Is 8.1 Billion too much for energy firms to hold of customer money?

ArbitraryRandom

Grumpy_chap said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

I wonder how people will feel if gets very bad and one of the bigger suppliers failed. 

Are there any smaller suppliers still standing?

If EDF failed, I would be dancing in the street.  I guess my "happy day" is very unlikely to come around as the French Government would bail them out before they failed.

ArbitraryRandom said:

I'd recommend considering changing suppliers
a supplier who will be difficult if there are ever any other problems. 

Easier said than done.
I never wanted to be with EDF but they stole my custom as SoLR.
They provide the most appalling customer service.
They block every attempt to move to another supplier.
Being with EDF is most definitely the last resort.
It is about time the regulator forced these suppliers to allow customers to leave.

Another example of a less than typical situation I think

But as you mention it, I asked you on the other thread - do you know why are they blocking you? Other people who were transferred (including to EDF) have changed supplier with no problems. If you feel the block is unjustified or if they haven't given you a reason, have you made a complaint/taken it to the ombudsman? 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

ArbitraryRandom said:

One of the reasons for the crisis last year was the number of suppliers in the market who didn't have significant reserves, and couldn't access finance - but again, accessing 'one form or another of credit' isn't something I'd consider a good things for customers. 

Those who went bust (at least some of them, I don't know about all) offered fixed DD and presumably had customers with built up credit which would have been relative to their size. 

Those who weathered the storm did so mainly because of their size and when you have a finite pool of customers in a market with capped profits (to the extent they are) a bunch of your competitors going bust gives you a bigger customer base, so whilst they may not make much per customer the bigger companies now each have more customers.

My understanding is we've paid for the costs of SoLR under the standing charge which includes the supply companies paying more to buy the energy than moved over customers were billed (that process also saved them the costs of acquiring those customers) and the even if new competition emerges consumers are likely to be wary, sure some will switch away for a cheaper price but equally some will stay put for certainty. 

The remaining big companies are in a pretty good position in that respect. 

MikeJXE

ArbitraryRandom said:

  

But as you mention it, I asked you on the other thread - do you know why are they blocking you? Other people who were transferred (including to EDF) have changed supplier with no problems. If you feel the block is unjustified or if they haven't given you a reason, have you made a complaint/taken it to the ombudsman? 

How is that even possible ?

Your a customer and can buy from wherever you wish surely 

Of course I could be wrong 

Grumpy_chap

ArbitraryRandom said:

Another example of a less than typical situation I think

But as you mention it, I asked you on the other thread - do you know why are they blocking you? Other people who were transferred (including to EDF) have changed supplier with no problems. If you feel the block is unjustified or if they haven't given you a reason, have you made a complaint/taken it to the ombudsman? 

I missed the query via the other thread - sorry.
Life as an EDF customer is a never-ending cycle of complaint - deadlock letter - Ombudsman - redress.
They blocked one of my requests to move because they considered it "unwise" and were looking after my interests in that the alternative tariff was more expensive.
Another attempt was blocked because it is not permitted to change while in the middle of a live complaint/escalation to the Ombudsman (which was confirmed is "in the the rules")

I am not sure how typical my situation is - there are other posters also mentioning difficulty in leaving.
I can only assume that the money generated, or share price growth / borrowing capacity on the back of market share, is worth carrying wholly dissatisfied customers. 
In any "ordinary" market, a supplier would be absolutely pleased to see the back of me.  I guess this is not an "ordinary" market - I have never received a NPS survey.

QrizB

dealyboy said:

I like to pay for a commodity at the best price when I use it. I do not consider subscriptions, insurances or annual licences where people pay annually in advance or higher charges by paying monthly in advance, to be commodities.

I assume, then, thst you are with Octopus on their Tracker or Agile tariffs? These are the only ones I know of that let you "pay for a commodity at the best price when I use it" rather than agreeing to higher (or lower) charges by paying in advance.

Qyburn

Netexporter said:

Qyburn said:

Netexporter said:

This also gives them a few extra months to dry out, if needed.

No need with these. Kiln-dried to a guaranteed maximum of 15% moisture. The latest lot were so dry I couldn't get a reading on the moisture meter.

Just out of interest who's the producer? All the KD suppliers I've seen just guarantee 20% or less, so they benefit from faster production but the end product is no different from air dried.

Anecdotally one of the KD producers whose campaigning brought about the "Ready to Burn" standard, was arguing for 16% rather than 20%.

Certainly Wood.

I have a couple of their sample bags from when they were recruiting retailers. It might be 15%, but I can't see that they're promising it.

"Certainly Wood is a founding member of the Woodsure Ready to Burn scheme, backed by Defra and guaranteeing below 20% moisture content."

"100% hardwood logs dried to below 20% moisture content, perfect for wood burning stoves and all fires, indoors and outdoors"

"If you are short of storage space and so cannot season your own wood, it is best to buy kiln dried logs which are ‘ready to burn’ and below 25%, but when you have a delivery, check the moisture content with your moisture meter and split a couple of logs to check the internal reading which should be no more than 30% max."

The last point is interesting. When I've measured KD wood the surface has been a lot wetter than the centre, but that was imported wood (from Latvia) suggesting its been dried to very low m/c to allow for increases in transport and storage.

ArbitraryRandom

MikeJXE said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

  

But as you mention it, I asked you on the other thread - do you know why are they blocking you? Other people who were transferred (including to EDF) have changed supplier with no problems. If you feel the block is unjustified or if they haven't given you a reason, have you made a complaint/taken it to the ombudsman? 

How is that even possible ?

Your a customer and can buy from wherever you wish surely 

Of course I could be wrong 

The most common reasons for blocking a switch is if the customer is mid contract or owes money - other reasons might be things like they switched to that supplier very recently and the transfer hasn't completed and practical/process based reasons like that.

 Grumpy_chap said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

Another example of a less than typical situation I think

But as you mention it, I asked you on the other thread - do you know why are they blocking you? Other people who were transferred (including to EDF) have changed supplier with no problems. If you feel the block is unjustified or if they haven't given you a reason, have you made a complaint/taken it to the ombudsman? 

Life as an EDF customer is a never-ending cycle of complaint - deadlock letter - Ombudsman - redress.

EDF don't sound great from what I've heard, hopefully you escape soon. IME Octopus and Ovo are good (but that was prior to Ovo taking over SSE and I've heard they've had some problems since). 

Strange that you can't leave mid complaint. I'm sure I left a supplier at one point during a complaint (the complaint being the reason I was leaving), but it maybe it depends on the type of complaint - I can see that if it's about your balance for example they might not let you go until it's sorted because they don't know if there's a debt on the account or whatever. 

Grumpy_chap

ArbitraryRandom said:

The most common reasons for blocking a switch is if the customer is mid contract or owes money - other reasons might be things like they switched to that supplier very recently and the transfer hasn't completed and practical/process based reasons like that.



EDF don't sound great from what I've heard, hopefully you escape soon. IME Octopus and Ovo are good (but that was prior to Ovo taking over SSE and I've heard they've had some problems since). 

Strange that you can't leave mid complaint. I'm sure I left a supplier at one point during a complaint (the complaint being the reason I was leaving), but it maybe it depends on the type of complaint - I can see that if it's about your balance for example they might not let you go until it's sorted because they don't know if there's a debt on the account or whatever. 

Annoyingly, EDF have refunded me the small credit balance I did have and reduced by monthly, just as we head into the winter.  Which will result in forced accumulation of debt which they will then be able too use as a reason to block the next leave request.

It really is most bizarre - the more desperate I get to leave, the more desperate they get to keep me.
It is almost like the energy supplier equivalent of the propensity for the printer to jam being directly linked to the importance and urgency of the document being printed.

In any other industry sector, EDF would be desperate to get rid of me.

We come back to the comment upthread that the only thing I can hope for is EDF to fail so that SoLR can step in - frankly anyone has to be better than EDF.

I was in the process of a transfer to Octopus when EDF took over (so that failed) and have twice again tried to go to Octopus but both failed.  I now just put requests to go to anywhere in the vague hope that one will complete.  I just want out of the EDF disaster zone.  At least it will be one less customer slating EDF online, but EDF must like my input I guess.

Gerry1

@Grumpy_chap Remind me - have you made a Subject Access Request?

MikeJXE

Grumpy_chap said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

The most common reasons for blocking a switch is if the customer is mid contract or owes money - other reasons might be things like they switched to that supplier very recently and the transfer hasn't completed and practical/process based reasons like that.



EDF don't sound great from what I've heard, hopefully you escape soon. IME Octopus and Ovo are good (but that was prior to Ovo taking over SSE and I've heard they've had some problems since). 

Strange that you can't leave mid complaint. I'm sure I left a supplier at one point during a complaint (the complaint being the reason I was leaving), but it maybe it depends on the type of complaint - I can see that if it's about your balance for example they might not let you go until it's sorted because they don't know if there's a debt on the account or whatever. 

Annoyingly, EDF have refunded me the small credit balance I did have and reduced by monthly, just as we head into the winter.  Which will result in forced accumulation of debt which they will then be able too use as a reason to block the next leave request.

It really is most bizarre - the more desperate I get to leave, the more desperate they get to keep me.
It is almost like the energy supplier equivalent of the propensity for the printer to jam being directly linked to the importance and urgency of the document being printed.

In any other industry sector, EDF would be desperate to get rid of me.

We come back to the comment upthread that the only thing I can hope for is EDF to fail so that SoLR can step in - frankly anyone has to be better than EDF.

I was in the process of a transfer to Octopus when EDF took over (so that failed) and have twice again tried to go to Octopus but both failed.  I now just put requests to go to anywhere in the vague hope that one will complete.  I just want out of the EDF disaster zone.  At least it will be one less customer slating EDF online, but EDF must like my input I guess.

In Bold

If that was me I would make a substantial payment to bump up the credit and leave with no further contact till I had 

When you get your final bill it would be in credit and a refund would be the result 

So why not do that ?