OT: Beware of domestic energy quotations from "OVO ENERGY"!

[wasaol]

I received a couple of highly inaccurate quotations form an energy supplier called ONO Energy today.

After entering in my details at their website, their system told me I'd sav e £84 compared to my current supplier! My own careful calculations proved this to be wildly wrong; I would actually be about that same amount WORSE off!

When I phone up the company to try and find out if there had been some tech nical mistake, they ended up having to admit that they have no way of knowi ng whether another supplier levies a standing charge or not. I suggested th at they should point this out on their savings claims. The arrogant person I spoke to seemed totally unwilling to concede that this would be the hones t thing to do, so I reported them to the ASA.

So please ignore their quotations and do your own calculations carefully, u sing the exact tariffs of a) your present supplier and b)the prospective su pplier and remember to factor in any standing charges.

Good luck. J

[The Natural Philosopher]

Keep doing this. Often it doesn't work, but keep doing it.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes recently a company was offered by our local council who stated if enough users changed you would save x or y against EDF. It has subsequently been revealed in the local paper that since not enough did sign up most who did would in fact beworse off Eegg on face? Of course it was championed by our ex MP a certain Ed Davvey. I think this must prove something, if only that things are nearly always too good to be true. Brian

[bert]

In article , [e-mail] writes

You have to read the small print in all these claims. To what exactly are they comparing your charges. You might assume it's your current tariff and you might well be wrong. I did what you have done and am in fact with OVO. Our local council Cheshire East has set up an energy supply company in partnership with OVO and so far they have regularly come out amongst the cheapest. I do from time to time do comparison for older people not on the internet. (I exclude lying cheating bastards like Npower and E-ON)

[alan_m]

My local council (Southend on Sea) recently sent out a letter on behalf of OVO. The council leader claimed he had saved many £100s by signing up to this deal and urged all residents to do the same.

i) Is it sensible to take financial advice from someone who had not bothered shopping around for the best deal before.

ii) OVO were/are more expensive than my current supplier.

[bert]

There are 3 companies I will not recommend Npower because of their chaotic billing system E-On because of the rip off deal they set up with Age UK First Utility because of their customer service reviews. They may well be cheaper than OVO Another factor is exit fees. If energy prices go down then you may be trapped until the end of your contract. Several suppliers have now dropped them

[dennis]

The Eon deal was the best two year deal available at the time, you can't trust what the press say these days. They compared cheaper one year deals with a two year deal.

[bert]

It was a rip-off. Age UK are a business run for the benefit of its employees.

[dennis]

Its hard to see how the cheapest option was a rip off. Maybe you could explain?

[alan_m]

It wasn't the cheapest option available from the same company.

[dennis]

It was the cheapest two year fix. There were cheaper one year fixes as there are now. If you wanted a two year fix it was the best option.

[tim...]

It was when they first recommend it

Their mistake was to use the "lazy" option of just assuming that it would remain so and not checking each month to see if it still was.

This is, in fact, the inertia effect that utility companies (and others) routinely use to extract more money than necessary from lazy customers.

Whilst one might reasonably expect that a (supposed) consumer advice organisation would act better in this respect, it is no surprise that they didn't, and almost certainly "c*ck-up" rather than "conspiracy".

tim

[bert]

They were still promoting it when it was no longer the best option by a country mile.

[bert]

In article , tim... writes

Not with Age UK - Definite conspiracy IMO