Episode 13 Rip Off Britain

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

and you contacted us in your thousands by post, e-mail,

even stopping us on the streets, and the message couldn't be clearer.

I think there's a lot of hidden information about your bills

that should be made a lot more clear.

I don't feel I get treated how I should be.

You've told us, with money tighter than ever,

you need to be sure that every pound you spend is worth it.

How do I get my money back? Cos I just think I'm entitled to it.

So, whether it's a deliberate rip-off, a simple mistake,

or a catch in the small print,

we'll find out why it is that you're out of pocket

and what you can do about it.

Keep asking the questions, go to the top if you have to.

We do get results. I mean, that's the interesting thing.

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

Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain,

where today we'll be looking at something that's going to be crucial

for just about every one of us over the next few months,

and that's the cost of energy and keeping warm.

Well, it's something none of us can avoid,

but what we should be able to avoid is paying over the odds for it,

which some of you have ended up doing,

thanks to mistakes that your energy company's made,

and which have not been easy to sort out!

And even if your bills ARE right,

is it possible that you could be paying more for your winter fuel this year?

Well, after speculation that prices could soon be on the rise again,

we've asked the energy companies that very question.

Coming up - a £7,000 bill for one year's electricity...

We just don't seem to be getting anywhere, and it just seems to be going round in circles,

and I just want somebody to actually sort it out for us once and for all.

..the family at boiling point over a company that didn't keep its promise,

but still took their money...

They've just taken a payment from our bank account without permission,

not explained to us what it is for, invoiced us or anything.

We just can't get any sort of response from the company at all.

Overall, I'm just completely disgusted at how we've been treated as a paying customer.

..plus more problems solved at our Pop Up Shop.

Well, if there's one issue that affects all of us, it's our energy bills.

Now, every one of the country's 26 million homes

needs power of some kind and we use a lot of it.

In fact, according to official figures,

a third of all energy used in the UK now goes to households.

But all of you are definitely NOT happy customers.

Once again this year, many, many viewers have written to us

about what you see as confusing tariffs, mistakes in your bills

and, of course, how much you're having to pay.

It's all about money.

They want to make profits for their own pockets.

They don't care about you and me and everybody.

Well, we're just trying to get a cheaper one, you know.

We used to be on British Gas, but we've gone on to someone else now.

I think we've signed up to something

where we should be getting a good fixed rate,

but the fixed rate is actually quite expensive,

and I think we're probably getting a better deal

than if we hadn't fixed our rate, but it's still really expensive.

Although there are smaller companies as well,

the gas and electricity market is still dominated by the so-called Big Six.

They've got a massive 99% share of the market.

But that doesn't mean they each offer just one set of prices.

In fact, research last year by the regulator Ofgem

estimated that there were around 400 tariffs on the market.

And despite promises it would all become much simpler,

there are still hundreds of tariffs on the market at any one time.

So although some energy companies are moving in the right direction,

there's still a long way to go.

And, of course, it's not just the number of tariffs

that customers find shocking, but the prices as well.

Since our last series of Rip-Off Britain,

the Big Six energy companies have reduced their prices by between 5 and 6%.

Of course, that's all not to be sniffed at,

but it's nothing like the amounts they'd put them up by,

only a few months previously.

Hikes last autumn left the average household

paying an astonishing 18% more for gas and 11% more for electricity.

So what's likely to happen as the temperature drops this winter?

Could our bills be set to rise yet again?

That's certainly what some of the companies themselves are warning.

In May, Centrica, the company that owns British Gas,

said they were being squeezed by higher wholesale gas prices and other costs,

and that, as a result, the trend for household bills remains upwards.

But figures from the government-appointed watchdog Consumer Focus

suggest that the relationship between what we pay

and the wholesale costs to the industry aren't always so consistent.

Take a look at this graph of electricity prices.

The red line represents what we pay for our electricity.

The blue line is what the energy companies pay.

Following an all-time high in September 2008,

the wholesale costs paid by the industry dropped dramatically,

and have stayed reasonably steady since.

But as you can see, whilst the energy companies' costs

have stayed relatively low, ours remained high.

In other words, when industry prices went up, so did ours.

But when theirs dropped, ours didn't.

It's the same with gas.

Here's what the industry paid in recent years,

and this line shows how retail costs haven't followed the same pattern,

with the result that the average UK household

spends £1,310 a year on energy.

But what can you do about your high bills?

Hannah Mummery from Consumer Focus has some advice.

The more accurate information you have about how much you spend

and how much you use, the better.

It's very difficult to forecast the way energy prices are going.

Obviously, we all saw a big rise in gas prices before of about 18%.

We really can't say at the moment

where things are going to go for next year.

If you're confused about energy prices,

our own website has a lot of information about how to switch,

the latest energy prices for your area,

and also a list of websites approved under our confidence code,

and that means that you can be sure that those websites

will give you all the prices on the market.

You can also phone a Citizens' Advice consumer service.

Over the last few months, some of the Big Six energy companies

have done their best in their ads to make us feel

they understand concerns over energy prices,

promising us "feel-better energy"

and that they're "looking after your world".

But are they really on our side?

Later in the programme, I'll be meeting Christine McGourty from Energy UK,

the body that speaks for the Big Six energy companies.

Hi, it's Gloria from Rip-Off Britain.

We met last year,

so I'll be finding out how things have changed since then.

I know that you and this programme has been scrutinising bills,

jargon, tariffs really closely,

and I can assure you that things are improving

Imagine being told by your energy company

that you owe hundreds of pounds more than you think you do,

and however much you protest, they just won't budge.

Well, for one customer of npower's, that was just the start of it,

and when he continued to insist that they'd got it wrong,

the company decided enough was enough.

Malvern in Worcestershire.

Surrounded by beautiful hills and countryside,

and an attractive spa town.

So when builder Tony Williams moved his family here in 2004,

he thought he'd found his dream home.

The thing that we really liked was the position of the property.

Being in the countryside, it had a generous garden.

It was the ideal property for us.

But little did Tony know

that there would come to be an expensive problem with the house.

Or at least with its electricity bills.

And according to his energy company npower,

that problem dates back to the moment he arrived.

When we first moved in...

Of course, when you move into any property, you take a meter reading.

We sort of monitored that over first few years

and, of course, had different visits from npower's representative.

Our average quarterly payment was about £150 per quarter for usage.

But four years later, in February 2008,

npower sent a rather bigger quarterly bill.

We received a bill from npower for our electricity supply

of over £2,700.

When we received that, obviously we were really shocked

and when we contacted npower,

they said it was for back billing

for the four years we'd been here then.

Npower told Tony all the electricity bills

since he'd moved in had been estimates,

and that he'd been dramatically undercharged.

But Tony disputed that.

To prove his case, he took daily readings of his usage

and, after sending them to npower,

they accepted they'd made a mistake.

Once npower investigated,

we did receive a new amended bill with an apology letter,

and the new amended bill was £105.

So, we took it that that was correct after they investigated it.

So Tony paid that smaller amount, and all seemed fine,

at least until November 2010

when he received another bigger-than-expected bill.

This time, for over £7,300.

Tony again disputed the bill,

but this time the matter wasn't so easily resolved.

'The alarm bells were ringing,'

thinking, "Well, we've paid all this money in the four years that we'd been here,

"yet npower are still asking for further money."

And then, at the end of January this year,

a knock on the door signalled that things were about to get a whole lot worse.

We had a visit by three men from npower.

One was a warrant officer.

He produced a letter for us

for monies that were owing to npower on the account.

They gave me the choice of whether to pay on the day £7,300

to clear the account, or to put in a prepayment meter.

Shocked and unable to come up with more than £7,000

to pay the bill, even if he wanted to,

Tony had no choice but to agree to have the prepayment meter fitted.

Npower once again claimed the money apparently owed

was for back-payment from the very first date the family moved in.

And, as far as Tony was concerned,

he'd already proved them wrong on that score four years earlier.

But when he reminded the company of that,

the reason for the huge bill suddenly changed.

They then come back to me and they said

they have looked at the account again

and decided that it was for a 11-month period,

a large energy use of electricity between 2008 and 2009.

that we had used £7,000 worth of electric.

Yes, you heard right.

They said Tony had used £7,000 worth of electricity

in less than a year.

Even for a big family that wouldn't be easy!

In desperation, Tony hired an electrician to test

every single electrical appliance in the house

And the results were clear -

everything was working exactly as it should.

So why was he being asked to pay so much more than it seemed he was using?

In our little close here, we've got five properties in total,

three of which are identical.

I've discussed our energy use with our identical neighbours

and we're on par with what they are using as well.

A few weeks later, npower sent another bill,

now claiming the amount the family owed was - wait for it -

£8,500!

Tony insists they couldn't have used that much electricity

and, of course, since the energy company fitted that prepayment meter,

he's got a way of proving exactly how much the family uses.

It seems nowhere near enough to explain those big bills,

even taking into account the extra they're already being charged

to cover the back-billing.

We take actual meter readings every day.

We've got energy monitors in place,

which gives us an annual bill of £805 on average,

for the electricity.

At the moment, that's the speeded-up rate

that npower set the meter to pay back a bill that we don't owe.

We just don't seem to be getting anywhere,

and it just seems to be going round in circles,

with npower keep changing their minds on what the usage is for.

It's caused us a lot of family problems

and I just don't seem to be getting any further,

or any clearer with this dispute with npower.

I just want somebody to actually sort it out for us once and for all.

Angry and confused, Tony complained to the Energy Ombudsman.

He's looked at the file on behalf of npower and myself and he said

the good news is that npower cannot claim more than 12 months back

for any back-billing, they call it.

He said but the bad news is

npower are still insisting that we owe over £1,800 on the account.

Fortunately for Tony, the Energy Ombudsman

ruled this summer that this amount should come down, concluding that

npower failed to take reasonable steps

to accurately bill the account,

and that there was evidence of poor customer service.

They've told npower to apologise,

correct the bill,

agree a payment plan for the outstanding amount and,

as a goodwill gesture,

offer a financial award

in recognition of the shortfall in service and inconvenience caused.

Meanwhile, npower told us they've reduced the bill to £891,

which they say is in line with the family's annual usage.

They've told us they're sorry to hear about the situation

and are really keen to resolve this as quickly as possible.

As is Tony, who's desperate to put the whole stressful business behind him.

It's caused lots of problems in the house.

I don't mind paying for what we owe,

but I feel very frustrated.

Next, if your boiler suddenly packs up,

getting it fixed doesn't usually come cheap.

Which is why a growing number of us

now buy some sort of annual cover, to pay for any unexpected repairs.

But, a word of warning - choose your policy carefully,

because you may find you haven't got quite the protection you thought.

For many of us, weather like this has become a familiar sight

over the last few years, even right into spring.

And when the temperature drops, the last thing you'd need

is for your heating to suddenly pack up.

That's why, last autumn, Gary and April Snewing from Kent

set out to find a company who'd protect them

if they unexpectedly found themselves in the cold.

Because winter was coming,

we decided we needed to have some sort of cover on the boiler.

We searched online, found a local firm, and thought we'd go with them

cos the prices seemed fine and they was local.

So, in early October,

the Snewings signed up to a Dartford-based company

called Dial A Rod, who appeared on the internet as dialarod.tv,

and shouldn't be confused with any companies with similar names.

They paid for the company's "gold" heating and boiler cover,

which, for £4.55 a month,

promised to cover them for an unlimited number of claims.

Their first month's premium was taken, and it seemed the timing couldn't have been better,

because in November, yes, their boiler stopped working.

I'd woken up that first morning and the house was very, very cold.

I come into the living room and I played with the thermostat.

I couldn't hear the boiler fire up, so I looked at the boiler. There was no lights on at all.

So I immediately went downstairs, picked up the phone

and thought I'd dial Dial A Rod because, after all, I was insured.

As relatively new customers,

Dial A Rod requested that the couple paid the full year's premium

of £54.74 up front on their debit card and cancel their Direct Debit.

They said as I was a new customer,

I needed to pay the full year upfront, which I didn't really have a problem with at all.

I just wanted someone out to fix the heating.

After Dial A Rod had taken the payment,

they sent a repair man round the next day.

The engineer arrived and diagnosed the problem quite quickly.

They said it was the bypass valve that needed to be changed.

But he said it would cost them £128,

which confused the couple,

because their contract was meant to cover them for parts and labour.

The engineer did state that we'd have to pay it,

but it wasn't really for him to discuss,

it was for us to take up with the head office the next day.

With the assessment completed,

the engineer left and then returned a few days later with the parts to finish the job.

But, within hours, things were about to get worse.

The house was freezing, no hot water,

I hadn't yet had a chance to have a shower.

So, you can imagine I was feeling quite distressed.

They called Dial A Rod again.

After all, the company had sold them an annual contract

covering them for exactly this sort of situation.

Or so you'd think.

We did want Dial A Rod to come back and sort the problem out,

but, unfortunately, we were hitting a brick wall

trying to contact them to resolve the matter,

to get an engineer to come back,

or get any sort of response from them, really.

Dial A Rod said they were waiting for the engineer

who'd done the repair to send in his report.

But, since then, the company has gone very quiet.

We've phoned, e-mailed, every possible contact that we could possibly make with Dial A Rod.

Not had one single response.

But then, in the middle of winter,

just as things were getting desperate,

Gary was able to get help from elsewhere.

Luckily, my husband noticed with our new bank account

that we were covered for some small insurance,

with regards to the boiler, so he called them straight up.

They sent an engineer out. The problem was fixed in no time at all.

We were extremely happy to finally have the heating and hot water back on.

And that should have been the end of it.

Except that when April next checked her bank account,

she saw that Dial a Rod had taken the £128

their engineer had mentioned. Which seemed a bit of a cheek.

Because not only had Dial A Rod failed to fix the boiler themselves,

but surely any work they did do should have been covered under the maintenance contract.

Otherwise, to Gary and April,

that contract seemed to have very little point.

At no time did we say that they could keep our bank details on file,

and use that card as and when they wanted to.

So I was very, very upset about the fact that they'd taken the payment from us.

April phoned to complain.

Then Gary phoned to complain.

In total, they called Dial A Rod 15 times,

but never got a proper explanation.

I'm completely amazed at the behaviour of this company.

Their customer service is completely astonishing.

Their staff are rude,

they don't respond to any e-mails or anything in writing.

And when we got in touch, they didn't respond to us either.

Although we did speak to one of the company directors, and sent follow-up e-mails,

they haven't given us any explanation for the way the Snewings were treated,

or why they charged £128 for a part that you'd think would be covered under their policy.

And it's that part of the story that angers April the most.

She's upset the company took the money without her say-so.

They've just taken a payment from our bank account without permission,

not explained to us what it is for, invoiced us, or anything.

We just can't get any sort of response from the company at all.

Overall, I'm just completely disgusted at how we've been treated as a paying customer.

The company is a complete joke as far as I'm concerned.

Well, if you're wondering whether to get cover for your boiler,

but don't want to end up in a similar situation,

here's Sarah Pennells from SavvyWoman

with some points to keep in mind.

There are two different types of boiler cover.

The first is insurance-based

and the second is a service contract.

If you have an insurance-based cover,

that means you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service for free

when you complain to the company

and you're not happy with the way they deal with it.

If it's service-based, and you're not happy,

you can go to somebody like Trading Standards.

The first thing with boiler cover is to think about whether you actually need it,

Some home insurance policies, if you pay a bit extra,

will include home emergency cover,

and that's normally enough to pay for three or four hours of someone's time,

but check how much the limits are.

You may also get this cover

if you pay for a packaged bank account and have a monthly fee.

Again, check how much you're covered for,

and whether it will apply to you.

If you want boiler cover, the starting point is to work out

how much cover you want.

Now, some policies will cover the boiler and the controls,

others will cover the whole central heating system.

But this is normally much more expensive.

Now, if your boiler isn't in its first flush of youth,

just be careful, because some policies won't insure

or cover boilers beyond a certain age.

It's normally around seven years.

Others will cover boilers,

as long as you insure them by a certain time.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain,

how much money do you waste leaving things on stand-by?

Have a remote control and you press the off button, you automatically think that's it,

it's off now, so you don't even realise it's still using energy.

What's the forecast for this winter's energy bills?

Will we all be paying more?

After our last series of Rip-Off Britain,

many thousands of you sent in for our Rip-Off Britain guide to getting a good deal.

This year, we've written a new expanded guide,

with practical advice and topics covered in this series,

like Payment Protection Insurance, cold calls and supermarket deals,

as well as updated tips and information

on avoiding rip-offs and getting a better deal.

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

Or to receive a copy in the post,

send a stamped, self-addressed A5 envelope

to the address that we'll give you right at the end of the programme.

Rip-Off Britain has set up our very own Pop Up Shop.

Inside, our team of experts

have been listening to your consumer problems.

People were dropping in all weekend to ask for their advice.

Sue them for breach of contract - you can do that through the Small Claims Court.

The bank you're complaining about hasn't the best reputation in terms of complaints.

Anne and her husband have been shopping around

to reduce their energy bills, but want to know why

their new supplier has asked them to pay a security deposit up front.

When the application went in,

there was no mention about needing a security deposit,

and we're a bit apprehensive about giving them this security money.

On the whole, most companies don't require a deposit,

but the company that you're thinking of joining,

after carrying out a credit reference check,

which all suppliers do,

they deemed it necessary that you pay a small deposit

because, rightly or wrongly,

they may have feared that you may be unable,

from your history, to actually pay the bills.

You're doing the right thing shopping around.

So if they are the most competitive, very much enjoy the savings.

It's just that, for some reason, they deem it necessary

to have some money up front before becoming a member.

Fair enough, yes.

You've also been letting us know what you really think

in our Gripe Box.

Energy companies continually phoning you up wanting you to change.

It's a struggle, it is a struggle sometimes

when you find your insurance bills are creeping up.

The cost of mobile phones in relation to the quality of service...

Well, I'm really annoyed with energy prices, both gas and electric.

This programme started to broadcast really at the very beginning of the recession

and, without blowing our own trumpet too much,

I think that what we've done is we have taught people

through the screen that it's all right to complain,

and I think we've taught the British people to be better complainers and to get somewhere.

And, of course, that is the value of having all the experts,

because they get an instant answer, instant help and, sometimes,

you know, it's a no-no in as much that it's your mistake and, sadly,

though we'd like to help and get your money back, we can't.

But you know what occurs to me, Gloria?

I don't think that companies recognise sometimes,

not just, as you say, the fact that people are being let down by companies,

but the emotional effect that it has on them.

It just rips them apart sometimes,

so we're not just talking about people feeling that they have lost money.

They've lost more than that.

They've lost peace of mind, They've lost trust.

And the effect that it has on people,

not just because they find that they can't get any kind of recompense

but that they've then got to go through writing to this one,

complaining to that one, telephoning that one.

-And not everyone has the energy to do that.

-Exactly.

-That's the other point. That's why this is great here because we take up that energy.

-We do.

Senga's concerned that she's paying the price for having a prepayment gas and electricity meter,

and wants some advice on switching.

Is there any way,

if I came off prepayment meters and went on to monthly bills,

is there any way I can keep a check-up on what I'm using?

-Yes, absolutely. I mean, do you have access to an internet?

-Yes.

Because what we would strongly recommend is

that you consider an online tariff.

Just by receiving your bill by e-mail,

you can save yourself hundreds of pounds,

and the good advantage of having an online plan is actually that

they require you to actually read the meter at least four times a year.

So you're actually keeping track of the energy you're using,

but that's only a minimum.

You could read the meter as much as you want,

just to make sure that any payments are reflecting the reality of your usage.

Now, as you know,

we're never afraid to take the energy companies on

over what we have to pay for our gas and electricity.

But when you get a sky-high bill, it is of course just possible

that part of the reason may lie a little closer to home.

And while none of us are exactly ripping ourselves off,

most of us could do quite a bit more to bring our own bills down.

For instance, we all know we shouldn't leave lights on, or keep the telly on stand-by,

but you may be shocked to realise which of our household appliances

are the worst offenders when it comes to wasting energy.

And, indeed, exactly how much money that is adding to your bill.

Are you losing money while you sleep?

Well, millions of us are,

by leaving on that tiny little red stand-by light,

or not turning off enough switches.

But exactly how much money does that mean that you're wasting?

Meet Andrew and Jenny Thorp from Enfield.

They're going to help us find out.

The couple moved into a new house last November,

and they've already got into some bad habits.

I leave the lights on. I think lots of other people do that,

but I think I'm particularly bad at that,

and also leaving things on charge.

We have an iPad, various laptops,

mobile phones and things, and we tend to put them on charge,

and leave them on charge until we next want them.

I think when you have a remote control and you press the off button

you automatically think that's it,

it's off now, so you don't even realise it's still using energy.

To see out how much money Andrew and Jenny are effectively throwing down the drain,

we've called in David Weatherall from the Energy Saving Trust.

He's come to have a quick look round the house to see where they're going wrong.

First stop is the kitchen where one particular appliance

is often left on stand-by - an old TV.

The couple could save £3 a year by switching their TV off.

But what about the washing machine? That's often left on stand-by, too.

More modern washing machines would tend to have lower stand-by consumption,

but because you've said that's five or six years old,

you could really be drawing quite a lot of power leaving it in that stand-by mode.

Switching it off straightaway could save £3 a year.

Not a huge amount, but it all adds up.

So this is a really old fridge-freezer, about 15 years old. We had it second hand.

It's going to be drawing a lot of energy.

The opportunity there is to clearly invest in a new fridge-freezer,

which I think might even save you up to sort of £15 to 20 a year.

So, another £20 a year saved by updating the fridge-freezer.

And it's not just about the money.

A new fridge is likely to be up to 70% more energy efficient than the older model like this one.

And here's something else that can waste a lot of energy.

If everybody put the right amount of water in their kettle,

then it would be enough to power the UK's street lighting for a year.

That works out at £7 a year for each household,

which, combined with the other energy savings Andrew and Jenny could make,

means a possible total saving of £33 a year,

just in the kitchen.

And there's more to be saved elsewhere.

Switching their laptop off, rather than leaving it on stand-by, could save them £1.50.

And when you add that to the cost of keeping on stand-by

their TV, set-top box, Blu Ray player, and surround sound,

that's another £10 a year that could be saved.

Using energy-saving lightbulbs throughout the house

could also help reduce their energy bill.

For each light bulb that you change, we'd be typically expecting you

to save around £3 a year, so again it really adds up.

For Andrew and Jenny,

changing those bulbs would mean a saving of at least £9 a year,

taking the total amount they could save to over £50.

That means, after just a quick glance round their house,

our expert's managed to knock almost a sixth off the couple's annual electricity bill,

all in the click of a few switches.

And the most shocking part of that is how much of the total

could be saved by just switching off the equipment left on stand-by.

I would say that, across your whole household,

you're spending around £50 a year on stand-by power.

Andrew and Jenny aren't particularly big electricity users

so in your home, the potential savings could be even greater.

But even so, the couple are now determined to watch every penny.

The money you can save and whether we go out for a nice meal

or go on holiday, or something like that,

but I think it's quite interesting, the fact that quite easily,

you can save quite a large amount of money.

You can find out lots more advice on how to save energy

within the home by going to our website.

So, is there a simple way of working out your bills?

If you want to see if you can better your current energy deal,

how do you go about it?

Well, Consumer Focus have pulled together some tips

on how to make the whole thing a lot simpler.

When you get your energy bill, obviously the most important thing

people want to look at is how much money they owe their energy company.

This is sometimes hard to try and understand

how you've built up that amount of money.

All energy bills will have an explanation of how much energy you've used,

how much each unit costs

and also how that figure has been calculated.

It's best to look at that and see how much you've used,

and whether it corresponds to your meter reading.

An energy supplier has to tell you whether your meter reading,

and your bill, is based on an actual accurate meter reading or an estimated one.

If your bill has been based on an estimated meter reading,

one of the first things you can do is phone up your energy supplier

and make sure they have an accurate meter reading as soon as possible,

to make sure your bill is based on your consumption.

If you're elderly or disabled,

a lot of energy suppliers run a priority services register,

which means they'll come out every three months and do a meter reading for you.

If you have got a complaint or there's anything you don't understand,

the first thing you should do is phone your energy company.

They have an obligation to sort out any consumer query within eight weeks.

You can also phone Consumer Direct at any time.

This is a free government service

that you can call to get advice on your energy bills.

If your energy company fails to sort out your problem within eight weeks,

you then have the right to take your problem to the Energy Ombudsman,

who can give an independent assessment and may even be able to

provide you with compensation if they find the energy company is at fault.

So many of your Rip-Off Britain complaints are to do with

energy prices and the confusion of tariffs.

So today, I've come to ask a few questions on your behalf

to Energy UK, which is the voice and body of the entire industry.

I'm meeting up with Christine McGourty whom I came to see last year as well,

when she made some big promises.

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.

Christine, last year in the programme,

you promised by this spring that all the companies would have

simplified their tariffs and just made it easy for the consumer to read.

I don't think, according to our mailbag, that's actually happened.

I can't obviously make promises on behalf of individual companies,

but we have seen some really big change right across the industry.

We've got simpler bills, we've got fewer tariffs from some companies.

There are different pricing structures for the deals,

to try and make those easier to understand.

Companies have been introducing new ways to help people check

they're on the right deal.

Yeah, but I don't think they're improving quickly enough.

I mean, the bills just aren't simple enough, and the system isn't simple enough.

Well, it's certainly the case that the companies are looking very closely at their bills.

Some of them have simplified them already.

I know that you and this programme has been scrutinising bills,

jargon, tariffs, really closely...

Because it exists.

And I can assure you that things are improving,

and that improvement... OK, it may not happen overnight,

but there is change and companies really have got the message

that they need to improve things to make it easier for customers to shop around.

So maybe you'll explain why is it that, when prices of energy go down,

we don't see that in our bill?

There's various things going on here.

For example, if we take the average bill,

profit is a very small part of that.

According to the regulator's figures,

about half of the average bill is the actual cost of the energy you use,

Another half of the bill are all these special initiatives out there,

whether it's government schemes to promote green energy,

social schemes, tax, the meter, the cost of the infrastructure -

that's the gas pipes and the electricity wires.

All these things are what make up your bills.

So yes, there is an element of profit there.

The element of profit is relatively small proportion of that.

The regulator's most recent figures put it at just over £3 a month

for the average customer on duel fuel.

And the other side of the coin is the investment we need in this country over the next ten years,

in order to keep the lights on and meet our environmental targets.

It always seems to be, though, the customer is paying

and bearing the brunt of it all.

Well, of course, people will be pleased that there were

price cuts at the start of this year. right across many of the companies.

-Very little, though.

-The bigger picture globally is that there is

more and more demand for energy.

There are emerging economies - China, Russia, Brazil, India -

all using more energy than ever before.

So the demand for energy globally is increasing far quicker than anyone can supply it.

So out there internationally, it is a difficult situation

and because Britain doesn't have the North Sea supplies that we used to,

we are not an energy island any more, exporting energy overseas.

We're importing it.

So we are at the mercy of these global forces, whether it's political or weather.

All of these things are impacting the price,

which is very changeable and quite hard to predict.

The main six, they gang together.

One puts it up, the other puts it up, you know. I mean, they do.

Well, we do have, per unit of energy,

we have the cheapest gas price of any of the Western European countries,

and the fourth cheapest electricity price.

We do have a competitive market,

one of the most competitive anywhere in the world.

There's a lot of choice out there,

whether it's the small companies or the bigger ones,

and they're all influenced and affected

by some of the same external forces.

When the wholesale gas price changes internationally,

it affects all the companies supplying gas and electricity

to us in a smaller way.

The image of the industry is really bad,

so what are you going to do about that in order to try and get the confidence of the consumer back?

I think the energy companies recognise that they need to be in a better place.

They want their customers to appreciate the service

and the product, and the offering that they give.

They want to be respected and trusted by the customer.

-Do you think they are doing enough?

-They recognise that's not in a good place at the moment.

That's why we've seen so many initiatives over the course of the last year,

a load of initiatives - improving bills, making tariffs and deals easier to understand,

helping people shop around,

special help for the most vulnerable customers,

over 200 million this year alone.

A lot is going on. It will take time of course.

The industry does need to change its reputation,

and you can't do things like that overnight,

but it's going in the right direction.

Christine, thank you very much indeed,

I've a funny feeling I'll be back, yet again, to see you next year.

Here at Rip-Off Britain,

we're always ready to investigate more of your stories.

Confused over your bills?

Trying to wade through never-ending small print?

We should read it, but it's not in plain English.

It should be simple, you know - ABC, very basic stuff.

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

and that "great deal" has ended up costing you money?

You get home, you get your bill,

and it's like £70 when it's meant to be £35.

And it's just, basically, you get ripped off, don't you?

You might have a cautionary tale of your own,

and want to share the mistakes that you made with us,

so that others don't do the same.

We paid them good money to act in our best interest, they didn't.

We're particularly keen to hear from you if you've had a problem when travelling abroad or on holiday.

Did your airline let you down?

Have you been stung by hidden charges when booking your holiday online?

Or maybe your travel insurance has not provided you with the protection that you'd hoped for.

You can write to us at...

Or send us an e-mail to...

The Rip-Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.

Well, as we've just been seeing,

whatever happens with energy prices over the next few months,

there are things that virtually all of us can do to bring our own bills down.

That's absolutely right, but in the meantime,

do keep in mind that if you're not happy with

what you pay for your energy or, indeed, the service that you've had,

it's not difficult to switch to a different supplier.

And that bit of effort could end up saving you a lot of money.

And that's advice that we never stop giving.

So, if your household is one of the majority that has never switched,

have a think about it now.

You'll find lots of information on our website...

It'll tell you everything you need to know,

along with some really useful energy-saving tips as well.

And on that positive note, that's it for today.

We will see you again very soon, I hope, but until then, from all of us...

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

-Bye.

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