Free Gas And Electric ! for some.

[iansheff 89]

13 hours ago, sibon said:

It isn’t a worldwide problem though. It is a western problem,  caused by feckless politicians and flawed energy policies.

 

The French have it sorted, at least for now. We could too. There is no justification for the profits we are seeing in the energy industry at the moment. They aren’t acceptable and won’t be accepted.

 

Either governments act, or people will. Can’t pay, won’t pay is an old slogan which is about to be repurposed.

I am sure I read EDF only put French customers price up 4%.

[lobster 54]

14 hours ago, sibon said:

 

The French have it sorted, at least for now. We could too.

Not necessarily. The French use electricity more than gas  consequently their gas imports are relatively low . At the moment they have the highest wholesale prices of energy in Europe , but these are heavily subsidised by the government  so the electricity consumer price is actually the lowest in Europe

Here comes the crunch . about half of the French nuclear reactors are out of action due to chronic corrosion problems causing supply shortages ( they are actually buying energy from us at the moment) .

So you have a choice either higher energy bills or higher taxes  to pay for the subsidies unless you are Liz Truss and live on another planet

[The_DADDY 3,482]

I've just had this sent me and I've just copied and pasted........

 

DO NOT refuse to pay your energy bill in October. Below is how you can make a stand and hurt your energy supplier without getting into debt/damaging your credit rating: 

 

1. Cancel your DD & pay for what you use each month.

 

2. You then need to write a letter of complaint to your energy supplier. Once that complaint had been raised, your energy supplier can't take any debt collection work on your account, so they can't pass your details to the credit reference agencies etc. That bill gets put on hold whilst they try to resolve your complaint. 

 

The energy company might offer you a small reduction - DON'T accept it. Keep the complaint open & hold strong. 

 

3. Eventually, they will send you a letter of 'Deadlock'. A letter of Deadlock is a letter that is sent to you from your energy company saying they gone as far as they can with your complaint & can't go any further, so your only option now is to take it up with the energy Ombudsman. 

 

For every complaint the Ombudsman receives, they charge your energy supplier £500 for every claim they have to investigate.

 

4. The energy companies also have limitations on how many complaints they're allowed open as well as a turnaround time of how fast they have to respond to a complaint & get a complaint closed. If they don't respond to them fast enough & don't resolve the complaints or they have too many complaints open, the energy firm will also get hit with a fine from the Ombudsman.

 

This is how your hurt an energy company. This will also put them in breach of their licensing conditions 

 & put their ability to trade at risk.

 

So if you want to fight these extortionate price hikes

1. Raise complaints

2. Do NOT close them

3. Take them to the Ombudsman

 

You can also submit a “subject access request” at the same time as the above. This means the energy company has a legal obligation to provide you with every piece of information they have on you; including telephone conversation transcripts, past bills, everything! This is time consuming for them to collect and is a huge hassle for them however they legally have only one month to comply.

 

Edit: the accompanying graphic contains a quote from Martin Lewis. This was taken from an article by Tyla. The written content of this post was taken from a commentator on the Tyla article. I thought others would find it useful so I made this post public.

[HeHasRisen 3,415]

None of that sounds like anything Martin Lewis would ever suggest.

 

Its also the worst advice I have ever seen bar the advice not to pay at all.

Edited August 8, 2022 by HeHasRisen

[Dromedary 166]

6 hours ago, fools said:

You're stretching this paying for it point beyond it's usefulness. It was going to be replaced, it got replaced, I didn't initiate any extra costs that wouldn't have happened anyway. And I have saved money as a direct result of it being replaced, the only point that matters.

Good for you.

 

Quote

Thereby proving the point that smartmeters can save people money if it wasn't obvious from the outset.

No all it proves is that you personally have saved money because you didn't know how to do that before getting a smart meter. I repeat again smart meters don't save you money, what they do is make some people more aware of their electric or gas usage and if the person is smart then they will take note and adjust their usage accordingly. As the old saying goes you "cut your cloth to suit."

 

I save money by being wise and I don't have or need a smart meter to do so.

 

Quote

However low your bills are, it remains possible that you can save money by having one, if you use it properly.

It remains possible yes but it also remains possible to save money even not having one, and that is the big point. What do you do, sit there and constantly watch it so you can see how much you can save?

 

Quote

You should get yourself on TV, and explain to the nation how you manage to spend so little, as it's less than a half of the average bill.

Well I could but people already know that using led lights, having good insulation and using a slow cooker helps......  I don't watch TV, rarely use the oven, cook in batches, freeze food and use a microwave.

 

Quote

I'm sure ITV would be interested in commissioning a series. Might not be so low in a few months though.

Comedy gold! I'm certain that it will still be lower than yours even though you rely on a smart meter.

 

Quote

I don't really need to explain why a handheld device is far easier than faffing about in a meter cupboard doing endless readings and calculations

Does that hand held device monitor each socket outlet? If it doesn't then it's not that smart, and who was talking about faffing about in a cupboard doing endless reading and calculations. It doesn't take much of a brain to realise that it you turn a light off then it wont use any electricity.

 

1 hour ago, HeHasRisen said:

None of that sounds like anything Martin Lewis would ever suggest.

 

Its also the worst advice I have ever seen bar the advice not to pay at all.

I agree. Not paying a bill can lead to many knock on effects from doing such.

Edited August 8, 2022 by Dromedary

[L00b 441]

4 hours ago, lobster said:

(…)

So you have a choice either higher energy bills or higher taxes  to pay for the subsidies unless you are Liz Truss and live on another planet

Or buy a generator and a large tank…and hide + secure them well from the neighbours.

 

 

 

[iansheff 89]

I have just seen this and they are talking about bills topping £4200, it is beyond a joke.

Energy bills forecast to top £4,200 in fresh blow to households - live updates (msn.com)

 

There is only one way of reducing the bills and that is by using less gas and electricity, all the smart meter does is tell you what you are using.

 

As for the cheaper options, I signed a 3 year fixed rate last September and it was the cheapest I could find anywhere and it didn't mean I had to have a smart meter, although EDF keep sending mails and texts saying to get one now. The biggest con is that the suppliers were allowed to increase the standing charges by a ridiculous amount.

 

I am waiting for the Smart Meter Anxiety syndrome to start with people getting stressed and anxious because they keep watching it to see how much they are using.  Before anyone laughs it off there is already something like this where people get anxious driving their electric cars when they are nearly out of electricity, and wondering if they will make it to a charging point. can't remember the name of it though.

 

[Dromedary 166]

5 minutes ago, iansheff said:

I have just seen this and they are talking about bills topping £4200, it is beyond a joke.

Energy bills forecast to top £4,200 in fresh blow to households - live updates (msn.com)

 

There is only one way of reducing the bills and that is by using less gas and electricity, all the smart meter does is tell you what you are using.

👍

 

I think Germany realised that they were not cost effective and was the reason why they would not have a smart meter rollout.

 

5 minutes ago, iansheff said:

As for the cheaper options, I signed a 3 year fixed rate last September and it was the cheapest I could find anywhere and it didn't mean I had to have a smart meter, although EDF keep sending mails and texts saying to get one now. The biggest con is that the suppliers were allowed to increase the standing charges by a ridiculous amount.

The standing charges bit has always been a big con. Looking at my past bills it shows that when the unit prices actually did go down for some reason the standing charges were increased.

 

5 minutes ago, iansheff said:

I am waiting for the Smart Meter Anxiety syndrome to start with people getting stressed and anxious because they keep watching it to see how much they are using.  Before anyone laughs it off there is already something like this where people get anxious driving their electric cars when they are nearly out of electricity, and wondering if they will make it to a charging point. can't remember the name of it though.

[Gormenghast 60]

18 hours ago, The_DADDY said:

 

This is how you hurt an energy company. This will also put them in breach of their licensing conditions & put their ability to trade at risk.

 

 

 

And what do you do when they stop trading, as many have done already, and other suppliers won't supply you?

 

Rig up a generator attached to an exercise bike and pedal your way to a nice roast chicken , or a shower?

[iansheff 89]

48 minutes ago, Dromedary said:

👍

 

I think Germany realised that they were not cost effective and was the reason why they would not have a smart meter rollout.

 

The standing charges bit has always been a big con. Looking at my past bills it shows that when the unit prices actually did go down for some reason the standing charges were increased.

 

Weren't the standing charges increased to cover the customers that were moved to suppliers after their supplier went bust?

[HeHasRisen 3,415]

5 minutes ago, iansheff said:

Weren't the standing charges increased to cover the customers that were moved to suppliers after their supplier went bust?

Correct.

[Dromedary 166]

5 hours ago, iansheff said:

Weren't the standing charges increased to cover the customers that were moved to suppliers after their supplier went bust?

No. Standing charges are for the cost of creating and maintaining the infrastructure for supplying gas or electricity to the user, a bit like BT line rental charges. The charges can also vary depending on the supplier used. If a company goes bust then that is a different thing.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Dromedary