On 13/04/2017 08:24, Jeff Layman wrote:
As I long-time EDF customer, I reckoned it's time I had a look at other
suppliers. I'd read somewhere that uSwitch and similar sites weren't
quite as independent as they seemed (is that right or wrong?), so went

They are probably not entirely trustworthy in terms of "savings" since
they assume you are on the maximal ripoff tariff of your present
supplier when your contract ends instead of the most sensible one. This
is your suppliers default action and plenty of elderly people are on it!

Correct for that aberration and the site is fine - although you should
always go and run the same scenario through the suppliers website before
you commit to make sure their best offer hasn't changed recently.

The savings made still have the right order but the magnitude has a
fixed offset (check to see where your current suppliers best is).

to MoneySuperMarket to have a look, although I'm not sure that's much
better.

I eventually found myself at
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/utilities/gas-electricity-prices.aspx
to have a look at available tariffs, and couldn't believe what I was
seeing. Is that what a deregulated market is supposed to be doing? There
are over *2000* tariffs on that page!

That is *exactly* what a deregulated market looks like. You can sort to
show minimum standing charge, minimum unit rate first etc. The idea is
to offer so much choice consumers can't see the wood for the trees.

How can anyone work their way through this insanity of tariffs? I know
there are apps and webpages designed to help you through the maze, but
should Ofgem be allowing this in the first place?

That is the whole point - make the process painful enough and people
give up on the idea of changing supplier because it is too difficult.

The thing that Ofgem should be doing is forcing suppliers to put their
customers onto the most suitable tariff for them instead of their
maximal ripoff variable tariff when a fixed term contract expires.

Customer loyalty counts for nothing these days - if you are loyal to
your supplier then they will rip you off it is as simple as that.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown