Add your feedback on energy supplier People's Energy

dominique_cook

I switched over to People's energy in January 2019. I wanted to change to get a cheaper rate but also because I wanted to use renewable energy. Their philosophy attracted me as well as their cheaper rates.
THe day after I switched over to them, they announced that they were putting their prices up. I was not happy as they could have told me beforehand. when I emailed i had to wait days for a reply.
Then I found out that they were using completely different readings to those I gave them on the day I switched over to them. Which means that they raked in a lot more money from my switching over than they should have, and that my previous provider didn't get few hundred pounds for both gas and electricity. I tried to get them to correct the readings to the ones I had given them, to no avail. I got a refund from my previous provider, when actually I should have paid them some money.
Then it seemed that my meter hadn't been working properly so I asked them to look at it. they asked me for readings over 7 days, I sent that back to me a few weeks ago, no answer.
If you try to phone, be ready with a book and a cuppa, it will take a while. I had to try twice to get through and almost gave up the will to live.
I will be leaving them. I thought that taking into account their apparent ethos, I would be dealing with a very ethical, friendly and on the ball company. The fact that they used totally wrong, it seems to me invented, readings to get my account started, that they put the prices up as soon as I joined and that they don't answer, in fact they are the worst company so far for this, does not make me feel like staying with them. I have told them so too. Pity, but I'd rather pay a bit more and be with a company I feel I can trust.

peterx

I have been with Peoples Energy for two and a half months.It all went rather smoothly but prices went up.My main concern is that i am constantly running in Debit with them as they only took the first direct debit at the end of the first month.I have emailed and phoned about the problem but i cant get much sense out of them as communication is very poor.I am moving but will they let me when i am in debit.

ozaz

dominique_cook wrote: »

Then I found out that they were using completely different readings to those I gave them on the day I switched over to them. Which means that they raked in a lot more money from my switching over than they should have, and that my previous provider didn't get few hundred pounds for both gas and electricity. I tried to get them to correct the readings to the ones I had given them, to no avail. I got a refund from my previous provider, when actually I should have paid them some money.

I believe an independent 3rd party decides on the switch over readings taking into consideration prior reading/payment history at previous supplier. It’s not just based on the reading you supply, hence the potential for discrepancy.

My discrepancy was in the other direction. My switch over reading was adjudicated to be higher than I reported meaning the old supplier got more than I think they should have and People’s Energy will get less.

olympusmegavolt

The same thing happened to me where the exiting company gained 400 kWhrs of gas.

I have yet to find a reason why the gas readings have to go through some "industry standard" to adjust them instead of using the final reading that is submitted.

It doesn't appear to happen with the electricity readings but this gas adjustment follows the same pattern of events that have occurred following the three switches that I have done.

[Deleted User]

@olympusme...

Both electricity and gas opening readings are subject to independent industry led validation. It is done to minimise fraud by either the old or new customer.
https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

You can ask for the validated reading to be reviewed but only if it differs from the reading you supplied by a certain amount

What should your meter reading have been at the time of your switch?
We can only change readings used for switching (opening or closing readings), if they are significantly wrong. According to energy industry rules, your reading must have a difference of more than 250kWh for an electricity reading, or a difference of 39ft3 or 125m3 for a gas reading. Anything less than this means that the estimate is sensible and could reasonably have been a reading taken around the time of your switch, and the difference to you in cost will be very small.

https://www.so.energy/so/help-and-advice/faq/switching-to-us/disputing-reads

PeoplesEnergy

Hello,

We're really glad that you've had an enjoyable time here at People's Energy. We're quite a small company and we're lucky enough to have a lot of people interested in joining us! This has meant that our agents have been quite busy, so there has been a bit of a wait for call time and emails.

We're working on this, we've increased our customer services team and even have agents in another centre now! This has helped reduce any issues encountered with getting through to us.

Our customer service is very important to us, and ideally we'd like every single issue seen to wherever it is aired. We're working hard towards this!

PeoplesEnergy

martyp wrote: »

I must be honest that aside from the recent e-mail response times I can't say anything bad about them as I know they're a small company and no doubt being inundated with switches being one of the cheapest suppliers and the offer of rebates next year.
I called last week and after nearly 10 minutes managed to get through to a guy there who was helpful, knowledgeable, informative and pleasant to deal with which isn't always the case with many bigger suppliers.
I queried going from the variable to the 1 year fix this month as my prices are increasing on the 14th and I'll be going over on the 15th with my monthly direct debit now adjusted from £50.60 to £52.50 with 2 payments going out on my normal date on the 25th (£105).
I'm due about £80 or so from Outfox after they took a doubled payment from me a few weeks after I left with their new high winter payment scheme.

I think People's Energy are just struggling a bit to cope with demand but so far have proved a more reliable supplier than Outfox at least as I appreciate they have had to increase their prices which happened to be just a month after switching but at least have offered a 1 year fix that was even cheaper than the variable so makes sense to go over to that. It's 2 months upfront but if you can swallow that you pay the same each month for the rest of the year as well as the remaining 11 payments being reduced in line with the remaining expected cost for the year I believe. Also I like that the exit fees are only applicable for the first 6 months too so don't have to wait a whole year if you wanted to switch.
Their blog seems to indicate they're confident they can ride out any wholesale price increases:
https://www.peoplesenergy.co.uk/blogare-smaller-energy-companies-safe/
So just hoping they can cope and if it does work out then my 1 year fix will finish in 2020 when they're due to start the rebates so hoping it'll work out cheaper than other current fixes on that basis as it's only about £8 or so more than the cheapest fix for me.
I can also add that their switch date was just as advised with no problems, the online account set up was faultless and seems to be very reliable - I haven't had any problems accessing it and do like the live balance on there as well. Billing also seems to be accurate so being the small company that they are I think they're doing well on that part as well.
I hope they're able to recover a bit to start responding on forums again and also to e-mails again but like my experience with Iresa I'm happy to absorb any hit in customer service to not have to pay higher amounts for offshore call centres etc. and support a small UK based company that will hopefully repay the customers next year.

Hi, Derek,
I am afraid we must stick to very strict GDPR laws, which means we can’t discuss account information with an email address that is not registered on the account.
We were lucky enough to experience a huge surge in interest since the new year, which has meant that there has been a bit of a wait time to have email seen to. This is something we would not want our customers to experience and we’ve taken steps towards it, we’ve almost doubled our customer service team!

I apologise if you feel like you’ve not had the best experience with us, our customer service is something we take very seriously. I’d advise calling us on 0131 285 5510 to have this seen to.

PeoplesEnergy

jcontest wrote: »

Signed up for People’s Year Fixed (2 Months Upfront)


I know that often times the way this stuff is advertised is done to make it both appealing to everyone and also make it so people of low-iq can understand things. But....

[COLOR=black][FONT=&quot]As suggested by the name of the tariff, and in line with our intention to always  act responsibly, we wanted to make sure that you are fully aware that, to access this competitive deal, [/FONT][/COLOR][B][COLOR=red][FONT=&quot]you will be required to make two monthly Direct Debit payments in the first month that your deal goes live[/FONT][/COLOR][/B][COLOR=black][FONT=&quot].  After the initial double payment, your monthly bill will revert to normal single payments. [/FONT][/COLOR]
 
 [COLOR=black][FONT=&quot]We structure the deal in this way so that the  larger payment up front helps cover  the increased usage of energy during the colder winter months. By  asking you to pay more during the colder months we can offer you a  better overall tariff, allowing you to benefit from a lower unit price  per month for the rest of the year. [/FONT][/COLOR]

I find that a "little" odd. They are asking me to pay a double payment to cover the colder months to save me money. And it allows a lower "Unit" cost for the rest of the year. But it's a 1 year "fix" so the "Unit" cost should stay exactly the same for the whole two years.


I get why they are doing it (Positive bank balance makes life easy for them), but they way they are "selling" the extra months payment seems really hard for me to grasp. They have yet to transfer me to their service, and until I go to leave or renew with them at the end of the first year it will be hard to say if their system works good or bad.


Going by their wording then I would guess that people who start the service with them in the spring would not pay this double payment. My gut feeling tells me they'll just change the advertising material to still double-charge and call it something else.


I don't mind paying a month up front, if I could get a cheap enough deal I wold probably pay for a whole year up front. I just don't like things that are made to be confusing. As long as (by the end of my contract) I have paid and been charged correctly for my usage at the agreed rates then I am okay with it all.

Hi there,
Thank you for your interest in our ‘Peoples year fixed (2 months upfront) tariff!
As the name suggests, we take two payments in advanced. The reason for this is that we buy our energy in advance, so we need that extra payment on your account as credit in case your usage is higher than we anticipate.
This extra payment will stay on your account until your usage eats into it or until you deicide to leave us, at which point any outstanding credit can be refunded.
The unit price is lower on the fixed tariff than the variable, which is why we state you can have a lower unit price at a higher up front cost.

PeoplesEnergy

Dungimon wrote: »

According to the energy club tariff details for the Peoples Energy fixed detail, it states:

"Your first direct debit payment with People's Energy will be double your estimated monthly cost. It will then deduct this payment from your estimated annual cost and divide by 11 to work out your remaining monthly payments."

If my estimated annual cost is £1291 then my monthly cost is not £108? my monthly cost should be as follows:

1291 / 12 = 108

First up front payment: 216

Remaining 11 monthly payments (1291 - 216 = 1075 / 11) = 98 (rounded up).

Can someone clarify please?

Hi there, I’m afraid that’s not quite correct.
We use your annual consumption to calculate your monthly direct debit. On the fixed tariff we’d take 2x the monthly payment on the first day of supply.
After this, the remaining 11 months stay at your original quoted amount. For example, if you’re quoted £50 per month, on month ne we’d take £100 and each month subsequent we’d take £50.
Hope this helps!

PeoplesEnergy

Weaverhead wrote: »

Switch was easy, prices were competitive when I switching in November.

Monthly direct debit amount (£69) was set up based on my consumption the previous year plus a bit of contingency. After month one I get an email to say my direct debit has been cancelled followed not long after by another email to say a new direct debit has been set up for £84 per month.

I queried this and was told it was because I used more than my direct debit amount in month 1 and if this continued my account would go in to debt. Which of course is true but the original amount takes this in to account as I will be significantly over paying in the warmer months.

After an email exchange with customer service I confirmed I would accept the liability of my account potentially going in to debt and agreed to increase my DD to £75 a month to add more contingency.

After 1 month at £75 I have this week received another email from PE saying that my direct debit amount has been changed to £92!!! Even with the recent price increases my consumption over a year will not exceed the agreed £75 per month.

The 2 months up front tariff is also a joke, the gas prices are more expensive than the standard 'People’s Tariff' for a start. I appreciate that more energy is purchased is the winter months but no other provider I have ever used had tried to force that burden on to the customer.

Paying a consistent monthly amount spread across the whole year is important to me so I'm here today to switch.

Hi there,

I am sorry that you've had issues with your direct debit. I'm sure the agent with whom you've corresponded explained that after the first bill we run the payment adequacy review. After this has been completed, the direct debit is automatically updated to make sure that the direct debit will be enough to cover usage all year around.

Without looking at your account I cannot advised why the second increase has happened but I can assume it is because of our tariff increase. The new DD is calculated to cover usage and to cover the price increase, and I'm afraid the update is automatic and we could not have overridden it.

I am afraid our variable tariff is subject to change as the name suggests, and you could fix your payment for 12 months on our fixed tariff. Whilst the gas is slightly more expensive, the electricity is substantially cheaper making the overall cost cheaper.