Pure Planet reviews: add your feedback

Gerry1

Thefotoman said:

Just been offered a new deal (?) by Pure Planet; a 12 Month Fixed Rate deal (100% Green 12m Fixed) which is very slightly less per Kwh than I am paying at present.  All other add ons remain the same apart from a £30 exit fee.  I've taken it up and have 14 days to cancel if anyone knows a reason why I should not be going with this offer.

Welcome to the forum.

• If higher daily charges make the annual cost more expensive.

• If separate suppliers would be cheaper

• If you have not researched the wider market

• If you have missed some exclusive offers by not using several comparison sites

BTW, this would be better as a new thread because it's not a review.

dunroving

I am currently holding fire re: Pure Planet, to see if my aborted switch goes through smoothly. My previous supplier put a block on the switch because of a small negative balance (even though my direct debit was due to go through the next day!), and I cleared the block within 5 minutes. The day after this, Pure Planet emailed me to say they had "cancelled" the switch, and that my account would be "reset" in two days (but didn't explain what "reset" meant). I checked on Pure Planet's Community site, where there is a "Top 11 things you need to know" article, that said if a supplier blocks a switch, Pure Planet *pauses* the switch - so I thought I'd be fine, as I cleared the block within 5 minutes. (To quote from the article, "Your old supplier may block your switch. We'll pause your switch and we’ll let you know if there are any problems.")

For the next 2 weeks, I was still able to log into my Pure Planet account (which led me to think everything was OK), but on the day of my scheduled switch, I realised my supply hadn't been switched and that I needed to apply for a new quote! As other people have said, the communication channels used by Pure Planet are NOT intuitive, even for this computer-savvy consumer. There is a Community Forum (just like the MSE forum), where a couple of old-timers told me they thought the switch would just "pause", but another said it would be "cancelled". 

The digital-only business model, and green energy aspect, are laudable, but it's too full of glitches - as seen by the number of negative comments on the app (in the Google Play Store), in Pure Planet's Community, and on this thread. The Pure Planet Community forum has dozens of "service update" posts from Pure Planet, about app issues and other technical issues, and then posts saying it's been resolved. 

Argh. I really want my switch to go through, but I am at the moment very nervous about the tech and communication problems that keep arising in posts I read. One example: If a switch really has been cancelled, surely it's not rocket science to set up a message on the app page so when a person logs in to their "account", it says, "We see your switch has been cancelled. If you still wish to switch, please head on over here and apply for a new quote" Such a simple solution, but seems beyond Pure Planet's capabilities.

PurePlanet

Hey @dunroving
Thank you for the feedback - we're reviewing the Community post 'Top 11 things you need to know' to make sure the language is clearer and reflects the information in the email sent on 3 June, "Your current supplier is blocking your switch... For now, we've cancelled your switch to Pure Planet... Once you've resolved the problem with your current supplier, please come back and switch to us again". 
You're also still eligible for your MSE switch incentive - looking forward to welcoming you to Pure Planet! 
Nataly @ Pure Planet

Hammer_Time

I am looking at Pure Planet at the moment £30 cheaper than who I am with, however is it online only? I am with Outfox and I know you can phone them, also they have no fees. Not sure what to do. 

Talldave

Pure Planet are a great company who appear to care about customer satisfaction.  As long as you can cope with the App/web communication only approach, it's fine.  They have an online community forum and when you make criticisms or suggestions, they listen. I would recommend them and use them again if the price was right.


Outfox the Market appear to be kept afloat by sales of overpriced electric heaters and boilers which are marketed aggressively whilst apparently defying the laws of physics.  For my postcode, their dual fuel deal is more expensive than two their separate supplies - pure profiteering.  I would never use them.

PurePlanet

Hey @Hammer_Time, great username! 
Fantastic to hear you're considering switching to Pure Planet, you're right that we're a digital-only energy supplier. Everything is managed through our app or in your online account. 
You may like to read through our FAQs all about getting in touch and managing your account, to learn a bit more about how it works!  Hope that helps. 
Nataly @ Pure Planet

richardc1983

Pure planet I am very concerned that I've opened a support message in your app days ago and no response. My supplier raised an objection to a negative balance which has bee  cleared now but I cannot get a response from you. This is worrying and your app keeps sending me a log on link which opens the app but then just shows the login page again. 

Please help
 

PurePlanet

Hi @richardc1983
It's worth checking your message was sent through to the team - it'd say "Ok, I've passed our conversation to the team..." - from then, they reply within two working days. They'll also send you an SMS notification to let you know you have a reply. 
If the objection to your switch has been sorted, you can now get a new quote to start a new switch to Pure Planet   
For logging in, it sounds like you may be caught in a login loop. What causes this is when going to your inbox from your account to click on the email verification, your inbox won't always show you the most recent email from us. So, delete all recent emails from Pure Planet from your inbox. After typing your email address into your account to login, instead of following the link to 'open mail', open your email inbox directly, be 100% sure you open the most recent email from Pure Planet, and then tap on 'log in to your account'. Hope that helps!
Nataly @ Pure Planet

nick99_2

I started a switch to Pure Planet a few days ago based on a MSE review and recommendation. Pure Planet’s philosophy is great and communication initially seemed reasonable.

However it was when I needed to ask a question of 'support' that my unease grew to the point where I decided today to cancel the switch and stay with Bulb.

The issue was their decidedly old-school approach to data security and the potential for ID theft:

I received a phone call yesterday frm someone claiming to be from Pure Planet. They said I had to provide some personal information before they could continue. They had a slightly hard-to-understand foreign accent.

I said that I was not prepared to simply give the information until I had some way of being more sure they were genuinely from Pure Planet. They said they could not send a pre-call email or text message and that if I was not 'comfortable' with the call then they would have to hang up.

I used the app to raise a support issue. I had to endure a few futile Q&As with their 'Wattbot'. Hint: if you want the thing to refer you to a human being, just type 'human being' two or three times - it eventually gives up!

Eventually an assistant came on and texted that it was not possible to send a pre-call confirmation but thanking me for the feedback which would be forwarded to their team for consideration.

Really, this sort of system is not rocket science - several of my other app-based companies simply send me an email before the call (so I know what to expect)- a simple inspection of the email headers assures me it is propably genuine.

I do think that in these days of increasing sophistication by scammers that having a pre-call authentication system should be a basic requirement.

No way would I recommend this to an elderly relative - partly because the 'bot' system for support tickets is like being asked to weak a frustrating straightjacket.

I will remain with Bulb where I can usually get to speak to a real human being within a couple of minutes of calling. If there has to be an extra cost for the priviledge of talking to a human being, then so be it!

In fairness to MSE it was pointed out that switchers had raised the support issue before… so I suspected it might be a deal-breaker...

nickcc

As far as I was aware Pure Planet don’t contact you by phone in fact they don’t have my phone number.