Boost Energy Supplier

marleneb1

I have been a prepayment customer with Boost for a couple of years. I am on their vulnerable priority register. For the past week the Boost App has not been working. It's the only way I can top up my energy supply balance. Customer Service through all channels is not fit for purpose and after waiting in a queue for 2 hours you are either cut off or given misleading information.
I am very worried that Boost are actually having serious operating problems and are in the process of winding up their business.
Has anyone heard anything about what is happening with Boost and/or have any advice to offer prepayment customers who have electrical dependencies what they can do to ensure continuity of electrical supply? Thanks.

MattMattMattUK

marleneb1 said:

I have been a prepayment customer with Boost for a couple of years. I am on their vulnerable priority register. For the past week the Boost App has not been working. It's the only way I can top up my energy supply balance. 

Is it not working for everyone, or do you mean you specifically are having problems with it? Can you not top up via their website as well? They also offer topup via PayPoint. 

marleneb1 said:

Customer Service through all channels is not fit for purpose and after waiting in a queue for 2 hours you are either cut off or given misleading information.

The customer service departments of all energy suppliers are struggling at the moment due to the amount of pointless contacts they are receiving from the public at the moment, it will improve but for the moment contacting any of them is generally not as easy as it was.

marleneb1 said:

I am very worried that Boost are actually having serious operating problems and are in the process of winding up their business.

I do not know about "serious operating problems", they have not put out any of the required warnings/notifications and from evidence available are not "winding up their business".

marleneb1 said:

Has anyone heard anything about what is happening with Boost and/or have any advice to offer prepayment customers who have electrical dependencies what they can do to ensure continuity of electrical supply? Thanks.

There does not appear to be anything happening at Boost beyond being swamped as most suppliers are at the moment, which I accept is far from ideal.

stewie_griffin

They’re owned by OVO so are highly unlikely to be on the brink of going bust. 

marleneb1

stewie_griffin said:

They’re owned by OVO so are highly unlikely to be on the brink of going bust. 

https://www.ft.com/content/6af13d4d-392a-49e3-8b91-dff30c7b5104
Seems to be some truth in the rumours.

MattMattMattUK

marleneb1 said:

stewie_griffin said:

They’re owned by OVO so are highly unlikely to be on the brink of going bust. 

https://www.ft.com/content/6af13d4d-392a-49e3-8b91-dff30c7b5104
Seems to be some truth in the rumours.

Not really. The issue was that with the price cap suppliers were being forced to sell below cost for much of the last 18 months, that combined with a high default rate if prices had risen as originally envisioned was expected to cause issues. The EPG has solved, or at least mitigated that as suppliers are now making a small profit (around 1.8%) and it is expected to reduce the default rate significantly. 

EssexHebridean

Tiggy, this is a year-old thread, so the issue reported by Marlene may well not be the same that you are suffering.