Dear LPG,

Please will you allow me the opportunity to let your readers know of a mind-blowing experience I had while trying to improve my gas and electricity payments recently.  I don’t really want to say which utility company I am with, but I was coming up to the end of my contract with them and they sent me a letter.

It communicated that the contract needed to be renewed and also informed me of their recommendations with respect to the best package available and the fact that this particular package could only be signed up for online.  It reminded me of the renewal date in such a way that I understood that to be the date that I had to renew by and, while I can do a few things online, I decided to wait until I could get some help before trying this on my own.

A couple of weeks later, but well before the date stated in the letter, my friend who offered to help me was available and we went to the appropriate website.  Firstly, it was not clear if changing to this online tariff would still allow me my paper bill, so we made a phone call to the company which confirmed that point.

We then got to the computer and firstly needed to register online, which I would never have been able to do alone, but we finally got that done.  This was followed by the whole business of activating the account and once that had happened I thought that the information on the letter would automatically be available on line; but no such luck.

We were faced with a menu which included an option to find the best tariff, but the offer which the letter included was not an option, and the closest alternative was much more expensive.  We called again to be told that the offer in the letter had expired, even though there was no mention of any expiry date in the original letter, and the online offer was substantially more expensive while the site again hinted at paperless bills.

So having been through all this we ended up being passed on to another agent who talked us through my new options and offered me a completely different package.  He told us about a tariff which I could not have because I did not have a smart metre and ended up working out that the best tariff he could offer included a £209.00 estimated annual rise and would send my monthly direct debit up by over £10.00, although he did assure me that that would not happen until my next monthly payment review which would not be for about five months. 

I had to ask why their estimation of the amount I would have to pay had risen so sharply and I was told that it was because the time that had passed since the letter was written would have altered my projected consumption.   I again asked how much gas and electricity I had used during that month and how they could justify that answer in the light of the fact that this all happened at the end of July 2018 when Lewisham, and indeed the UK had experienced well over a month of weather so hot that the newspapers and television news programs had rated it as one of the hottest on record.  I did not get a real answer to that question.

We then asked what would happen if I did nothing and the agent told me that the tariff he had just offered would automatically kick in at the end of my current contract anyway.

So my friend and I spent the best part of an hour finding out that there was no advantage in going on line, my gas and electricity bills are set to go up by a frightening amount over the next year and this was likely to happen whether I do anything about it or not, all because of a letter that offered so much more (or should I say less)!

I have decided to learn about comparison sites and work out where and if I can get a better deal but that could take time.  My consolation is that even if I do nothing for a while, I will be no better or worse off ( I think!). 

WM, Grove Park.