What do you rate your energy supplier out of 10

Mstty

vic_sf49 said:

Current - Octopus (since Oct) 10/10.

- They actually answered the phone when I wanted to switch to them.

- CS rep answered my questions (double checking SVR rates at that time), started the switch, then made sure I'd received emails before ending the call.

- My smart meters became smart again at the point of switching.

- Website and app, that both work, and are nice and clear.

- Monthly billing.

- Can request things/help via email. Billing date moved at my request. Switched to the tracker tariff at my request, in a little over 12 hours.

- Energy saving sessions help.

- £50 each, for a referral is a nice bonus.

Previous - British Gas 2/10.

- 6 months between bills was not ideal.

- Smart meters were no longer smart, and the excuses went on and on, as to why. Just say you don't know, or you need firmware sorting or something, and I'd be less irritated.

- Then try to submit a meter reading, and get told "nope, your meters are smart".

- Eventually submitted them via Messenger of all things.

- Website was clunky, and app rarely worked, and actually showed no useful information. And thankfully I left before it was migrated onto the new system.

- My submitted meter readings were added to one page, but not another, and the "in credit by ££xx" , was massively skewed because of it.

 - On a positive note, my £67 was paid fairly quickly, and my final bill was accurate and raised within a few days.

I got the feeling BG were drowning under complaints about smart meters losing comms, or not sending out the vouchers, and didn't have the capacity to deal with anything else.

Oof, that went on a bit, sorry about that.

Interestingly I had a chat with Greg Jackson on twitter(or whoever was running his account) I have a little bit more admiration for him now. 

username

Octopus 9/10

Staff are helpful via emails although the times for response have got slightly worse over the time, most likely due to all of the acquisitions piling on more work.

At least I can talk to them on my own terms and reply when it is convenient, rather than having to spend ages hanging on the phone (who wants to in 2023?) or having some chatbot sprinkle tinned replies at you that have no relevance to what you're contacting for.

The website is good enough and functional, can't comment on the phone service as I have never had the need to call them - which is a good thing really.

400ixl

British Gas have actually been pretty good since my SOLR transfer from Neon Reef and I'd give the 8/10 which would have started lower and would now be higher.

Transfer from NR was a bit bumpy:
- The transfer itself with final billing etc took longer than it should really
- The comms weren't the best and some tried to take the highly optimistic view they would be on a fixed price (even though the tariff's did not say that, they read what they wanted into it)
- They allowed me to move onto a fixed tariff which in reality was closed but gave me 10 months of fixed pricing
- The billing got messed up due to the slow NR final billing and my moving to a fixed rate. But each time was fixed via a simple online chat session with new correct bills in 48 hours. This occurred each reading until their review date at which time it stayed sorted.

Most of the issues I have seen others posting about, many have been similar, but they have decided to take humbridge and make thing far too awkward for themselves and blame BG when actually in most cases could have been avoided if they had been proactive in sorting them out. Not helped by the take them to the ombudsman brigade as step 1 brigade on here rather than just work it through politely which gets faster and better results, at least in my case.

Since transfer they have been pretty flexible and done what they said they would:
- They have allowed me to set the monthly DD to what I want
- They have allowed me to request (and paid) credit refunds when I have wanted
- They paid the £400 quickly with no fuss back to my account as they said they would
- They have paid the £200 alternative fuel payment quickly as credit to my account
- They quickly generate bills when i add the meter readings
- They have clearly communicated upon tariff changes (both advanced warning and when they happen)
- They are arranging to fit a smart meter as requested

Nothing really to complain about and have had far worse with some previous suppliers. Will look around when the time is right and there are pro's to doing it but not in a hurry whilst I have an old style meter and no EV / Solar to take into account.

Some of my previous suppliers:

Neon Reef - 2/10 - Getting hold of them was nigh on impossible
Octopus - 4/10 - Customer service was pretty useless (few years ago now though and reputation appears to be better now)
Bulb - 8/10 - Pretty good, price kept going up so moved
Scottish Power - 2/10 - worst supplier I have ever had on all fronts
E.oN - 6/10 - OK, but billing was not a strong point 

peter_the_piper

BG, not too bad, 6/10. Would like monthly bills not 6 month.

Ovo, 5/10. Can't get their website to take electric readings, have to do it by chat line. Difficult to get them to send a monthly statement, sometimes wait months.

twopenny

British Gas 1/10 but I'd like to make it 0.

Twice they've accused me of not paying the bill. Last time they ignored the phone calls and online chat that assured me it was sorted but still put the Debt Collectors onto me via daily  emails. The bank could not get through - they were told to use the online chat.

The billing is all over the place.

EDF I would have given 9/10 until recently. Used to be able to phone and done/sorted, now it costs me time and money. Online chat you deal with a bot first for 10mins - then offers WhatsApp which I don't have, then 'no chat advisors are available'. 

I'll now give a 5/10 just because the billing is correct and clear.

I was going to move my gas to them but now reading this thread for other options.

Spoonie_Turtle

username said:

… can't comment on the phone service as I have never had the need to call them - which is a good thing really.

The system they use ties your account details to your phone number so that when you phone on that number, they have your details all ready to go.  You can also choose your hold music - and silence is an option, which if you find hold music exhausting is an awesome accessibility feature.

I'd forgotten about that though, as I haven't needed to phone them for a very long time.  Might have to revise my previous 9.5 to a 9.8/10.