MSE Collective Switch - Existing Supplier "retention" calls?

jeallen01

I used the February Switch to initiate a move from Scottish Power Dual Fuel to the BG Dual Fuel deal - and I've just had a call from SP "Retentions" dept offering to try to better the BG tariffs because they "have a new deal" coming in!


Told the guy to put it in writing in an email so that I could compare the actual numbers - he agreed to do that and so I'm waiting to see what he comes up with!


Anyone else had the same with SP or any other existing suppliers?

jeallen01

chrylent wrote: »

Did you choose any supplier for this? I think you should choose a good supplier.

My post referenced "BG" for "British Gas" - which was one of the main "recommended" suppliers for the Collective Switch, and I would have thought that that would have been "obvious" (but maybe not to some people!)

brewerdave

In my area the BG deal beats the best SP deal available by ~ 10% on my usages.

jeallen01

brewerdave wrote: »

In my area the BG deal beats the best SP deal available by ~ 10% on my usages.

Where are you located?

jcontest

If they are like Virgin Media then retention deals are never published and a huge (30-40% off). I hope you share the values they give you so we can see, adding retention calls to this type of product will honestly stink.

They make everything as hard to compare as they can, so retention offers will take a lot of work for you to know if they are going to be such huge savings. Standing charges + usages + payment charges + extra charges + discounts + incentives... But it would still be nice to know

System

jeallen01 wrote: »

I used the February Switch to initiate a move from Scottish Power Dual Fuel to the BG Dual Fuel deal - and I've just had a call from SP "Retentions" dept offering to try to better the BG tariffs because they "have a new deal" coming in!


Told the guy to put it in writing in an email so that I could compare the actual numbers - he agreed to do that and so I'm waiting to see what he comes up with!


Anyone else had the same with SP or any other existing suppliers?

A supplier cannot 'better a deal'. It can only offer you - and the rest of us - one of its permitted 4 tariffs. These appear on the supplier's website and on comparison sites. Put simply, unless Ofgem changes its policy the only discounts that can be offered are for dual fuel and online billing. My guess is that SP are just trying to get you to cancel your switch. I would report this type of activity to consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk.

jeallen01

Hengus wrote: »

A supplier cannot 'better a deal'. It can only offer you - and the rest of us - one of its permitted 4 tariffs. These appear on the supplier's website and on comparison sites. Put simply, unless Ofgem changes its policy the only discounts that can be offered are for dual fuel and online billing. My guess is that SP are just trying to get you to cancel your switch. I would report this type of activity to consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk.

Could be related to this so-called "new deal" - we will see!

Former_MSE_Roxanne

Hi all,

Just to add on to what Hengus has highlighted above, there are no such things as 'retention deals'.

You can run a full market comparison from your Energy Club account to see how different tariffs compare.

If your supplier simply offers to lower your direct debit on the same tariff, it's important to remember that you would still be paying the same amount for your energy usage in the end as the tariffs unit rates would not be any different.

jeallen01

I'll be doing the numbers very carefully as I have fairly detailed electricity and gas consumption figures for the last 2 years - and the Winter gas consumption has dropped substantially recently because I had exterior wall insulation (Green Deal!) installed last Spring and I will take that into account as well!

Bark01

jeallen01 wrote: »

I'll be doing the numbers very carefully as I have fairly detailed electricity and gas consumption figures for the last 2 years - and the Winter gas consumption has dropped substantially recently because I had exterior wall insulation (Green Deal!) installed last Spring and I will take that into account as well!

I don't want to rain on your parade but everyone's heating consumption dropped substantially over the last few months. It was a very mild winter. My consumption dropped 8%.

Your insulation will have undoubtedly helped reduce your consumption though.

jeallen01

Bark01 wrote: »

I don't want to rain on your parade but everyone's heating consumption dropped substantially over the last few months. It was a very mild winter. My consumption dropped 8%.

Your insulation will have undoubtedly helped reduce your consumption though.

You're not raining on my parade! The insulation effect has been quite substantial and noticeable almost from the beginning of the Winter because I was able to change the timing of the C/H programmer.


Previously during pretty much every Winter for quite a few years we had it on 24/7 from about the beginning of Nov to the end of Feb to ensure that the place stayed warm overnight - even then it was often down to 17-18C by around 6am (I used to get up then to go to work!)


Now it's on from around 6.30 am to 11pm - at around 22C during the day with a 3hr period in the evening when it is raised to 24C (we do like a warm house, having both experienced very cold houses in our younger days!). Now, the house is warm all night and at 7.30am the temperature is still around 21C, AND the gas consumption has dropped by about 35-40% compared with the same period in 2014-2015, and that's definitely NOT just because the external ambient is that much warmer now than then!