Energy: Find the cheapest supplier & earn cashback

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

therac wrote: »

I moved my electricity from Eon Energy last year to British Gas, and have benefited substantially from the switch. Knowing my annual gas contract (also with Eon) was up for renewal on 16th June (we are a small business), though we would ring in today to find out when they were sending out the letter about the new tariff. Imagine my surprise to be told - "We posted a letter to you on 7th March, and as you had not replied within 21 days, the contract is now in place and we will not accept cancellation". I asked how this had been sent - they said normal post. We checked the address - the postal town appears to be incorrect!

Despite this, and being well within the existing contract Eon are claiming that as we have not cancelled (based on a letter we havent received!!), we are stuck with the company for another year, at a none negotiable rate. Complain to the Ombudsman I thought... No - they cannot handle until its been through the formal complaints procedure at Eon (can take up to 8 weeks), and it can then take a further 6 weeks to switch supplier even if they resolve in your favour (apparently your gas does continue (good news) but is supplied at an 'out of contract rate' (presumably very bad news!)).

Now awaiting a promised call back from a manager at Eon (10 minutes claimed, so far 40 mins and counting)

How on earth in this day and age can I be held to a contract I havent seen, at a rate I have no knowledge of, for a period I havent agreed, by a company that I dont want to do business with (ever!!)? Its going to cost for lawyers, let alone the aggro involved. If I behaved like this in my business we would be broke within months... And what use are Ofgem / the Energy Ombudsman / Consumer Direct? They wont even handle the issue until its too late! And my contract isnt even due to start until June 16... I'd emigrate, but I'm too old...

Hi therac

I'm sorry you are unhappy with the renewal offer for your gas supply.

From what you have posted, I certainly think you have grounds to appeal and you are doing exactly the right thing in escalating this to a manager.

Business accounts are dealt with differently to residential ones. In these cases, renewals are sent out by letter within 30-90 days of the current contract expiry date. Customers then have 21 days from the date of the letter to respond.

If no response is received, the prices/terms quoted in the letter are automatically implemented.

As you originally chose a Fixed Term contract, you will have been offered a similar type of product on renewal. There are tariffs available with no tie-ins but these tend to be more expensive than Fixed Term contracts.

The above will have been explained in the Terms and Conditions sent when the original contract was agreed.

There will be notes on your account detailing when the renewal letter was sent out. This will be why the agent you spoke to advised the new contract was already in place.

However, if we are at fault for sending the letter to an incorrect address, then this is why I feel you have grounds for a review of our position.

If you are unhappy with our manager's response then, as you have said, you can continue to escalate the matter through our complaints process.

Although we have up to 56 days to try and resolve your complaint, the case can be referred to the Ombudsman earlier if it is clear no satisfactory agreement can be reached. You will need to ask us for a deadlock letter to do this.

If we are at fault, ask for any difference in the cost we will have charged after the renewal date and what you will ultimately pay with another supplier to be taken into account as part of the complaint resolution.

Again, I'm sorry you are unhappy with our renewal procedures but hope this is useful. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

purplestar133

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi purplestar

Sorry for the delay replying...weekend and all that. :beer:

Can't see any difficulties at all transferring. A £20 deficit with a Direct Debit in place will not be considered as grounds for objection.

If you have only just started the switching process and the previous bill was end of March, the likelihood is your transfer will complete round about mid-May. This will give you approx 8 to 9 weeks of charges.

I would definitely say you will save a bit if you ask for a bill before the final bill is issued. The actual saving will depend on your tariff and the associated discount. Let us have your meter readings before the transfer date and ask for a bill.

I will stress about asking for a bill because if you don't the agent will just record the readings as the account will not be in the billing window.

Will be happy to do this for you nearer the time if like. Just drop an email with your details to the address in my Public Profile.

Hope this answers your questions, purplestar. Again, give me a shout if I can help further as will be glad to do so.

Malc

Thanks Malc, hope you had a good weekend! I will do what you suggest!

therac

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi therac
-text deleted -.

Business accounts are dealt with differently to residential ones. In these cases, renewals are sent out by letter within 30-90 days of the current contract expiry date. Customers then have 21 days from the date of the letter to respond.

If no response is received, the prices/terms quoted in the letter are automatically implemented.

As you originally chose a Fixed Term contract, you will have been offered a similar type of product on renewal. There are tariffs available with no tie-ins but these tend to be more expensive than Fixed Term contracts.

The above will have been explained in the Terms and Conditions sent when the original contract was agreed.

There will be notes on your account detailing when the renewal letter was sent out. This will be why the agent you spoke to advised the new contract was already in place.

However, if we are at fault for sending the letter to an incorrect address, then this is why I feel you have grounds for a review of our position.

Malc

OK - will respond privately - however given that Eon clearly watch the forum (and reply at a rate of over one response a day!), maybe the public exposure may cause you (and others) to think about your business processes....
My comments were prompted by the receipt of a letter from you stating that the contract was in place. Clearly therefore you have a correct address, whatever my colleague was told. However post here (and especially during the snow) has been very flaky - however your colleagues are singularly unwilling to accept that we havent seen the original letter.
The letter we have received to tell us a contract was in place was sent by UKMail who then send the mail to Royal Mail to deliver. I suggest that is at best a second class mail service - as suddenly the '21 days to respond' is reduced - possibly to as little as 2 working weeks. In common with all small businesses, the individuals responsible for reading and accepting contracts (especially ones with lots of small print about deemed to have accepted etc) have holiday. This may come as a surprise to Eon, but I suspect it does not, and the reason for using an inferior postal service (British gas apparently send recorded..they claim) plus having a 21 day 'deem to have accepted' clause seems to me to be to try and get these contracts approved without viewing.

As the contract is over 20% higher than the first quote I requested, there is probably sound (if unethical) commercial reasons for this approach. Perhaps you could tell us what percentage of these contracts are accepted without feedback - especially when you know the rates on them are uncompetitive?

Then we have the 30-90 days. I set up a warning (triggered yesterday) to check on this, as I intended to cancel the contract. You refused to accept the gas cancellation way back last year when I moved the electricity account as your systems couldnt deal with it... Needless to say, the claimed date of sending your letter (7th March, and a Sunday!) is 101 days prior to when you claim the contract terminates (16th June). Odd that, especially when you knew as I told you that I planned to cancel...

So my grounds for wishing to cease any involvement with your company are not your rates, or even that you may have sent the letter to the wrong address. I just dont like the way your contracts department run the business. If it tastes bad, smells bad, it probably is bad.....

Oh, and by the way - the promised call back from a manager never materialised....
Unless of course your records state it did and I am capable of a terminological inexactitude (to quote Churchill)

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

the promised call back from a manager never materialised....

Hi therac

I am really sorry our manager did not respond as promised. This is not acceptable.

Therefore, I suggest you now refer the matter to our Director's Office (contact details will be on your bills). Ask for a complaint to be raised.

If you are unhappy with the proposed resolution then refer to the Ombudsman for a ruling. As I said previously, ask for a deadlock letter and follow through from there.

From what you have posted, I certainly feel there are enough grounds to appeal our decision not to cancel the proposed renewal.

therac wrote: »

My comments were prompted by the receipt of a letter from you stating that the contract was in place. Clearly therefore you have a correct address, whatever my colleague was told.

You said in your earlier post that the postal town on the renewal letter was incorrect. The address the letter was sent to will have been noted on your account and will support your complaint.

Perhaps you could tell us what percentage of these contracts are accepted without feedback

I'm afraid there is currently no information available concerning this.

Again, I am sorry our manager did not call as promised but hope the above gives you an avenue to pursue.

Malc

branney

My electric and gas were changed to Ovo via Energylinx site. The transfer date was 01/01/2010 for both fuels.

Ovo emailed me on 04/01/2010 asking for my meter readings. Their attachment contained my account number and the transfer dates, and I took this as the confirmation that Energylinx would require that the transfer had been completed.

On 07/01/2010 I forwarded this email and attachment to Energylinx but got no reply. In case I had somehow missed their reply in my spam folder, on 02/03/2010 I forwarded my original email from 07/01/2010 asking them to please forward their reply. I still have had no reply.

Has anyone had any success with Energylinx, or are they a fraud? Am I emailing the wrong address with my queries (customerservices@energylinx.co.uk) ?

NonGeographicalMan

branney wrote: »

Ovo emailed me on 04/01/2010 asking for my meter readings. Their attachment contained my account number and the transfer dates, and I took this as the confirmation that Energylinx would require that the transfer had been completed.

On 07/01/2010 I forwarded this email and attachment to Energylinx but got no reply. In case I had somehow missed their reply in my spam folder, on 02/03/2010 I forwarded my original email from 07/01/2010 asking them to please forward their reply. I still have had no reply.

Has anyone had any success with Energylinx, or are they a fraud? Am I emailing the wrong address with my queries (customerservices@energylinx.co.uk) ?

The job of Energylinx was to provide you with a quote for the cheapest possible provider and they also offered a facility to send an instruction from you to move across to that supplier.

However now that you have decided to move to Ovo Energy all your questions about your position as a new customer with them should be placed directly to Ovo's customer service centre. Any questions about your last bill with your old supplier should be placed directly with them. For what reason do you believe that you need to now be contacting Energylinx about the completion of your energy supply transfer?

branney

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

The job of Energylinx was to provide you with a quote for the cheapest possible provider and they also offered a facility to send an instruction from you to move across to that supplier.

However now that you have decided to move to Ovo Energy all your questions about your position as a new customer with them should be placed directly to Ovo's customer service centre. Any questions about your last bill with your old supplier should be placed directly with them. For what reason do you believe that you need to now be contacting Energylinx about the completion of your energy supply transfer?

Energylinx offered cashback if I used their site to find a supplier and move to it. Their terms and conditions stated that I had to claim that cashback after the transfer (ie. it is not automatic like it is for other cashback sites). I emailed them to ask how to claim, and included the information they might require as proof for that claim (in case my email could be deemed to be my claim).

Nothing to do with my old supplier (final bill was paid) or new supplier (have paid them 4 Direct Debits and had 2 bills so far).

NonGeographicalMan

branney wrote: »

Energylinx offered cashback if I used their site to find a supplier and move to it. Their terms and conditions stated that I had to claim that cashback after the transfer (ie. it is not automatic like it is for other cashback sites). I emailed them to ask how to claim, and included the information they might require as proof for that claim (in case my email could be deemed to be my claim).

I have never used them for a transfer myself, even though I have used their comparison engine to identify the cheapest company several times, as there was always more cashback available by making the switch through https://www.quidco.com or https://www.topcashback.co.uk to the companies I was moving to.

However I did correspond with them about what seemed like an error in their price data for EDF Energy, although actually turned out to be all the other comparison websites being out of date. I sent an email to their CEO (ken.geddes@energylinx.co.uk) at the weekend and got a reply from an assistant within hours (I'm pretty sure this was on a Sunday) indicating research showed that their figures were right and the opposition were wrong. I should try sending an email to him if I were you.

See http://uk.linkedin.com/in/kengeddes for more information on Ken Geddes.

sueby78

Hi I am about to rent my first property. I have been told that both gas and electricity is currently through British Gas but I am free to swap to whichever supplier I want to. How do I go about finding the best deals and are there cashback sites I can use, I read the first few pages of this thread where people were claiming cashback but that was from 2007.
Would much appreciate any help...I will have the same with my water too (water meter) but not sure of the supplier yet.

sjohnson1982

I am soon to become a first time home owner, and i was wondering if some one can help to give me some sort of estimate costs on what i will be paying out on Gas & Electric per month.

I am buying my first house with my partner it is a 3 bedroom and only the two of us will be living their, i am hearing its around £30 for gas and £30 for electric per month, does this sound right?

Thanks,
steve