Avro Energy

MidlandsGlory

Teddyewart said:

Avro Energy has gone completely one way - down in my estimation. A shadow of a company 2 years ago. I moved house had a really bad 9 months with BG so, thought I go back to Avro Energy. Everything ok it seems contract comes to an end of term, they don’t contact me and promptly put me on the highest tariff and SC.
Made a switch immediately and although in credit continue to remove funds DD and final account showing on-line 6 weeks after the switch, £200 still in their favour - not mine it’s my cash!
How can this be fair? How can it be possible for ofgem to declare this being right and proper.
Have they not heard of 24 hour banking this company and all the rest of the energy companies are ripping the consumer off proper.
if you get one of these companies who make the switch automatically, Nationwide Building Society has just informed me of their new service - what happens if they switch me 3 times in a year? I will tell you they do exactly the same - you could be in this case treble the annual energy bill and more. It just don’t pay to be in credit at all or pay by DD.

I am in almost exactly the same boat, they tell me they are now waiting for my final readings back from my new supplier to be able to final bill me. What a bizarre system!   As I have (Avro!) smart meters I know they don't use for billing, but I know they can read if they want, why can't they just get final readings themselves?

I did time my switch to be on the last day of my billing cycle so my last bill should also be my final bill. I had cleared my debit already by extra payment just to stop them blocking my switch, but they managed to whack me on the priciest tariff and pinch one more direct debit before I cancelled it. So they own me £200, I know its going to be weeks or months until I see back.

The whole system is a shambles, the governments dream, which was a good one, of a competitive market lead industry which people could vote with their feet if they got poor value or service just isn't a reality, the 'market' complicates and drags its feet taking the dynamic out of it. Of course they would do so, so it need tougher demands set on it.

brewerdave

MidlandsGlory said:

Teddyewart said:

Avro Energy has gone completely one way - down in my estimation. A shadow of a company 2 years ago. I moved house had a really bad 9 months with BG so, thought I go back to Avro Energy. Everything ok it seems contract comes to an end of term, they don’t contact me and promptly put me on the highest tariff and SC.
Made a switch immediately and although in credit continue to remove funds DD and final account showing on-line 6 weeks after the switch, £200 still in their favour - not mine it’s my cash!
How can this be fair? How can it be possible for ofgem to declare this being right and proper.
Have they not heard of 24 hour banking this company and all the rest of the energy companies are ripping the consumer off proper.
if you get one of these companies who make the switch automatically, Nationwide Building Society has just informed me of their new service - what happens if they switch me 3 times in a year? I will tell you they do exactly the same - you could be in this case treble the annual energy bill and more. It just don’t pay to be in credit at all or pay by DD.

I am in almost exactly the same boat, they tell me they are now waiting for my final readings back from my new supplier to be able to final bill me. What a bizarre system!   As I have (Avro!) smart meters I know they don't use for billing, but I know they can read if they want, why can't they just get final readings themselves?

Unfortunately we still have this archaic system that involves a "third party" to check that meter readings are accurate on supplier changeover (ie not misread or fraudulent). The problem has got worse because of the time taken for this loop to be performed. AND it doesn't seem to take account of working smart meters.

Biggus_Dickus

brewerdave said:

MidlandsGlory said:

Teddyewart said:

Avro Energy has gone completely one way - down in my estimation. A shadow of a company 2 years ago. I moved house had a really bad 9 months with BG so, thought I go back to Avro Energy. Everything ok it seems contract comes to an end of term, they don’t contact me and promptly put me on the highest tariff and SC.
Made a switch immediately and although in credit continue to remove funds DD and final account showing on-line 6 weeks after the switch, £200 still in their favour - not mine it’s my cash!
How can this be fair? How can it be possible for ofgem to declare this being right and proper.
Have they not heard of 24 hour banking this company and all the rest of the energy companies are ripping the consumer off proper.
if you get one of these companies who make the switch automatically, Nationwide Building Society has just informed me of their new service - what happens if they switch me 3 times in a year? I will tell you they do exactly the same - you could be in this case treble the annual energy bill and more. It just don’t pay to be in credit at all or pay by DD.

I am in almost exactly the same boat, they tell me they are now waiting for my final readings back from my new supplier to be able to final bill me. What a bizarre system!   As I have (Avro!) smart meters I know they don't use for billing, but I know they can read if they want, why can't they just get final readings themselves?

Unfortunately we still have this archaic system that involves a "third party" to check that meter readings are accurate on supplier changeover (ie not misread or fraudulent). The problem has got worse because of the time taken for this loop to be performed. AND it doesn't seem to take account of working smart meters.

Indeed. 

The 3rd party gas and leccy ‘meter reading verification’ system works very well most of the time, imho. They act as ‘honest brokers’ and their assessment of the meter readings at ‘switchover’ should be the final word.

The incumbent supplier and the gaining supplier are duty bound to accept the ‘verified readings’ and they cannot, unilaterally, use any other gas or leccy ‘meter readings’;...the system facilitates a smooth transition when customers change supplier and prevents customers attempting to gain a financial advantage by submitting incorrect readings. That’s the theory anyway.

The incumbent supplier and the gaining supplier do not (or at least shouldn’t!) question the ‘verified meter readings’,...it really isn’t in either of their interests to query the ‘verified’ readings.

The customer can appeal the gas or leccy ‘verified readings’ if they wish but that will add an indeterminate delay to the switching process.

However, things don’t always go smoothly. The ‘meter reading verification’ companies sometimes encounter admin problems (not of their own making) which can delay the process. I’ve had just such a problem when I switched a while ago. It was an historic error which meant my gas meter ‘postcode’ and my actual postcode didn’t match. The postcode error wasn’t the fault of the verification company or the energy suppliers but it caused a few weeks delay, which was eventually rectified.

Had the ‘smart’ meter rollout gone as expected (instead of the complete bollox that it actually is) I assume the automation provided by the new technology/software  would have meant that the gas/leccy ‘meter reading verification’ companies would no longer be required;...one day perhaps?? 😂

 

 

L_J_Silver

I switched to Avro in April and this was smooth enough. Each month since Avro have emailed requesting me to submit gas and electricity usage which i did. Each month my direct debit was taken and i now have a credit balance of over £400 but no bills 
have been produced. Is this normal with Avro ?. I thought the bills would be produced monthly after i submitted the readings 
but this has not happened.

Gerry1

L_J_Silver said:

no bills have been produced. Is this normal with Avro ?

Avro used to be very good, but sadly now they seem to be in meltdown.

See the main Avro thread and listen to the report on Radio 4's You and Yours (starts at 32:34).

[Deleted User]

L_J_Silver said:

I switched to Avro in April and this was smooth enough. Each month since Avro have emailed requesting me to submit gas and electricity usage which i did. Each month my direct debit was taken and i now have a credit balance of over £400 but no bills 
have been produced. Is this normal with Avro ?. I thought the bills would be produced monthly after i submitted the readings 
but this has not happened.

I suspect that Avro's (MOP) Meter Operator has not picked up ALL the details for your electricity and gas supply.  I had this problem back in Feb and did not get my first bill until 2 months or so after I joined.  Go into your AVRO dashboard and then click 'submit a meter reading' then the electricity tab (repeat for gas).  You should see both the 'Electricity Supply' field populated with your MPAN details and the Electricity Serial Number populated with the actual meter details.  If one or both are missing this would explain why Avro are unable to issue the opening bill. 

L_J_Silver

Thank you DerwentMailman for your advice. I went on my dashboard and discovered the electricity meter serial number 
was unconfirmed. I have this number and will inform Avro and hopefully resolve the matter.

brewerdave

L_J_Silver said:

Thank you DerwentMailman for your advice. I went on my dashboard and discovered the electricity meter serial number 
was unconfirmed. I have this number and will inform Avro and hopefully resolve the matter.

Had a similar problem with leccy when I moved to Avro some 18 months ago. They had the details of a meter which had been replaced in 2015 !
Took a while and a number of photos before it was resolved .Avro blamed the "national database" but I had been with several suppliers after the meter was changed and the problem had never occurred before. Suggests that Avro have a glitch in their systems!!

JohnB47

I seem to remember that, every time I change supplier (and I've changed from a few busted ones), the gas and electric supply never become 'live' at the same time.

There is always some sort of delay with one of them - can't remember which.

If things go smoothly when I change supplier again I'll be very surprised.

[Deleted User]

L_J_Silver said:

Thank you DerwentMailman for your advice. I went on my dashboard and discovered the electricity meter serial number 
was unconfirmed. I have this number and will inform Avro and hopefully resolve the matter.

Just a cautionary note that it took Avro over 2 months to populate my account with all the Meter Technical Details i.e. Meter Serial Numbers for my leccy meter.  It could have been Avro's MOP or the leaving suppliers' MOP at fault according to Avro.  It has all come good in the end with regular statements provided a few working days after submitting meter reads on the same day of the month that I joined.