Economy Energy raising gas unit charge by 88%

teamgb

I have complained to EE by email and sent them a copy of my Welcome email to show a Fixed price until 6th June 2019.


I have not had a written reply but notice they have also marked my account, Switch Saver (honoured).


It would be nice to get a written reply.

Sterlingtimes

teamgb wrote: »

It would be nice to get a written reply.

It is good that you have been recognised. You really ought to urge a written reply since the markup on their website that can be changed by them at anytime may not be reliable.

teamgb

I have now received two emails giving my 'new' tariff fixed until 22nd June 2019 (old date was 6th).:T



Rates match the figures quoted in June when I switched


In the small print it says the price is fixed until 22nd, then the next sentence says prices can go up or down but we will give 30days notice.:(

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Following my last post above, I too had the 2 x e-mails confirming my "new" (honoured) tariff this afternoon.

Interestingly my "new" (honoured) tariff extends my previous fix period by 4 months.... this just keeps getting better and better :D

Is that a goodwill gesture - which i'm accepting it as - to make up for messing me around, or is this another EE balls up on confirmation e-mails?

Sterlingtimes

I am delighted that posters here are having successes. Either Economy Energy is suddenly behaving like a normal responsible company or it is yielding to external pressure.

For my part, I have still heard nothing for Economy Energy in response to my complaint (with one working day to go) but I have heard from OFGEM, CAB, the Ombudsman, MSE and Which?

Sterlingtimes

Today was the tenth working day following my complaint, and I have just received confirmation of the correct tariff. There are a couple of errors in the letter but it is good enough.

Somewhere along the line, the consumer escalations have helped. Many thanks to fellow posters here, OFGEM, CAB and MSE for stepping in.

HornetSaver

andy_poulton wrote: »

Thank you for contacting Ofgem.
An energy supplier is not able to increase a fixed tariff. In this case, Economy Energy advertised their tariff as “fixed” by mistake, and will not increase the price of anyone who can prove they received a “fixed” offer.
Economy Energy have been/should be in touch with affected customers who were provided with incorrect tariff information at the time of signing up to honour the fixed price for the period of the fixed term.

Literally the only reason companies outside the traditional big ones exist is because switching has become easier in recent years. They're smart enough to know that a sizeable percentage of their customer base has switched before and will switch again, and that their customers are proportionately more likely to go to Ofgem than customers of the big energy companies. Even if a genuine error was made - perfectly possible - they would surely have realised what a bind they had gotten themselves into within a few days and if it was a genuine mistake they would have found a way to roll back on it. While they have in the cases on this thread, it appears to me as though they're only doing it when pushed back upon hard enough.



It's therefore difficult to reach any conclusion other than that their handling of the matter has been calculated, and therefore be dubious about the bold bit in the quote. How can there be any degree of confidence that they will pro-actively identify customers who haven't contacted them who had been told they were on a fixed contract?

deltabox

I’ve just had my tariff confirmed erm sort of.... after multiple emails and lots of different customer services responses they have confirmed they have resumed until sept 2019 fixed tariffs that I signed up to. It was originally earlier but now seems extended longer?

The emails state it is changing from sept 2018 in the heading but the detail suggests 2019. I then later received an email from another customer services advisor asking for me to confirm account details so they could look into my account so they obviously don’t pay attention to detail..

I can’t see this being the end of the issue for me or anyone else!

Sterlingtimes

Today I have reached a satisfactory conclusion in this matter. Economy Energy has apologised and agreed that it will honour the contract.

The consumer champions here are as follows and deserve a "clap of hands":

MSE who swiftly produced a press release setting out the difficulties;

OFGEM who quickly responded to my letter and did intervene;

the Citizens Advice Bureau's Extra Help Unit who intervened and secured a response to my complaint; and

the aggrieved consumers on this board, Facebook, Trust Pilot and elsewhere who have posted and offered each other support.

bobzilla

When I applied for the Switch Saver tariff I took screenshots to remind me of the rates. Those images were my only evidence that it was advertised as 'Fixed' tariff type as EE did not email me the new terms and conditions.

After the price increase email I complained in a Live Chat but got a negative response: "the tariff was ‘Variable’ because no end date was shown in the price tables".

I immediately emailed Customer Services to complain about this and got another negative response.

Finally – inspired by this forum – I complained again by email, trying to make myself totally clear, and yesterday heard that the tariff will be 'Fixed' for me until March 2019.

I am much relieved. Many thanks to MSE for raising the issue and to all who contributed their stories!