I recently switched my Gas and Electricity suppliers, choosing a dual-fuel deal (with “green electricity”) from Scottish Power in favour of my previous contracts with Npower and Ecotricity. The reasons for this were twofold… I’d recently received a price increase notification from Npower and Ecotricity were being rather coy about giving me precise details of their tariffs. Anyway, it’s easy enough to switch, so when you find a decent deal, you might as well take advantage.
So when I received the usual confirmation phone call from Npower today, I expected it to be the usual box-ticking exercise… “We’re sorry to hear you’re leaving us. No problems? Just the prices? Goodbye then, sir”. Instead, I got this…
NPOWER: Did you actually check to make sure we weren’t the cheapest?
ME: Yes, I did all the comparisons on uswitch
…
NPOWER: Well, if you do decide to come back to us, just give us a call, because some of these companies are putting up their prices and there are more price rises to come…
ME (piqued): Yeah, that’s exactly why I’m leaving Npower. I got your price rise letter.
NPOWER: No, you can’t have done. We’re not raising our prices.
ME: I did. I got a letter.
NPOWER: No, that’s your direct debit amount. Our prices aren’t going up. They changed in May.
We eventually agreed to differ, although I was annoyed that I didn’t have the letter to hand. I managed to find it and sure enough, it states the following…
Your new prices from 1st July 2006 will be:
Unit rate, up to and including 4572 kWh per year – 3.639p (up from 3.165p)
Unit rate, over 4572 kWh per year – 2.047p (up from 1.691p)
Ha! I do like to be proved right. A letter to the Guardian’s consumer column, I think…
We have tried for months to get both of our accounts onto British Gas (don’t ask why…its the wifes decision) but nobody at British Gas can seem to get their fingers out of their backsides long enough to actually do something about it and earn some money.
I think I will follow your lead and tell to stick their accounts where the lightbulb don’t shine!!!!!!!
Ah, that’s useful to know. British Gas have been by far the most aggressive company round here… cold-calling, setting up their little stand in the shopping mall and badgering you as you walk by. They seem to promise a lot, but obviously can’t cope with actually connecting people!