Neon Reef - any views?

SPOWER

Just had email from them saying DD going to £196.  I will cancel this at bank as electricity only with them.  Also when I logged on to post this, I had email from MSE saying they had removed a post of mines.  I don't sugar coat.

Telegraph_Sam

You kinda get the feeling that a certain pattern is emerging. Something to do perhaps with preserving NR's finances, by making it longer and more difficult to switch out, than with providing proper customer service. What are the odds that if you propose to leave them having cancelled the D/D, your move will be blocked (because they claim you owe them £196)? It is not unknown for suppliers when faced with cancelled D/D's to threaten to send in the heavies, though I don't know if this has ever happened.
Interesting times.

Bacman

NR don't want people to go and are clearly making it harder for people to leave. Easy answer, if they hadn't hiked up their prices people would not have left.

matelodave

Bacman said:

NR don't want people to go and are clearly making it harder for people to leave. Easy answer, if they hadn't hiked up their prices people would not have left.

Yep, they've just done it to me - objected to my transfer as the account is in debit although the debt is reducing rapidly as we are now in the summer Just paid it so I'll see how long it takes for them to allow the transfer - it would have been a lot easier if their bank account details were on the bills rather than having to root through their website to find it.

I probably would have stayed if the increase had been reasoanble, but IMO 5.5p/kwh and 10p/day was taking the mickey (it would have added £450-£500 to my annual leccy bill)

rallycurve

Bacman said:

NR don't want people to go and are clearly making it harder for people to leave. Easy answer, if they hadn't hiked up their prices people would not have left.

Exactly. In my case they are delaying the payment of my referral credit. They haven't paid it within the promised timeframe and they keep saying it is being processed and will be paid as soon as possible. I'm sure this is deliberate to keep me with them for a bit longer. But I'm not biting as the credit would go very quickly if I stayed with these prices. Switched out last night and hoping they don't reject it for whatever reason they can make up!

Gerry1

Bacman said:

NR don't want people to go and are clearly making it harder for people to leave. Easy answer, if they hadn't hiked up their prices people would not have left.

That's very disappointing because they'd been pretty good so far: very keen prices, and the lack of a call centre hadn't been problematic.  It was an interesting example of how a 'lean & mean' setup could serve the customer well.

Sadly it seems that it's starting to unravel.  Wonder whether this was just bad luck because they'd miscalculated, or has this been part of a dodgy strategy?

I'm getting slightly nervous because although the dreaded Symbio have already set up their DD and given me a start date, I haven't had a 'Sorry You're Leaving Us' email from NR, not a squeak.

The good news is that my DD and a top-up payment have both been credited so when NR generate the next invoice in two or three days it should show that I don't owe them a penny.

razord

The main issue for me is, I can't see how these objects are valid. At least in my case. Whilst each bill for the last couple of months has had a small debt, the payment made that month covers that debit and leads to the account being in credit for at least part of the month until the next bill... so the account hasn't been in debt for 28+ days like OFGEM rules say are a valid reason to object to a switch.

niktheguru

Interesting. 
I had just got access to my parents neon reef account. It appears that despite having provided monthly meter readings the last bill generated was in March! So i guess the account is in reasonable credit, until they update the bill. By my calculations it would render the account £20 in debit up till may, so have transferred 20 quid across by BACS just in case. They haven't been blocked at the moment, so lets see what happens with the symbio switch next week.

danielson81

danielson81 said:

Just had an email saying my direct debit is basically doubling ( as per the end of Aqua One) ... hope my switch goes ahead...

Credit to Neon Reef, I emailed back and said I am switching and predict my final bill will be £40, and they changed the direct debit back amount to the original amount . 

PennineAcute

Just had confimation today that my switch from NR is now in motion.  It got stopped due to a technical issue - this, most probably being the fact that I had only been with them one day when I got the price increase email. 

Just hoping that Symbio goes smoothly.