The Energy Crisis

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Re: The Energy Crisis

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Re: The Energy Crisis

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Danny's Dyer Acting
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by Danny's Dyer Acting »

Great reporting this. Times reporter goes undercover with a firm of debt collectors that are taking on contracts from British Gas to force entry to people's homes and fit prepay meters.
The Times has been investigating how British Gas and other major energy firms are treating vulnerable customers during the cost of living crisis. While British Gas claims it helps families facing financial difficulties, there have been reports of aggressive debt collection tactics, including breaking into vulnerable people’s homes and forcing them onto pay-as-you-go meters. As a result, some families say they have been left for periods without any heating or electricity.


Article - https://archive.is/NliNw
After being approached for comment, British Gas suspended the practice of force-fitting prepayment meters. It began an investigation into the “deeply concerning” findings, adding: “This is not who we are — it’s not how we do business.”
Yes it is. Yes it is.
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smuts
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Re: The Energy Crisis

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British Gas are the worst company going. Truly awful customer service, excessive charging and so on.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by YorksHammer »

Just the cool $40bn profit for Shell, then, more than double their previous high, while regular people start to watch their energy use and bill price due to the hikes in price.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by wolf359 »

smuts wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 10:26 pm British Gas are the worst company going. Truly awful customer service, excessive charging and so on.
I got a £10 and an apology out of them a couple of weeks a go.. They blamed me for cancelling my DD (in fact they had messed up the payment) took a complaint and an 'investigation' but they did concede it was them and threw me £10 off my bill (big woop) but admitting you are wrong is a start.
Last edited by wolf359 on Thu Feb 02, 2023 8:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Arnold Layne
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Re: The Energy Crisis

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YorksHammer wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 7:28 am Just the cool $40bn profit for Shell, then, more than double their previous high, while regular people start to watch their energy use and bill price due to the hikes in price.
£32.3bn to be precise, but yeah must be nice.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by Georgee Paris »

Biggest profits in 114 years or something - lovely. Well done them.
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Danny's Dyer Acting
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by Danny's Dyer Acting »

An urgent meeting will be held. Lessons will be learned. The practice will quietly recommence once the heat is off.

The papers love publicly shaming a working class person that ****'s up, they should be leading the charge to tar and feather whatever empty suit has been signing off on these practices.

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SammyLeeWasOffside
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Re: The Energy Crisis

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Danny's Dyer Acting wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 10:35 am The papers love publicly shaming a working class person that ****'s up, they should be leading the charge to tar and feather whatever empty suit has been signing off on these practices.
It's literally an investigation by a newspaper
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by Danny's Dyer Acting »

SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 12:53 pm It's literally an investigation by a newspaper
Well done :thup:

My point is whoever is behind this will get off scot free.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

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Danny's Dyer Acting wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 2:35 pm Well done :thup:

My point is whoever is behind this will get off scot free.
Your point appeared to be the papers should be leading the charge, based on you saying the papers should be leading the charge.

I'd wager a few british gas management will be gone pretty soon (with a hefty pay off no doubt). Whether the police get involved will be interesting.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by Tenbury »

Prepayment meters, IMO, are just the poorest subsidising everyone else's fuel bill.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by Johnny Byrne's Boots »

Got an email from OVO this morning telling me I've used up all my credit and to break even they're putting up my direct debit by fifteen pounds a month, making it two hundred for gas and electricity combined. I really don't know if that's good or bad. I'm in a four bed detached over three floors with solid nine inch brick walls, about one hundred years old.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by dasnutnock3 »

Johnny Byrne's Boots wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 3:47 pm Got an email from OVO this morning telling me I've used up all my credit and to break even they're putting up my direct debit by fifteen pounds a month, making it two hundred for gas and electricity combined. I really don't know if that's good or bad. I'm in a four bed detached over three floors with solid nine inch brick walls, about one hundred years old.
Seems a fair amount less than I’m paying for a smaller but similarly spec building.
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SammyLeeWasOffside
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Re: The Energy Crisis

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Tenbury wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 3:40 pm Prepayment meters, IMO, are just the poorest subsidising everyone else's fuel bill.
How? To an extent when there were deals being offered to DD customers but not now. Even then the prepayment caps were lower or equivalent to standard costs weren't they?

You could have argued people not on fixed rate deals were subsidising those deals for others but that wasn't just prepayment customers.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by mumbles87 »

SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 4:23 pm How? To an extent when there were deals being offered to DD customers but not now. Even then the prepayment caps were lower or equivalent to standard costs weren't they?

You could have argued people not on fixed rate deals were subsidising those deals for others but that wasn't just prepayment customers.
Because even on the price cap their costs are higher than everywhere elses.
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by SammyLeeWasOffside »

mumbles87 wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 4:29 pm Because even on the price cap their costs are higher than everywhere elses.
Are they? This is from January so that know the caps have changed. So it's not a massive amount. Probably equivalent to people who pay the bill as it arrives

Prepayment customers have slightly higher price capped rates than direct debit customers. A typical household, using a medium amount of gas and electricity, defined by Ofgem as using 12,000kWh gas and 2,900kWh electricity per year, and paying the average standing charges, would pay the following annual amounts on direct debit and prepayment meters:

Direct debit tariff: £2,500
Prepayment tariff: £2,560
That means there is a £60 difference per year between a dual-fuel deal for a typical household paying by direct debit and the same household with a prepayment meter
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mumbles87
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by mumbles87 »

SammyLeeWasOffside wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 4:38 pm Are they? This is from January so that know the caps have changed. So it's not a massive amount. Probably equivalent to people who pay the bill as it arrives

Prepayment customers have slightly higher price capped rates than direct debit customers. A typical household, using a medium amount of gas and electricity, defined by Ofgem as using 12,000kWh gas and 2,900kWh electricity per year, and paying the average standing charges, would pay the following annual amounts on direct debit and prepayment meters:

Direct debit tariff: £2,500
Prepayment tariff: £2,560
That means there is a £60 difference per year between a dual-fuel deal for a typical household paying by direct debit and the same household with a prepayment meter
Not a massive amount? Its still for the poorest .....
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Re: The Energy Crisis

Post by SammyLeeWasOffside »

mumbles87 wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 4:51 pm Not a massive amount? Its still for the poorest .....
But are they subsidising others bills or paying admin costs for the system they are using? Paying on receipt costs more as well because there is more work administering it.

DD you (used to) get a discount because it's relatively automatic to process. No bills to post out, no chasing up, no payment machines to pay for etc.
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