those and put it down to their automated system just having an over-eager trigger finger for sending such emails. But failing to account for a payment 3 weeks *after* it has been made is something else.

Dakota_2

I'm off to Octupus as well for the same reason. My experience regarding £13 DD overcharge was the same. I also didn't contact them and they've been using a foreign call centre to call people leaving. I didn't give the call centre the time of day, just how stupid do they think people are? Last time I had this kind of behaviour the supplier went bust.

Capyboppy

I’ve just had this email that seems rather threatening. I was advised by Octopus to cancel the DD particularly if in credit to avoid two lots possibly being taken out. I am £275  in credit and reckon about a hundred of that can be used to pay Bulb the difference between my last payment and the final bill and reading which is this week. Surely when in credit they can’t insist on me reinstating My DD? 

“We've heard from your bank that you've cancelled your Direct Debit with us. We are now not taking monthly payments for your energy.

Please could you set up a new Direct Debit? Otherwise you might be charged an admin fee for missed payments.

Set up Direct Debit

You can then change your payment amount and the date we take it online in your Bulb Account if you'd like. 

You could be charged an admin fee
Cancelling your Direct Debit could mean that you're charged an admin fee for missing a payment, even if you're leaving us. 

Even if you're leaving us
If you're leaving us and haven't yet paid off your final balance or got your final refund, we still need to take your final payment or to refund your remaining credit. We'll cancel it for you automatically when everything's closed up. If you've paid your final bill, you can ignore this email.

Telegraph_Sam

Sounds very similar to the attitude of Tonik Energy - I am an ex-customer of theirs who migrated to Octopus. What Bulb say would apply to a customer whose account is in deficit.; If they charge an admin fee for you cancelling your D/D when there is no case for asking you for further funds I think they would be on shaky grounds especially in any dispute situation. I temporarily cancelled my D/D when the credit balance with Tonik got out of hand.  They didn't particularly like it but didn't / couldn't do much about it apart from wingeing.

Capyboppy

Telegraph_Sam said:

Sounds very similar to the attitude of Tonik Energy - I am an ex-customer of theirs who migrated to Octopus. What Bulb say would apply to a customer whose account is in deficit.; If they charge an admin fee for you cancelling your D/D when there is no case for asking you for further funds I think they would be on shaky grounds especially in any dispute situation. I temporarily cancelled my D/D when the credit balance with Tonik got out of hand.  They didn't particularly like it but didn't / couldn't do much about it apart from wingeing.

Against my better judgement I ended up reinstating the DD, but it says to allow 3-10 days I think it was. As tomorrow I will be receiving an email from Octopus to give a final reading, it seems silly other than there was one line in the blurb that said it needs to be there for returning credit. 

I am going to phone them tomorrow in any case as I am concerned they might take another payment out on the 11th October after Octopus  will have taken payment out on the 5th.