OT: Small business electricity contracts

[fred]

Has anyone here with a small business got a deal with an electricity supplier that doesn't tie you in for a 12 month or longer term?

I'm new to this market and all I'm seeing are term deals when I want to be able to ditch a supplier when they (inevitably) fail to perform, like you can with a domestic supply.

Power company and switch sites aren't that helpful as they mostly want you to call for a 'consultation', what a waste of time.

We'll almost certainly be under the 8000 odd unit limit that makes us a small supply for VAT & climate levy purposes.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , fred writes

Mine is purchased through an agricultural co-operative buying group and was vastly cheaper than the best offer I could get as an isolated business customer. (12p down to 7.75p) They re-negotiate annually and we are about due for a shock:-)

regards

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

I can thouroughly recommend Ecotricity. It's all about at least "beleiving" you're doing your bit for helping provide sustainable energy...

whether part of that was based on my mentioning of the fact that our business is in the shadow of the 3 new turbines on the docks at Avonmouth (Which are actually a very plesant site); or whether it was to do with the fact I said I had a very busy website on which I would recommend them who knows.

28 days is the only cancellation you need to give. Price remains competitive.

Signed up for home as well. No doubt you can waste your life away switching and changing between suppliers to save £20 here or £30 there, I have better things to with my time that earn far more money that I would ever save by bouncing around energy suppliers.

YMMV Cheers Pete

-- http;//

- gym equipment specialists

[tony sayer]

Inertia .. thats what they rely on rather heavily;!...

[fred]

Thanks for that info, I have set aside some time tomorrow to look at providers and it's nice to see at least one on a short contract, which I take as meaning they keep custom on merit, I'll give them a call.

I'm under no illusions on that count, the current supplier has been at the bottom of my shit list for longer than I can remember so I want to use them for as short a time as possible. This is an exercise in finding a business supplier that doesn't think we owe them something just for deigning to supply us.

I'll feed back on the results.

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

I have found Ecotricity offering extremely good customer service and a very freindly almost "family like" aproach.

I had the same problems when trying to get quotes through "comparison" web sites. Complete waste of time. It was only through one of our suppliers (Reflex Nutrition) singing the praises of Ecotricity that I even bothered to look into using them, I'd never really head of them before that.

worth getting a quote whichever way.

Cheers Pete

[fred]

Spoke to them today and as you say, they were very helpful.

Rates are about 12% over the average suppliers for my area which is do-able but there is a legacy rate still hanging around at Eon (I know!) that makes the differential 27% which is probably too much to ignore.

The Eon rate is fixed too so in this climate it might be the one for us.

The energyhelpline.com outfit that Martin Lewis recommends were ok but hadn't found anything I had missed and they didn't have all tariffs available to them, eg Eon was only available on a 3yr fix .

Again, thanks for the input and please, everybody, please, avoid Scottish Power.