Fuming Wih Bg

midflight

p.s. my last BG gas bill would have been 70% cheaper had I switched to Ebico sooner! Can you believe that!? I can show you the maths, if anyone's interested

quidsin

midflight wrote: »

Ah, you mean EBICO !!! I'm just in the process of switching to them too

(Incidentally, it's only the admin & customer service side of things that's handled by Southern Electric. Apart from that, they're a separate company)

Can't understand why you weren't going to say, when you've got such good things to say about them! It's good to share!

I wasn't going to say anything as it could be too soon, only been with them for a month or two, but i'm impressed so far.

We also done some calculations and hope to save a fortune too!!!

midflight

Welll done!

Hey, when you switched, did you have to contact BG at all?
(eg to give final meter readings, etc) - or did Southern do it all for you?
I was told they did everything, but have received letters from BG saying I must ring up & speak to someone about closing my account... !?!?

I really don't want to have to ring BG if I can help it... I'd rather stick needles in my eyes!!!

quidsin

midflight wrote: »

Welll done!

Hey, when you switched, did you have to contact BG at all?
(eg to give final meter readings, etc) - or did Southern do it all for you?
I was told they did everything, but have received letters from BG saying I must ring up & speak to someone about closing my account... !?!?

I really don't want to have to ring BG if I can help it... I'd rather stick needles in my eyes!!!

It should be the some whoever you change to, I gave southern the meter readings and the gave the details to BG.
But wanting to get away from BG as soon as I could I gave them the meter readings too!!!

millymollymandy2K7

midflight wrote: »

Welll done!

Hey, when you switched, did you have to contact BG at all?
(eg to give final meter readings, etc) - or did Southern do it all for you?
I was told they did everything, but have received letters from BG saying I must ring up & speak to someone about closing my account... !?!?

I really don't want to have to ring BG if I can help it... I'd rather stick needles in my eyes!!!

You don't have to contact bgas to close your account, give southern your readings and they will send them on. This is the standard practice in the industry. bgas are the only supplier i know of who ask the leaving customer to ring them to close account.

millymollymandy2K7

midflight wrote: »

Welll done!

Hey, when you switched, did you have to contact BG at all?
(eg to give final meter readings, etc) - or did Southern do it all for you?
I was told they did everything, but have received letters from BG saying I must ring up & speak to someone about closing my account... !?!?

I really don't want to have to ring BG if I can help it... I'd rather stick needles in my eyes!!!

You don't have to contact bgas to close your account, give southern your readings and they will send them on. This is the standard practice in the industry. bgas are the only supplier i know of who ask the leaving customer to ring them to close account.
Sorry didn't mean to post twice

Cardew

midflight wrote: »

p.s. my last BG gas bill would have been 70% cheaper had I switched to Ebico sooner! Can you believe that!? I can show you the maths, if anyone's interested

Yes please, I am interested to see the maths.

The most expensive gas tariff on BG is pre-payment and it is 5.12p/kWh for the first 1,143kWh in a quarter and the rest are 2.402p/kWh

On BG's standard tariff it is 4.479p/2.282p without considering discounts for Direct Debit and dual fuel.

BG's Click Energy 4 is 4.344p/2.141p again without considering discounts for Direct Debit and dual fuel.

Ebico is 2.55p/kWh for everything. - all prices above include VAT.

So for low users, especially on pre-payment - Ebico is cheaper but nothing like 70% cheaper. - an average Ebico pre-payment consumer(20,500kWh pa) is 15% better off on a prepayment tariff.

In fact for the majority of consumers BG is cheaper than Ebico.

I will readily concede that Ebico's customer service is, by all accounts, far better than BG - which wouldn't be difficult!!

Want to bet a virtual pint that you cannot give a scenario where Ebico is 70% cheaper?:beer:

P.S. Please don't quote monthly Direct Debit payments as they are meaningless - e.g. I am paying BG £100 a month and Ebico only want £30 - use kWh prices in your maths please.

Terrylw1

midflight wrote: »

Welll done!

Hey, when you switched, did you have to contact BG at all?
(eg to give final meter readings, etc) - or did Southern do it all for you?
I was told they did everything, but have received letters from BG saying I must ring up & speak to someone about closing my account... !?!?

I really don't want to have to ring BG if I can help it... I'd rather stick needles in my eyes!!!

In the elec Change If Supply process it is always the new Supplier you give readings to. This is because you are now their customer and the process makes the new Supplier communicate with their appointed reading agent who then passes on your redaing to the old Supplier appointed reading agent, then they pass it onto your old Supplier.

BGas may be contacting you about a problem. Does the letter just ask for a reading? There are many occassions where a new Supplier scraps your reading and a Deemed (estimated) 1 is produced. Now, at this point oyur new Supplier hasn't got a clue whether this is correct and just uses it. Your old Supplier however can check and may spot that it is incorrect. They then contact you to sort it out and they log a disputed reading claim back through this whole process.

There is also scope to get around this process know if the process becomes too lenghty.

So, if they are not just asking for a closing reading, how do you know there isn't a bigger problem? That may be your new Suppliers fault so may be worth giving the benefit of the doubt.

SwanJon

Change of Supplier Reads

as far as I am aware, this procedure changed in May, and now the read comes from the old supplier, so at least they can see if it fits.
They then pass this to the new supplier etc...

This could be why they asked, but it could just be to try and get a customer back. If they don't get a read they'll estimate one based on the reads they have. Should mean that when an estimate is used it would be more reliable.

midflight

Yes please, I am interested to see the maths.

No problem.

The most expensive gas tariff on BG is pre-payment and it is 5.12p/kWh for the first 1,143kWh in a quarter and the rest are 2.402p/kWh

Wow! That's even worse than I thought! £5.12 is more than DOUBLE the Ebico prices!!! :eek: (forget about the initial units/subsequent units con - that is totally irrelevant during the milder months)

Anyway...

So for low users, especially on pre-payment - Ebico is cheaper but nothing like 70% cheaper

The statement I made: “my last BG gas bill would have been 70% cheaper had I switched to Ebico sooner!” is 100% true, and I have the maths to prove it.

In fact for the majority of consumers BG is cheaper than Ebico.

That is utter nonsense, especially during the milder months. Most "low users" never make it past BG's ridiculously high "initial units" rate! The whole initial units thing is just a hidden standard charge, and what's more it hits the poor, elderly & energy-conscious hardest. As such it is totally unethical.

Want to bet a virtual pint that you cannot give a scenario where Ebico is 70% cheaper?

Simple version

BG = 4.266pence (not even the most expensive option you mention!)
EBICO = 2.55pence

4.266 is 70% higher than 2.55 (actually about 68%, but I was rounding up)

Hope that helps?

More detailed version

BG BILL

Between 31 July 2007 & 13 October 2007, I used 26 units of gas.

This equates to 838.09 killowat hours over 74 days.

Price per kilowatt hour = 4.266 pence

BG Cost = £35.75


EBICO BILL (had I been with them)

838.09 killowat hours x 2.55p

Ebico Cost = £21.37


Again, £35.75 is approx 70% higher than £21.37

So, there's the "scenario" you wanted. Please don't start talking about "average users", as nobody is an "average" user. You just wanted a scenario, and there it is.

Shame you were only willing to bet a “virtual” pint, rather than a real one.
(real ones are worth 70% more than virtual ones…)


:rotfl: