Avro Energy bankruptcy

MoJoeGo

OP I hope that little (not really) rant has made you feel a bit better, but personal responsibility is alive and well and you might just consider taking some here. 

Comparison sites are there as a guide for you to make your own decision on, it's rather like saving and bank account 'best buy' tables - no one is offering advice, they are just giving you a convenient run down of the options available.

Anyway as mentioned, you have no doubt benefited to date from cheap tariffs, so perhaps rather than looking at the irritation of the SoLR process, you count your blessings for what you have gained...

[Deleted User]

metrobus said:

I am a low user being out most of the day, and was paying £40 a month with AVRO for 6000kwh gas 700kwh electric.
Any idea what my cap price would be when switched?
TIA

I did a quote with AVRO (who I was with before they went under) and they were going to charge me 61 a month on dd. Like you, I was a low end user, paying 45 a month for gas and electric. 
Avro were reasonably priced. The SoLR will not be reasonably priced, and will also reflect the criminal cost of gas at the moment, expect the gas portion of your bill to double. (for example I was paying 2.4p per unit with avro, expect this to now be 5p at least) 

metrobus

DeletedUser said:

metrobus said:

I am a low user being out most of the day, and was paying £40 a month with AVRO for 6000kwh gas 700kwh electric.
Any idea what my cap price would be when switched?
TIA

I did a quote with AVRO (who I was with before they went under) and they were going to charge me 61 a month on dd. Like you, I was a low end user, paying 45 a month for gas and electric. 
Avro were reasonably priced. The SoLR will not be reasonably priced, and will also reflect the criminal cost of gas at the moment, expect the gas portion of your bill to double. (for example I was paying 2.4p per unit with avro, expect this to now be 5p at least) 

40 % of my bill was standing charge

Andytony52

A simple paragraph on the comparison site about the providers financial security and performance would do to enhance decisions...cheapest isn't always best for many reasons...

Aylesbury_Duck

Andytony52 said:

A simple paragraph on the comparison site about the providers financial security and performance would do to enhance decisions...cheapest isn't always best for many reasons...

How much are you prepared to pay for this enhanced service?

MoJoeGo

Andytony52 said:

A simple paragraph on the comparison site about the providers financial security and performance would do to enhance decisions...cheapest isn't always best for many reasons...

IIRC, there was a note on the MSE comparison site saying that OFGEM had ordered Avro to provide financial statements. And other providers often came with a note saying that they were small and MSE had little data on them.

Beyond that, who exactly do you think should provide you with a summary of whether a company is 'good' or 'bad' based on a whole heap of complex financial data? Which may not even be publicly available, and even if it is, could be many months old...

Not a free website, that's for damn certain!

Andytony52

There is an element of trust when using comparison sites I really did think they would have done the due diligence before pushing a utility company after all it seems like the sensible thing to do to cover their backsides instead of greasy shoulder get out rules and clauses.
Enough said.

MoJoeGo

Again, sorry to say but it does come across as though you are looking for someone to blame, rather than reflecting on the fact that you could/should have done your own due diligence.

And as I said, you've no doubt had the financial benefit of cheaper tariffs for months/years up to this point, so perhaps approach all this from more of a 'glass half full' mindset. No use blowing off steam now!

Aylesbury_Duck

Andytony52 said:

There is an element of trust when using comparison sites I really did think they would have done the due diligence before pushing a utility company after all it seems like the sensible thing to do to cover their backsides instead of greasy shoulder get out rules and clauses.
Enough said.

They weren't "pushing" them.  They may have appeared at the top of your list (as Avro did on mine), but you designed the search criteria that put them there.  Selecting different search criteria would yield a different result, with a different "top" recommendation.  One option is to only see results from the larger suppliers, for example.

Your criteria, your results.  Nothing stopping you doing your own closer inspection into those results.

As for "get out rules and clauses", you're referring to terms and conditions that were freely available to you when you did the search, and before you committed to a supplier, but it looks like you didn't read them.  Why do you expect a free website to do a whole load of due diligence when you're not prepared to do even some basic due diligence on that site, or on the results it generates for you?  I'm afraid you should take more personal responsibility instead of expecting someone else to do it all for you.

MattMattMattUK

Andytony52 said:

A simple paragraph on the comparison site about the providers financial security and performance would do to enhance decisions...cheapest isn't always best for many reasons...

That is beyond the ability of most to analyse other than the company themselves. Even if it was there it would be unlikely to say "If global gas prices rise 250-300% then this company will not survive" and even if it did, no one expected global gas prices to rise that much, otherwise they would have hedged and it would not have been an issue. If anyone did have a solid advance prediction of this we would have seen gas futures surge ahead of the rises as people bought them, but they did not. Most of the companies were well within the normal range of financial performance until an unprecedented wholesale gas price rise happened, none would have gone bust this year if the gas prices had remained where they were, or close to where they were on 1st January. 

Ultimately if you want to make that the criteria for choosing a supplier then it is up to you do that additional due diligence, but I suspect you will find it impossible.