Changes To StayWarm

sensis

i have just extended my home to provide a granny flat for my parents who are both over 60yrs does this mean i would be eligible for staywarm as it states for people over 60

Graham1

For anyone joining or leaving please be aware that when your (final) bill comes they bill you in whole month amounts irrespective of what day of the month you joined and what day of the month you leave. E.g. you could join in mid November and leave in mid November of the following year and be billed for 13 monthly payments even though they have only supplied you for the equivalent of 12 months.

So, if you are thinking of joining try to arrange a switch date on or shortly after 1'st of a month.

And if you are leaving try to arrange a switch date close to the end of a month.

margaretclare

Graham1 wrote:

For anyone joining or leaving please be aware that when your (final) bill comes they bill you in whole month amounts irrespective of what day of the month you joined and what day of the month you leave. E.g. you could join in mid November and leave in mid November of the following year and be billed for 13 monthly payments even though they have only supplied you for the equivalent of 12 months.

Thanks for this, Graham. Personally, from what I've seen/heard/read about Staywarm, and comparing their prices with what we pay now, I wouldn't touch them with the proverbial barge-pole, notwithstanding my advanced age.

Aunty Margaret

kevinyork

Ok, Mum has been with them about 20 months. Works out well for her as she likes her home warm, even after it being well insulated, and she has a conservatory she uses all the time which has an electric heater (wow do these use heat). So she is happy with a fixed tariff.

However a major problem with Powergen who administer Staywarm this week. She receives a letter out of the blue saying she is £187 in the red. She signed a Direct Debit mandate when joining and assumed these were being taken out ok. However it appears the it took four months for Powergen to initiate the direct debit causing a balance to accrue on her account. What made this worse is that they failed to advise her of this for 19 months after the first missed payment!

The letter is abrubt and makes no reference to the amount being due because the first few direct debits were not set up quickly enough nor does it point out this is the first letter referring to the debt. It strongly states 'make immediate payment'. Mum wanted to join Staywarm to budget her pension money and here she is facing a large bill a month before Christmas, and to make it worse a bill she didnt expect and one she hadnt received any previous notification of.

I phoned them for her and they were terrible. To quote 'yes it is our fault we didnt set the direct debits up earlier but she has used the fuel and has to pay'. I upped it to a Supervisor who was slightly better and indeed offered a £30 credit and payment over 12 months (after much pushing from me) but she lost my interest again by saying 'why didnt your Mum check her bank account and contact us when she knew the Direct Debits hadnt come out'. The fact that she is 71 had no impact on her. I asked to speak to a Manager about these innapropriate letters going to pensioners. They make no reference to why the debt occured, no apology and read like final demands. It certainly upset Mum a lot. She offered a callback from a Manager. 2 hours later another Supervisor called back saying the Manager was busy and anyway they didnt speak to the public. I persisted saying that I wanted to speak to someone who had some influence over these upsetting letters but he refused to pass on my details saying he could offer a £50 credit instead. By this time I had no interest in the money due, rather wanted to get to the bottom of these demand letters being sent to pensioners. (He did admit that the outstanding debts had been picked up by a new computer system and the letters had been automatically generated). He said all I could do was write in. I told him to leave the debt on file until I got some piece of mind about the letters. Ive written in already and must say am incensed. Yes Mum owes that money but there are ways of dealing with Customers, especially the elderley ones who are the customer base for Staywarm.

Graham1

Yes, just look at "complaints received" on the energywatch website. Powergen have twice the industry average level of account and billing complaints filed by customers against them.

chas1937

Hi All,My problem has been with Scottish Power although I have been with Staywarm since sept 2001.I got a call from them on wednesday to say that there had been an erroneous transfer and that Staywarm would need too send all my payments back to me.Then they said Staywarm would transfer me back too Scottish Power when they would bill me from 2001 at Scottish power prices.After that they would then transfer me back too Staywarm.As you can imagine they have as much chance of doing that as me winning lottery.I,ve had problems with Scottish Power in sept this year and energy watch got that sorted and too wich i have letter from their senior customer relations manager stating that all had been sorted and I,d hear no more from them.As I,ve stil had no word from either of the companies I just have to wait and see what great idea they come up with.I will keep site posted as to outcome of this affair,thanks.
Chas1937

ehs34

Finally had the efficiency survey last Friday. Quite painless. Asked several questions re number of rooms etc, had a quick look in the loft and read the gas & electricity meters. He gave me two 20w high energy light bulbs and told me we would get additional free loft insulation up to 10" thick. We could also have free cavity wall insulation but we already have it. Will wait and see what happens but still haven't received any reply to my letters of Sept and Nov re increase in payments and supposed high usage so I'm not holding my breath. To be continued.

Graham1

To set the record straight - my posting on 23'rd November saying they round up all final account billing to whole months was erroneous. In fact they rounded my final account bill down to whole months so I actually got 11 days of supply extra for free.

This mistake was caused by a misunderstanding of what they were saying on the phone, a lost bill in the post, and their bills not taking account of DD payments collected in the few weeks before a bill is issued.

So if my posting put anyone off of staywarm please ignore it.

chas1937

anyone help me understand how i come to find my consumption from these figures
meter Rate 1 24 units
meter Rate 2 66 units
meter Total Rate 327.5 units
that is consumption for past week so do i add those together then multply by 52 to get yearly use.I have 3 electric storage heaters and on Staywarm and take it that will be economy7.Its all electric with no gas and 3apt mid terrace.Got double glazed windows and doors and also cavity wall and loft insulation.Also use energy bulbs throughout house.Any help would be appreciated,Thanks.
Charlie

Graham1

At this time of the year your night rate units being used on economy 7 will typically be 4 or 5 times as much per night than during the summer months (when it's mostly just hot water tank heating). So you definitely shouldn't just take a week's consumption and multiply by 52. That will significantly over estimate your annual consumption.

Try to find actual meter readings (e.g. from past bills) as close as possible to 1 year apart.