What does my energy company do?

niktheguru

Iranoutofusernamesalongtimeago said:

Let me expand upon the reason why I posted this initially, my elderly mother who is nearly 80 and does not have a smart meter has received her six-monthly review, apparently, the industry only requires a 12-month review so the energy provider was doing her a service by catching it when they did.
They are now requesting a two-fold increase of payments over the next six months as she was underpaying during the winter months for the fuel used. 
Clearly, she is from a generation that obviously is used to different standards when it comes to customer service and she didn't realize the onus was upon her to check her monthly statements and raise the issue with the energy company.
What puzzles me here though is the fact that having reviewed the emailed statements which are being constructed they clearly show the underpayments and the increased energy cost and the requests for payments. It also shows a predicted yearly usage which is calculated every month and shows the increase over the year but with no calculated increase in payments to cover the forecasted usage. 
 Am I to assume then that this entire process is automated and at no point, it is looked at by a human being? As anyone with an intellect above that of a cucumber and with an ounce of customer service would surely have contacted the customer to discuss the need to increase payments rather than wait to demand double the agreed-upon payments six months down the line?
What I'm trying to say is shouldn't it be a bare minimum of customer service for the company which you pay to manage your energy to actually check the amount you use each month vs the amount being paid? Surely there are even automated services that could do this and red flag it to a human being when required?

While I can understand what the energy companies do and where the money goes, how do you explain this level of customer service to someone from, dare I say it, a better generation than ourselves?

Once again, thank you in advance to all those taking the time to participate in this discussion.

While i sympathise with what you are saying and agree that perhaps these companies should do more what i would say is that customer service is extremely variable in the energy industry. The cheaper suppliers can be dodgy for customer service and the the "big 5/6" can be equally as useless. I don't think you're going to get the top service at the cheapest prices.

What i don't understand about your mothers situation. You say she hasn't got a smart meter but then who was providing meter readings? Have any been done regularly or was this bill based on estimates. Most of the time billing is now an automated process and there are credit/debit reviews every 6 months (as usage varies) 
There has to be a degree of responsibility taken by the customer as well. If a company is sending bills out to you, do you think its right that you ignore these bills, or not look at them carefully, or not even look at the "balance". Regardless of age this is a necessity. Just like how you keep an eye on how much your shopping bill is going to be so you know you can afford it. There is a priority services register for elderly and vulnerable which helps but isn't fool proof. Similarly family should probably help the elderly in looking at/after their bills. (as do I for my elderly family) Yes, perhaps the company should and can do more.....but it is not 100% their responsibility that you are paying for what you owe. At least they are not disconnecting her supply despite her account going into arrears. She could have chosen a variable direct debit so that her balance is paid in full each month. The problem with this thought is that considering lots of people dont have smart meters yet, and a lot aren't providing regular meter readings, these will all be based on estimates, so you can again have problems of paying too little or too much. 

This is why the smart meter rollout has happened, to try and get over the uncertaintly. But there is a huge amount of resistance for the many reasons you can see on this forum. The sooner metering becomes automated and accurate the better the billing situation will become. Just my two cents.

Anyanka1

Thanks with reservations for the above post.  I agree with every word except the last paragraph; I hate smart meters but realise they benefit those who cannot or will not read their own meters on a regular basis.  Personally, I prefer feeling in control and knowing exactly what my account balance is at any given moment.

Gerry1

Sounds like your mother might be better off on a Variable Direct Debit, which is very similar to the system back in the days of the Electricity and Gas Boards; they posted you a quarterly bill, you went along to the shop in the High Street, queued up at the counter and paid your bill in cash.  Of course, it meant that bills were bigger in the winter, but at least you soon realised if you were using too much energy.  Sadly, not all suppliers offer VDD, but if Ofgem were any good they'd insist that it was available on request from all suppliers.

I trust that she is on the Priority Services Register?  If so, she's more likely to have a meter reading calling.

Verdigris

Anyanka1 said:

Thanks with reservations for the above post.  I agree with every word except the last paragraph; I hate smart meters but realise they benefit those who cannot or will not read their own meters on a regular basis.  Personally, I prefer feeling in control and knowing exactly what my account balance is at any given moment.

You miss the main point of smart meters. They send half hourly readings which give the network operators a much more accurate picture of where demand is. This helps them use the network more efficiently and id particularly important as more renewable energy comes on stream, owing to the degree of uncertainty of supply and the distributed nature of the generating assets. They are also vital to allow the widespread use of electric vehicles. If you want to keep the lights on, get a smart meter.

Cups ears to listen for the sound of Gerry applying his woodcutting tool to sharpening device

BUFF

Deleted_User said:

niktheguru said:

We don't want to go back to the days where you only had one provider to choose from and had to pay the standard charge and thats it.

I do! Cut out the costs of pointles competition, cut all the time wasted searching for cheapest tariffs and switching suppliers, cut out the need for comparison site, etc.

One tariff, and it should only change once a year, on a fixed date. A monopoly supplier could buy up supply far enough in advance to make this realistic.

or a monopoly supplier could double the prices that they charge you & where would you be/go then?

Gerry1

Verdigris said:

Anyanka1 said:

Thanks with reservations for the above post.  I agree with every word except the last paragraph; I hate smart meters but realise they benefit those who cannot or will not read their own meters on a regular basis.  Personally, I prefer feeling in control and knowing exactly what my account balance is at any given moment.

If you want to keep the lights on, get a smart meter.

Cups ears to listen for the sound of Gerry applying his woodcutting tool to sharpening device

If you want to keep your lights on, don't get a smart meter.  If you want to keep your head on, don't put it in a noose and hope no-one yanks it tight...  FTFY !

Reed_Richards

Time was when you could go to your local grocer or greengrocer and get personal service from someone who knew all their regular customers.  But there are few of these shops left because people were lured away to supermarkets with lower prices.  Now we have the likes of Aldi with low prices but minimal customer service.  It's much the same with energy suppliers, good customer service has been sacrificed because customers aren't willing to pay a premium for it - or not enough customers anyway.  Now an energy company with good customer service is as hard to find as a high street greengrocer.     

QrizB

Deleted_User said:

What I meant, but didn't spell out, was a publicly-owned monopoly supplier, with defined purposes including running at a minimal profit.

We used to have publicly-owned monopoly suppliers. The problem is that "running at minimal profit" =/= "running at minimal cost".

niktheguru

Deleted_User said:

QrizB said:

Deleted_User said:

What I meant, but didn't spell out, was a publicly-owned monopoly supplier, with defined purposes including running at a minimal profit.

We used to have publicly-owned monopoly suppliers. The problem is that "running at minimal profit" =/= "running at minimal cost".

Other statutory aims should include minimizing costs - not unconditionally, but subject to paying fair wages, meeting service standards, etc.

The point is that there are a lot of costs that would just disappear with a monopoly supplier. Everything to do with handling switches. The Mysterious Third Party validating meter readings for switches. Marketing strategies for new energy companies. Coming up with new tariffs and new tariff names. All the cr*p with incompatible smart meters could have been avoided (though of course we are deep in it now, and it would take some time to sort it out starting from here). All the mangement costs of the separate energy companies, coming up with business strategies, talking to their investors and bankers, and so on.

One very significant cost is cost of capital. Among other things, capital is needed to buy up energy some way in advance. A publicly-owned monopoly supplier could be lent money by the Treasury at a small mark-up (1%?) to the UK's own cost of borrowing. That would easily be a lower cost of capital than any private energy company. All this feeds into lower prices for energy users.

you'd think so, but the government won't ever let something be run at minimal cost. There will be a caveat to extract money for the treasury. We pay enough tax now dont we, just for it all to be splurged on the governments mates. 
Nationalised industries had high costs and weren't run efficiently, thats why we had privatisation years ago.....now it seems these privatised companies cant work efficiently....if only there was a regulator who actually regulated.

mjm3346

"All this feeds into lower prices for energy users."

and that would be no good at all when the aim (climate change) is to reduce energy consumption, indeed a constant rise in energy prices is probably going to be needed to help reduce consumption.