Energy Reviews

[crookesey]

As our energy account is ready for renewal I thought it sensible to read some reviews. Well our supplier (Shell Energy) comes out as being the devil of all suppliers, some of the reviewers must spend hours on it’s consumer help pages, what they talk about god only knows. My own experiences have been being placed on both ‘smart meter’ and ‘customer read’ when we switched to them, I eventually managed to speak to a human being who sorted it and applied £35.00 compensation to our account. The only other occasion that I needed to contact them was when their on-line consumer account service shook a wobbler, I eventually got through to someone who told me that it worked perfectly at her end, I gave up and waited for it’s eventual repair.

 

Conversely  ‘Octopus Energy’ comes out as the best thing since sliced bread, I have no idea what it does, other than offer a friendlier help line, that makes it so good. All suppliers declare their unit charges and supply costs, it’s then up to the customer to use as little or as much as they desire. When we press a switch the lights come on as do the gas appliances as and when required, I can’t see Octopus doing any different, what are your experiences with energy suppliers?

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by crookesey

[geared]

The main difference is customer support and help.

 

A good supplier is easy to contact, has staff on hand that actually know what is going on and can solve your problem quickly.

A bad one will be like trying to commune with the dead.

[BigAl1]

It is important to remember that most people do not have problems with their energy supplier BUT the issues are if you do need to contact them. For some it is simply the problem of not being able to get through to a human which is quite frankly a disgrace (I speak as someone who hates bots and the need to express any question in the bots language to get a half sensible answer) The other issue is how they deal with your problem when you do get through and in many cases this is the real disaster area low quality staff who could not care less or staff who are not empowered ("the computer says no")

 

I was a Shell customer and although I had problems with the installation of my smart meters (firstly the wrong one put in which had to replaced and then the in home display not functioning properly which is an industry issue ) However I found Shell to be easy enough to deal with and indeed they would give me a ring every 6 weeks or so to see if the IHD was working (there was no issue with the main meters reporting to them) and when I changed company they unasked for gave me £50 compensation because they had not been able to solve the problem. Nothing though will compare with the awful service and unhelpful staff provided by NPower

[El Cid]

You should not based your views on your own experience because that is the experience of just one person. You wouldnt trust a pollster that had taken answers from less than 10 people.

[BigAl1]

17 minutes ago, El Cid said:

You should not based your views on your own experience because that is the experience of just one person. You wouldnt trust a pollster that had taken answers from less than 10 people.

El Cid you might notice that my first para was not (apart from the bots) about my experience but based on a general understanding of customer service and the issues of the energy sector . There is plenty of published info on the sector on the subject of customer satisfaction and service.

 

yes I did add my own experiences but look back over the years and see how many times NPower have said they were going to do something about their customer service each time they got castigated in various surveys - not 10 people but 1000s and thank I do not need any lessons on market research

 

 

[crookesey]

I fully expected some mention of Octopus as most reviews have them on a pedestal with everyone else in the rubbish bin. What concerns me about them is that they gave me a ridiculously low quote on the proviso that it would be reviewed after the first couple of readings. As our renewal is due from December there is only one possible scenario, why they can’t ask for our usage in mid November and provide a more accurate estimate is anyone’s guess.

[BigAl1]

6 hours ago, crookesey said:

I fully expected some mention of Octopus as most reviews have them on a pedestal with everyone else in the rubbish bin. What concerns me about them is that they gave me a ridiculously low quote on the proviso that it would be reviewed after the first couple of readings. As our renewal is due from December there is only one possible scenario, why they can’t ask for our usage in mid November and provide a more accurate estimate is anyone’s guess.

If you provided estimates based on how much you were paying per month or  an inaccurate figure of how many units you use per year then you have nothing to moan about if the cost goes up. It is normal practice for energy companies to review after a couple of readings as so many people give inaccurate info at the quote stage

 

 

 

 

[crookesey]

12 hours ago, BigAl1 said:

If you provided estimates based on how much you were paying per month or  an inaccurate figure of how many units you use per year then you have nothing to moan about if the cost goes up. It is normal practice for energy companies to review after a couple of readings as so many people give inaccurate info at the quote stage

 

 

 

 

I’m not moaning, unlike you who is assuming and trolling, goodbye.