Avro Energy reviews: Give your feedback

town_cryer · 14 November 2017 at 12:43AM

Switched from GB Energy in September - everything went smoothly. Received 'welcome pack' as promised. Don't like having to pay a month upfront but if it bothered me that much I didn't have to sign up with them. Just received a reminder to send in my November readings and have done it. There are no exit fees so I will keep watching for better deals but happy enough at the moment.

smipx013 · 14 November 2017 at 11:25AM

smipx013 wrote: »

Very Very poor.

They sent a final estimated reading to old supplier that was incorrect and when I challenged them they told me they were sending the correct reading that I provided a few days later. They never did so I am currently in dispute with them and out of pocket to the tune of about £40. you also have to wait 15-30 minutes every time you call them. Just not worth hassle. AVOID!!!!

Hi,

I just wanted to update you on this issue.

After threatening AVRO with a complaint to Energy Ombudsman Service - within 1 hour of submitting this complaint their disputed readings team "called" PFP energy - gave them the correct readings verbally - PFP issued me with the correct "Final Bill" and Avro emailed me to confirm all is done. The threat seemed to make them behave the way they should have behaved in the first place. They also told me that the complaint email I sent them one month before was not even logged as a complaint but forwarded to the disputed readings team - I felt this was underhand as it was a complaint and should have been logged as such before then being sent to the correct department to deal with. They told me I could log another complaint if I wanted any compensation for all the hours wasted acting as a middle man between themselves and my previous (PFP) supplier who - by the way had excellent customer service.

So - I did log a complaint with the Energy Ombudsman Service and I will now see what they make of the situation. I am self employed and lost both time and money dealing with AVRO's deficincies. I have asked the Ombudsman if I am entitled to ask for some compensation and I will update this forum with their findings and reply.

I expect the main issue here is AVRO's growing pains due to high demand but - it is underhand and lazy to do estimated final readings when I supplied them with readings on the day of the switch over and not to even log my "complaint email" as a complaint is sly and only serves to make their departmental stats look better in customer services. It only serves their own purposes and not the customers who then have to spend weeks and months chasing and wasting their time. I will certainly be fighting for some redress as I feel they should not be allowed to get away with it.

FYI I was very happy with the help and support received from PFP energy - they were good and served me well for the year I was with them. I only moved to Avro because Money Saving Expert "Cheap energy club" service suggested I did so.

I wish with hindsight that I had not!!!

cheers,
Paul

admars · 14 November 2017 at 11:45AM

Avro are actually responding to my emails quite promptly with helpful info, explaining the situation from their end, and explaining about what info is held centrally for all energy suppliers to access, British Gas however aren't being to helpful with their replies which aren't very frequent, or helpful

Stoke · 14 November 2017 at 1:34PM

I'm with Avro. Have been all year. My account is almost £100 in credit. Be interesting to see if I can get that back from them

smipx013 · 14 November 2017 at 2:11PM

Maybe ive just been unlucky but I did a bit of googling and it is a common complaint with them about sending estimated final/initial readings to your old supplier. I don not think that is acceptable and should not be allowed. I hope the regulator sees this and makes some changes to the rules.

Raxiel · 14 November 2017 at 2:33PM

smipx013 wrote: »

Maybe ive just been unlucky but I did a bit of googling and it is a common complaint with them about sending estimated final/initial readings to your old supplier. I don not think that is acceptable and should not be allowed. I hope the regulator sees this and makes some changes to the rules.

This isn't Avro's doing.

It is industry standard practice, that end/start readings are validated by a third party. This third party compares them to historical usage for the property. Those validated numbers are then used by both suppliers to make sure there is no gap or overlap.

Occasionally the third party will amend a reading. This may seem unfair when you've given an accurate reading, but the fact is that some people don't. It's not unknown for people to fiddle readings up or down to their benefit and that's why this system is in place.

If a reading is amended, it goes down as an estimate, and both suppliers have to use it. You can appeal, but only if the difference is above a certain threshold. As long as both suppliers use the same reading the actual difference is unlikely to add up to much.

smipx013 · 14 November 2017 at 3:15PM

What is does add up to is lot of stress, time and mis-understanding to the average consumer. In my view the system is not fit for purpose.

If they want accurate readings why the hell don't they send a meter reader around like they used to - seemed a much more reliable and better and more accurate and fairer system in my view.

And.... what I was hilighting also was the way that AVRO handled the situation and my email complaint which (at very best) was very poorly. They didn't explain any of that properly and then when they said the reading were sent through via Flows ??? Whatever that is - they blamed the system and not themselves for not following it up properly. As my supplier it is/was their responsibility to deal properly and effectively with he situation and they did not. I had to waste countless hours on the phone calls chasing them up to get the proper readings to the right place to pay by final bill with PFP accurately. I don't think that is too much to ask.

smipx013 · 14 November 2017 at 3:21PM

Sorry Raxiel - that was a bit rude and terse of me. I didn't mean to take it out on the "messenger" so to speak but this has got me really annoyed and made me very cynical of the whole energy supply situation in this country.

I apologise.
Paul

Raxiel · 14 November 2017 at 5:29PM

smipx013 wrote: »

Sorry Raxiel - that was a bit rude and terse of me. I didn't mean to take it out on the "messenger" so to speak but this has got me really annoyed and made me very cynical of the whole energy supply situation in this country.

I apologise.
Paul

No offence taken, it's understandably frustrating when no one explains it clearly, and you have to come to places like this to actually find out what various acronyms and arcane terms (such as 'flows') mean.

Edit In answer to your question.
The third party verification rules date back to privatisation and the opening of the energy market (although the data they use can go back much further). Meter readers are still sent, at varying frequency depending on the company, and the readings they take do inform the 'average' that the verifiers use, but they work an area at a time and it's not cost effective to send one to a particular consumers house on the exact day they are going to switch.

So it's down to the consumer to give the reading on the day, and unfortunately some people do lie, so everyone gets scrutinised.

Personal anecdote; thanks to various energy efficiency efforts, I use a lot less gas than I used to. For my last two switches, my honest and accurate readings have been increased by the verifiers because I was below the average they expected. As the old tariff was cheaper in each case, I was actually better off! (Less than a quid each time, but still).

Once we're all in smart meter nirvana :rotfl:(the real, second gen one, not the typical government boondongle we have now) I'm sure the new supplier will just take the first reading remotely and sort it out from there, but government regulations being what they are, they'll probably still need to go through the verifiers for a few more years just because that's what the regs say!

smipx013 · 14 November 2017 at 5:56PM

what a mess :-)
Typical British ingenuity.......

Totally off subject but.....

Just like the excellent job our elected representatives are currently making of the brexit negotiations (not). I wonder when MadMan Trump will nuke North Korea and the Brexit all goes belly up what will happen to the stock markets and all those lovely stocks and shares ISA's we are all relying on for income in later life!! I just got out of the market and converted all mine to cash because I can see what's coming - I hope I'm wrong but I like to err on the side of caution after the last market crash :-)

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