Comments on: Power companies are taking the piss

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:19:37 +0000

Anonymous here again, I really should register! Pretty much a monopoly. Having the highest average salary (euro 77k) of any semi-state might have something to do with it. As usual, the boards make the most entertaining reading… http://tinyurl.com/neqalf

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:08:22 +0000

Funnily enough today I got a letter from SP informing us that they are changing the times that they do the overnight storage heater charge, which is controlled by a radio teleswitch. In addition to finally knowing what causes that loud clicking noise just before midnight, that’ll be another one for your list of possible wi-fi interference bugbears, Gary.

By: Tony Kiernan

Tony Kiernan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:21:15 +0000

I really need to spend some time looking at this. Scottish power have been ripping the shit out of us in this flat for years now. Last time I complained (take the overcharged monies off the estimate and re-adjust the estimate to reflect that you overcharged) they dropped my direct debit to around £20. I noresd back up to £90 withing five months. (Really mush read their letters more often too)

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:16:21 +0000

Heather: that’s an epic piss-take.

Jamie: yeah, calor is a pretty reasonable price to pay for living in the country :)

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:14:07 +0000

We’ve got a Calor gas tank in the garden (live out in the country), which isn’t the cheapest and is monopolistic, but then we live in the country so it’s a price worth paying, in my book.

Our electricity is a scandal, though.

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:10:17 +0000

We’ve got those atrocious 1970s white meter heaters which are proprietary to the old monopoly, so we can’t switch away from ScottishPower. We tried several times, but the switch is always rejected. Estimates I’ve read say that up to 10% of the households in Scotland are like this. So they can charge whatever they want and provide Ryanair style service if they like – we’re stuck with them. How’s that for a piss-take?

By: Gary

Gary — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:18:39 +0000

Anonymous: bloody hell. Explanation says high standing charges and high network charges – is there a reason for that, eg like the north there’s only one provider?

Derek: EDF. Sadly it turns out they’re not the Earth Defence Force :) FWIW Scottish Power also does some sort of paperless billing discount…

Squander Two: Gas is still pretty rare over there, isn’t it? I know that for most of my family heating means a great big container of heating oil in the back garden.

By: Squander Two

Squander Two — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:05:48 +0000

Comparing may be a pain in the arse, but I still miss it. Over here, we’ve got a state electricity monopoly and a private gas monopoly.

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:13:12 +0000

I was also just looking into switching as Scottish Power had been pissing me off too. In the end, I ended up staying with Scottish Power, but have moved to a lower “no standing charge” tariff because I’m such a low user that it’s cheaper to be on that. Funny how Scottish Power didn’t tell me that though!

Npower could have saved me more money but their customer service is so notoriously bad that I didn’t think it would be worth it.

Who did you switch to Gary?

Cheers,
Derek

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:15:04 +0000

Hey Gary,

Interesting stats here on how some of your neighbours are getting shafted a tad more…
http://tinyurl.com/nonvlr