Add your feedback on energy supplier Powershop

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  • fewkeste
    fewkeste Posts: 534
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    edited 18 July 2017 at 1:43PM
    neilsedaka wrote: »
    It appears that Powershop are no longer listed in the MSE Cheap Energy Club price comparisons. Does anyone know why that would be?

    I was in an email exchange with MSE about Powershop tariffs - I'll ask and post on here.

    (MSE Laura has already posted in response to my email so I won't post again after all.)
  • neilsedaka wrote: »
    It appears that Powershop are no longer listed in the MSE Cheap Energy Club price comparisons. Does anyone know why that would be?

    Hi neilsedaka,

    I've checked this from our end and it looks as though Powershop is still displayed on the Cheap Energy Club results page.

    You'd need to make sure you were just comparing electricity-only tariffs, as this supplier doesn't supply gas. It could also be that based on your usage, the tariff is more expensive than others and so appears further down the list of results.

    Hope this helps.
    MSE Laura
  • geoffW
    geoffW Posts: 181
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    MSE_Laura wrote: »
    Hi neilsedaka,

    I've checked this from our end and it looks as though Powershop is still displayed on the Cheap Energy Club results page.

    You'd need to make sure you were just comparing electricity-only tariffs, as this supplier doesn't supply gas. It could also be that based on your usage, the tariff is more expensive than others and so appears further down the list of results.

    Hope this helps.
    MSE Laura
    I was going to give Powershop a try but unfortunately they have just had a huge price hike. A shame.
  • fewkeste
    fewkeste Posts: 534
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    geoffW wrote: »
    I was going to give Powershop a try but unfortunately they have just had a huge price hike. A shame.

    Are you sure? Where did you find this out? I'm a customer & I'm not aware of a price rise.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,077
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    geoffW wrote: »
    I was going to give Powershop a try but unfortunately they have just had a huge price hike. A shame.

    I have just checked. Powershop's standard variable tariff hasn't changed. This tariff underpins what Powershop calls its Easy Saver and Easy Saver Promise tariffs.
  • geoffW
    geoffW Posts: 181
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    fewkeste wrote: »
    Are you sure? Where did you find this out? I'm a customer & I'm not aware of a price rise.

    I use the MSE Cheap Energy Club, they say I would now be paying an extra £97 pa, an increase of £74 from my quote of two weeks ago.
    However I have checked the Powershop website and the prices are the same as before, so maybe it's the way Cheap Energy Club have recalculated the prices, check it yourselves. They have the unit rate as 12.957 per Kwh which Powershop say is next years price promise (this is lower than the 13.503p Kwh they now promise).
    Complicated isn't it?
  • fewkeste
    fewkeste Posts: 534
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    geoffW wrote: »
    I use the MSE Cheap Energy Club, they say I would now be paying an extra £97 pa, an increase of £74 from my quote of two weeks ago.
    However I have checked the Powershop website and the prices are the same as before, so maybe it's the way Cheap Energy Club have recalculated the prices, check it yourselves. They have the unit rate as 12.957 per Kwh which Powershop say is next years price promise (this is lower than the 13.503p Kwh they now promise).
    Complicated isn't it?
    The rates you are shown depend where you are in the country, so I couldn't check your rates as my region (East Midlands) would be different. What MSE told me was they were unable/unwilling to show the best rate somebody COULD achieve (by buying all the discounted powerpacks) because it relied on customers taking additional action after they had joined.

    I then made the point that the whole purpose of the Powershop way of doing things was that you do buy discounted powerpacks and that only a crazy or wasteful person would sit on the standard tariff and do nothing. The specific reply I got was:

    'Thank your for your feedback on this. The energy market is changing and these different, more innovative, tariffs are emerging so we'll need to think about how we'll cater for these.

    We're continuing to look into this, but we've had guidance from our internal compliance team that it'd be wary of showing users a rate of a tariff where further action is needed to get this rate. For now we do have information about this on Powershop tariffs on the Cheap Energy Club comparison results page.'


    So, it's causing a bit of head scratching at MSE. Don't show the best rate you could achieve and you penalise Powershop. Show only the standard tariff and again, you penalise Powershop. Tricky one to get right. I think there needs to be a lot of asterisks and footnotes. The Which? comparison website showed the 'best price' you could achieve - that's why I signed up for Powershop.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,077
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    fewkeste wrote: »
    The rates you are shown depend where you are in the country, so I couldn't check your rates as my region (East Midlands) would be different. What MSE told me was they were unable/unwilling to show the best rate somebody COULD achieve (by buying all the discounted powerpacks) because it relied on customers taking additional action after they had joined.

    I then made the point that the whole purpose of the Powershop way of doing things was that you do buy discounted powerpacks and that only a crazy or wasteful person would sit on the standard tariff and do nothing. The specific reply I got was:

    'Thank your for your feedback on this. The energy market is changing and these different, more innovative, tariffs are emerging so we'll need to think about how we'll cater for these.

    We're continuing to look into this, but we've had guidance from our internal compliance team that it'd be wary of showing users a rate of a tariff where further action is needed to get this rate. For now we do have information about this on Powershop tariffs on the Cheap Energy Club comparison results page.'


    So, it's causing a bit of head scratching at MSE. Don't show the best rate you could achieve and you penalise Powershop. Show only the standard tariff and again, you penalise Powershop. Tricky one to get right. I think there needs to be a lot of asterisks and footnotes. The Which? comparison website showed the 'best price' you could achieve - that's why I signed up for Powershop.

    As I said in previous posts, Powershop is trying to fit its offers into a standard tariff table. I am not surprised that the MSE Compliance Team is keeping this under review. As PCWs are Ofgem accredited then presumably Ofgem will have a view.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,077
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    geoffW wrote: »
    I use the MSE Cheap Energy Club, they say I would now be paying an extra £97 pa, an increase of £74 from my quote of two weeks ago.
    However I have checked the Powershop website and the prices are the same as before, so maybe it's the way Cheap Energy Club have recalculated the prices, check it yourselves. They have the unit rate as 12.957 per Kwh which Powershop say is next years price promise (this is lower than the 13.503p Kwh they now promise).
    Complicated isn't it?

    I have just run a quote on the Powershop website for my usage and postcode and the standard variable and the Easy Saver tariff rates haven't changed.Interestingly, the Easy Saver Promise cost has risen by £5 a year.

    Query:

    1. PS worried that more customers will do nothing and just go with the fixed price equivalent tariff?

    2. Just matching movements in the fixed price market?

    3. PS anticipating an increase in the SVT in the next 12 months?
  • fewkeste
    fewkeste Posts: 534
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    Hengus wrote: »
    As I said in previous posts, Powershop is trying to fit its offers into a standard tariff table. I am not surprised that the MSE Compliance Team is keeping this under review. As PCWs are Ofgem accredited then presumably Ofgem will have a view.

    Yes, you'd like to think that Powershop are also talking to Ofgem to come up with a way to show what can reasonably be achieved. After all if they are not allowed to show what can be achieved with a bit of effort by the consumer, then it is the consumer who will lose out in the end.

    Powershop's way of doing things is quite revolutionary (though I understand other suppliers are now doing something similar) and the problem with being 'new and different' is that the 'old ways' of measuring and comparing you to other suppliers won't always work. I wonder how many potential customers have declined the opportunity to make good savings because the PS way of doing things is different. We as established customers know it's not a big deal really - it just looks like it to outsiders. People on this forum have rejected the PS way (and denied themselves the savings) because they thought it was too complicated when it isn't really.

    A cruel/realistic way of looking at things is it's almost like a 'natural selection' of energy users. Those who are prepared to spend a bit of brain power to get on top of things will win, those who can't be bothered will lose.:)
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