The View from the Spaghetti Factory (proper redesign coming soon!)

I recently switched my Gas and Electricity suppliers, choosing a dual-fuel deal (with “green electricity”) from Scottish Power in favour of my previous contracts with Npower and Ecotricity. The reasons for this were twofold… I’d recently received a price increase notification from Npower and Ecotricity were being rather coy about giving me precise details of their tariffs. Anyway, it’s easy enough to switch, so when you find a decent deal, you might as well take advantage.

So when I received the usual confirmation phone call from Npower today, I expected it to be the usual box-ticking exercise… “We’re sorry to hear you’re leaving us. No problems? Just the prices? Goodbye then, sir”. Instead, I got this…

NPOWER: Did you actually check to make sure we weren’t the cheapest?
ME: Yes, I did all the comparisons on uswitch

…

NPOWER: Well, if you do decide to come back to us, just give us a call, because some of these companies are putting up their prices and there are more price rises to come…
ME (piqued): Yeah, that’s exactly why I’m leaving Npower. I got your price rise letter.
NPOWER: No, you can’t have done. We’re not raising our prices.
ME: I did. I got a letter.
NPOWER: No, that’s your direct debit amount. Our prices aren’t going up. They changed in May.

We eventually agreed to differ, although I was annoyed that I didn’t have the letter to hand. I managed to find it and sure enough, it states the following…

Your new prices from 1st July 2006 will be:
Unit rate, up to and including 4572 kWh per year - 3.639p (up from 3.165p)
Unit rate, over 4572 kWh per year - 2.047p (up from 1.691p)

Ha! I do like to be proved right. A letter to the Guardian’s consumer column, I think…

If the BBC interrupted Newsnight with toothpaste adverts, I’d be annoyed. Similarly, if the Houses of Parliament were renamed the Vodafone GovMax! Centre, I’d have a right old rant. Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

So when, having bought some Royal Mail stamps today, I was made to wait for my change while the Post Office assistant tried her utmost to sell me a BLOODY CREDIT CARD, I was not amused. I know Post Office Counters plc is now distinct from the Royal Mail, but still… I’d rather like to deal directly with the people who are delivering my mail, rather than through an advert-funded intermediary! I’d buy all of my stamps from the newsagents if I could, thus avoiding the endless Post Office queues, but that’s not an option when something has to be weighed.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened; I’ve turned down offers of credit cards and car insurance on four or five occasions. I don’t know whether the assistants have any choice in this (i.e. whether they’re doing it for commission) so I’ve been polite every time, but I’m now itching to give someone a piece of my mind. Let’s see how effective their complaints system is, shall we?