Tim Streater wrote:
On 25 Mar 2021 at 17:55:32 GMT, Chris Green wrote:

alan_m wrote:
On 25/03/2021 17:15, Scion wrote:
On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 16:20:48 +0000, Jeff Layman wrote:

snip tale of unsurprising woe

That's what happens when everyone is intent on getting the lowest possible
price.



Changing supplier is easy and it appears that the worst customer service
is often from the large suppliers that change the most. This tale of woe
possibly has more to do with the method of payment that is not available
on the better tariffs. Industry wide, the energy companies really don't
want customers who pay by cheque or cash and it is more likely they
don't want customers who are unwilling to manage their account on-line.

... and they're not "energy companies" they're just manipulators of
paperwork between us (the consumers) and the actual businesses which
generate the electricity. Wholly pointless except as a money making
exercise for them.

Not really pointless. Agreed that for the most part they are just billing
organisations. The volts are actually supplied by the likes of UK Power
Networks, not by such as npower etc.

But the billing side is a largish chunk of the cost. Why shouldn't there be a
mechanism to reduce the cost of that part? It's no different to no longer
queuing up in a shop to wait your turn for some klod to take a tin of cocoa
off the shelf behind him and hand it to you. You may as well do that yourself
while you wait. And so the self-service idea takes off: cheaper for you,
quicker, and thus better for the environment.

And we no longer sit in the car while some geezer fills up our tank. What did
your last servant die of anyway?

Supply of volts and stinking gas is no different: cost reduced by automated
payments. It's also why they're after us to put smart meters in.

None of which argument tells me why there's a pointless 'middleman'
making a profit for no gain to anyone except themselves.

I quite agree that paying efficiently by DD makes sense but that isn't
a reason for the extra 'layer' of paper pushers (or DD pushers)
between me and the actual producers of electricity.

--
Chris Green
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