[Closed] Energy Providers - Who isn't completely useless?

OVO have been ok so far and free smart meters have helped me drop my energy use

Every energy company are ****'s though

not edf

Yeah broadly agree they're all sloppy.

Have you tried Robin Hood Energy aka Notts. City Council?

I'm personally with GB energy, and I did speak to them once - nothing bad to report from them.

I forgot to add one additional piece of the experience, I requested that they raise a complaint regarding this call and was told that I could expect a call from one of their complaints managers in 7-10 days, 7-10 days!!!

Need to act fast as I would quite like to say to them, when they call, that I'm no longer their customer and that's why!

I know all of them are bad, but I would quite like one that, at least, doesn't automatically assume that the customer's wrong.

Been with OVO since the start of the year. So far so good.

I had to call customer services to enquire about something minor (can't remember what) and it was all good - answered the phones quickly & dealt with it well, explained what they were doing & why etc..

I don't think they were coming up as the cheapest at the time for us, but the good reviews swayed it.

GB Energy are good and one of the cheapest...
https://www.gbenergysupply.co.uk/

Agreed, OVO are good (so far). I was with SSE before and they were very good; answering the phone, UK call centres etc but a but dearer. OVO were a funky, refreshing change.

I went from Npower to Ovo, and so far they've been better (although not hard TBF) they've fitted a smart meter when they said they would, online billing and info seems straightforward, prices are cheap, and seem not to be completely useless...so far.

We're with Utility Warehouse who seem OK. We had Scottish Power at our previous house and they were ok too.

Whatever you do, avoid Spark Energy like the plague, they were dreadful for several reasons. Their worst mistake was when I provided a final meter reading over the phone for them to calculate a final bill. I never received a bill and forgot to chase it up with all the chaos of moving house, and got a really nasty call from a debt collector.

npower are pure comedy. 6 months after we moved they sent us the bill from our old house as the people who bought it from us hadnt paid and they pretty much just said "oh well it was worth a try" when I called to tell them to shove it!!

I'm personally with GB energy, and I did speak to them once - nothing bad to report from them.

This..although I don't remember needing to speak to them about anything.

Completely trouble free.

Good work guys, OVO and GB Energy the front runners for consideration at the moment....!!

@anagallis_arvensis - yep that sounds like the npower that I know.....

Also with OVO also no issues.

I just went with whoever came out top in the price comparison thing.

I used USwitch which had like £22 cash back or something.

Gone from FirstUtility to Sainsburys - First were great, never had to phone them up as it's all done through an app on my phone. Only changed because of the cashback and the savings on the tariffs I could get moving.

will be moving again as soon as my new deal is up (i never thought i'd become one of these people, but i have)

so far, scottish power have been uneventful which I think is about as good as you can get with a power company.

i did end up with a £400 surplus a year or so ago but they put the money back in my account within a couple of days.

Been with OVO going on 3 years I think. No hassles, only had to phone them once to get some money back after overpaying and building up a large balance with them. UK call centre, guy was super helpful, money back in my account that day.

Currently considering a switch myself

I am with SSE at the moment (1 year) - they've been fine - no issues with billing - not had to call them to resolve any problems

I was with Scottish Power before SSE for about 18 months - they were also fine

I used MoneySavingExpert to do a comparison & a number of providers come out as cheaper for me - the only thing which is putting me off them is pretty much all come back with poor reviews

been with OVO - mine and mum's house.
I even started a fixed period tariff for my mum's house, then realised I should cancel it as probably rent it out soon - got a call back saying that was OK as it was change of ownership not just leaving, so re-instated the FR tariff..

Good Energy is just fine for us. Been with em a while now.

Would never have npower again though - they tried to charge me for the previous owners bills - eventually (after about 9 months) I managed to get them to resolve the situation, though that was after they tried to send round the debt collectors twice

How/what exactly did they mess up? We've just switched to NPower because they were cheap, all they have to do is take the meter reading when we give it and multiply it by the rate to get the bill?

Green Energy have been very good with us. We took them with us when we moved and they did a good job of kicking E.On about when they tried to tie us into the previous homeowners contract.

npower here as well - dual fuel discount.
They've always been OK for me. It was British Gas who were the most incompetent shower of useless cretins that I ever had the misfortune to deal with.

Ecotricity, it's a no-brainer. Stuff the bigger energy providers and go with a smaller, ethical provider. 100% renewable electricity.

NPower ..... all they have to do is take the meter reading when we give it and multiply it by the rate to get the bill?

Sounds simple doesn't it but they make it very hard.

Took me nearly 6 mths to get a final bill out of them when I left a property. They couldn't generate the correct bill.

@ TINAS, ok I'll try to explain....

Last period bill I hadn't submitted meter readings so that bill was based on an estimate and paid accordingly. So far so good...

Current period I have submitted readings in good time, on the expectation that it'll probably be higher as the last bill was an estimate. Bill comes through, is higher, but with £x (value is irrelevent!) listed as "Unpaid from last bill". This is what made me call them as as far as I was concerned that "last bill" was the estimated one, and was paid in full. Logging into my account online there's a mysterious extra invoice where they produced a whole new "last period" bill, based on a new and higher estimate than the first estimated bill (getting lost yet??!). This is the now "unpaid" one, despite it being issued on the same day as my current period bill. I've received no notification from them that there's been a revision or a new bill, which was really all I was calling about, to try and understand why it's worked like this.

I'm not disputing any values, but just getting my head around what's been done, and in [i]that[/i] conversation with them they've managed to insult me and claim that the above is totally logical...

Bye bye npower....

N-Power seem to act like a bank for me, they've had several hundred quid of mine for a few years which they've failed to return, and every time they fail to return it they pay compensation. It's shit they don't send it back but it's earning more interest than if it was in the bank.

But practically they are hopeless we are massively overcharged because they can't accept we don't use that much gas/leccy. Every spring we agree an amount that we should, if paid monthly, balance out across 12 months with us overpaying in the summer and then using the accumulated balance in the winter. And every winter they jack up the bill because our usage is higher than in the summer months and we have to go through the same discussion pointing out we have several hundred pounds in credit and have never used as much power as they are trying to charge us for. This leads to them saying they can't reduce it to a sensible number so they'll refund us some of our credit, which doesn't happen and then in 3 months we chase and get some more money knocked off the next bill.

How/what exactly did they mess up?

We've just switched to NPower because they were cheap, [b]all they have to do is take the meter reading when we give it and multiply it by the rate to get the bill?[/b]

it's the bit in bold they seem to struggle with TBH, hope it goes all right for you

OVO.

Another OVO fan here.

I love the torch function on their app when they prompt you for a reading at night........

Was with OVO, liked them, only moved cos we could get it cheaper. Parents with GB energy, they rate them very good. FWIW we have gone to British Gas, and no complaints at all so far.

I've now switched to GB Energy partly based on the comments on this thread

Good Energy here - very happy with them.

Ecotricity.

Investing in renewable energy. Good customer service - phone up and you speak to someone nice and competent. No plans to swap.

+1 for good energy