OVO Energy - Different Tariff for new customers

dan-_3

Having just moved house, I've checked out the cheapest tariffs on the MSE energy club site. One of the better ones appeared to be the 2 year fix from OVO. I thought this was great, because the house is already supplied by OVO, and I have an account with them, so it would be a very simple process without the problems of switching.

However, when I logged in and checked the 2 yr fixed tariff, the gas prices per kWh were higher than advertised on the MSE site. I thought that maybe MSE had out of date information or a special deal with OVO, but I just tried to sign up as a new customer and was offered the same lower rates!

The standing charge and electricity costs were the same, but the rates per kWh for gas were higher for both the ‘better energy’ tariff and the 2 year fix.

The differences identified are as follows:
Better Energy: New customer 2.856; Existing Customer 3.066
2 year Fix: New customer 2.993; Existing Customer 3.192
(all figures are price per kWh, inc VAT)

This represents a 6.6% premium being paid by existing customers compared to new ones.

Anyone else experienced this with OVO? To be honest, I would expect this sort of behaviour from one of the big players like British Gas, but I had higher expectations of OVO.

Apologies if the answer to this is elsewhere on the forum. I did a quick search on OVO and didn't find anything relevant from the last month or so.

Cardew

dan- wrote: »

The differences identified are as follows:
Better Energy: New customer 2.856; Existing Customer 3.066
2 year Fix: New customer 2.993; Existing Customer 3.192
(all figures are price per kWh, inc VAT)

.

I joined OVO on a 2 year fix 6 months ago(Sep 2017) and pay 2.66p/kWh(including VAT).

If they are starting to charge existing customers more than new customers(a practice I hate) I will be switching from OVO when my deal finishes.

PixelPound

Is it a different price for existing customers or an MSE exclusive tariff? Suppliers change prices of fix deals all the time, so you could sign up to a deal and a few days/weeks later that offer has ended and there is a new offer out, this may be cheaper or more expensive to the one that was on before, all perfectly normal. Suppliers also do "exclusive deals" where sites like MSE-CEC or Uswitch negotiate a discounted rate so it is cheaper to sign up through them than going direct.

For the OP, it sounds like you had dismissed this. A question, as an existing customer if you signed up to the new deal would you still have the exit fees that a new customer would have?

dan-_3

Update #1

Response received from OVO customer services saying that there is an error with my 'MyOVO' account that is showing incorrect prices and if I renew, I will get the advertised (lower) prices. I've been told that this error has been passed to their technical team.

The mismatch is still there, so I'm a bit concerned about signing up on the word of a customer services agent alone. However, as @nic_c has already pointed out, energy companies can change their tariffs at any time, so waiting runs the risk of the advertised tariffs getting higher...

dan-_3

nic_c wrote: »

For the OP, it sounds like you had dismissed this. A question, as an existing customer if you signed up to the new deal would you still have the exit fees that a new customer would have?

Also, to answer your questions:
No - I didn't dismiss that possibility, but what are the chances that they have amended their tariffs on a Sunday, within minutes of me checking? Also, I checked back again afterwards, and still a missmatch.
Yes - I would still be subject to exit fees.

Carl31

This is why i left OVO, a shame as I liked their renewable energy promise, they wouldn't budge when i called