Switching electricity supplier

Hysteron

I've read on this board in the past few days that EDF and Octopus are the only two energy suppliers that are accepting new customers at the moment. However, that appears to be against the conditions of their government license and they could face sanctions from Ofgem for doing that.

Condition 22. Duty to offer and supply under Domestic Supply Contract 

Licensee’s obligations 

22.1 If the licensee supplies electricity to Domestic Premises, it must do so under a 

Domestic Supply Contract or a Deemed Contract.

22.2 Within a reasonable period of time after receiving a request from a Domestic 

Customer for a supply of electricity to Domestic Premises, the licensee must offer 

to enter into a Domestic Supply Contract with that customer.

22.3 If the Domestic Customer accepts the terms of the Domestic Supply Contract 

offered to him under paragraph 22.2, the licensee must supply electricity in 

accordance with that contract.

Have any posters on the MSE forum tried to change suppliers recently but been refused because the supplier says they are not accepting new customers, or have you managed to change with little difficulty?

I'm aware that for most consumers there is little point in changing at this time but for others not on the single standard variable rate then there can be good savings to be made by shifting supplier.

[Deleted User]

If they only offer fixed tariffs to switching customers, that are way higher than the EPG rate, then they fulfil that licence condition.  Is that what you want?

Hysteron

Is that your idea of being helpful?

[Deleted User]

You implied that suppliers are likely in breach of their licence conditions. I replied with their justification as to why they are not.  If you find this unhelpful, that is not my issue.

[Deleted User]

To clarify - any supplier must offer you a supply contract of some sort. They do not need to offer you a variable rate at the cap.

They are only obliged to offer the variable cap rate as a deemed contract, which is when you are automatically their customer on a house move.

They would be looked on very unfavourably if they actually accept you into one of these very expensive fixes - so most just suggest that it isn’t worth switching.

Hysteron

Deleted_User said:

You implied that suppliers are likely in breach of their licence conditions. I replied with their justification as to why they are not.  If you find this unhelpful, that is not my issue.

You made no attempt at answering the question that I asked.

"Have any posters on the MSE forum tried to change suppliers recently but been refused because the supplier says they are not accepting new customers, or have you managed to change with little difficulty?"

Thankfully there are only a small number of posters on the MSE forum that treat legitimate questions the way you do by ignoring the question asked completely and then diverting them onto a totally irrelevant discussion about something else.

I can do without your "help" thanks.

grn99

Deleted_User said:

If they only offer fixed tariffs to switching customers, that are way higher than the EPG rate, then they fulfil that licence condition.  Is that what you want?

Well that would surely be restrictive practice to offer uncompetitive tariffs only and not within the spirit of the code; not least now that the Gov intervention has given what the industry was supposedly asking for.

If people are suffering poor customer service or poor deals  why shouldn’t they be able to move supplier? Otherwise it’s a virtual monopoly of poor service by the industry, (which quite frankly is not renowned for excelling in CS) in the full and certain knowledge you cannot move away!

[Deleted User]

grn99 said:

Deleted_User said:

If they only offer fixed tariffs to switching customers, that are way higher than the EPG rate, then they fulfil that licence condition.  Is that what you want?

Well that would surely be restrictive practice to offer uncompetitive tariffs only and not within the spirit of the code; not least now that the Gov intervention has given what the industry was supposedly asking for.

If people are suffering poor customer service or poor deals  why shouldn’t they be able to move supplier? Otherwise it’s a virtual monopoly of poor service by the industry, (which quite frankly is not renowned for excelling in CS) in the full and certain knowledge you cannot move away!

Ofgem has made it very clear in recent days that suppliers have to accept requests to switch. The problem prior to yesterday was that most suppliers were losing money on the capped tariff if they accepted new customers. I haven’t a clue whether this situation has changed with the introduction of the EPG. 

Which supplier do you want to switch to? Have you tried giving CS a call rather than resorting to an online switch. I know of two people who have switched to Octopus in the past 2 days.

grn99

Dolor said:

grn99 said:

Deleted_User said:

If they only offer fixed tariffs to switching customers, that are way higher than the EPG rate, then they fulfil that licence condition.  Is that what you want?

Well that would surely be restrictive practice to offer uncompetitive tariffs only and not within the spirit of the code; not least now that the Gov intervention has given what the industry was supposedly asking for.

If people are suffering poor customer service or poor deals  why shouldn’t they be able to move supplier? Otherwise it’s a virtual monopoly of poor service by the industry, (which quite frankly is not renowned for excelling in CS) in the full and certain knowledge you cannot move away!

Ofgem has made it very clear in recent days that suppliers have to accept requests to switch. The problem prior to yesterday was that most suppliers were losing money on the capped tariff if they accepted new customers. I haven’t a clue whether this situation has changed with the introduction of the EPG. 

Which supplier do you want to switch to? Have you tried giving CS a call rather than resorting to an online switch. I know of two people who have switched to Octopus in the past 2 days.

It’s the OP that is looking to move, but I certainly thought there was a window opening up to move post 1st Oct, I just cannot find any reference to it. I’m sure your answer will be of help to the OP though. 

Getferret

In reply to OP, currently with Bulb and looking to switch.  I have E7 and could be saving £500/year if switch to EDF based on new rates and last 12 months usage.  I don’t have smart meter so that one my questions for EDF and Octopus when I call tomorrow for quotes.

Hysteron

Dolor said:

Which supplier do you want to switch to? Have you tried giving CS a call rather than resorting to an online switch. I know of two people who have switched to Octopus in the past 2 days.

Thanks Dolor, I am currently with Utility Warehouse on an E7 tariff, my usage is massively weighted towards nighttime use as I'm all electric, and heating together with hot water is around 80% of my usage over the year.

The new nighttime rate with EW is 16.90p but I have seen published rates now with EDF at 11.30p on a prepayment meter and a rate of 11.46p with Scottish Power paying by direct debit. I'd prefer to switch to Scottish Power rather than change to prepayment but as I said in my original post I do not know if they will take on new customers for this tariff whereas I've been led to believe that EDF will.

I will be phoning SP tomorrow anyway regardless and finding out the answer but hoped that someone reading my post might have some helpful pointers if they had recently tried to switch supplier and might have help in how to discuss this with the call centre operator before phoning.