Bulb Removed Off Peak Tariff

Richie7

As well as my current SP issue, I have discovered another issue this week now with Bulb. My mum switched to Bulb from SP and when she did was placed on their Economy 7 tariff.

In June last year the Off Peak tariff was suddenly removed without notification, and her 2nd meter (storage heaters) has been getting charged at the standard rate. 

There was no notification of this and I do not understand how it has been allowed to happen. I contacted Bulb and they said it was due to a price increase. I have returned their e-mail advising that is not a satisfactory explanation.

Has anyone else encountered this at all? I realise these tariffs are not popular nor very well known about.

As always thank you for any advice.


Richie.

MWT

This sounds like she was on THTC or similar with two meters and three registers.

As far as I know, for some years now Bulb has only ever offered an E7 option for the meter with two registers, and a standard rate tariff for the other meter.

Did she talk to anyone at Bulb before switching? They are usually pretty clear that they are not the best place to go with that metering arrangement...

Richie7

MWT said:

This sounds like she was on THTC or similar with two meters and three registers.

As far as I know, for some years now Bulb has only ever offered an E7 option for the meter with two registers, and a standard rate tariff for the other meter.

Did she talk to anyone at Bulb before switching? They are usually pretty clear that they are not the best place to go with that metering arrangement...

Sorry forgive me I don't quite follow (THTC, registers) ?

At the time we did talk to them, and it's worked perfectly well for the last few years. I input both meter readings on their website, and her statements show one rate for her main meter and one for her off peak. Which for most of the year never even gets used, only in the winter months.

As I say though suddenly she is being charged the same rate on the second meter. Up until June it was the Vari-Fair Off Peak tariff, and had been since she switched. 

Naturally the prices have increased, but they were always separate. 

This is from their site -

Two rate (Economy 7) – Bulb

MWT

Richie7 said:

As I say though suddenly she is being charged the same rate on the second meter. Up until June it was the Vari-Fair Off Peak tariff, and had been since she switched. 

Lets get the basics sorted first...

You talk about two meters, do you actually mean two meters or is it just one meter with two different readings (registers)?

Richie7

MWT said:

Richie7 said:

As I say though suddenly she is being charged the same rate on the second meter. Up until June it was the Vari-Fair Off Peak tariff, and had been since she switched. 

Lets get the basics sorted first...

You talk about two meters, do you actually mean two meters or is it just one meter with two different readings (registers)?

Two meters, two different readings. Same now as it was when she joined Bulb. Same Off Peak hours, literally nothing has changed.

MWT

I think this is where the problem has arisen.

E7 is traditionally delivered with a single meter which has two readings on it, so the supplier associated one MPAN with the E7 tariff and expects to see two readings for that one meter. The MPAN is the number used to record where a meter is located.

There have been more complex tariffs (mostly in the north of the UK that were delivered across 2 meters with one controlling the heating and the other providing a day/night rate for other uses and I wonder if at some point your mother was on one of those?

Somehow the two meters that you say were originally being treated as the day & night readings for an E7 tariff have now been separated into two separate standard rate meters.

Can you check her bill and see if it shows two MPANs ?

Richie7

MWT said:

I think this is where the problem has arisen.

E7 is traditionally delivered with a single meter which has two readings on it, so the supplier associated one MPAN with the E7 tariff and expects to see two readings for that one meter. The MPAN is the number used to record where a meter is located.

There have been more complex tariffs (mostly in the north of the UK that were delivered across 2 meters with one controlling the heating and the other providing a day/night rate for other uses and I wonder if at some point your mother was on one of those?

Somehow the two meters that you say were originally being treated as the day & night readings for an E7 tariff have now been separated into two separate standard rate meters.

Can you check her bill and see if it shows two MPANs ?

Just to clarify again nothing has changed. Two separate single read meters has always been the setup.

So two separate MPAN's on all statements since the beginning. Before and after this change.

MWT

Richie7 said:

MWT said:

I think this is where the problem has arisen.

E7 is traditionally delivered with a single meter which has two readings on it, so the supplier associated one MPAN with the E7 tariff and expects to see two readings for that one meter. The MPAN is the number used to record where a meter is located.

There have been more complex tariffs (mostly in the north of the UK that were delivered across 2 meters with one controlling the heating and the other providing a day/night rate for other uses and I wonder if at some point your mother was on one of those?

Somehow the two meters that you say were originally being treated as the day & night readings for an E7 tariff have now been separated into two separate standard rate meters.

Can you check her bill and see if it shows two MPANs ?

Just to clarify again nothing has changed. Two separate single read meters has always been the setup.

So two separate MPAN's on all statements since the beginning. Before and after this change.

I appreciate that nothing has changed, but this is not a typical configuration for an E7 tariff, so relatively easy for it to get confused at Bulbs end.

You will need to remind them that there are two separate meters, and two MPANs which they have previously been using as day/night readings for a single E7 tariff...

Have they been charging two standing charges as well?

If so you may be able to get a refund on that as they were required by Ofgem to stop doing that a while ago...

Richie7

MWT said:

Richie7 said:

MWT said:

I think this is where the problem has arisen.

E7 is traditionally delivered with a single meter which has two readings on it, so the supplier associated one MPAN with the E7 tariff and expects to see two readings for that one meter. The MPAN is the number used to record where a meter is located.

There have been more complex tariffs (mostly in the north of the UK that were delivered across 2 meters with one controlling the heating and the other providing a day/night rate for other uses and I wonder if at some point your mother was on one of those?

Somehow the two meters that you say were originally being treated as the day & night readings for an E7 tariff have now been separated into two separate standard rate meters.

Can you check her bill and see if it shows two MPANs ?

Just to clarify again nothing has changed. Two separate single read meters has always been the setup.

So two separate MPAN's on all statements since the beginning. Before and after this change.

I appreciate that nothing has changed, but this is not a typical configuration for an E7 tariff, so relatively easy for it to get confused at Bulbs end.

You will need to remind them that there are two separate meters, and two MPANs which they have previously been using as day/night readings for a single E7 tariff...

Have they been charging two standing charges as well?

If so you may be able to get a refund on that as they were required by Ofgem to stop doing that a while ago...

Thanks for your help. I have contacted them and will wait to hear back.

I do believe she got a refund on the Standing Charges, I will check again though. Was that from a specific date it was required to stop? I'm guessing so and it's not a historic thing going back years.

MWT

Richie7 said:

I do believe she got a refund on the Standing Charges, I will check again though. Was that from a specific date it was required to stop? I'm guessing so and it's not a historic thing going back years.

Here you go: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ofgem-closes-compliance-engagement-bulb