Neon Reef - any views?

[Deleted User]

CRISPIANNE3 said:

WBCPB said:

My app (android) only gives me the start date of 11th Oct 2021 & end date 10th Oct 2022, but the welcome email says supply start 11th Oct, date of agreement 3rd Oct & first payment due date 11th Oct. Also when i did the quote it picked up my E7 smart Smets 2 meter & quoted me for both Day & Night rates, but the welcome email & app give me only a lower single rate which was a nice surprise, just hope they manage to survive now.

Regards

The process of switching takes 21 days. However Neon Reef have decided not to wait for the 14 days cooling off period to finish hence the reason for the quicker timescale. Not sure this is allowed but we live in very uncertain times. 

Nothing that a supplier does changes your legal rights. Provided you cancel a contract within the 14 day cooling off period then it matters not when the notice is received by the supplier. If a transfer has gone through, then the gaining supplier is required to arrange for the supply to be switched back to the losing supplier. 

alsa1

[Deleted User] said:

CRISPIANNE3 said:

WBCPB said:

My app (android) only gives me the start date of 11th Oct 2021 & end date 10th Oct 2022, but the welcome email says supply start 11th Oct, date of agreement 3rd Oct & first payment due date 11th Oct. Also when i did the quote it picked up my E7 smart Smets 2 meter & quoted me for both Day & Night rates, but the welcome email & app give me only a lower single rate which was a nice surprise, just hope they manage to survive now.

Regards

The process of switching takes 21 days. However Neon Reef have decided not to wait for the 14 days cooling off period to finish hence the reason for the quicker timescale. Not sure this is allowed but we live in very uncertain times. 

Nothing that a supplier does changes your legal rights. Provided you cancel a contract within the 14 day cooling off period then it matters not when the notice is received by the supplier. If a transfer has gone through, then the gaining supplier is required to arrange for the supply to be switched back to the losing supplier. 

But that would all depend on the new supplier being reachable through their contact channels to exercise your rights. It seems nigh on impossible to get through to NR, an email I sent on 23/9 still has no response, live chat is down for weeks & they have no telephone number! 

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] said:

Nothing that a supplier does changes your legal rights. Provided you cancel a contract within the 14 day cooling off period then it matters not when the notice is received by the supplier. If a transfer has gone through, then the gaining supplier is required to arrange for the supply to be switched back to the losing supplier. 

That’s all very well, but at the end of the day, all that I want is a responsible and reliable supplier of electricity. I can really do without the prospect of getting involved in a court case to discuss the whys and wherefores of a switch from a legal viewpoint.

That is not a dig at you, more the system. I’m heartily sick of all this, and OFGEM impersonating a chocolate fireguard. A fixed contract seemingly means nothing if the supplier goes bust. 

Has everyone seen that Martin is temporarily suspending the Cheap Energy Club? 

[Deleted User]

@alsa1 But apart from that…?

Exactly. What sort of company has no telephone channel? 

[Deleted User]

Deleted_User said:

[Deleted User] said:

Nothing that a supplier does changes your legal rights. Provided you cancel a contract within the 14 day cooling off period then it matters not when the notice is received by the supplier. If a transfer has gone through, then the gaining supplier is required to arrange for the supply to be switched back to the losing supplier. 

That’s all very well, but at the end of the day, all that I want is a responsible and reliable supplier of electricity. I can really do without the prospect of getting involved in a court case to discuss the whys and wherefores of a switch from a legal viewpoint.

That is not a dig at you, more the system. I’m heartily sick of all this, and OFGEM impersonating a chocolate fireguard. A fixed contract seemingly means nothing if the supplier goes bust. 

Has everyone seen that Martin is temporarily suspending the Cheap Energy Club? 

Why would there be a Court Case? Ofgem intends to move to 1 day switching with old supplier blocks and contract cancellations coming after the transfer. I cannot see the Courts being filled with angry consumers.

I get it that you are angry but all contracts are voided when a company goes bust. Fortunately, there are more consumer protections for energy consumers than is the case with other company failures. As you have no doubt read ML's email, it is pretty easy to see why some suppliers can no longer honour the fixed contracts that have been taken out. Yes, Ofgem could insist that all fixed deals are in future 100% hedged (protected) but this action alone would put £s on all fixed tariffs.

[Deleted User]

@[Deleted User] Why would there not be a court case, if you ended up having to use a legal argument to prove a point regarding switching, as you suggest? It is not inevitable, for various reasons, but it must be a prospect. A prospect I can do without. 

MWT

Deleted_User said:

That’s all very well, but at the end of the day, all that I want is a responsible and reliable supplier of electricity.
That is not a dig at you, more the system.

I would not be looking in a Neon Reef thread for a 'responsible and reliable supplier of energy' given the way other related companies have been managed...

Deleted_User said:

A fixed contract seemingly means nothing if the supplier goes bust.

No energy supply contract of any kind survives the failure of the company that offered it, and frankly it would be perverse if it did since the pricing the fixed contracts has a lot to do with why the companies are failing...

It is bad enough that the costs of these failures are going to be passed on to everyone else, it would be beyond tolerable if the fixed pricing was preserved to continue to rack-up more costs even after the failure of the company...

[Deleted User]

A fair point, but that then begs the question of why OFGEM and the powers that be do not exercise more care and diligence when granting a supply licence? Or is that up to the individual consumer as well, like everything else? If a rogue company has managed to fool OFGEM, how are we supposed to spot them? We aren’t all business people and forensic accountants of 20 years standing.

It’s too easy for OFGEM and the Government to wring their hands, and say ‘these are exceptional circumstances and could not be foreseen’. That cuts both ways, and applies to customers, and suppliers as well. But we don’t all have the luxury of moving straight from hand wringing to hand washing.

Obviously certain things knock fixed contracts into a cocked hat, like an act of God or a nuclear war, but surely that goes without saying. 

MWT

Harsh as it may be, I do thing the consumer protection has gone too far at the moment, as it has enabled people to become somewhat reckless in their choice of who to trust as they know they cannot lose any accumulated balance so why not take the cheapest deal you can find and not worry because everyone else will pay to protect your loss if it goes wrong...?

When you get two guys in rusty old lorry turn up outside and offer to tarmac your driveway cheap you know you'll never see them again and hopefully have enough sense not to pay them to do anything, but when an energy company is offering bargain basement pricing while most others already raised their prices weeks/months ago and on here people are warning that there will be problems come winter, the feeling that their is no risk just means that people go ahead and ignore the little voice that is saying 'take care' because they have nothing to lose...

Ofcom can do a better job for sure, they need to move faster to respond to the warning signs but they are for the most part doing the job they were given to do, and that doesn't include a rigorous ongoing audit of the financial circumstances of each supplier, so if that is what we want, their remit has to change.

wittynamegoeshere

I definitely wouldn't have trusted Symbio with my bank account details were it not for Ofgem's guarantees.  I knew that they were dodgy, but was happy to take their cheap power until they inevitably expired.

If/when Eon ever give me my money back then I'll look around again, if Neon Reef still exist I'll give them a go at the public's expense too - why not, the system's stupid but the only way to not lose out is to play the stupid game.

On the other hand, if Ofgem required that every company had enough money to stand the worst possible outcome then there wouldn't be any energy companies.

The real issue is that the entire system is nonsense and needs chucking away and starting again.