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Yesterday I got an email from my energy supplier, Octopus energy, outlining the upcoming price increases.
The charge for both gas and electricity is going up by around 75% as I expected.
But I was shocked to see that the daily electricity standing charge was increasing by over 100%!
OK, I get that the cost of fuel has gone up a lot, but why DOUBLE the standing charge?
So I phoned Octopus Energy and asked them how they justified this price hike, they said it was to cover increasing
infrastructure costs. Yeah, right.
A little digging reveals that this huge price hike is in fact to recoup the cost of repaying transferred customers
of failed energy companies, who were in credit and who's overpayments to said companies were 'lost' and subsequently refunded by
the companies they were ported to.
So, customers who were in credit when their supplier went bust, were robbed by that supplier, repayed by the company they were ported to,
and along with the rest of us, are now being drip-robbed of that exact same money by their new energy supplier.
Honestly, can you believe it? Why didn't ofgen make it law that all overpayments by customers should be ringfenced
and untouchable, in case they went bust?
Meanwhile, the owners of these failed energy companies swan off into the sunset on their luxury yachts,
happy in the knowledge that the personal profits made from their nefarious activities can't be touched.
Check your standing charge increases people, complain to the companies, complain to your MP, complain to offgen,
it probably won't make any difference, but at least let them know, that you know, you're being robbed.
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The charge for both gas and electricity is going up by around 75% as I expected.
But I was shocked to see that the daily electricity standing charge was increasing by over 100%!
OK, I get that the cost of fuel has gone up a lot, but why DOUBLE the standing charge?
So I phoned Octopus Energy and asked them how they justified this price hike, they said it was to cover increasing
infrastructure costs. Yeah, right.
A little digging reveals that this huge price hike is in fact to recoup the cost of repaying transferred customers
of failed energy companies, who were in credit and who's overpayments to said companies were 'lost' and subsequently refunded by
the companies they were ported to.
So, customers who were in credit when their supplier went bust, were robbed by that supplier, repayed by the company they were ported to,
and along with the rest of us, are now being drip-robbed of that exact same money by their new energy supplier.
Honestly, can you believe it? Why didn't ofgen make it law that all overpayments by customers should be ringfenced
and untouchable, in case they went bust?
Meanwhile, the owners of these failed energy companies swan off into the sunset on their luxury yachts,
happy in the knowledge that the personal profits made from their nefarious activities can't be touched.
Check your standing charge increases people, complain to the companies, complain to your MP, complain to offgen,
it probably won't make any difference, but at least let them know, that you know, you're being robbed.
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