I'm exhausted! You have to fight for every little thing nowadays.
by hazel from LinuxQuestions.org on (#505TW)
I remember a time, not too long ago, when the only thing you had to beware of with energy companies was not to let them put you automatically onto the Standard Variable Tariff when your annual contract ran out. Because in those days, SVT was much higher. Then the UK government brought in a cap on SVT, so now the contract prices are higher to compensate. There are too many different contracts for anyone to make sense of, so you go on a switching site.
I switched to my present company in May last year. They agreed on a monthly payment of 38, which seemed reasonable to me. Over the summer I actually built up a large surplus with them, as I don't use much gas then and get most of my electricity off the solar panels on my roof. Of course I expected this surplus to be consumed by my winter gas bill and was not greatly surprised when I noticed a 25 deficit in February. I was surprised when I got an email proposing to put up my payments to 55, an increase of 44%. This despite that fact that I was back in surplus by the beginning of this month.
Today (after hanging on the telephone for over 30 minutes listening to recorded music) I had a long discussion with a nice young Irish woman about the utter unreasonableness of this behaviour. At first she tried to put me off, but I took her step by step through the bills and payments over the last six months and she finally agreed that it was indeed unreasonable to put up the payments by so much just at the beginning of spring when, judging by last year's figures, my energy consumption is about to go down dramatically. We agreed on a small rise and I have just received a confirmatory email.
But it tired me out and frazzled my nerves. I just wonder what happens to other old ladies who are perhaps a little bit confused and can't fight their corner. It isn't right what these companies do.
I switched to my present company in May last year. They agreed on a monthly payment of 38, which seemed reasonable to me. Over the summer I actually built up a large surplus with them, as I don't use much gas then and get most of my electricity off the solar panels on my roof. Of course I expected this surplus to be consumed by my winter gas bill and was not greatly surprised when I noticed a 25 deficit in February. I was surprised when I got an email proposing to put up my payments to 55, an increase of 44%. This despite that fact that I was back in surplus by the beginning of this month.
Today (after hanging on the telephone for over 30 minutes listening to recorded music) I had a long discussion with a nice young Irish woman about the utter unreasonableness of this behaviour. At first she tried to put me off, but I took her step by step through the bills and payments over the last six months and she finally agreed that it was indeed unreasonable to put up the payments by so much just at the beginning of spring when, judging by last year's figures, my energy consumption is about to go down dramatically. We agreed on a small rise and I have just received a confirmatory email.
But it tired me out and frazzled my nerves. I just wonder what happens to other old ladies who are perhaps a little bit confused and can't fight their corner. It isn't right what these companies do.