Energy Retailers

I've never heard of these retailers

It's natural to be cautious about buying things from people or organisations you've never heard of before, especially if you've found some negative online reviews. In Australia, we are lucky to have robust consumer protections under the Australian Consumer Law, and for energy purchases, the protections are even greater: there are additional energy-specific provisions under the Australian Consumer Law, and we also have the National Energy Customer Framework, which regulates the sale and supply of electricity and gas to retail customers. The AER publishes information about these regulatory instruments and the protections they provide for energy consumers here: https://www.aemc.gov.au/regulation/energy-rules/NECF-ACL There are many retailers competing with each other in the retail energy markets, and new retailers enter the market all the time, so its unlikely that you'll recognise all the brands available to buy from. Bill Hero compares all the plans side by side from all retailers, so you'll easily be able to find the best-priced options. It's no surprise that the smaller and newer competitors in the market often prove to be among the most price-competitive – they have little or no brand awareness, so they rely more heavily on price. Energy is the kind of basic product that no one is motivated to write a review about unless something has gone wrong, so it's unsurprising that most energy retailer reviews are actually complaints. Even if you initially feel a bit of hesitancy in buying from an unrecognised retailer, or if you've found some negative anecdotal reviews about a retailer, we still think that price should be your primary decision criterion because the real risks are very low. Here's why: - Retailers don't actually supply your energy; they only supply the bills, so there is no impact on the surety of your energy supply or the quality of the energy, no matter which retailer you choose. When you switch retailers, there is no interruption to your energy supply, and there is absolutely no change or increased risk of blackouts, brownouts or other supply issues, no matter if you choose a large and well-known retailer or a new market entrant with an unknown brand; - The retail energy industry is heavily regulated. Regulatory obligations are taken very seriously by all retailers, including the smallest and newest market entrants because they risk significant fines and potentially losing their retail licence for non-compliance. All retailers must demonstrate they have the capability to run a credible retail energy operation before they're even allowed to take on their very first customer; - If you ever have any serious issue or complaint that you cannot satisfactorily resolve directly with your retailer, there are state-based Ombudsman schemes to use to escalate. All retailers are obliged to participate in the relevant Ombudsman schemes in the territories where they offer their energy plans; - Energy is recognised under the regulations as an essential service. This includes protection for you as an energy consumer in the event that your retailer closes down or goes out of business for any reason. In that situation, the 'retailer of last resort' scheme will apply, and your account will be transferred to the default retailer for your distribution zone, and there will be no interruption to your energy supply; - It's possible to switch between retailers at any time, so if you decide that your retailer is not giving you the service you expect, it is very simple to move to another retailer, and there is no penalty to do so; - There's never been much love for energy retailers, and consumers, in general, will be much more motivated to write reviews about their retailer when something has gone wrong rather than when things are ticking along smoothly. So it's no surprise that the bulk of energy retailer reviews are negative. Energy is about the purest commodity you can imagine. There is no difference whatsoever in quality, availability, or surety of supply, no matter who you choose to buy your energy from. So you may as well buy from whichever retailer will give you the best price.

Scheduled payment plans

Most of us are used to receiving energy bills issued by our retailers each month or quarter, detailing the energy consumed over each billing period and the price charged for that consumption. It's now becoming more common that energy retailers will offer bill smoothing or other forms of scheduled payment or pre-payment plans, where you'll pay a set price per week or fortnight and receive monthly statements, which may well be in credit, rather than the standard bills that we're all more familiar with. Billing period vs payment cycle Whether you pre-pay or post-pay, there will be a regular cadence to your billing period, where meter readings are taken on a regular schedule, determining what you will be charged for your energy consumption. Historically, the billing period for electricity has been quarterly, and bi-monthly for gas. With the introduction of smart meters that can be read remotely, monthly billing cycles are becoming increasingly common for electricity and gas. It's also becoming more common for retailers to offer bill smoothing and other forms of scheduled payment plans, where the payment cycle can be separate to the billing period. It can be confusing for energy consumers to understand how these two separate cycles interact. Scheduled payment plans are usually designed to deliver pre-payment of the energy bills so that energy consumers on these kinds of plans may have a credit balance at the start of each billing period, and if the scheduled payment plan has not been carefully calibrated, that credit balance can grow over time. If there is a debit balance, the retailers will generally be quick to increase the scheduled payments to ensure that the costs associated with your energy consumption are fully covered and paid for in each billing period. This can result in seemingly low final billed amounts because scheduled prepayments are present. No matter what is your payment cycle, and no matter if you have accrued a debit or credit balance at the start of each billing period, Bill Hero system focuses on the actual costs associated with your energy consumption in each billing period, and will compare your current plan, using those costs, to see if there is any alternative plans available to you at a lower price. This is an example of bill price vs comparison price, which we cover separately in this Knowledgebase.

How can I raise a complaint with my retailer?

Believe it or not, most energy retailers are strongly motivated to address customer complaints and issues as quickly and effectively as possible. However, since every retailer has different processes and organisational structures, sometimes it can be hard for energy consumers to find the right way to raise a complaint, and to provide all the necessary information so that an investigation can be made and a resolution found. Bill Hero has partnered with Ajust, a technology platform that 'resolves complaints fast, fair and free for consumers'. Bill Hero does not gain any commission, incentive or other forms of kickback if you use the Ajust service. We just like seeing customer-centric services flourish in the marketplace, and we believe the Ajust team is onto something with their focus on helping consumers find effective resolutions to complaints and issues faster. How Ajust works Ajust streamlines and standardises the complaints interactions between consumers and their energy retailers, telco providers and banks. Ajust provides a simplified way for consumers to report any complaints or issues, ensuring that all the required information is collected, and the customer's desired resolution is clearly recorded - eg a consumer may be interested to receive an acknowledgement of an issue or problem, an apology, a process improvement, a refund or discount etc. Ajust also helps vendors, including energy retailers, to process and resolve those complaints more quickly and efficiently. If you try the Ajust service, we'd love your feedback on how well it worked for you.

Retailer reputation and quality scores

Bill Hero currently compares energy prices and plans, not retailers themselves. We deliberately chose to focus first on factual, price data comparisons. We know that many consumers are also interested in qualitative factors like service quality, reputation, and ownership structure, and we're working on including these non-price factors in our rankings and recommendations. The additional non-price factors on our roadmap to include in the Bill Hero service are: - Retailer ownership - Australian owned, partially Australian-owned, or foreign-owned - Call centre team location - All Australian-based, some Australian-based, or all offshore - Complaints rates - All retailers must publish data on the complaints they've received each quarter. The rate of complaints per ,000 customers is an indicator of the quality of service that the retailer is providing. - Ombudsman escalation rates - The relevant state Ombudsman organisations also publish information on the complaints that are eventually escalated to Ombudsman. This indicates that the complaint was not resolved directly with the retailer, and the escalation rate in conjunction with the complaints rate, is a good indicator of the quality of services and processes a retailer has to successfully resolve issues as they arise. - Number of customers - Some consumers prefer to buy from the larger and better-established providers, but the smaller and newer competitors often offer the best prices - Call response time - summary statistics on response time for sampled support calls to each retailer. Although subject to variation, call response time can provide some insight into customer service quality - Green rating - Various sources are rating the 'green' credentials for each retailer. Where available, we intend to make the Green rating visible and useable for Bill Hero subscribers Are there additional factors you think would be important to help you make the best decision? Please contact us and let us know!

Australian ownership

Many Bill Hero subscribers are interested to understand the ownership structures of the retailers they purchase their energy from. We have plans to introduce ownership structure as a 'non-price' decision criteria in our recommendations and rankings. This functionality is not yet ready to deploy, so we have assembled this summary of the ownership structures for these retailers so our subscribers can manually review and choose their preferred supplier accordingly. 100% Australian-owned retailers These retailers are wholly owned by Australian individuals and businesses entities - ActewAGL - Amber Electric - Aurora Energy - Bright Spark Power - Click Energy Partly - CovaU - Discover Energy - Dodo Partly - Elysian Energy - Ergon Energy - Energy Locals - Future X Power - GloBird Energy - LPE - Lumo Energy - Momentum Energy - People Energy - Pooled Energy - QEnergy - Red Energy - Sumo Power - Synergy - 1st Energy Partly Australian-owned retailers (includes publicly listed companies) These retailers include some non-Australian ownership. We've included publicly listed retailers in the list because since they are public companies, they may have shareholders from outside Australia - AGL - Amaysim Energy - Commander Energy - DC Power Co - Diamond Energy - Enova Energy - Kogan Energy - Mojo Power - Origin Energy - Powerclub - Powerdirect - Powershop - ReAmped Energy Foreign-owned retailers These retailers are 100% non-Australian owned - Alinta Energy - Energy Australia - Nectr - OVO Energy - Simply Energy - Tango Energy - Social Energy