Peoples Energy

slimbuck

rae73 said:

I haven't had an email but had a call from them yesterday. They said as bills tend to go up in the winter they are going to put our DD up by approx 25%for the 6 winter months, or we can make a one-off payment of over £100 on top of our usual DD to cover it in advance, and which would we like to do?
I said they usually just increase our DD if they need to, why can we not stay the same and do this?  We are not in arrears.
Either way they will be taking money off us in advance that we don't owe. They are calling back in a few days as I needed to look into our account. Can they legally insist we change our DD in advance, in case we start to owe them money,  if we are not in debt?

IANAL, and even if I were, I would not be allowed to provide legal advice on this forum, sorry.
If you want legal advice, see a lawyer.

What I can say is:
6.10.2 You agree that we may increase the monthly Direct Debit payment by up to 25% to cover additional usage in the winter months.

https://peoplesenergy.co.uk/about/terms-and-conditions/residential-tariffs

This MSE article gives further advice on Energy direct debits help:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits/

badmemory

They are now getting really desperate.   They rang me trying the same thing.  I told them my expected usage for the full term of the agreement & the final figure which they would most probably owe me.  No change to my DD.  They have no grounds if you can state facts to them.  Being ignorant of your own usage puts them in the driving seat.  A spreadsheet with the facts is your best ammunition against them.

[Deleted User]

All companies whether they be banks; mobile phone companies or energy suppliers have the right to change their contract terms and conditions. As far as existing consumers are concerned, you either accept the revised terms and conditions or leave your contract without penalty. From what I have seen this is what PE is offering. 

This is what Eon.Next has in its contract:

12.2 Putting up our prices or changing these terms in a way that makes you worse off If we increase our tariff prices or change our terms and conditions in a way that's less favourable to you, we'll contact you before the changes takes effect. If you don't want to accept the changes, you can switch to another of our tariffs or another supplier and our price protection rules may apply.

Fifitrixiebell04

I've also had the phone call and email about the seasonal price change. The email made it clear that it was not optional - either you have to move over to seasonal DD, or you have to pay an upfront fee to cover the difference.

Really concerned about the impact of this change on customers who are struggling financially - an increase in DD over the Christmas period doesn't strike me as a great idea for those who struggle to budget, nor does an out of the blue upfront fee!

I've contacted the Customer Member Representatives, as well as Customer Services to raise my concerns. Please do the same if it's something you're concerned about too!

They also rang me to move me onto a fixed tariff with exit fees exactly a month before they rang me about this, which is a little too premeditated for my liking, but maybe I'm just a cynic

badmemory

I've just had a big discussion with them about the new DDs.  There is no option other than pay up front or pay monthly.  Leaving early without exit fees is not an option.  Frankly I am furious.  My current direct debit will cover the highest usage I have ever had & a lot of my goods are new & are much cheaper energy wise.  They are going to owe me as a minimum the extra £35 a month they want to charge me.  I am becoming more convinced with every contact (this is the third) that they are going out of business & I am going to struggle to get my money back.

And Fifitb I don't think you are cynical at all, I think their move however was.  I do hope they read this.  I spoke to a Russian guy first, my hearing isn't great so I struggled to tell what he was saying with his accent.  The woman I spoke to later didn't like me saying that I thought they were trying to rip me off after I quoted all the figures to her which proved I didn't need to pay more.

Telegraph_Sam

I got a (cold) phone call apparently from People's Energy. Bad telephone  connection, the lady said she was phoning from London but it sounded more like S. Africa. Usual promises about being able to beat my current energy rates but this came before any attempt to confirm what these rates were, just my direct debit amount. It sounded like theirs would be higher based on the limited data that I gave her. What caused alarm bells to ring was when she wanted to proceed with my "Application" before I had had a chance to evaluate what they had to offer, and for this my DOB and bank details were required. Considering that nothing at all had been stated in writing I said this was putting the cart before the horse. At this stage all pretence at diplomatic politeness vanished. It had the hallmark of a dodgy deal and possibly a scam.
Whether or not there is more than one organization claiming to be People's Energy I would be very mistrustful of any such approach and have an extendable barge pole handy. Others may be able to shed more light on this.
I speak as an ex-customer of Tonik that got out just in time - see inspectorperez's post above.

brewerdave

Telegraph_Sam said:

..... when she wanted to proceed with my "Application" before I had had a chance to evaluate what they had to offer, and for this my DOB and bank details were required. Considering that nothing at all had been stated in writing I said this was putting the cart before the horse. At this stage all pretence at diplomatic politeness vanished. It had the hallmark of a dodgy deal and possibly a scam.

Highly unlikely to really be People's Energy - just a variation on the usual phone scams!!

badmemory

I used to think that People's Energy were the best thing since sliced bread but my interactions with them over the last couple of months have not been so positive & felt like scams even though I had rung them on half the calls.

chainwheel

It's like watching a car crash. Been with them since the beginning, I have never had an accurate bill despite sending in readings on the dot. Sometimes the readings are just ignored and an estimate sent. Emails are ignored, letters unanswered. However I have  reasonable debit running now so I will leave it meantime and watch the fun. 

TaweJohn

Same experience here, increased my DD soon after signing up, account in credit.

Want £160 up front, or increase my DD to £161 for 5 months, and £30 per fuel to leave.

Torn between telling them to get lost and paying the up front charge.  Need to cool down, before making my decision.