MSE News: Energy regulator launches...

youravinalarrrf

Hallelujah! Good news indeed.

As Hengus said this 'investigation' is at least a year too late and it will no doubt take the cretins at Ofgem another year to complete their wishy washy investigation.

The only surprising thing this time is that as yet Ofgem don't appear to have banned/stopped Iresa issuing quotes and taking on new customers while this investigation takes place.

The energy market can do without suppliers like Iresa blackening their name so let's hope the sizeable fine that they eventually receive is large enough to push them over the edge and out of the market. It will hopefully serve as a warning to existing energy suppliers and to those considering entering the energy market without knowing the first thing about the rules and regulations which they need to comply with.

I would agree that the process of awarding Operator's Licenses needs a complete revamp and taking out of Ofgem's control as they are clearly not doing any financial, systems or due diligence checks before awarding them.

Caddyman

Hengus wrote: »

So that will be one of the Big 6 then? Look at the link above; even the Big 6 have fallen foul of Ofgem in the past and one is under investigation at the moment.

Hengus, with much respect, I have read enough of the complaints about some of the 'Big 6' suppliers. I've also read enough of your posts to know that we'll never see eye to eye on matters energy related.

I've been with Npower for years, never had a problem with them other than the fact that occasionally they have tried to reduce my monthly direct debit because their computer system is seemingly too thick to understand my average useage. My monthly dual fuel direct debit has remained at a constant £56 per month for the last couple of years now and I've been on one of the best fixed tariffs for the last two years. I'll go so far to say that for me personally, Npower's customer service has been excellent. I've never been incorrectly billed, nor have I had any outrageous 'estimates' due to the fact that I religiously supply monthly meter readings. I don't even have smart meters yet and I'm holding off until SMET's 2 has been rolled out properly.

No supplier is perfect, but I personally don't have a problem with the large name suppliers. I'm certainly not going to switch to a fresh start up supplier just to save 40 quid a year.

House_Martin

PLYSU wrote: »

Long overdue. I hope every customer, past and present is given a goodwill payment for all the shortcomings. They are the worst, most frustrating organisation I have ever dealt with.

Then again I know three people I switched to Iresa who are very happy with no problems and much cheaper bills.Its not all bad despite the usual complainers on here
.Iresa also offer really good Eco 7 rates
Just manage the account correctly and you never have to get in touch with them to complain.
All the cheaper suppliers will run their businesses with much fewer employees.
What is most important is that pence per kwh rate and daily standing charge
Npower have had the worst reviews over the years but Iresa continues to get bad press by some posters on here who have no direct experience of the supplier.

MothballsWallet

dogshome wrote: »

For Ofgem read Dinosaur

Jump on it's tail and a year later it says 'Ouch'

IMO, Ofgem can't even read "Baby's First Book", let alone know anything about dinosaurs.

blindman

House_Martin wrote: »

Then again I know three people I switched to Iresa who are very happy with no problems and much cheaper bills.Its not all bad bad bad .Iresa also offer really good Eco 7 rates
Just manage the account correctly and you never have to get in touch with them to complain.
All the cheaper suppliers will run their businesses with much fewer employees.

Not to jinx this but I have had no problems with them for the last year.

Good web-site, cheapest provider, good communications.

Lets hope it continues,

nigelbb

Caddyman wrote: »

This story continues to reinforce my own position to stick with what I know. As it turns out, if I had a moment of total madness and decided to switch away from the fantastically cheap Npower fix I'm currently on until June this year, Iresa as it turns out, would cost me £20 a year more than what I'm currently paying, so they wouldn't be getting a sniff of my business anyway and they certainly will never get my business at any time in the future.

Savings by switching supplier are always pretty minimal. You only make big savings if you are on an expensive variable tariff & switching to your current suppliers cheapest tariff is generally the easiest option.

Caddyman

nigelbb wrote: »

Savings by switching supplier are always pretty minimal. You only make big savings if you are on an expensive variable tariff & switching to your current suppliers cheapest tariff is generally the easiest option.

In my own case, that has been completely the case over the last six years or so. I've swapped tariffs with Npower probably about 10 times, 3 times in one year alone moving to a cheaper tariff, so there was absolutely no point in switching suppliers in the first place. Even if I had switched, the maximum I would ever have saved, would have been about 50 quid a year and I am not bothering my backside to switch away to save 50 quid. I make more than that on my Lloyds current account in interest annually.

brewerdave

Caddyman wrote: »

In my own case, that has been completely the case over the last six years or so. I've swapped tariffs with Npower probably about 10 times, 3 times in one year alone moving to a cheaper tariff, so there was absolutely no point in switching suppliers in the first place. Even if I had switched, the maximum I would ever have saved, would have been about 50 quid a year and I am not bothering my backside to switch away to save 50 quid. I make more than that on my Lloyds current account in interest annually.

Reading your earlier posts you are a (relatively) low user @ £56 pm. My monthly cost is more than £105 pm for both utilities even on the cheapest available tariffs - the cheapest Big 6 Tariff currently available is much more- so on my usage I'm "saving" ~£140 per year -worth the effort for me anyway
A few years ago, I was with EON and switched via various collective offers several times to different EON tariffs ,making savings on each switch -but those days are gone unfortunately.:(

System

To get back on topic, this is the Citizens Advice view:

Gillian Guy, chief executive of charity Citizens Advice, comments: "Today!!!8217;s announcement is extremely welcome. Citizens Advice reported Iresa to Ofgem in November 2017, following a number of concerns related to billing problems, long phone queues and inappropriately blocking customers from switching.

!!!8220;According to our complaints handling data, Iresa is one of the poorest performing energy companies.

!!!8220;New entrants to the market should face greater scrutiny. It!!!8217;s currently too easy for new firms to set themselves up as energy suppliers, often before they are able to provide good quality customer service. Ultimately it is energy customers who pay the price when firms are not up to scratch.!!!8221;

Source: Moneywise

Caddyman

brewerdave wrote: »

Reading your earlier posts you are a (relatively) low user @ £56 pm. My monthly cost is more than £105 pm for both utilities even on the cheapest available tariffs - the cheapest Big 6 Tariff currently available is much more- so on my usage I'm "saving" ~£140 per year -worth the effort for me anyway
A few years ago, I was with EON and switched via various collective offers several times to different EON tariffs ,making savings on each switch -but those days are gone unfortunately.:(

Yes, in comparison to other users, we use far less energy. Just me and the Wife who both work full time jobs so very little energy used during the day, in a 15 year old semi that is extremely well insulated with good glazing and as of last month, a brand new Worcester condensing boiler hooked up to HIVE so we can control it from just about wherever we are in the world (best £210 I've spent in years!). We also have fairly new appliances throughout that use less energy than older goods and of course, energy saving bulbs everywhere. Our total dual fuel bill for last year, was a whopping £497 with not a single estimated bill.

So as you can probably appreciate, I'm unlikely to switch away to another supplier, especially one that has an alleged abominable customer service record. I couldn't care less how much cheaper (or not currently in the case of Iresa compared to my own tariff), I'd rather stick with a supplier with a reasonable track record, even if it does mean paying a little more.

Perhaps it's time to re-nationalise the whole energy industry?......;)