MSE News: GB Energy goes bust, 160,000 customers affected

veryintrigued

Hengus wrote: »

I doubt it. The SoLR procedure allows them to agree/recover extraordinary costs either by setting a Deemed Tariff or through the industry levy. Ofgem has set the bar high and there will be no going back if, or when as some industry pundits suggest, the next small supplier goes to the wall. Good for customers but not good for the sector or Ofgem who issues supplier licences.

That'll be incredible if that's the case. i.e. Coop will be making a short term profit after (amongst other costs):

Partly paying off the credit balances (if your previous comment is correct)
Selling energy at a loss to those of us on fixed deals.
Transferring (presumably under TUPE) the GB Energy staff.

You could be absolutely correct that costs are being taken from Ofgem /other consumers to partly pay for this but I'd assumed that Co-op were doing it as its great publicity, puts them back in Ofgems good books and they'll (Coop) will be looking more mid term for profit from at least some of the 160k new customers.

Whatever the answer is lots of us will be chuffed to bits!

Jim6241

Oh yes, forgot about that. 160,000 books to be sent out to collect the stamps 😉

b_p

If you have a cheap fixed-term contract with GB and have switched to a new supplier following GB's collapse, you may want to contact your new supplier to cancel the switch. You usually have a 14 day cooling-off period during which you can cancel. This would preserve your cheap deal with GB/Co-op until the end of the fixed term.

joannasinbox

You may be aware that GB Energy Supply ceased trading this weekend after facing difficulties relating to rising wholesale energy costs.

I am pleased to be able to inform you that Co-operative Energy has reached an agreement with GB Energy and Ofgem to take over responsibility for your account, with effect from 30 November, and can reassure you that you will have continuity of service.

Co-operative Energy is part of The Midcounties Co-operative, the UK’s largest independent co-operative. You can read more about us here www.midcounties.coop.

I can assure you that there really is no need to worry as your supply will not be interrupted during this process and for the future.

What happens next?

• We will honour your current contract and price until it is due to expire. This means you do not need to do anything and, rest assured, we will contact you again before your current contract ends with all the information you need and what to do next.
• What happens to my Direct Debit? We are planning to arrange a transfer of your existing direct debit mandate over to Co-operative Energy in the next few weeks. There will be further communication on this in due course. Again, you do not need to do anything and please do not cancel your direct debit.
• We will continue to run the business using the existing GB Energy systems supported by enhanced technology, as well as experienced former GB Energy employees and service providers, to minimise the disruption to you and to our
  Co-operative Energy customers. We will also increase the number of customer service advisers to ensure we deliver the service you would expect.
• Customer service enquiries will continue to be provided by the GB Energy team. As you can imagine we are experiencing a high level of enquiries and we will increase the number of customer service advisers to deliver the service you would expect.
• Whilst inevitably there will be some upheaval during the initial transition period, please be patient with us and rest assured that your future supplies and any credit balances you have with GB Energy Supply are secure. Hopefully that's one less thing for you to worry about at this busy time.

You may have already visited the Ofgem website to understand what happens next. We have produced a list of FAQs on the GB Energy website (www.gbenergysupply.co.uk) to provide further details and reassurance.

We are developing more detailed plans, working closely with Ofgem, and we will contact you again before 15th December 2016 with an update on our progress.

In the meantime, please be reassured that it is business as usual.

Thank you in advance for your patience and we look forward to being your energy provider.

Yours sincerely,
Ben Reid OBE
Chief Executive
The Midcounties Co-operative,
Trading as Co-operative Energy

phillw

Chris75 wrote: »

Agreed. One of the most interesting missing bits is a statement about for how long the previous prices are going to be held.

"Ofgem has confirmed the GB Energy tariff you're currently on will remain the same under Co-op Energy, in terms of the rate you pay and the length of your fix, if you're on one."

So nothing changes, you haven't won or lost anything.

uptdale wrote: »

It's a good result, but Ofgem could have saved everyone - including GB staff - a lot of angst if first their published guidance was not full of weasel words which created more uncertainty and questions

They said not to panic and they would do their best and whatever happened your credit balance was safe. The only thing they didn't guarantee was staying on the same tariff which caused GB energy to become insolvent. Which was prudent, however I semi predicted the outcome. What would be the point in taking over all the customers and then !!!!ing them off by raising their bills?

uptdale wrote: »

and second they had sorted out the deal with the Coop before GB announced that it was ceasing to trade. In fact the apparent timescale (Friday to Tuesday) for the "competitive process" by which the Coop was chosen is suspiciously short. My guess is that GB went to Ofgem well before Friday, and the process started before then, but GB's difficulties were leaked, so GB (and Ofgem) had to go public before the deal was finalised. Now who would have an interest in leaking GB's problems? Surely not one of the Big 6.....

It's illegal to carry on trading when you are insolvent. They will have kept it quiet while they tried to find some way to keep the company going, but at the point when it's no longer possible then you have to stop. They may have received a higher than expected energy bill that pushed them over the edge before existing negotiations were complete, or it may have all been done since the announcement. There aren't that many energy companies to phone and ask "Do you want 160,000 customers, some new staff and we'll help you foot the bill".

joannasinbox

On the first reading of the message above, I am impressed by the Ofgem's speedy reaction and the Co-op's T&Cs

fredandwilma

sd99 wrote: »

Another nice touch is that Co-op are keeping GBs staff.

Maximim 20 of them? According to the GB energy accounts submitted in April 2016, they averaged 13 members of staff per month, in 2015? (unless I've misread this.) There's no wonder it takes so long to get through on the phone.

nik_k

lolamancity wrote: »

Does anyone know the name of the 12 month fixed contract that GBE were selling in March 2016? I'm trying to update my MSE Energy Club thing but on the drop down menu for GBE, the names of the tariffs are all different to the one on my sign up email (just states 12 month fixes contract, no fancy name)

Most likely to be Fixed 12 Sapphire - I also joined in March, my contract runs 19 March 2016 to 18 April 2017

matelodave

I think OFGEM should be congratulated on sorting this out as quickly as it has.

I don't think that many of us would have thought that they could do it much before Christmas and most were expecting to be well and truly stuffed.

However their initial "advice" was confusing and not really ever so reassuring, hopefully now they've done it for real they'll sort it out and make it a bit clearer so people really do have confidence.

They must have had a bit of a plan, but no one was aware of it.

Autolycus2000

I was on GBE's Fixed 12 Sapphire tariff (12 month fixed from March 2016). For the past few months my bills have carried a message saying I could save £30 or so by switching to another tariff. The name varied depending on which month it was but it was always something like Fixed 12 Crystal, Fixed 12 Diamond, etc.

A couple of weeks ago I finally got round to contacting them via the website and asking them to switch me. It was the lack of reply which prompted me to look at their site this weekend and find they'd gone bust.

But what I don't get is this. If their prices were increasing over the past few months, how come a bill as recent as the one sent at the beginning of November said I could expect savings of £85 per year by switching to Fixed 12 Diamond?

Did anyone else see similar messages on their bills and did you successfully switch to a new tariff that was cheaper than one you signed up to prior to this summer's price rises?