Hi guys,
I'm involved with a new Energy Retailer project and I'd really love to hear from you guys!
In short, what do you want from your Energy provider (and/or what do you wish they could do for you)?
Please let me know so we can make it!
Thank you.
What do people want from an energy supplier?
Obviously energy and one that costs closest to $0.
Making it free
Commie.
I have compared plans recently. Going direct through the companies website, to get a quote you often had to put name, phone number etc. I didn't want to do this for fear of return calls etc. All I wanted was an actual quote, I imagine all that would be needed is a postcode to verify distributor. So a website that shows your prices in a few seconds would be great!
Yeah, that's funny. I tried 'energymadeeasy'. Put in some usage details (which did not allow for solar) and came up with about 50 different offers. Multiple from the same provider, all with limited info on the front page which then would require me to look at the fine print to check which was best for me.
It's a joke.
That's not the fault of energymadeeasy, it's the fault of the retailers (for deliberately making so many plans), and legally they have to upload all data of all plans to the site for comparison.
@MathNerd: which is a shame, because it certainly doesn't look like they made energy 'easy'. Sure it's easy to pick the one at the top of the list, but is that really the best deal?
@Euphemistic: Yeah, I've done it a couple of times, as in changing provider every month for the last 4 months, just because one retailer tweaks their rate a slight little bit and the estimated yearly cost comes down to $2 or so cheaper than the current plan and the cycle continues.
I'm in a small 2 bedroom house with low usage (~3.5kWh/day), so the majority of my bill actually comprises of the daily supply charge, which for my distributor seems to be one of the higher ones in VIC. So some retailers offer a discount on the total bill which helps bring that supply charge down too.
Tip when using "switchon" is to input your current bill's details so it extrapolates that to an entire year so there's a good way to compare with other retailers by using an estimated annual cost.
Cheapest for sure. At the end of the day, the number of times that I would need to reach out to my electricity company would be very minimal - only when connected/disconnecting..
Its not something like internet where the 'quality' of product may vary.
I was once on powershop and really liked how easy it was to monitor usage. But I ended up leaving them as cheaper options appeared in the market.
Seamless signup process yes - I've recently switched to pacific hydro - but have put it off forever because of how difficult it is to sign up..
Multiple payment methods - yes. Maybe even a 1% discount for direct debit?
I would like a nice seafood dinner
This is OzBargain, so be prepared for brutal honesty and the wanting/need of rockbottom prices and top notch customer service.
Cheapest usage and supply charges (obviously)
Not lure customers in with a great introductory rate and then a month in, switch it to a higher cost, blaming "external factors that are outside of our control"
Easy peasy signup processes - Give name, DOB, Address, NMI/Meter Number/etc, then perform the switch with the least amount of hassle
Allow customers to pay their way - whether it be via BPAY, Direct Debit, PayPal, Credit Card (including AmEx (I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH)), and not surcharge for the chosen method
Ensure customer service centres are located locally, for local help and support
Ensure a less than 5 minute wait time on the phone for resolving queries
Offer Live Chat as an option for customer service
A "price-beat guarantee", where if you find another retailer giving you a cheaper total price (assuming exactly the same usage of course), then a way to verify this and then beat the price by reducing the rates
A rewards system (such as Cashrewards; AGL gives Flybuys as an example)
These are what I'd like, and who I'm with (GloBird), offers most things above (except the "raising" of prices, as well as no price-beat), but otherwise I'm happy with them. Include these two points and you'll be onto a winner, not only with me, but the majority of the OzBargain crowd.
We at OzBargain want the best product, with the best service, at the lowest price, and to reap benefits/rewards from our expenditure.
Thanks MathNerd!!!
Thanks for encouraging this discussion. I hope you can spearhead a retailer into offering all, if not most of, the suggestions above.
Have a FB messenger chat bot to help you sign up / switch?
No.
Yeah, a messenger bot is not really the point of all this. Besides, it's just tacky.
It was really just to help with easy quotes and sign ups, just like live chat. E.g. start with chatbot to get quote, then transfer to human to sign up.
Just the Lowest Cost Forever
I switch energy provider each and every year. This allows me to get the lowest total bill which usually comes with credits as well. At the end of the contract it saves me the hassle to "beg" the existing provider to offer the same discount which they usually don't want to match until they see your actual switch paperwork.
The sun.
Cheapest rates upfront, none of this inflated rates then discounts to get it back down.
I want cheap, reliable power. So piss off with any greenie shit that gives me brownouts during peak summer. Invest in coal.
Multiple retailers offering exactly the same thing (from the same supplier) with exactly the same outcome, with one key variable - Price.
In an energy market where multiple governments have failed their constituents and they are therefore left with the shit and have no choice but to pay absurd energy prices you tell me what matters.
What we want now is cheap power. As solar adoption increases we will want the ability to allocate our export to other people, rather than receiving a poor feed-in tariff. Then, as battery takes off, we will want the ability to pool battery resources with others and share their power and vice/versa.
Every company should be like Powershop.. hands down the best energy provider I've ever had
I like them, but they are a bit high maintenance (you don't get a good price unless you log in every month and buy future packs etc) and their packs seemed to be carefully designed so it's difficult to work out how much it's costing.
their packs seemed to be carefully designed so it's difficult to work out how much it's costing.
Just like every energy provider…..
Thanks Supasaiyan. I know a few people like Powershop, but I don't know much about them.
What do you like the most about them? Is it the pre-paid energy, do they have a cool app? If so, what does the app do that is so great?
Just cheapest rates on power. Don't care about bitcoin payment, useless facebook chatbots, "smarthome automation" by plugging into Google Home's ecosystem or any other crap energy providers come up with thinking that it will give them a competitive edge in the market. We just need the cheapest possible power… Although, a rewards/loyalty system would also be good IMO.
Guys - amazing feedback, thank you.
I agree - all the junk most power companies offer are silly and worthless, and their pricing is deliberately confusing to make it hard to compare.
Rewards programs / AMEX processing / etc all come at a cost and are somewhat at odds with being the absolute cheapest, but it's good to know this is what people want. If it can be done cheap it can be included.
Any other creative suggestions - like being able to sell to your neighbour, family accounts (like the App Store), referral kickbacks for signing up friends with referral codes, etc?
Just to flip the question around - it might help to think of what are the biggest pain in the a** things you hate about energy companies!
It's time to unload all those frustrations! :)
electricity obviously