Dave wrote:

Just had this price hike detals from Powergen. The much advertised (!) rise in
basic rate IS indeed "only" another 10%. (Since last April that is),

However closer inspection shows that their standing charge per day has increased
in a single step by a staggering 30 PERCENT. From 34p to 49p per day (They
presumably don't put in monthly figures because it looks even more outragious an
increase, from c. £10,20 to c. £14,40).

Actually, increasing the daily rate EVECTIVELLY PENALISES USERS WHO TRY TO SAVE
MONEY BY USING LESS ELECTRICITY. This is truely outrageous in term of any
"Green" policy and imho a very devious way of gaining more revenue.

I'm off to uswitch NOW. btw Anyone know if there's any body worth writing a
complaint to - some Ombudsman maybe or DEFRA perhaps? Probably a waste of time
but maybe a good way to let off steam.

btw please don't tell me we've had cheap supply from the North sea for years and
all the rest of it - I know that already. I also know of this incompetenet
governments energy plans and general policy methodology of retro-action. I've
even hear that next year bills *may* come down when the new piplines from
Holland and ? come on stream. Yeah and pigs might fly. As I see it Nuclear is
the ONLY way to secure our future power supply and stop the Russkies turning off
the tap when they want.


AFAIK the power supply companies dont owe you anything, they tell you
their prices and you can choose to buy from them or not, just like any
other business. I cant see any cause for complaint. Sure its annoying
that energy costs are rising, but thats the way life is, and its not
due to the suppliers doing anything wrong.

Yes we need eelctricity and gas, just as we do food, water, clothes,
housing and so on. All these are supplied by an assortment of competing
suppliers.

The reason people dont listen to complaints is because so many of them
are valueless, and they just get fed up reading the same old crap.
Maybe someone needs to develop some kind of system to automatically
weed genuine complaints from all the junk. Perhaps start with a tickbox
list of 'what are you complaining about', price rises, a staff
incident, power cuts, etc.


NT