Changes To StayWarm

emanday

Alan_Vickers wrote: »

I was under the impression that from about September 2006 StayWarm's charges were no longer dependant upon the number of bedreooms but were related to actual usage. If that is the case why do StayWarm refer to the number of bedrooms in their email?

To be truthful Alan, I am beginning to wonder if the people I spoke to on the phone or the lady who sent me that email ACTUALLY KNOW ANYTHING at all about it.

I've not responded to her email as I keep getting the "steam coming out my ears" syndrome every time I look at it.

Thinks to myself - can they do you for questioning someone's intelligence in an email?:rolleyes:

dodo

There are two separate forums running on Gas and Elect covering Staywarm.
This one started in 2005 and another started in 2006 (I think) Since they seem to cover the same subjects, can they be combined please?

emanday

Alan_Vickers wrote: »

I was under the impression that from about September 2006 StayWarm's charges were no longer dependant upon the number of bedreooms but were related to actual usage. If that is the case why do StayWarm refer to the number of bedrooms in their email?

Good question!

Further enquiries with E-ON have totally failed to elicit ANY kind of sensible response. I simply believe E-ON's "telephone answering individuals" have absolutely no knowledge of their company's systems.

(I was going to write "telephone answering drones" but I deal with a lot of folk on the phone and most are intelligent people who actually CARE, unlike E-ON's people).

Am I being naive expecting the calculation (as per their explanation) to be Previous Usage x Number of People x Number of Bedrooms x PRICE/TARIFF? (The latter being some huge secret!)

Or are they desperately hoping I back off and they don't have to admit they are ripping off trusting but vulnerable elderly people by using a profiteering tariff in that "PRICE/TARIFF" part of the calculation?

Got news for them - I ain't backing off!!!

Alan_Vickers

I started with StayWarm in March 2001 and at that time the charges were based on what was quoted in a published grid that related to the number of people and the number of bedrooms. During 2001 and 2002 StayWarm was operated by TXU Energi. From October 2002 they were taken over by Powergen who were part of E.ON

From 2002 to 2007 our percentage increases at the annual renewal varied from 9.62% to 27.94%

The information provided at renewal time was very poor, only kWh's of energy used being quoted. Calorific values of the gas supplied were never quoted neither were any meter readings. Regarding the gas used we were quoted 24,961 kWh one year, 903.1 kWh for the next year and then 24,468 kWh for the next for fairly comparable usage - how they arrived at the second amount was never explained but it was clearly wrong. As regards the electricity usage these were often quoted to two decimal places although the meter only registerred to one decimal place.

In November 2007 I made an enquiry with StayWarm as to their charges and I was asked to provide current meter readings only to be informed that I should expect a large increase at the next renewal as we were using more electricity than they would exopect - 4900 kWh was quoted. I subsequently received a telephone call to apologise and say that a mistake had been made and they expected that our electricity usage may only be marginally higher. Following this I decided to immediately arrange to transfer to another supplier and this transfer took place in the first days of 2008.

Our payments for 2008, for fairly comparable usage of gas and electricity, amounted to about £47 less than we paid StayWarm in 2007 and this was after absorbing the approximate 55% increase in energy costs during 2008. Since then we have received a credit of more that £73 as a result of being on an incorrect tariff and being overcharged.

My own view is that if StayWarm have any rules about charging bands etc then they are not forthcoming with information on what they are. I am more inclined to think that they make the rules up as they go along.

My regret is that we did not transfer from StayWarm much earlier than we did - yes we had the sucurity (in theory at least although perhaps not in practice) of being able to use as much gas and electricity as we wished without extra cost - but we paid very highly for that privilage.

Alan Vickers.

jinty1944

When your renewal was calculated in June of last year you were given a standard StayWarm price, we did not take your usage into consideration.
For your information I have Calculated your consumption for that period as 22459 Gas Kwh, 5338 Electric Day kwh using electric readings of 19234 from 04 June 2008 and 14304 from 03 July 2007, gas readings of 9115 from 04 June 2008 and 8462 on 03 July 2007.
I have Calculated your consumption for this year as 20470 Gas Kwh, 4517 Electric Day kwh using electric readings of 22322 from 26 February 2009 and 17506 from 03 February 2008 and gas readings of 9550 from 26 February 2009 and 8863 on 03 February 2008.
This would cost £108.00 per month on a consumption based tariff.

Kind regards

Haven't had time to check this out but it was the reply I received when I asked for my meter readings/consumption which had been used to set my 2008/2009 payment figures.

Cheers,
Janet

emanday

Therein lies the problem jinty1944

"This would cost £108.00 per month on a consumption based tariff."

They don't seem to want to tell anyone exactly what that tariff actually is!

losgiganteskid

I have just received from Staywarm the new monthly charge on my account. Last year I was paying £80.41 per month - they now wish to charge me £93.19 per month.

Is this about the going rate ? - or am I being ripped off or am I on a good deal.??

martint123

As a percentage increase it is very similar to mine (possibly a little less).

khublaikhan

Just come across this,

Can someone please clarify for me whether the reasons StayWarm kick out Users is high usage or the number of rooms??

My parents were booted off last year and the reasons given was of the number of rooms - if there were more than 3 bedrooms then they were not eligible?? I rang StayWarm a few months ago to ask whether they would reconsider and they denied once again on the basis of the number of rooms. They even adviced me to ask my parents to move house!

I would be interested to hear if I have been told porkies??

Thanks

madmaxine47

I am currently with staywarm and have just had my renewal letter the price has gone up by nearly 38%. I have all my meter readings but I do not know how to work out the kilowatt hours that the comparison sites ask for, can anyone help with a formula to do this please