My electricity bill has just tripled: how about yours? Alternative suppliers?

[B.I.G]

Well I got £150 compensation in my dispute with OVO, I reckon I am due now over £50 & heading towards £100 with EDF, every little helps.

I saw that before.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Well, sending this e-mail yesterday -

Good God, this is nothing but complete gibberish, go find a grown-up senior manger to respond to me and negotiate compensation for the stress that EDF has/is causing me.

It's like dealing with a bunch of muppets.

The clock is ticking on this complaint being escalated to the ombudsman

Got a decent response, a groveling call from a manager this morning, who agreed to refund the full current credit balance of £785.30, re-set the DD to £25, and offered £30 compensation, I suggested it should be at least £50, and straight away he agreed to that.

He then asked if he could now close the complaint, I said as long as you carry out those actions and confirm it by e-mail I'll consider the matter closed, I've now got his groveling apology in writing, together with his direct e-mail address, should I need to contact them again.

You have recently contacted us expressing your dissatisfaction. I understand that your recent customer service experience has not been pleasant so far however, I can assure that this is not typical of the customer service standard we aim to maintain. I have been able to understand your matters of concern which is related to the Direct Debit and Credit Balance.

I would like to offer my sincere apologies for the frustration you have experienced when dealing with EDF, and for any inconvenience which may have been caused. it is clear you have had a less than desirable experience so far and I am keen to take this opportunity to do all I can to put things right.

We like to confirm that we have now set the Direct Debit at £25.00 per month and the date set as 1st of every month. So going forward as we discussed in the call today there will be no further changes to this amount and it will remain as £25.00 per month until and unless you want to change that. Also we have now processed the entire amount of £785.30 as a refund , along with that we have added £50.00 as a goodwill credit for this issue and have processed the same as refund as well, which you will receive within next 3-5 working days.

Also going forward if you have any further query or any other concerns please feel free to contact me directly, my email is - [name]@edfenergy.com and as a manager will try my best to assist you.

Once again please do accept our sincere apology and we have ensured that we have the details updated so that in future if you have any further issues we can re open the case and get that sorted.

 

[MickiQ]

Well, sending this e-mail yesterday -



Got a decent response, a groveling call from a manager this morning, who agreed to refund the full current credit balance of £785.30, re-set the DD to £25, and offered £30 compensation, I suggested it should be at least £50, and straight away he agreed to that.

He then asked if he could now close the complaint, I said as long as you carry out those actions and confirm it by e-mail I'll consider the matter closed, I've now got his groveling apology in writing, together with his direct e-mail address, should I need to contact them again.

Grovelling apologies are always a good thing to receive

 

[CH1]

Well, sending this e-mail yesterday -



Got a decent response, a groveling call from a manager this morning, who agreed to refund the full current credit balance of £785.30, re-set the DD to £25, and offered £30 compensation, I suggested it should be at least £50, and straight away he agreed to that.

He then asked if he could now close the complaint, I said as long as you carry out those actions and confirm it by e-mail I'll consider the matter closed, I've now got his groveling apology in writing, together with his direct e-mail address, should I need to contact them again.

Noting your insistence on a written apology - I once had a bank error on my First Direct deposit account - putting it £25,000 ovetdrawn.
The did pit it right as soon as I contacted them but refused to give a written apology "We are a telephone bank" they said - over the phone naturally.
I changed tout de suite to Bank of Scotland, who were shit hot at telephone banking before their HBOS merger.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Noting your insistence on a written apology

TBF I wanted the bugger to work that bit harder than just a phone call, but overall I am impressed with how EDF brought this to a reasonably quick resolution, compared to my treatment by OVO, who only resolved matters and sent a brief apology because the ombudsman ruled they had to.

I did actually send a brief reply to this manager, thanking them - 'Thank you for your call earlier, this e-mail and your actions in resolving the issue, it is much appreciated', I am always ready to complain, but also ready to thank people for resolving complaints.

OVO never got a 'thank you', but the case handler at the ombudsman did.

 

[teqniq]

Who would have guessed?

 

[gentlegreen]

It's stark when you see it written like that - and of course they made sure that ordinary people were in on it...
At the time I didn't have a clue what the share sale was all about - nor did I have any savings to invest.

 

[cupid_stunt]

The OFGEM price cap has dropped from £3,280 to £2,074 for the 'average home' from July.

Of course, the government's energy price guarantee meant it's basically only been £2,500 since Oct. 22, with the government paying the different, we also had the £400 help with winter heating costs, which has ended, so in real terms the 'average home' was paying equal to £2,100 since Oct, meaning a saving going forward of just £26pa.

My bills are just under half of the 'average home', so I need to think what I am going to spend my saving of £12 on.

The forecast is for it to stay around that figure into next year, so in theory there'll be no big shock in the winter, but it's still around twice what it was in 2021.

 

[two sheds]

Does that mean the government has effectively just been paying the energy companies' profits by the way?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Does that mean the government has effectively just been paying the energy companies' profits by the way?

The government has been paying the different between what the supply companies have been paying for electric & gas on the wholesale markets, and what we have been paying, the supply companies make very little profit per household, IIRC it's around £30-£50pa.

It's the producers that have been making the extra profits, although of course some supply companies are owned by producers, eg Shell & British Gas, others such as OVO are not.

Clear as mud, innit?

 

[two sheds]

Fair play, I should have said paying the profits of energy companies like Shell & British Gas.

 

[kabbes]

Fair play, I should have said paying the profits of energy companies like Shell & British Gas.

Hence the calls for a windfall tax. What an incredibly roundabout way of doing something that, in nationalised hands, could all just be controlled in one place.

 

[MickiQ]

My bills are just under half of the 'average home', so I need to think what I am going to spend my saving of £12 on.

per annum not per month I take it?

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

My bills are just under half of the 'average home', so I need to think what I am going to spend my saving of £12 on.

Buy shares in an Energy company?

 

[cupid_stunt]

per annum not per month I take it?

Yeah, £12 saving for the year.

 

[prunus]

Looks like unit prices will be coming down about 40%: electricity ~50p/unit to ~30p and gas ~13p to ~8p. Standing charges staying the same at about 50p and 30p/day.

Using these you can calculate the actual change based on your actual usage, in my experience the headline figure changes they publish are next to useless for real-world comparison.

For instance, in my case looking at December usage, that was 500 kWh (electricity) plus obviously 31 days of standing charge, which came to an eye-watering £265 or thereabouts. Under these new prices it would only have been about £165, so a saving of £100 just for that month.

 

[kabbes]

Looks like unit prices will be coming down about 40%: electricity ~50p/unit to ~30p and gas ~13p to ~8p. Standing charges staying the same at about 50p and 30p/day.

Using these you can calculate the actual change based on your actual usage, in my experience the headline figure changes they publish are next to useless for real-world comparison.

For instance, in my case looking at December usage, that was 500 kWh (electricity) plus obviously 31 days of standing charge, which came to an eye-watering £265 or thereabouts. Under these new prices it would only have been about £165, so a saving of £100 just for that month.

You’re quite right that this is how you have to do it, but the current electricity price cap is about 33p per unit, not 50p per unit (gas is about 10.5p). So it’s more like a 10% reduction, not 40% (and about 25% for gas).

 

[prunus]

You’re quite right that this is how you have to do it, but the current electricity price cap is about 33p per unit, not 50p per unit (don’t know about gas). So it’s more like a 10% reduction, not 40%.

Sorry, yes, got myself mixed up a bit there. It was 50p (well, my units were 48.8p) in December, which is where I was comparing from, as for my purposes the vast majority of usage is in winter for heating so that’s what I concentrate on to work out how painful next year will be. Apologies.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Looks like unit prices will be coming down about 40%: electricity ~50p/unit to ~30p and gas ~13p to ~8p. Standing charges staying the same at about 50p and 30p/day.

My current unit costs inc. VAT are 34.167p for electric and 10.332p for electric, standing charges 47.208p for electric and 29.106p for gas.

According to OFGEM unit costs will be 30p & 8p, but the electric standing charge will be going up to a whopping 53p, and gas about the same at 29p.

As my use is low, that increase in the electric SC, of about £1.75pm, which wiped out most of my £3.00pm saving on use!

 

[prunus]

Incidentally I think it's worth pointing out there's a massive inequity in these price changes - the unit prices have come down significantly from the peak in winter, but the standing charges have actually gone up. So people (like me) whose bills are dominated by actual usage (ie relatively high energy users) will see the benefit much more so than low energy users. And of course lower energy users are much more likely to also be the less well-off (correlation largely driven by size of dwelling I would hypothesise).

 

[prunus]

My current unit costs inc. VAT are 34.167p for electric and 10.332p for electric, standing charges 47.208p for electric and 29.106p for gas.

According to OFGEM unit costs will be 30p & 8p, but the electric standing charge will be going up to a whopping 53p, and gas about the same at 29p.

As my use is low, that increase in the electric SC, of about £1.75pm, is more than the £1.25pm saving on use, so I'll actually be paying 50p a month more for electric, FFS!

edited as above edit made moot! Although 2.5kWh/day still pretty impressively low

 

[cupid_stunt]

My gas unit cost in Dec was 10.29p, and use 975Kwh, cost £100.33, that will come down to £78, but with the loss of the £67 government help that month, it's basically £44.67 more in 'real terms'.

Because my electric use is so low, and gas use is only around £5pm when I am not using heating, it actually looks like I am going to end-up paying more without that £400 help towards heating, as the £1.25pm saving on the electric is nowhere near enough to cover winter heating cost.

ETA -

Oh, FFS, my gas use Oct-Mar was 3900kw, cost £401.31 - £400 government help = £1.31, at the new rate and without that help it will be £312. Therefore without that £400 help, overall it looks like my annual bill with actually be about £298 more in real terms, not £12 less. <head explodes>

I've been stitched up like a kipper!

 

[CH1]

My gas unit cost in Dec was 10.29p, and use 975Kwh, cost £100.33, that will come down to £78, but with the loss of the £67 government help that month, it's basically £44.67 more in 'real terms'.

Because my electric use is so low, and gas use is only around £5pm when I am not using heating, it actually looks like I am going to end-up paying more without that £400 help towards heating, as the £1.25pm saving on the electric is nowhere near enough to cover winter heating cost.

ETA -

Oh, FFS, my gas use Oct-Mar was 3900kw, cost £401.31 - £400 government help = £1.31, at the new rate and without that help it will be £312. Therefore without that £400 help, overall it looks like my annual bill with actually be about £298 more in real terms, not £12 less. <head explodes>

I've been stitched up like a kipper!

When you cite figures like that I am triggered into flashbacks of the four Yorkshiremen.
My monthly winter bills for electricity and gas combined were £400-ish AFTER government rebate. I may comment further if I get it together to make up a spreadsheet.
I assume you live in a well-insulated shoe-box in the middle of the road?

 

[quimcunx]

Incidentally I think it's worth pointing out there's a massive inequity in these price changes - the unit prices have come down significantly from the peak in winter, but the standing charges have actually gone up. So people (like me) whose bills are dominated by actual usage (ie relatively high energy users) will see the benefit much more so than low energy users. And of course lower energy users are much more likely to also be the less well-off (correlation largely driven by size of dwelling I would hypothesise).

Also it was easier (for some) to make savings in the winter compared to the previous winter by cutting right down on gas central heating. It's not so easy to reduce your use in the summer months compared to the same months the previous year.

If you are like me and your dd only went up a little bit, and you got your £67 rebate each month you might have been quids in in the winter but with standing charges still high, kwh use only a bit lower, and no £67 rebate the next few months could be a lot more expensive.

 

[Pickman's model]

The OFGEM price cap has dropped from £3,280 to £2,074 for the 'average home' from July.

Of course, the government's energy price guarantee meant it's basically only been £2,500 since Oct. 22, with the government paying the different, we also had the £400 help with winter heating costs, which has ended, so in real terms the 'average home' was paying equal to £2,100 since Oct, meaning a saving going forward of just £26pa.

My bills are just under half of the 'average home', so I need to think what I am going to spend my saving of £12 on.

The forecast is for it to stay around that figure into next year, so in theory there'll be no big shock in the winter, but it's still around twice what it was in 2021.

View attachment 376054

bottle of napoleon vsop from sainsbury's

 

[cupid_stunt]

When you cite figures like that I am triggered into flashbacks of the four Yorkshiremen.
My monthly winter bills for electricity and gas combined were £400-ish AFTER government rebate. I may comment further if I get it together to make up a spreadsheet.
I assume you live in a well-insulated shoe-box in the middle of the road?

It's well insulated, but a fairly large two double bed bungalow, and I work from home most of the time. I did, however, mainly only heat to an average 17c this winter, when normally I have it on at 18c.

ETA - Plus, CH1, those figures were only for my gas, the total for both eclectic & gas for Oct-Mar were about £650 or £250 after the government rebate, so only £150 (£25pm) less than yours.

 

[cupid_stunt]

So, they estimate the annual cost going forward will be £1150 or £96pm, my estimate is an absolute maximum of £1020 or £85pm, whereas I am currently paying £99pm, if I dropped that to the £85 figure, it will only be £22pm more compared to what I was paying two years ago, which is amazing.

ETA - Needless to say they think they know better than me and will not let me drop below £99pm, I'll wait until after the next bill, and if I can't change it then, I'll go back to my old trick of cancelling and setting-up a new one for £85pm.

I forgot about this last month, but my memory has been jogged by the price cap announcement today, so I've doubled checked the figures based on the new rates, and yes £85pm is the maximum I should be paying, so I've gone ahead with cancelling the £99pm DD and setting up a new one for £85.

 

[CH1]

Its coming down - but the year on year comparison suggests May 2023 was colder than May 2022.
Just to add to the satisfaction I then got an email saying I need a new Electricty meter (a first for this) and they will change the gas meter for a smart one at the same time.
In a fit of paranoid fury I rang to demand an end to the ceaseless email campaign for new meters - only to find I was talking to someone in a South African call centre.
My respondent asked how I wished to be addressed (very PC it seems - or maybe just very polite compared with Dumfries or Warrington).
They had to put me on hold - and came back saying they were going to record a complaint from me.
I guess if the winter is anything to go by the sledgehammers will now descend.

Shell slammed for force-installing 4,000 pre-pay meters despite £32bn mega-profits

Oil giant Shell involuntarily fitted over 4,000 pre-payment meters last year - despite making £32 billion in profits, an investigation has claimed.

www.lbc.co.uk

 

[gentlegreen]

Octopus prices coming down 17 percent from 1st July.
Just as well as I am being encouraged to bathe and do laundry more often.
Thankfully the last of the seedlings are outdoors now - that was bumping up my usage a fair bit.

Unit rate (per kWh) 32.789p to 29.948p

 

[CH1]

Octopus prices coming down 17 percent from 1st July.
Just as well as I am being encouraged to bathe and do laundry more often.
Thankfully the last of the seedlings are outdoors now - that was bumping up my usage a fair bit.

Unit rate (per kWh) 32.789p to 29.948p

I got this from Shell

Your electricity rates are changing from 34.684p to 31.191p per kWh. Your electricity standing charge per day will remain the same at 38.18p.​

Your gas rates are changing from 10.315p per kWh to 7.511p per kWh. Your gas standing charge per day will remain the same at 29.11p.​

Why the difference - am I paying extra for the privilege of settling in full every month instead of running a tab in Shell's favour?