Click Energy 6 is born…

British Gas, it seems, has played a final trump card in the battle of the energy giants. And it’s a move I’m not best pleased about.

No sooner had my household switched to Click Energy 5, when the supplier raises its rates and introduces Click Energy 6.

The new Click Energy 6 tariff, while still being the cheapest online tariff, is more expensive than Click Energy 5’s original price. Click Energy 5 was previously priced at around £845 a year for the average household, but the move from British Gas will now see Click Energy 5 customers’ (like me) bills increase to around £1,150.

And the price of new online energy tariff Click Energy 6 is only marginally cheaper, at £1,057 a year for the average household dual fuel bill.

Click Energy 5 is no longer available to new customers, and any existing customers on the tariff will see their bills rise by an average of £305 a year. What an absolute pain!

British Gas are now, let’s be honest, not my favourite supplier in the world. My housemates and I will now have to wait until the switch from npower to British Gas is complete, and then switch again from Click Energy 5 to Click Energy 6, which could take another six weeks.

During that time we’ll be being charged the higher Click Energy 5 rate, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

I think it’s fair to say, I’m more than a little annoyed…

E.ON Memory Thief was at it again

Thursday 7th August, 2008 - £8,228.83 in debt…

You know how sometimes you feel like the whole world is out to confuse you and drive you up the wall? Well, I think I might have been a bit conned by E.ON or uSwitch or both. Either that or I’ve lost my mind.

The story so far:

On Tuesday of last week, I switched to a capped energy tariff - specifically E.ON’s Energy Saver Version 4 Dual Fuel (catchy name, isn’t it?). I switched using uSwitch (because I’m familiar with it and the adverts shouted at me), and I SWEAR it told me that there was no cancellation fee if I decided to switch away from E.ON.

I even made a note of it in my blog post that day! See!

Today I received my confirmation letter from E.ON, which nicely sets out all the details of my new account with them - the tariff, the day the capped prices will end, the discounts I get, the gas and electricity prices per kilowatt hour, blah blah blah. And the £35 cancellation fee that E.ON “may charge” if I switch away from them or stop paying by direct debit.

I don’t think I blame E.ON - my last blog post on the matter even linked to a webpage that mentioned the cancellation fee, but I obviously didn’t see it! Unless they’ve since changed the wording… Or someone from E.ON came round and temporarily blinded me last Tuesday and then wiped my memory…

So I’m inclined to think that the information on uSwitch was wrong, but the tariff isn’t available to new customers any more so it’s no longer on uSwitch and I can’t check it.

Hang on… it was the first tariff on the list that didn’t mention a cancellation fee, and that’s why I chose it! It’s all coming back to me now (as Meatloaf once said) - I would have chosen a cheaper one if it wasn’t for that. Although the Tesco Clubcard points could have had something to do with it as well.

In the great scheme of things, a cancellation charge I might never have to pay is not a huge deal. But I do resent being given false information by the switching service I used. That’s as long as that’s really what happened - the more I think about it, the more confused I become.

Has this happened to anyone else? Can anyone reassure me that I’m not going completely insane?

In other news…

Speaking of confusion, I took advantage of Orange Wednesdays yesterday and saw The Dark Knight. Didn’t understand most of it, but it was two-and-a-half hours of “moderate violence and sustained threat” and the Joker will now appear in my nightmares for at least a month. Not bad for £3.45.

 Energy costs are set to rocket….

EDF has become the first of the big six energy suppliers to make this summer’s anticipated gas and electricity price increases.

Gas prices will increase by 22% and electricity by 17% for existing domestic customers from July 25th (today) onwards. The inflation busting price rises have been predictably blamed on rising wholesale costs.

It’s the second round of price increases EDF customers have had to face this year, following January’s 13% increase in gas costs and 8% rise in electricity costs.

However, with industry analysts forecasting increases of up to 60% on energy prices this summer, hopefully the price hikes aren’t going to be as severe as was once expected.

Average annual fuel bills for EDF customers will rise from £1000 to something around the £1200 mark.

For further updates, visit the news desk at EnergyChoices.

 Shiny Happy People? Not exactly…

There’s something I just can’t let pass right now, and it’s a three pronged attack.

My bugbear bleeds neatly into yesterday’s npower bashing on Times Online, and I know I wanted everyone to stay positive and concentrate on the pleasing aspects of their energy supplier, but it’s possible today’s post may degenerate into something of a rant (I’m just so complex).

I’m taking the line ‘I know that this is vitriol, no solution, spleen venting’ from REM’s magnum opus ‘Ignoreland’ as my call to arms, so forgive me. I’m so mad i could throw a yoghurt at someone, even though i haven’t been mixing sleeping tablets with alcohol, and i don’t have an ego problem.

Ok, so it’s three pronged……….

(1) npower announced a new eco-friendly initiative yesterday called the ‘Climate Cops’ scheme. Effectively, it’s a series of lectures and practical courses aimed at young students in order to make them more ecologically switched on.

The campaign is fronted by the professionally chirpy Fearne Cotton, and the gainfully unemployed Piers Morgan, with Mr Morgan choosing the winning school at the end of the twelve month course. The school judged to have applied itself most unswervingly to its chosen green project will receive a cheque for £20,000, which must be spent on improving the school’s ecological infrastructure.

I digest the press release, I believe it to be a worthy cause and, despite the recent troubles npower has experienced, I think it’s a step in the right direction. So I write a news article on this development (see the ‘Energy News’ section), and proceed to go about my business in a typically eager and dedicated fashion.

Until……..

(2) …….it’s brought to my attention around mid-afternoon npower has raised online dual fuel tariff prices by a whopping 20%. Great, thanks very much for that, I’m really glad I fought your corner.

Essentially, the Sign Online 10 tariff has been scrapped, and replaced by the new, more expensive Sign Online 11 tariff.  A quick bit of maths in the office shows the Sign Online 11 tariff is still the cheapest on the market (by £10 from British Gas Click Energy 5), so all is not lost.

Like a scratched record (and not even a good one, this is like a scratched copy of ‘How can we be lovers if we can’t be friends’ by Michael Bolton) the same reason has been trotted out for this price rise as those we heard previously this year: escalating wholesale costs and exorbitant crude oil prices.

Which would be fairly easy to stomach, if……….

(3) ……Shell and BP hadn’t announced combined first quarter profits of £7.2 billion this lunchtime.

How much money do they want? What can you even do with £7.2 billion? There aren’t enough consumables in the world to spend that amount of money on! It makes me want to throw up, and I’m not even an anarchist or especially right on.

Right, let me just take a breath for a moment.

That’s better. The BP profit represents a rise of nearly 50% on last quarter, whereas Shell can boast only a paltry 12% gain. The increase has been driven by higher petrol and diesel costs set by the companies in the light of (you guessed it) rising crude oil prices.

Just to conclude, rather than absorb some or all of the rising crude oil costs, petrol companies have elected to rip us off at the petrol pumps, and energy companies have chosen to rip us off in our own homes.

Gee, thanks. Again.

I think I’ll listen to ‘Everybody Hurts’ now, just to cheer myself up a bit.

Anyone else feel like venting?

 The Germans - Wunderbar

Last week’s ‘revelation’ that door to door sales reps lie in order to snare your custom, reminded me of an exchange I had very recently with a representative of one of the big six energy suppliers.

To set the scene, it’s around 7:30 on a weekday evening. The part of the sales rep will be played by what I can only describe as a generic mobile phone shop employee; we’re talking pencil thin beard (which members of the bearded community would dismiss as purely cosmetic), inexcusably wide tie knot, haircut by David Bentley’s mum, Ted Baker loafers, the lot. I believe he was also sporting a chunky wrist bracelet.

The guy was a consummate pro, this is undeniable.

I’ll be appearing as myself.

Envisage if you will a typical North London doorstep…..

Ding-Dong

Clump Clump Clump…….

Door Opens

Me:  Listen mate, I’m halfway through Gossip Girl and you’re not going to believe what Serena Van Der Woodsen has just gone and done, so make it snappy yeah?

Rep:  Are you paying too much for your gas and electricity?

Me:  I think I’m paying about the going rate.

Rep:  Who’s your current provider?

Me:  It’s E.on.

Rep:  How do you feel about having your energy supplied by Germans?

Me:  Well….err….I….umm….what?

Rep:  Your energy supply comes from Germany, doesn’t that bother you?

Me:  What are you talking about? I love the Germans. One of my best friends is German, she’s from Gelsenkirchen. Do you know what town hall is in German?

Rep:  No.

Me:  Rathaus. It’s Rathaus.

Rep: ……………..so you don’t mind being ripped off by Germans then?

Me:  Germans are great. Michael Ballack is a nice man.

Rep:  He’s not a nice man.

Me:  How do you know? Have you ever even met him?

Rep:  No, but I met Nigel Winterburn at Luton Airport once and he wasn’t very nice. He wouldn’t sign my shirt because he said he was late for check-in.

Me:  So?

Rep:  Don’t get stroppy with me just because your gas and electricity is supplied by Germans!

Me:  Listen, do you have a mobile phone?

Rep:  Of course.

Me:  Who made it?

Rep:  Siemens

Me:  How do you feel about sponsoring a company that openly played an integral part in the construction of world war two concentration camps?

Rep:  It came free with the contract.

Me:  You’re missing the point.

Rep:  Do you want to switch energy provider?

Me:  No

SLAM

Now, I found his eagerness to press the button marked ‘xenophobia’ in order to snag a sale mildly distasteful, but the implication that Erwin Rommel himself mans a direct pipeline between Düsseldorf and my flat pushed me over the edge.

I’d love to know if anyone else has been subjected to tactics of this kind.

The moral of the story is: do not interrupt me when I’m watching Gossip Girl, even if it’s the Thursday night catch-up that I’ve seen once already.