Episode 11 Rip Off Britain

We asked you to tell us who's left you feeling ripped off.

I think this is very, very wrong, what they've done.

The bank passed charges upon charges.

Legally, it was right. Morally? That's where the doubt is.

And you contacted us in your thousands by post, email, even stopping us in the street.

And the message could not be clearer.

- They just try to fob you off. - I'm not happy at all.

- There's always that very small print. - We're being ripped off, big time.

Whether it's a deliberate rip-off, a simple mistake or a catch in the small print,

we'll find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.

Keep asking the questions.

We do get results.

Your stories, your money. This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain, the series that fights to sort out your complaints

-and makes sure no one takes advantage of you or your money.

-Too right! Today we tackle a subject

that affects every one of us and can leave you feeling confused or ripped-off - energy bills!

-The dreaded energy bills.

-Exactly. It's on everybody's minds during the winter with these higher prices.

We'll be looking at some of the mistakes energy companies make when it comes to your bills

and exposing the hidden hikes you may not have spotted.

Find out if your prices have gone up even more than you expected.

Also coming up: when shopping around for cheaper energy prices proves to be a waste of energy.

I just want a single, set monthly price. That's what I'm paying.

I don't want to end up with a huge bill at the end of the year.

Plus find out what happened when we met some of you face to face at the RipOff Britain pop-up shop.

They sent me a bill for over £1,000 for one month.

Time to get our hands dirty and start investigating.

The huge rise in our energy bills couldn't have come at a worse time.

It's estimated that up to a quarter of households in the UK are living in so-called fuel poverty

when more than 10% of your total income goes on keeping warm.

But what if the increases are only the tip of the iceberg?

Trevor Watson worked out that the price rises in his bill were far higher than he'd read about.

In fact, up to 40% higher.

So we decided to investigate.

With more cold weather on the way, the cost of keeping warm is on everyone's minds.

In the past couple of years, the price of gas and electricity has risen by 22%,

and we've heard from so many people concerned about this winter. All the big suppliers have price rises,

but Trevor Watson's payments have already gone up.

When I did the maths on mine, the huge increases,

I thought, "This cannot be true. It's totally unacceptable." I was so angry. I could not believe it.

Trevor gets his energy from Scottish Power after switching late last year.

When he's not volunteering at a local National Trust orchard,

this retired project manager knows how to root out a good deal.

Towards the end of last year, I was looking for something cheaper.

And I came across Scottish Power's

online energy saver 2011. And that suited me.

So I switched to that in December, 2010.

And everything was fine until June this year when suddenly I saw these headlines

and there were these horrendous price rises being proposed.

In June, 2011, Scottish Power advertised an average price increase of 10% on electricity

and 19% on gas.

For the average dual fuel customer, that works out at £174 increase on the yearly bill,

but thanks to the particular tariff that he was on, Trevor faced an even bigger price hike.

I investigated my own tariff and I was absolutely horrified when I worked out

that the increase they were proposing for my electricity was up to 25%

and for gas was a whopping 61%.

61%?! I just couldn't believe it.

When I worked out the cost for myself on my own annual consumption,

it worked out as a whopping 40% increase or about £420.

That is just totally unsustainable.

Trevor contacted the company to point out the discrepancy between the advertised price rises

and what his own increase would be. They responded stating

the reason for the larger than average increase was due to him being on such a competitive tariff.

And that made me even more angry because

they gave two reasons for my horrendous increase in prices.

The first was that I was on one of their most competitive tariffs.

That's a fact, not a reason to take away the competitive element.

And the second one was that there was a price rise in November, 2010, which I missed.

Totally irrelevant because I didn't even join Scottish Power until December.

It makes me angry because I feel impotent that I'm just a single person trying to battle against

these big giants who make billions of pounds of profit.

Scottish Power told us their prices have risen because wholesale prices have risen significantly.

The figures they announced were averages across Britain for all products and payment methods,

but every customer then got an individual letter allowing them to cancel without any penalty.

They say Trevor's tariff was a limited online offer

and even though prices had to increase, it will still track 2% below standard direct debit prices.

Energy price comparison experts say rather than settling for higher bills, consumers should think

about switching supplier as there's still big money to be saved.

The energy companies have made it incredibly complicated

to understand what tariff you're on and how much energy you use

and it's putting a lot of people off wanting to get involved. Don't give up. If you do, they will win

and you will forego that 15% or 20% you'd cut off your bill.

The good news is it's getting easier, the regulator's making them simplify their tariff structures.

But is the British public getting the energy switching message?

-Do you ever shop around for different tariffs?

-Oh, yes.

I do. I do all the time.

-But are you aware of how many tariffs there are within each company?

-No, I'm not.

But I'd sooner stick to what I do.

-So you might be able to save a bit of money?

-Perhaps so, but I haven't got a computer or anything,

so I just carry on the way I am.

I've tried to get my tariff fixed,

so I did a bit of online research just to get a feel for the prices before I committed to anything.

-How long did you get it fixed for?

-A year.

-So you were ahead of the game.

-Every penny counts!

-Sure does.

Trevor's now swapped his tariff for a fixed one, but he's worried prices may go up again.

To me, there just seems to be something rotten in the energy industry and their prices.

If nothing changes, there's nothing to stop them doing this over and over again.

But he doesn't think any individual energy company is a bad apple.

He'd like to see all their prices overhauled, root and branch.

Well, we can't all work out our bills as well as Trevor,

so if you'd like a bit of help, you can find advice on our website:

Now when it comes to choosing your energy supplier, we always say shop around for the best deal.

But the energy companies don't always make the process and tariffs clear, so it's easy to see

why our next viewer, Jeannie Day, got caught out.

When she listened to the salesman, she thought she'd got a better deal, but that's not how it turned out.

One or two pieces, Rebecca?

Jeannie Day spends her time looking after her three children and training to be a primary teacher.

She keeps on top of her finances, so when she got a higher than expected bill from Scottish Power

she looked into switching her supplier.

I looked into the price comparison sites, found a good deal with Eon. I'm on the ball with my bills.

I like to get a good bargain.

I found Eon, who were a lot cheaper, and changed to them.

But when Jeannie told Scottish Power that she was leaving them for a fixed rate with another provider,

they gave her some very convincing reasons why she should stay with them and they seemed to promise

that her bills would stay at a set rate every month.

I kept asking him, "Is this the same as you are guaranteeing you are capping my direct debit?"

He kept replying, "Yes, we'll cap your unit prices, you're not going to end up with a big bill."

This is what I wanted to hear and he was telling me what I wanted to hear.

So Jeannie agreed to switch back to Scottish Power because the deal they offered sounded so good.

I thought he was fixing the direct debit, the energy price...

To me, they were one and the same thing.

My energy, if this is how much I'm using a year,

then they can work out a figure of how much I should be paying and divide it by 12 months.

That's what I thought I was getting.

What she was actually getting wasn't what she thought,

but with energy bills it's not easy to figure out what you've been charged.

There is a formula on the back of your bill, but you have to be a very bright spark to work it out!

It's hard enough to say, let alone understand,

which is why Jeannie put her faith in the Scottish Power salesman

and why she was horrified when her next bill was more than twice what she was expecting.

I was so cross with them for lying to me by saying, "Come back to us. We'll give you a better price."

And then, of course, it ended up being over double.

So had Jeannie just misunderstood? Luckily, she thought of a way to check.

I contacted Scottish Power and reminded them that they tape calls.

Could they send me a copy of the recording of the call?

Jeannie listened back to her conversation with Scottish Power. So can we and it's easy to see

why Jeannie got the wrong idea.

She tried to confirm whether her direct debit would stay the same.

That was wrong because, in fact, the salesman couldn't see her usage

and had no idea whether her direct debit would fluctuate or not.

Jeannie was left firmly believing her payments wouldn't change

and although she was given the right information at the end of the call, by then the damage had been done.

When he was doing the terms and conditions with me, and said the units can fluctuate,

I'd been on the phone a long time by then, listening with half an ear, and I did agree to them.

After she'd complained, Scottish Power sent Jeannie a letter saying she had been mis-sold her tariff.

She was able to cancel and take up the one she'd been talked out of with Eon,

but when we contacted Scottish Power, they said it was unfortunate that the term mis-sold was used.

They feel their agent did fully explain that payments wouldn't be fixed and Jeannie had agreed,

but they admit that they've identified areas where this sale could have been improved

and they could have done more to accurately estimate future payments.

They don't believe Jeannie was misled, but are sorry for the problems she experienced.

-At the moment it's on 71.

-It's all very confusing.

To help Jeannie keep a lid on her bills, we gave her a meter

so she can see which appliances in her house are using the most power.

Turn the oven on, 180.

297.

But she's frustrated by the energy she's wasted toing and froing between companies

because of a mistake she thinks should never have happened.

If he'd have told me how much it was going to be, I would never have gone back to them.

I just didn't want to be paying that amount, which is why I'd left.

According to Which, nearly half of us have been phoned by an energy company in the last 12 months.

And 6 out of 10 people called said they felt pressured into switching.

Louise Hanson from Which has some top tips on how to avoid the hard sell and to make sure

that switching your energy supplier really pays off.

The cheapest way to pay your bill is usually monthly direct debit.

Pre-payment meters are often the most expensive, so phone your energy company to find out how to change.

Dual fuel tariffs, where you pay the same company for your gas and electricity, can be cheaper

and having an online tariff can also make a significant difference.

Fixed tariffs will guarantee the price you pay for your energy, which may help you plan your bills,

but often these are more expensive than non-fixed tariffs.

Off-peak tariffs are good for people who use a lot of electricity at night, like for storage heating.

Some fixed tariffs have significant exit fees, so do check the new deal you are interested in

as it may not be worth switching.

You may want to switch because you've seen attractive discounts offered,

but check the terms and conditions because sometimes you only get the discount after a year.

Another important thing to remember is to make sure bills are accurate.

Take your own meter reading every other month and send it in.

This means you're not paying more than you need to for your bills.

There are hundreds of different energy tariffs on offer. If you're unhappy, vote with your feet.

Go to a switching site, look around and choose a much better tariff for you.

Coming up on Rip-Off Britain: when we asked you to get in touch and tell us about being ripped-off,

we were overwhelmed with your letters, emails and phone calls.

Plus our one-stop advice shop hears your gripes and dishes out invaluable advice from the experts.

They sent me a bill for over £1,000 for one month.

Now back to gas and electricity.

The thing about our energy bills that's often the most baffling is what you actually should be paying.

With a variety of pricing structures it's hardly surprising so many of us feel a bit in the dark.

So we took some power to the people and we visited a village where the locals are working together

to get the best deals.

This is the village of Marshfield in South Gloucestershire.

Like the rest of the country, its residents are trying to safely navigate through what can seem

a very bewildering range of energy tariffs. They're keen to find ways to save money, bring bills down

and not get ripped off.

Prices go up, but it's not clear what you can do to reduce prices.

But unlike most of the rest of us, the villagers here are thinking bigger than their individual costs.

Karen Wilkinson is secretary of the local parish council and is keen

to find ways for the community to produce energy for itself.

We're thinking we'll have two strands. One is around how do we help people to reduce bills

and how do we deal with reducing their overall usage of energy.

And the other side is what can we do as a community to look at actually producing our own energy.

But that won't be easy, so RipOff Britain lends a hand.

We've sent in a team of experts to answer their energy questions and help the locals come up with

the best options for the village as a whole. First, Paul Keightley.

I'll point out what grants are available, why they should switch.

Next, Caroline Joseph from Solar2Energy.

I hope to get the message across to look very carefully before they spend money on solar.

And, finally, Graham Ayling from the Energy Saving Trust.

Today I'll be talking about what they can do together as a community to save energy, save on fuel bills.

They're meeting as many locals as they can, starting with Brian, who used to work in utilities.

But even with his wealth of experience, he still struggles to understand his energy bills.

I have difficulty with making a level comparison of the prices and tariffs on offer.

There's probably over 400 different tariffs available.

There's a football tariff where you can get tickets for a match!

Our experts are straight in with some advice.

Really get into the habit of reading your own meter. If you look at your bill and see a meter reading

with "est" afterwards, that means estimated. They've made that up.

They've guessed how much you've used and that's no use to you.

Everybody should look to switch their tariffs every two years or so, maybe more often than that.

Switching your energy company is still the best way to bring down your bills.

According to the website uSwitch, you can save as much as £458 a year

just by switching energy supplier, but there are plenty of other ways to bring down your energy costs.

Our experts tell Karen about the range of grants and energy-saving schemes around,

which save money for a small investment.

For starters, a government-backed scheme to help reduce how much energy we use.

It's the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target or, for short, CERT.

That requires energy suppliers to provide you with energy-saving products and services,

including insulation. You can get that for free if you're over 70 or if you're on state benefits.

For those who don't fit that criteria, you can get up to 70% off.

-So do you go to your energy provider for that as the first port of call?

-Yes.

-Right.

At the Energy Saving Trust, we have the Grants Information Database.

It basically helps match you up with the best deal.

You could also save by getting cavity wall or loft insulation

and that could bring your bills down by as much as £175 a year.

The villagers still have lots of questions for our experts,

so Karen has arranged a big meeting at the local.

One of the things they're keen to discuss is solar power.

Though the government has announced plans to cut the amount you could save by investing in solar panels,

over time you can still generate a decent return.

As a community, we've been talking about buying a field and installing solar panels all over it.

-Can you give us some advice?

-You certainly can do that.

If you wanted to look at it as an investment that had a return,

then as a community, you could set up a limited company

or a charitable organisation between you and run it in that way.

There are some good examples around of communities working together to do this kind of thing.

There's one in West Oxford where the community have set up a non-profit business that they own and run.

All of the profit from those systems running and generating energy goes back into the business

and depending on what the aims of that business are,

the money goes back into the community or into more energy saving and renewable energy.

After the meeting, does Karen think the residents have picked up enough tips

to help them move in the right direction?

I think the day went really well. People were able to ask individual questions.

There are things that we can do as a community, we can work out, it's not too complex to try to tackle.

We can try and make things work for all of us and not just for certain segments of the community,

which has been our concern as a parish council.

We're back at our pop-up shop in Manchester.

It's been set up for a weekend of consumer advice from a selection of experts

in fields varying from travel to utilities.

And one of the things that stands out above almost everything else is the cost of utility bills.

People feel really upset about the amount they're having to pay.

They think in many cases the charges are quite outrageous.

Our utilities expert Scott Byrom has had a very busy desk.

They sent me a bill for over £1,000 for one month.

-So this is a commercial property, business energy and they're billing you £1,000 a month?

-A month, yes.

So I rang up and complained, then they said, "We'll have a look at it."

-They sent me another bill for £600 for the same time period.

-Right. For one month?

-Yes.

'There are clearly a lot of utility mistakes going on out there, just as our next story shows.

'Janet had been paying her energy bills by direct debit,

'only to find she was still in for a shock.'

In January 2010, I was surprised when I got a bill for £400,

saying that I was in arrears of £400 and that they were going to take it out the following month.

I thought, "Fair enough if I've not been paying enough."

I did pay that off.

They increased my direct debit payments,

then in the summer they wrote to me saying I was now in credit.

'Now Janet was in credit, the utility company cut her direct debit to £48 a month.'

So consequently again, after this winter, I received a huge bill

because we had such a harsh winter of £700 in arrears

which they just want to take out the following month.

This kind of thing shouldn't happen? They are at fault for handling her like that?

The idea of a monthly direct debit is it's balanced throughout the year.

I don't understand why they've changed your direct debit

from £120 down to £48.

That's a huge dip,

especially when energy prices are increasing.

The first thing I'd advise you do is make sure the meter is correct.

Take a meter reading, leave it for a week and read what it is again.

On average, at this time of year, for your electricity, it should be about nine kilowatt hours a day.

For your gas, it should be about 45.

That should then identify whether your meter is running correctly

and indicates whether this debt that you're now in is yours to pay.

The general advice is to be more proactive about your energy bill,

so if you're on top of it, you're taking your own meter readings,

you should be aware of how much you're paying,

and hopefully, you'll avoid finding yourself £600 in debt.

Janet, good advice there, I think, and with a bit of luck, it shouldn't happen again.

-Let's hope not. Thanks for coming in.

-Thank you very much.

-Cheers. Bye.

It's fairly commonplace these days if you have an insurance policy for your house or your car

for it to be automatically renewed by the provider without you having to do anything at all,

which is quite convenient for those of us who have busy lives,

but here's a cautionary tale that shows just how vital it is for you not to let them seduce you

into thinking they're doing you a favour,

especially if they renew your policy with a letter that's marked "no action required",

because after reading the small print, you might want to take some very firm action indeed.

Barry Lennox became a widower two years ago.

It was a steep learning curve for him to take on all of the chores that his wife had done previously.

I now have to do all the work in the house,

the washing, ironing, washing-up, cooking and the garden.

I can understand the amount of work she did.

One task he never worried about was the plumbing and he hoped that would still be the case

because he had an insurance policy for ten years

to cover any emergency repairs to pipework, drains and such like.

I now like to have a policy such as the one that I had with HomeServe which gives me peace of mind.

If anything goes wrong, I can get things sorted out quickly.

With 7.5 million policies, HomeServe is one of the biggest home emergency insurance companies.

They were recently in the news after suspending their entire sales force

amid allegations of mis-selling.

But Barry's issue with them is about something else entirely.

He has only claimed on his HomeServe policy once and was very happy with the service,

but then in March 2011, he got his renewal papers through.

On the front, it said his policy had been upgraded and that he needed to take no action.

It was only when I turned over and looked down to the back of the paper,

I found that my direct debit appeared to be rather high.

I went to my bank statements and checked and found that it had gone up by 33%.

Worse still, the letter gave the date on which the first payment would have been taken

from his account which, by the time Barry received it, had already passed.

They had already taken off the first direct debit from my bank account

which shocked me because I had had no prior notice

that the premiums would be increased so I was rather annoyed about that.

# It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it... #

Barry is no stranger to campaigning.

A former resident of Zimbabwe, he's one of a group of ex-civil servants

fighting for their pensions to be reinstated after they were stopped by President Mugabe's regime,

so Barry didn't hesitate in taking action and contacted HomeServe to complain.

# That's what gets results... #

If you're going to emphasise something like an increase in benefits,

you should also emphasise the fact that there's a cost to that and the premiums will increase accordingly.

The annoying part about it was the complete absence of any reference to increased premiums.

If that had happened, I wouldn't probably have been so annoyed.

Barry cancelled the policy and put in a claim to get his money back

under the Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme.

That means that you write to your bank to dispute a payment and they must refund the amount to you.

It's then down to the bank to get the money back from the company concerned.

Settling Barry's claim took a lot longer than it had for them to take the money out,

around four weeks, but in the end, he did get his money back.

The guarantee scheme for direct debits has worked for me.

I was very grateful to my bank and I thanked them for it.

I was very disappointed they had to wait so long to get their money back

HomeServe told us they're sorry for what happened

and it's standard practice to inform customers of their policy renewal

at least three weeks before the date of renewal with pricing on the front page.

As Barry didn't receive that letter, they say their understanding is that it got lost in the post.

They also told us that in future they'll be removing the "no action required" message

from their renewal documents.

But it's made Barry concerned that other policy holders may not notice

when a company increases their direct debit payments.

I think it must happen to a lot of people.

Once they've got a direct debit, they're not going to go to the hassle of changing them.

They'll take advantage of that and hopefully by putting the stamp on, "no action required",

people will not take action.

With more information on how to make sure that you're getting the best out of any insurance policies,

here's David Cresswell from the Financial Ombudsman Service.

If you're taking out home cover for the first time, before you rush to buy a new policy,

just ask yourself whether or not you're actually already covered

because you might find that your household insurance already covers you for your boiler or your pipework

or if you've got a newish boiler,

you might find that it's already got a warranty that will cover you.

Be honest about why you're taking ou this cover.

Insurance is all about real emergencies.

It's not just because your boiler is getting elderly

and you're worried about the fact you haven't maintained it very well.

Insurance isn't going to get you a new boiler on the cheap.

Remember, cheapest isn't always the best.

Every policy is going to be very different

and will have different benefits, largely depending on how much you're prepared to pay.

When you come to renew the insurance cover at the end of the year,

don't just do it automatically.

Look at the paperwork you've been sent, see how much it's going to cost next year

and compare that with what you paid in the previous year.

It might have gone up and you might want to know why.

That might be a trigger to shopping around and seeing if you could get a better deal.

If the worst happens and you have to make a claim on your home emergency cover,

it's really important that you don't just rush out and organise for a plumber to come in and help you.

You must get in touch with the insurance company first.

Every year, the Ombudsman looks at lots of complaints where the insurance company rejects the claim

because the consumer got their own plumber, rather than talking to the insurance company first.

At a time when money is tighter than ever,

you need to know that your cash is working hard for you, avoiding rip-offs along the way,

so we've put together a booklet of tips and advice to help safeguard your money.

You can find a link to the free guide on our website.

Or to receive a copy in the post,

send an A5 self-addressed envelope to the address that we'll be giving at the end of the programme.

Undoubtedly, the largest number of complaints we get from our viewers

is all to do with energy prices, the lack of clarity from the energy companies,

the confusion about tariffs, how many tariffs there are and how to read your own bill correctly,

so today, I've come to Energy UK to talk to Christine McGourty

to see if she can shed some light on the huge mix of energy tariffs.

Christine, most of our viewers seem to not be able to read their bills, myself included. Can you read yours?

I can read mine, but I work in the industry, so you'd expect that.

But there is a lot of information on bills.

You have to have your last meter reading, your latest meter reading, gas, electricity,

which tariff you're on, your energy consumption.

There's a lot of stuff on there and a lot of it is required to be there by the regulator,

-but the companies are working hard t make it as simple as possible.

-Bills are soaring, profits are soaring.

That is very confusing and annoying for the consumer

because it's all this, "We're going to do this, we might do that," while your shareholders are pocketing.

That's absolutely not the case and if you look at the detail on profits

pound for pound, companies invest more every year than what they make in profit.

But let's talk about help. There is a huge amount being done this winter to help the most vulnerable people..

-For example?

-..which everyone is concerned about.

For example, 200 million being spent on a wide range of initiatives

that includes, for example, an automatic £120 off your bill

for the 600,000 poorest pensioners,

several million, I think it's around four million letters going out

to try and reach the priority customers and get them insulation.

Insulation is not a big, sexy headline story,

but it will save these people hundreds of pounds year after year.

You say you're making moves and the big companies are working together.

You all seem to be in cahoots with each other. One puts the tariff up, the next one follows suit.

It's like you have a collective monopoly over the entire business, not enough competition.

Many think that Ofgem should just split the whole business up

and really enforce more open competition.

The appearance may be very different from reality.

We know the market is competitive an we urge people to take advantage of it by getting the best deal for them

If you've never switched before, you can save hundreds of pounds.

You make it sound simple - you can just switch and get a better deal.

Ofgem, two years ago, told the big companies

that you had 200 different tariffs on the market and to stop that.

Now it's 400 different tariffs.

What chance do I or a more vulnerable person, what chance do we have of sorting that out?

I don't think you're moving fast enough towards what you're saying.

I think the companies take this extremely seriously

and they do recognise there are areas in which consumers expect more

One example, one company has recentl just slashed its number of tariffs by about a third

and there will be more changes next year to bills, to annual statements.

The regulator is changing the way tariffs are going to work,

so there are lots of things happening and I expect we will see more big changes next year.

That's what the industry has to say for itself,

but what about the regulator, Ofgem?

We've heard how they've criticised the energy companies in the past,

so what are they going to do to bring down or simplify our bills?

Ian, this is one of the biggest issues that we're dealing with on RipOff Britain,

so thank you for making the time to talk about it.

From our mailbag, it is evident that people are subjected to ever increasing bills,

yet the energy companies' profits are going up and up. The average person finds that hard to equate.

You're the regulator and many would say that you're not regulating on that issue. Why not?

First, it's for the companies to justify their own price increases,

but we need to recognise that we are in an environment

of rising wholesale prices, so the price that the companies do pay

for the electricity and gas that they're going to provide on to their customers is rising.

For example, our latest report shows

that gas prices this winter are 40% higher than last winter.

Assuming that the energy companies have passed that pricing on to the customer,

nevertheless, the bottom line is the energy companies are just rising all the time in profits.

I'm afraid, from a consumer's point of view, myself included,

I look at that and I really balk at that

because it always seems to go the way of the energy companies and never the way of the customer.

There is competition in this market that should put pressure on prices, profits and quality of service.

In our report earlier this year, we found that competition was being stifled

through a combination of poor supplier behaviour and the complexit of the tariffs out there,

therefore, we need to put through a range of reforms

to really make this market much simpler for consumers

to understand whether they're on the best deal.

-What else are you suggesting?

-For standard tariffs,

we will set a standardised standing charge,

then all the companies will compete on is a single unit price,

so for people on standard tariffs, all they'll need to do is at a glanc compare one number from one company

against one number from another company

and they will know that if they go with the lower number, they will be on the cheaper deal.

It's really important that the companies recognise that there i a lack of confidence in this market.

Not just a lack, there is no confidence.

Confidence has hit rock bottom. That's what the surveys are saying.

It's in the companies' control to restore that confidence

and the best way they can do that is to back our reforms,

so we can get those benefits to consumers as quickly as possible.

Is your bite sufficient? Should the government be giving you more powers?

-We do think there are things that we could have more powers for.

-Like what?

At the moment, if companies are misbehaving and are found in breach of their obligations,

we have the ability to fine the companies, as we have done in a few cases very recently,

but we don't have the powers to give compensation back to consumers.

Couldn't you force the companies to give compensation to the consumer?

At the moment, we don't have that power.

What we're asking from the government is the power

to be able to both give the redress to consumers, as well as giving the fines to the companies.

-It's a question of watch this space and I think I'll be back to see you next year.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

At Rip-Off Britain, we're always ready to investigate more of your stories.

Confused over your bills, trying to wade your way

through never-ending small print that leaves you totally confused?

I might have been stupid for not reading it or I've read it and not taken it in.

I could kick myself. I really could.

Unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out

and that great deal has ended up costing you money?

I thought, "This cannot be true. It's totally unacceptable." I was so angry.

You might have a cautionary tale of your own and want to share the mistakes you made with us,

so others don't do the same thing.

No-one knows about this, so this is very strange. I really would like to get this much clearer.

You can always write to us at...

Or you can get in touch by sending us an email to...

Don't forget, the Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.

From today's stories, it's obvious our energy companies don't always make things easy for us,

but when the cost of keeping warm is such a financial burden,

we need our bills and tariffs to be as simple to understand as possible.

We certainly do and if you get bad service, don't put up with it.

Switching suppliers is not that complicated, though a lot of people still haven't done it.

Just don't be afraid to take your business elsewhere.

That's what I did last year due to this programme.

I hope you'll join us again when we'll be investigating even more of your stories

and showing you how to avoid being ripped off.

-Until next time, thank you for your company and see you soon.

-Bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2011

Email [email protected]