A frugal life is an easy life!

I have just received my yearly pre payment meter statement from British gas.
Littered with lies and misrepresentations, it does its level best to deceive and manipulate the customer into believing that all is well with their gas payments.

"We've tried to make it as clear and simple to understand as possible. It's just another thing we're doing to help look after your world."

Let's take a look then shall we:

* British gas estimate that we will use £914 of gas in the next 12 months, showing a bar graph with the same amount of units as last year and the year before that.
This misleads the customer into believing that the price of British gas has not increased.
If british gas really wanted to make it clear and simple, why is it not showing the actual cost to us has increased for the year to come, despite using the same amount of gas for the 3rd year running?

It is confirmation also that british gas' professional view, that our old back boiler was using too much gas and we would be better off with a spanking new condenser/combination boiler, was completely false. The gas usage remains the same regardless of old broken back boiler or new combi boiler!

I will go a step further, the total payment take for last year and the year before has been almost £200 LESS than it will be for this year coming - Now with prices going up by 9% in December 2010 and british gas confirming that gas units used in 2008 - 2009, and gas used from 2009 - 2010, is the same as projected for use in the coming year, a 9% increase in price would represent an increase of a lot less than £200 would it not?

Rough workings show clearly, that 9% of our £720 (our old yearly amount paid for gas use) SHOULD equal an increase of £65 - putting our bill for this year at around £785
The gap between what british gas will be charging us for the coming year and what we have paid for the past two years, based on british gas' own prediction and facts, is a staggering £129 IN FAVOUR of british gas!

Where has this money gone?
Why are there no indications of this on my statement?
Why is the actual increase imposed on us by british gas, closer to 20% rather than the 9% increase they told us was happening?
Remember the statement they make on their advertisements on TV and radio, reitterated at the top of our pre payment yearly statement - "We've tried to make it as clear and simple to understand as possible. It's just another thing we're doing to help look after your world."

* British gas statement dates differ from actual usage dates.
Our pre payment yearly statement dates run from 31st December to 30th December each year - yet the actual usage monitored, runs from 28th September to 27th September each year. WHY?
For the past two years, the yearly statement shows the usage measured from September.
The statement (Dated 30 December) then says, "If you continue to use energy at the same rate over the next 12 months, we forecast your cost will be £914.
Missing 3 months there British gas?
Remember what British gas say at the top of our pre payment statement - "We've tried to make it as clear and simple to understand as possible. It's just another thing we're doing to help look after your world."

* British gas say the cost for the next year is "based on tariff breakdown and estimated meter readings"
Not possible!
With a pre payment card meter, everytime the meter is topped up, that is once per month or in winter 4 times per month (as they rip us off!) the card takes and records a meter reading and this information is sent back to british gas!
That was the whole purpose of installing a brand new meter and insisting we use a brand new gas card not 9 months ago.
The meter reading bloke only comes out now to do a visual check that the meter is working, at least once every two years by law.
Unless there is a fault sending the reading (can there be a fault for a full year?) then estimated meter readings are a thing of the past.

Next we have the british gas "tariff breakdown"
Last year british gas tell us we used more than 23 thousand kWh (kilowatts per hour) of gas.
Our "unit price" is 7.4 pence for the first 2680 kWh of gas used - which means we were on the higher unit price of more than 7 pence for the entire year. (Despite customer service advisors of british gas telling me we had a very high usage which couldn't be explained)
After 2680 kWh have been used then each unit of gas is charged at a reduced rate of 3.4 pence per unit.

Now after speaking to FOUR (that's 4) customer service advisors working for british gas, not a single one of them could explain how gas pricing works for a domestic customer!

A 5th customer service advisor attempted to make it clear for me:
"We can only charge you a higher rate for gas usage, up to 5200 units, after this level has been reached, you then go down to the lower rate."
Now you'd think that by the time winter comes around, we would have used all the higher rate units up and be on the lower rate unit charge over the winter months???
Clearly not the case as our payments shoot up from mid november, despite the identical gas usage from the year before. Are british gas starting the higher charge for units from zero prior to winter months to reap maximum profits from their customers?
Instead of starting the unit count from zero on the 31st of December, half way into winter? (I haven't even considered how this works for them as regards their tax bill being from April to April???)

The 5th advisor continued... "We don't charge lower price units once a customer has used up all their higher charge rate units, it doesn't work like that. This is because people with lower gas usage would never benefit from the reduced unit price!"
I asked why other people's usage was relevant to my own, should british gas not be charging me based on my own usage?
I asked also why my meter (at the time) was showing I had used 820 units of gas, how was I supposed to be able to see the link between 820 units used showing on my meter and the price being charged?
"You can't see this from your meter!" replied the advisor, "You're gas charges are calculated by kilowatts per hour!"

As clear as mud then, customer cannot compare meter reading to units to price charged to unit cost... how crazy is that!
In my experience, whenever a business confuses the issue between pricing and it's customer, it serves one sole purpose, to extort more money from the customer!
Remember british gas' claim at the top of my pre payment yearly statement, "We've tried to make it as clear and simple to understand as possible. It's just another thing we're doing to help look after your world."

* British gas tell me via the statement, that direct debit customers pay 4.5% LESS than a pre payment meter customer - with an asterix after the word "customer"
Cool, I pay in ADVANCE and I am charged more, discrimination I think!
The asterix is important though, in the small print underneath it, it reveals that the 4.5% is arrived at by british gas, is based on annual consumption of 20,500 kWh (So It wouldn't apply to me, an average customer anyways) and this figure is a "rounded average across all regions" - even worse, they are charging people in different areas of the country, different prices based on demographics!
More money in London, charge them more for their gas, more money in north west England, charge them more money for gas than Scottish customers, etc.
More discrimination.
Remember the statement, "We've tried to make it as clear and simple to understand as possible. It's just another thing we're doing to help look after your world."

* Finally, British gas tell us, "Did you know, there are lots of things you can do to reduce your energy consumption and energy bills"
Damned right there is.... install a coal fire and cook with electricity, making british gas and it's rip off, unclear, pricing methods, completely irrelevant!

One thing I have learned in recent years, is that a person can only be frugal in any way, when they introduce CHOICE.

Choice has become the enemy of business in recent years, once the individual has a choice, then they can see right through what the business is doing.
A prime example of this is with our energy providers.

I don't care what the big energy providers tell us and lead people to believe, in my opinion they are operating a monopoly.
They take it in turns to increase prices and no matter how many wind turbines are put in place, the price to the customer continues to increase.
In the past 12 months I have tried to limit the use of gas, setting a timer, thermostat, even fitting a brand new boiler in place of the 35 year old back boiler we had. Every year it is the same result, we magically use close to 300 units from mid november to mid december (and every other winter month until March) despite having the heating on for the same amount of time.

From mid October to mid November last year we used 85 units of gas - same as the year before.
The following month, we managed to use just short of 300 units of gas, despite having the same gas use as the month before.
As a result of this mysterious increase in usage, which British gas cannot explain, the monthly cost increases from around £45 per month, up to £130 per month over winter.

I asked British gas for a price per unit of gas, so I could keep tabs on how much we use, three staff couldn't tell me, the fourth could only tell me the formula, which is used to work it out.
Even armed with the formula, multiply number of units by some obscure 0.1233455 (for example) multiply by days in a month, think of a number would be more accurate, this formula only worked out right if I had an old imperial meter, the new metric meters work it out differently!

God only knows how people on direct debits cope with gas bills?
I know of many people who have been paying a set amount each month throughout the year, all well and good, until year end then find they are left with a huge lumpsum to pay, as there has been a mix up, or the meter reading is estimated or the price has changed, etc.
It's a rip off plain and simple.
Changing gas company might save me £25 after masses of paperwork and waiting for four weeks for it to transfer over, not to mention the increase in cost to me because the comparison website's commission has to be paid for (on average £60 per switch over), which is never pointed out to the customer, but has to be found from somewhere!

Gas is not going to get any cheaper as resources run out.
So I have just made arrangements for a friend to come in next week and price up and fit a solid fuel/coal fire.
We never use the gas fire here, too much dry heat, too expensive to run it, we rely on central heating. Falling for the new boiler is more efficient scam, we now see clearly from the money missing from our pocket, that the costs remain the same.

Efficiency is paramount we are told by the powers that be, reduce carbon emmissions, blah, blah, blah...
Efficiency ALWAYS costs more money in my experience.
The only efficiency I am interested in, is to be able to heat my home for a price that doesn't leave us cutting back on our food budget (already thrifty) just to keep warm.
A friend told me they used to have a coal fire, their gas bill PER QUARTER was just £35
They fell for the new boiler/central heating scam, got rid of their coal fire and now are sick of paying out £5 every other day!

Even a cost of £500 to fit a chimney liner and fire surround along with the actual fire, would still pay for itself within one winter.
More importantly, having an alternative source of heating for the house, gives me a CHOICE!
If I don't want to continue paying vast sums to rip off gas companies, I simply pick up a sack of coal from my local farmer (around £8 for a 25kg sack as I write) and away we go.
I shall post pictures and information next week, when hopefully, I'll be sweating cobs in my toasty new house, with around £90 per month more in my pocket.

A fine example of how us customers, stand little or no chance when it comes to "Rip off Britain"
Take a bow Currys, I'd like to see how they explain this one away!

On Christmas Eve, her indoors, purchased a camcorder for my Christmas present.
The price was £349
The camcorder was mis sold - file type did not fit the file type the advisor said that it did, but that's a different topic.

Two days after Christmas, we returned the camcorder to a different local branch, for a replacement.
The price for the camcorder we were returning remained at a regular price of £349.
After looking through the models, we came upon a suitable replacement, on Curry's website, for a regular price of £437.99
This price was the same as the instore regular price, so the exchange was made and we waited for delivery of the new camcorder to the branch to be collected.

Now the part that requires an explanation:
Four days later, still no sign of my new camcorder, I took a look at the Curry's website, which is where the camcorder was ordered in from, to make sure they still had stock of it, prior to my ringing the store up asking if it had arrived (Just incase I was fed the line that there was no stock of it as an excuse for it being delivered late)

To my surprise, the camcorder I was waiting for, priced £437.99 had INCREASED IN PRICE to a whopping £529.99 - An increase of £92

This is BEFORE any VAT increase - the 15 stock items they had in their warehouse before the mystery price increase, if sold, would give Curry's an extra £1380 in profit, at the expense of the customer!

As if this wasn't ripping the customer off enough, check out their "Sale" price on the camcorder I returned.
Normal price Christmas eve, was £349.99
Sale price less than a week later was £349.99 but now with a big red "sale" card advertising that anyone who bought the camcorder would be "Saving £50"

Now correct me if I am wrong, but under Trading standards law, does the higher "before" price have to be charged for 28 days prior to the "sale" price?
It wasn't just the camcorder concerned that was priced this way, a different brand of camcorder was also being advertised at a sale price of £499.99 - exactly the same price as it was not three days earlier.

Disgraceful practice by Currys - clearly misleading their customers as regards "sale" prices at the same time as increasing the price in the example given by more than 18% for no apparent reason other than to increase profit margins!

HETAS - the official body of solid fuel domestic heating appliances, fuels and services - are recognised by the government for approval of appliances.
HETAS can recommend installers, solid fuel types and chimney sweeps.

Unfortunately, the installation companies and people they recommend, are not always as eager to assist customers.

Of five installers they recommend (in my area), all five failed to either quote, fit, or even ring back myself when presented with a straight forward solid fuel coal fire request or job.
I dropped them an email with the information and asked why they were an official body for the service, yet failing in their respective position, to assist a customer in, to all intents and purposes, is a relatively simple enquiry and possible work.

Their response was lacklustre, referring me to trading standards as HETAS do not deal with the customer and a business/individual that they award a qualification to.

Government states that solid fuel/coal fires, must be "low carbon and efficient" - promoting wood burning appliances as better for the environment.
Trees make wood, but also filter carbon from the atmosphere. Promoting appliances that burn wood and reduce the number of trees on the planet, somewhat contradicts their own argument to reduce carbon emmissions?

As all frugal people are aware of, where confusion is involved in any set up, system or way of doing things, this always results in costing the customer more money!

Any ideas or information you can share, please comment. Hopefully your insight will save people money, time and effort. Thanks

New catagory for 2011, the customer service quiz. Every now and then frugal ways will be testing high street companies on how they treat their customers and posting the results.

So off we go with our first high street company: CURRYS

Curry's sold her who must be obeyed, a camcorder. Curry's test comes from the sales patter, to their back up service.

• "Does the JVC camcorder you recommend, produce a file type that can be uploaded to a PC and used in conjunction with pinnacle and windows movie maker video editing software?"
  "Yes" replied the assistant - WRONG!
  Most hard disc recording camcorders do not create file types that work with either movie editing programs. Least of all JVC camcorders, who rely on the software that comes with the camera itself. Score 0/1
• Before returning the camcorder, we spoke to Currys via their national customer service number:
  Call 1 - Finally got through to customer services on their phone menu, the advisor told me they couldn't help as they were the "technical help department" - they did however transfer me to the branch I had asked to speak to, to obtain a swap for "the same model" - I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, despite me asking to swap it for a different model, not the same one (Failed to listen), at least I was able to speak to the branch. Score 1/2
• The assistant at the branch answered the phone with, "Yes?"
  He didn't realise I was a customer speaking on an outside line, once we had established this, I gave him the product code of the camcorder I wanted and asked if it was in stock, a short delay, he came back on the phone and said they didn't have any instock.
  Did they know when they would have them in stock again?
  "No" was the answer
  When were they due to come into stock?
  "I don't know!" was the answer
  When is your stock delivery?
  "Try again on Wednesday" - the call was ended.
  Not very helpful, had I not continued to prompt him, I would have had even less information.
  Information about stock delivery and ringing back on Wednesday (today is Monday) was completely wrong and would have wasted my time, as this branch do not stock them at all. Score 1/3
• About 10 minutes later I was back on the national phone line again to customer services. I had forgotten to ask which branches had them instock and if one of the camcorders I wanted could be transferred across for me to collect.
  The advisor on the phone told me that he couldn't check any stocks as "our systems have been down since lunchtime today"
  "But your website is fine"
  "Our stockfile for stores is kept on the internet and we cannot access it. Even the branches cannot access it, we are very busy"
  Score 1/4
• I rang the national phoneline again, this time asking to be put through to a different local branch.
  "I can't put you through as our systems are down" - but I have just been put through to one branch prior to this call?
  "Our systems have been down since lunchtime today!" - so how did the previous advisor, not 10 minutes earlier, manage to put me through to a branch?
  "I have no idea how they managed that, our systems are down, I cannot even bring up the extension phone number for the branch!"
  I put the phone down. Score 1/5
• We decided to chance it and drive over to another local branch (28 mile round trip)
  On arrival, we checked out the camcorders on display and the assistant comes over. I ask to look at a lower value model than the one I want.
  I asked about battery time - will it last around 2 hours? - "More than 3 hours definately!" WRONG!
  I already know that battery time is a maximum of 2 hours - Score 1/6
• "What is the difference between this model and the JVC one?" (I haven't told him that we are exchanging it yet)
  "Nothing apart from the hard drive size" WRONG!
  There is a lower optical zoom, it records in fewer file types, it has less inputs, lower resolution photographs, it uses a different memory card, etc.
  I got bored with the lack of interest in my enquiry and the lack of factual answers to simple questions I was asking, I asked if there was another advisor I could speak to about it. Score 1/7
• The next assistant was a lot more knowledgeable. Thinking there was a good sale available, he pushed us towards a memory card panasonic model which was very expensive for us. He tried to convince me that this panasonic model had 3 lenses, all working at the exact same time!
  I informed him that I was exchanging for the JVC one, told him of the Sony model I wanted and asked him to find one and get it brought to my local branch for me.
  The assistant went straight to the computer and checked the stockfile of other stores from all over the country. Score 2/8 (I thought the stockfile had been down all day?)
• The assistant wasn't even aware that the model I wanted wasn't normally stocked at this medium sized superstore!
  He did manage to find some at two other branches. I requested that one be transferred over for us, off he went on to the phone to contact the two stores and have one sent over to our local branch. Score 3/9
• After more than 20 minutes waiting - we got that bored we went off and had a look around the store - we returned to find that there was no stock available.
  I asked if they could get one from the same place as the website, who were advertising them as being in stock?
  "No we cannot get stock from them, they have a totally different warehouse than than the stores!" - WRONG!
  Stores may well have a different warehouse to the website, but they can also transfer stock from there, to branches! Score 3/10
• I asked why there was now no stock available at the other two stores he mentioned then phoned, his reply was shocking;
  "The other stores won't let me have any of their stock!" - total contempt for a customer of Currys! Score 3/11
• The assistant, then told us, "If you want to exchange it, you will have to drive over to either store that had it in stock!" - One store was 45 miles away, the other store was 35 miles away - I answered with a simple "NO!" Score 3/12
• I told the assistant that we would then have a refund, in full, go home and order it via the website or find another company to buy it from.
  The assistant replied, "If you want a refund, then you'll have to go back to the store you bought it from originally!"
  I'd like to see them get that past trading standards and sale of goods act law - again I answered with a firm "NO!" Score 3/13
• The store manager came over and advised that the assistant should order a replacement from their "online warehouse"

Curry's final score: 3/13
Overall view:
Very worrying for a high street company!
Normally it's fair to say there might be one or two mistakes or "training issues" - but in this case, there were consistant errors by members of staff, too many to be a training issue or all genuine mistakes.
From the store that sold the product originally, then twice on the national phone lines, then once at a branch, then again at the branch that eventually sorted it out, what the customer was told, wasn't always factual nor an accurate guess.
We, being the customer, felt as if we were in the way, a mistake in the sale of the branch, then being told to wait two days before calling back again to speak to someone else, is not good enough!

We were not told to wait two days when we handed over hundreds of pounds during the original sale.
We were not told to wait two days before paying the extra money for the exchange, for goods that were not in the store and have to be ordered, then delivered.

Curry's staff on all levels, from instore to call centre staff, were only too keen to pass us on to someone else.
It was disgraceful to suggest that we would have to drive either a 90 or 70 mile round trip to exchange goods!
It was a disgrace to suggest that we would have to go back to the original store for a refund!
A purchase made at Currys in one town, should have the same back up service to the customer, be it refund or exchange, at a Curry's store in any other town in the country.
Too many staff quoting their own opinion and not enough fact, does not go down well with a customer!