Another one bites the dust

Ok, a quick round up of a few happenings in the world of energy that occurred during my absence last week:

(1) The FA Challenge Cup, sponsored by E.ON, was deservedly won by Portsmouth on Saturday. It finally hit home for me why E.ON has spent the best part of £35 million on sponsoring the event this year; it’s all about the final isn’t it? E.ON hoardings, E.ON blimps, E.ON giant sized foam hands, even E.ON emblazoned ribbons on the cup itself.

Did I see ‘We won this cup thanks to the power of E.ON’ type flags being waved by the victorious side, or were my eyes deceiving me? Presumably ‘We won this cup thanks to a dodgy penalty at Old Trafford and some astute dealings in the African transfer market’ didn’t fit.

(2) I’ve had a number of aggrieved npower customers write to me this week in response to this story:

npower slammed by customers

One such complainant reported being told by an npower door to door salesperson his monthly electricity bill would not exceed £40, only to receive a first quarter bill for £600!

My advice, if you’re having no luck with the customer services department of your provider, is to complain about corporate miss-selling through Energywatch (the utilities watchdog). There are two ways to do this, either tell your story to Energywatch, and they will complain on your behalf (adding credence to your complaint), or use their online ‘letter wizard’ to construct a hard hitting and concise written argument.

In fact, I’d suggest tackling both.

(3) Finally, a strange week for British Gas, who surmised the strong possibility of further price rises during high summer (a price hike that’s been anticipated within the industry for some time), then cut the cost of their Click 5 online dual fuel tariff.

Again, I like to throw in my two penneth worth, but this is a no brainer. Take advantage of the cheap energy while you can, get yourself online, and sign up for Click Energy 5. It may not last forever, but Click Energy 5 is currently the cheapest way to buy your fuel.

 Press the button marked ‘Exploitation’

Today’s post could easily have been named ‘I Love the Germans, Part Drei’, and I mention this because each time that headline gets used, a certain someone in a number 13 shirt tends to do the business for Chelsea. So for the sake of superstition, and Bolton at home, I’ll crowbar it in once more. Let’s face it, we need all the help we can get.

I don’t know how up to speed with the energy switching scene Herr Ballack actually is, but I’m sure he’s (somewhat reluctantly) been subjected to meet and greets with E.ON company bigwigs at this season’s FA Cup fixtures. The 2007/8 English FA Cup is sponsored by E.ON, and will be contested by a team from Wales, and a rudderless gaggle of journeymen from a shack on the south coast.

Having heard on the grapevine fuel prices are set to rise again this summer due to skyrocketing crude oil costs, adverse weather and strike action, it got me wondering; how much does it cost E.ON to sponsor the FA Cup?

Well, here are my findings, with a few extra gems thrown in for good measure:

FA Cup sponsored by E.ON

Cost of Sponsorship: £32 Million

Annual aid payment by E.ON to the elderly: £4.4 Million

2009 Ashes Series sponsored by npower

Cost of Sponsorship: £11 Million

Percentage of vulnerable customers on an npower social tariff: 0.02%

EDF Energy Cup, Rugby Union

Cost of Sponsorship: £8.5 Million

Percentage of annual turnover spent on elderly customers: 0.1%

Scottish and Southern, sponsors of Scottish Rugby

Cost of Sponsorship: £6 Million

Number of customers plunged into fuel poverty by last price rise: 620,000

The statistics speak for themselves and need little interpretation from me. The bottom line is this money frittered away on sponsorship and corporate jollies should be given to those in fuel poverty. End of story.

One question I will ask, does the advertising make the supplier seem more attractive to you? Does it even work?

It doesn’t affect me at all. As much as I love Association Football, I wouldn’t choose E.ON purely on the strength it sponsors the FA Cup; it’s just not part of my criteria.

Has anyone been swayed by a clever advertising campaign?

 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?

  European Students with Backpacks - Cool

….particularly a Mr. M Ballack of Kensington, West London.

Ok, that’s quite enough of that; I obviously don’t want to labour the point (Chelsea 2 – Manchester United 1). It’s not just the Germans I’m enamoured by anyway; I’m quite keen on the Norwegians since last Tuesday.

Putting all football allegiances to one side just for a moment, I’ll tell you why I still love the Germans, and steadfastly refuse to switch from my current (German) energy supplier, E.on.

A blog posting on Times Online this weekend invited Times readers to leave feedback concerning their energy suppliers, a kind of ‘open forum’ if you will.

Perhaps they were expecting a few responses along the lines of ‘they keep coming to read my meter at pesky times’ or ‘I think I was slightly over-charged last quarter’, but what they got was fire and brimstone launched from the mouth of hell itself!

The first comment is quite ominously titled ‘WHY YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO BE A CUSTOMER OF EDF ENERGY’, all in capitals of course. The author of this post goes on to describe a horror story that visits inaccurate direct debits and shoddy customer service via a series of payment duplications. No energy supplier is perfect, but this consumer does seem to be especially cheesed off.

Ok, so if I’m a little down on EDF right now, how about npower? I’ve heard all the brouhaha surrounding allegations of an npower sales team miss-selling door to door, but that’s only one team, and the rest might be fair. So what sort of comments did they receive from their loyal servants yesterday? Well….

‘We unfortunately agreed to change to npower. This month I have received a statement from npower informing me that I owe them £706.00. We feel tricked.’

‘I found that they had charged me twice for almost the whole of one year’s supply of gas.’

‘I was recently approached by a salesman for npower in my local Woolworths. A promise of £100 pounds credit convinced me to switch and sign on the dotted line. Bad move. The wool had been pulled over my eyes.’

This is a sample of the more ‘polite’ comments. Let’s be honest, they don’t make for great reading. The revelation that npower reps stalk their local Woolworths looking for victims already bedazzled by cheap duvet covers is bad enough.

A number of other suppliers came in for criticism also, with Scottish Power accused of ‘appalling service’, British Gas lambasted for punishing Saver 7 customers, and Scottish & Southern scolded for blindly signing up new customers days before a planned price hike.

The most intense ire is reserved solely for npower though.

Having spent considerable time over the weekend sifting through a list of endless energy wrath, is it naïve of me to want to concentrate on the positives rather than the negatives?

I’d like to focus on all the aspects you find pleasing about your energy supplier. I’ll start the ball rolling with my own contribution to the Times debate this weekend:

‘E.on supplies me with concise and easy to understand billing information, and I’ve never had to take issue with a bill I’ve received. The direct debits come out of my account on a pre-ordained day, and I’ve just received my online ‘energy tracker’, which allows me to check my energy usage on a daily basis. Although they’re far from the cheapest in my area, I’m happy enough with the level of service to stick with them.’

It’s an honest account, and I’m aware that against a backdrop of fuel poverty and the credit crunch, I could be accused of focussing on trivial issues. But it’s my point of view on my energy supplier.

So how about yours? Does anyone have anything positive to say? Or are you all feeling right royally ripped-off at this moment in time?

Please let me know.