not happy with sse/equipower changes

After all this kerfuffle....


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5608866

I too have received a letter from SSE telling me they're moving me from my SSE/Ebico account to a SSE standard tariff beginning on 24th August, which they calculate will increase my gas charges by £44.69 annually, and to partially compensate, they will credit me with equal monthly amounts of £3.73 for the next 6 months.
I will take advantage of this. However, after that they can keep their SSE standard tariff and I will move to Ebico/Robin Hood for my gas and continue to benefit from the "no standing charge" rule.

Ahah, now I know what you're all talking about.

I've already instigated the change to Robin Hood for both my fuels, but today got the letter from SSE, which obviously crossed in the post (process) and said they were moving me to the SSE Standard tariff.
Gas projection to go from £34 a year to £123! The electricity on the other hand was only a 27% increase.:D

Thanks SSE for confrming my decision, and I wonder what THX758 et al now think of their decision to stay with SSE?

I hope some do mind, as I've got a nice wodge of SSE shares and somebody has got to help pay the dividends.. As it happens aged parent has just moved into an all-electric flat and as deemed supplier I discovered that SSE was just about the most expensive supplier for that tariff, so that's been moved from them too.

My experience confirms the view expressed on MSE that it is worth changing suppliers and more people should.

EachPenny wrote: »

It was never a case of Ebico customers being "sold" to SSE, even with the 'sold' in inverted commas.

Ebico entered into a new arrangement with RHE and suggested most* customers moved to the new Ebico/RHE deal. In fact Ebico wanted to move us all*, unless we opted out. That turned out not to be possible and instead we had to ask to move.

SSE invited Ebico customers to stay with SSE and not switch to the new Ebico/RHE arrangement.

No they didn't.

We all* had a choice to make, stick with Ebico, or stick with SSE - but nobody was "sold" to SSE. If you remained with SSE it was because you made a choice (either intentionally or by default) to do so.
[* I use 'most' and 'all' because (as was explained by Ebico at the time) not all customers would benefit by switching to the new Ebico/RHE arrangement.

Again, not true. Ebico contacted me last Feb, telling me that they would be partnering R.H. Energy and would be switching me automatically to Ebico Zero. Only if I told them by 15th March that I didn't want this new arrangement would I be staying with SSE.

I did nothing so assumed the new arrangement had gone through. But I got a phone call only a month ago from Ebico telling me that there had been a legal cockup and that the new arrangement would now take place in 3 weeks if I still agreed. I did so. But today, they still haven't transferred me over and Ebico/RHE have no record of my new account or have any idea who phoned me about this. AFAIC Ebico have screwed up royally. Now SSE have just warned me that SSE Zero (zero standing charges) no longer exists and that I'll have to pay standing charges if I don't move by 24th August. I'll be out of there before then, I hope.

bendipa wrote: »

No they didn't.

Rather than take my word for it, please have a read of the threads which were running at the time where you will get confirmation of what I said. After Ebico wrote to customers saying we'll switch you unless you opt out, SSE wrote to customers saying that Ebico weren't allowed to do that. The letter also said SSE would continue the zero tariff and invited customers not to change to the new Ebico/RHE tariff.

Perhaps you didn't get this particular letter from SSE? In which case consider yourself very unlucky as most people were somewhat bombarded with letters and emails from SSE and Ebico.

bendipa wrote: »

Again, not true. Ebico contacted me last Feb, telling me that they would be partnering R.H. Energy and would be switching me automatically to Ebico Zero. Only if I told them by 15th March that I didn't want this new arrangement would I be staying with SSE.

As above, subsequent correspondence from both Ebico and SSE made it clear that the transfer to Ebico/RHE had to be an opt-in, not opt-out. If you didn't get any of the letters or emails explaining this then you are unfortunate. In fairness perhaps I should expand the choices we had to include "or assumed the switch would go according to plan and decided not to check it had actually happened".

bendipa wrote: »

I did nothing so assumed the new arrangement had gone through. But I got a phone call only a month ago from Ebico telling me that there had been a legal cockup and that the new arrangement would now take place in 3 weeks if I still agreed. I did so. But today, they still haven't transferred me over and Ebico/RHE have no record of my new account or have any idea who phoned me about this. AFAIC Ebico have screwed up royally. Now SSE have just warned me that SSE Zero (zero standing charges) no longer exists and that I'll have to pay standing charges if I don't move by 24th August. I'll be out of there before then, I hope.

That all sounds rather strange. SSE made it clear that customers had to opt-in to switching to Ebico/RHE, in turn Ebico confirmed the situation, they would switch customers who opted into the transfer. Therefore it doesn't make sense that Ebico would contact you as recently as a month ago as by then they would have assumed you were content to stay with SSE. If Ebico are saying it wasn't them who contacted you last month then you have to wonder who it was... did you get any written confirmation of the switch, a 'Welcome' pack for example?

Deleted_User wrote: »

Looks like maybe most people transfered to RHE/Ebico or elsewhere and the small amount of folk remaining on SSE Ebico has made it not viable to run a legacy SSE Zero tariff as first mooted.

To be fair, Ebico did say they were partnering with Robin Hood as SSE could no longer guarantee the tariff, so I cannot imagine many people staying with SSE when the new RH tariff was cheaper - and that was before the SSE increases!

As as it looks like SSE have pulled the tariff after only a few months, then it looks like overall Ebico made the right call here.