[arista]

"The energy firm is hit with a record penalty after it is found to have 'extensive poor sales practices' by the regulator.


E.On also agreed to set up a helpline and will write to 465,000 additional customers who may have been mis-sold contracts.

Ofgem said the company provided misleading information, operated lax management steps and discovered poor auditing results.

It said the firm failed to act on the audit results and did not always give key terms of a contract before completing sales."


http://news.sky.com/story/1262695/e-...er-mis-selling

[Josy]

I can't say I'm surprised about the 'extensive poor sales practices' they have the worst customer service ever too..

Funnily enough I was on the phone to them for over an hour yesterday and they were bloody awful, had the gas and electric statement in front of me and she just could not for the life of her find the house, post code, address, meter numbers, receipt numbers and so on, she ended up telling me I would need to phone the national grid and get a code from them that's when I got pissed off and said no you sent this statement out to this address 3 days ago clearly the account is on the system, then she realised she could have used the account number on that all along

I'm just glad they aren't my supplier and I was calling for someone else.

[arista]

Yes telling a householder
in person they would pay half the bill of what they are on.


Sounds to good to be true.


Those homes went up double the amounts
after switching to E.on

[user104658]

They're all the same, though... I remember being "sold" a provider switch by some guy at a little stand outside Morrison's when I was in my first house (first non -student house where I was responsible for all bills)... I was only about 23 and naive! Totally bought his rhetoric about how my direct debit "should" only be £60 a month... Signed up... Two months later it was increased to £90 a month.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

They're all the same, though... I remember being "sold" a provider switch by some guy at a little stand outside Morrison's when I was in my first house (first non -student house where I was responsible for all bills)... I was only about 23 and naive! Totally bought his rhetoric about how my direct debit "should" only be £60 a month... Signed up... Two months later it was increased to £90 a month.

I have switched few times and each time this has happened, the DD goes up after a period of time, it really annoys me when people are encouraged to switch to save money, the only way to reduce bills is to use less.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

They're all the same, though... I remember being "sold" a provider switch by some guy at a little stand outside Morrison's when I was in my first house (first non -student house where I was responsible for all bills)... I was only about 23 and naive! Totally bought his rhetoric about how my direct debit "should" only be £60 a month... Signed up... Two months later it was increased to £90 a month.

I had this a few months back with scottish power. Rang me saying they could save me this that and the other and my DD should be £60 per month for dual power. So I agreed to switch but when the paperwork came I could already see something was wrong..all the numbers were different to what he had quoted me (I wrote them down when he was on the phone, bet they dont expect that ) and DD was to be set up for £85 pm. So I tried to cancel the switch but noone from scottish power would talk to me..they kept hanging up and ignoring emails...EDF (who I was with) couldnt do anything as apparently it was all down to scottish power. Anyway, the switch went ahead despite me trying to cancel loads of times, so I took their energy for a couple of months and paid nothing, then switched to someone else...so yeah in the end I got a great deal. That will teach them. They havent even registered it on my credit file either

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

I had this a few months back with scottish power. Rang me saying they could save me this that and the other and my DD should be £60 per month for dual power. So I agreed to switch but when the paperwork came I could already see something was wrong..all the numbers were different to what he had quoted me (I wrote them down when he was on the phone, bet they dont expect that ) and DD was to be set up for £85 pm. So I tried to cancel the switch but noone from scottish power would talk to me..they kept hanging up and ignoring emails...EDF (who I was with) couldnt do anything as apparently it was all down to scottish power. Anyway, the switch went ahead despite me trying to cancel loads of times, so I took their energy for a couple of months and paid nothing, then switched to someone else...so yeah in the end I got a great deal. That will teach them. They havent even registered it on my credit file either

nice one vicky!
I'm with British gas and got a £60 payment from them on thurs as a 'cold weather payment' not sure why, all I can think is there's the same thing as E-ON going on and they're trying to cover themselves?

[Vicky.]

Cold weather payment...in this weather?!

[Kizzy]

I think it was meant to be for when it was cold... so they send them now.. when it's warm

[Vicky.]

Oh thats useful

I thought cold weather payments only came when it had been below 0 degrees for a week or more. I don't think we have had a week like that this winter? My FIL hasnt had a payment anyway and he usually gets one if due

[user104658]

Ugh don't talk to me about Scottish power! They didn't WANT my money! Someone rang up saying g my direct debit was too high, back in mid 2012, and they reduced it by £30 per month. We moved out of that property in January this year and, surprise surprise, there had been an "error somewhere" and we owed them over £600. They then managed to mess up again and Bill me until the end of February (we moved on January 18th) and were wanting nearly £800... Finally got that sorted, and just wanted to pay them the £600 and be done with it but... It seemed to be impossible?? They couldn't get it to register on my account number, kept "transferring" me on the phone then cutting me off, getting me stuck in an endless on hold loop... Then banging on about needing to set up a repayment schedule... I was like "I have the money, all of it, right now! I just want to pay you and never hear from you again please??" but apparently that's too much to ask .

This was going on for months, all the while I was getting regular threatening letters from them about the overdue balance. I eventually managed to pay up until the end of December, about £550, with them saying I'd get an additional final bill for the 18 extra days. That's never turned up but the letters have stopped too. God knows when they'll decide to demand that extra £60 odd.


In THIS house we were stuck with "Spark energy" for a couple of months which essentially seems to be some sort of scam?? Wildly overpriced unless you set up a direct debit but the DD isn't for an average over the year it's for an estimate of each month and they take that full amount - buy I've heard of them "estimating" hundreds of pounds more than it should be and taking several months to pay it back. So we didn't set up a direct debit... And have been waiting for a final bill from them for 3 months.

... I don't think there IS a good energy provider.

[Kizzy]

It's this apparently..

And, we will also be offering all our dual fuel customers who qualify for the Warm Home Discount a top-up of £60, which will protect them from the effect of the price rise we announced this week'
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/blog/art...e-announcement

Only took 7 months to send it
It's for electric only and my heating is gas.

[Vicky.]

British gas charged me nearly £500 for one months gas in summer 4 years back. Needless to say I asked them how the hell I could possibly owe that much (gavins dad owned a business and even their gas bill wasn't that high...) and refused to pay anything until they gave me a breakdown of how this was even possible..they never got back to me, but they came out to change my supply to a prepayment meter because of the 'debt'

Thats when I changed to EDF in the first place as I wasn't being charged £5 from every £10 top up for a bill I didn't even owe.

EDF were quite decent though, had no problems really. They even sent me a random £80 cheque last year because I had been overpaying (which they could have got away with as I didn't even know). Dunno why I even thought it would be a good idea to switch from them for the sake of £20 per month.

[Kizzy]

I've just done a price comparison with moneysupermarket and it told me to switch to E-ON

[Kizzy]

Does this sound good?... I'm on meters so not eligible for a lot of discounts.


Type Personal
Projection Yearly
Saving
Ovo Energy PAYG Energy Plan
Fixed
£1,696 £126
Apply now
Provider: Ovo Energy
Tariff: PAYG Energy Plan
Savings breakdown
Gas
Estimated saving £162
Projected cost £1,020
Electricity
Estimated saving -£36
Projected cost £676
See full breakdown on the Tariff Information Label
How do these rates compare to my existing tariff?
Tariff features
15% Renewable Electricity
Smart meter installed free of charge
Exit fees apply
UK based call centre
Tariff summary
15% renewable electricity. A new Smart meter installed free of charge. Receive an in home display to track your consumption. Exit fee of £30 per fuel if you leave if you leave this Ovo Energy plan within the first 12 months. This tariff is not available in the Scottish Hydro region.

[user104658]

Ovo are supposed to be quite good... Heard good things about their customer services too, which I feel is important these days. I'd probably pay slightly higher bills in exchange for a decent level of customer service... Everywhere is utterly dire these days. In the last 6 months alone I've experienced what I can only describe as awful customer service from: T-Mobile / Ee, O2, sky, BT, ASDA financial services, Scottish power, British Gas, Spark energy... The list goes on, actually!

So on the basis of that alone, I think it's a good option.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

Ovo are supposed to be quite good... Heard good things about their customer services too, which I feel is important these days. I'd probably pay slightly higher bills in exchange for a decent level of customer service... Everywhere is utterly dire these days. In the last 6 months alone I've experienced what I can only describe as awful customer service from: T-Mobile / Ee, O2, sky, BT, ASDA financial services, Scottish power, British Gas, Spark energy... The list goes on, actually!

So on the basis of that alone, I think it's a good option.

I'll give them a ring mon, thing is with it being fixed if prices fall I'm stuck... but that never happens does it?