Finding Electricity suppliers - VERY hard work

[paulears]

I got the keys to my office today. I called the existing electricity supplier to get a quote - Opus Energy.

They no longer supply small businesses. 10,000KW or above, fine, but I'll be way below this. So they cannot help. I tried a few comparison sites and they too came up with the same info. My domestic supplier, Bristol Energy said exactly the same thing - they quoted a modest unit price, a fair standing charge price, then told me the account history of the building meant I would be below the magic 10,000KW figure so they couldn't help either.

Eventually I found British Gas Light. Not the cheapest, but I pay for what I use, low or high.

So much for supporting businesses - but the guy on the phone told me they thought it was because with small businesses just shutting up, they cost the suppliers more than they generate.

So far, Electricity is a hassle, and the special broadband offer Vodafone have - 6 months free I cannot have despite having a BT point in the office. Vodafone don't use open reach so I'm too far from their cabinet, so I can't have the offer.

I'll do the water on Monday. I'm also struggling with insurance because my business - entertainment - is not doing well at the moment. So the agent is struggling. Luckily, he's in the same building on the floor above me, so is trying hard for me.

 

[DavidWH]

Try SSE.

We have two units, we turned into one, so have two meters. One unit gets very little use, both are with SSE. Although we use a broker to get our rate.

We've got FTTP being installed soon, with Zen Internet, impressed with their service so far, and prices are very reasonable.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Would this help ?

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/honda-eg4500-avr-petrol-generator-110-230/

 

[kulture]

I use Zen. Great support when needed. Solid fast bandwidth. Consistent. There have been times I have had 4 TVs streaming plus the business website uploading plus multiple phones browsing. No problem.

I recently closed my shop and switched to their residential package (I have a combined house/shop) and it is no different

 

[gpietersz]

I use Zen too. Much better consistency and customer support knows what they are doing.

In practice their Zen (edge of market down) is better than the Virgin FTTP (town centre, of a different by nearby town) I had before.

A customer told me yesterday he somewhat regrets switching from Zen to Sky for his home connection (he mostly works from home now, and I think he plans to permanently) because although its cheaper (with bundling of TV included) its definitely worse.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

A customer told me yesterday he somewhat regrets switching from Zen to Sky for his home connection (he mostly works from home now, and I think he plans to permanently) because although its cheaper (with bundling of TV included) its definitely worse.

Isn't he just paying another company for use of the same connection? I can see why customer service would be worse but the actual line itself would still be BT?

Or am I misunderstanding?

 

[gpietersz]

@Darren_Ssc the customer line is still BT but the upstream network is not, nor is network management.

So you still get the same theoretical top speed, but actual speed, latency and reliability can be very different.

 

[paulears]

Thanks for the tip with Zen, I've had a look. My hosting company are transferring out one of my domains to a new supplier too, and yesterday switched the thing off - trouble was they did the wrong one, and killed my email. Getting exasperated. Zen called back and they're quite expensive seems. I tried a few comparison sites and they're no help really because they clearly get paid to swap people and get nothing from a new customer. One this afternoon said he couldn't help, so probably best to try BT. Look like I'm going to try Talk Talk business - who can offer a decent price, decent speed and static IP. I've read the gazillion complaints about them but I've found the same style of complaints on every company when something happens. They all have angry customers, who complain when things go wrong. I guess I can live with that. They also seem happy with the BT Openreach installation - so just trying to get sorted.

I have had my first slight snag - I arranged the insurance with the broker upstairs, and got on with a few tests. Ten minutes later he burst through the door because his office was filling with smoke. I was testing my haze machine, and it seems I have a couple of vents that emerge inside his office. I suspect I shall have to seal those up!

 

[Carl Nixon]

Electricity and gas companies face a huge amount of risk if they take on any clients at this time. They have to buy your energy, and the use of the electricity and gas grids well in advance. The more in advance they do it, the cheaper it is. Predicting a clients use is a very complex process at the best of times (As a day job I build programs to help do this).

Once they buy the electricity/gas, the energy company is committed to using it at the points in time they bought it for. If they under-predict the energy their clients will use, they will have to buy more energy at the most expensive rates. If they over-predict the energy clients will use, they will have to pay the grids to off load it.

A lot of B2B energy suppliers have mothballed / furloughed their sales departments, because taking on clients at the moment is risky.

The trouble is, energy companies can no longer accurately predict their clients' use - all their methods have gone out of the window. Will there be a second corona spike causing business shut downs and mass dumping of energy? Will retail outlets, pubs and factories work in the same way? Will they be open for longer hours to allow their staff to social distance? Will companies switch business models greatly changing their energy usage?

The energy sector is campaigning for some industry reforms to make it less reliant on forecasting and its associated financial risk.

 

[gpietersz]

Zen called back and they're quite expensive seems. I

For broadband? Their prices seem quite reasonable to me. Not the cheapest, but good value for money.

 

[paulears]

That's the sticking point for me - value for money. With broadband if it works, then everyone is happy. If it goes wrong, then some are known for their inability to do much, especially if Openreach are involved because it's a 3rd party doing the work, so Zen or Talktalk are reliant on the 3rd party, and pretty powerless really. I see no details that make a domestic broadband different from a business package now - so the home gamers probably require better specs than the businesses, yet the home packages including VAT are cheaper than the ex-VAT business packages. I'm on a special deal with BT, after some issues, and I'm paying them less for the business package than I can get for an extra broadband line with them.

I'm after 50+ speeds for less than £25 p/mth + VAT. Quite a few offer this, and I can't take these offers up at my premises. I have one option left - TalkTalk, my least favourite, but still at the price point I want to pay. Ironically, BT say I can get 5Mb maximum speed, the rest say 70+. Very odd.

If Talktalk can offer me a new line/existing line tomorrow, I'll go with them.

 

[gpietersz]

If it goes wrong, then some are known for their inability to do much, especially if Openreach are involved because it's a 3rd party doing the work, so Zen or Talktalk are reliant on the 3rd party, and pretty powerless really

That is only true if the problem lies in the local loop. If Openreach are doing what they are supposed to they will treat BT as a third party too (Ofcom told them to operate at arms length).

so the home gamers probably require better specs than the businesses, yet the home packages including VAT are cheaper than the ex-VAT business packages

True, but there are a number of packages aimed at gamers, offering lower latency. They are more expensive.

I also want low latency because I often log into clients' servers and a noticeable lag from the round trip required between pressing a key and see the letter in the terminal drives me nuts. Virgin was terrible for me (that said, Virgin are also unreliable, slow to fix faults, and have "read from a script" customer service).

My biggest problem with my current service is low upload speeds, but I cannot find anyone better on that aspect who is not worse on others.

BT say I can get 5Mb maximum speed, the rest say 70

What do you have at the moment? Are you a long way from the cabinet? It is possible that BT are being more honest about what you can get on your actual line while the others are quoting the speed you will get if your local loop is perfect.

Also worth considering how good their routers/"home hubs" are and whether they will let you use your own.

I'm after 50+ speeds for less than £25 p/mth + VAT.

I take it latency is not important? i.e. video more of a concern than web browsing or gaming?

Given your preferences, if you live somewhere they cover, might find Hyperoptic worth a look.

 

[kulture]

The service offered by these companies may differ after the first few miles. Once you get to the exchange then they may have their own kit, Talk Talk certainly does at my local exchange. Then from the exchange you are dependent on the suppliers routers and expertise at balancing their load. Zen is much much better at this. They are also better at chasing Openreach to get things done. I have also foundthem excelant at helping find faults without the need to get an engineer in. None of this "have you tried to re-boot" every time you phone in. One occasion we discovered that my router had been fried by lightning. All the lights flashed by nothing worked.
So if internet is needed to be vey reliable then Zen is better value by far.

 

[paulears]

I have to say BT at home - which is where I've worked from for 16 years, is fast, and latency is not an issue. Speed is about 70/18. The concern is the new premises, where the various website predict 60or there about, which will be fine, but BT's speed checker suggests on the line installed it will be 5!

I'd hoped to get it sorted over the weekend, but will do it tomorrow when I can speak to humans.