Episode 6 Rip Off Britain

We asked you to tell us what's left you feeling totally ripped off,

and you've contacted us in your thousands.

You've told us about the companies you think get it wrong

and the customer service that simply isn't up to scratch.

There's a lot of blurb written down

but, in practice, the words are absolutely meaningless.

I mean, people just can't afford these prices, it's ridiculous.

You've asked us to track down the scammers who stole your money

and investigate the extra charges that you say are unfair.

They're in a win-win situation and you're in a lose-lose situation.

If you don't do something about it, I think it's your own fault.

And when you've lost out but nobody else is to blame,

you've come to us to stop others falling into the same trap.

So, whether it's a blatant rip off or a genuine mistake,

we're here to find out why you're out of pocket

and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money.

This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello, and welcome to Rip-Off Britain,

where today we're going to be tackling a topic

that affects every single one of us.

And it's one that that costs the average British household

in excess of £100 every month.

Yes, we're talking about energy.

And with the continuing controversy

about the big six gas and electricity companies

making bigger profits than ever before,

we'll be putting them and their customer service to the test.

But while almost everybody now seems agreed

that we've been paying over the odds,

so far that's done very little to bring prices down.

So we'll have plenty of tips on how you can keep the cost down

without having to turn your heating down as well.

Coming up, we reveal shocking figures

on how long the big six energy companies

kept us hanging on the phone

when we tested how quickly they answered their phones.

Energy companies need to do a lot better and up their game,

and make sure that they're answering their phone calls quickly.

And the family who spent almost all of the winter

without heating or hot water

after discovering that a 24-hour, year-round boiler care

doesn't always mean what you think.

You don't realise how bad it is.

It was just horrendous really.

It was unbelievable.

Now, when it comes to energy,

one of the things that really gets you fired up to contact us

is issues with the company that supplies you.

The big six gas and electricity suppliers

are rarely out of our inbox,

or the headlines.

Cost is the main complaint

but there's unhappiness too

with just about every area of their customer service,

with many of you telling us

how frustrated you are at the length of time it can take

when you ring them up before you get to speak to anyone.

Instead, you can spend what seems like hours in a queue,

listening over and over again to the same piece of music.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons, anyone?!

So we thought we'd do the same thing we did

with some of the phone companies last year.

We rang each of the big six energy suppliers

and then timed them

to see how long it would take

to be put through to an actual human being.

It's one of modern life's biggest bugbears,

one we all have to put up with once in a while.

-PHONE:

-Please press the star key on your phone twice.

It can be a total of 20 minutes

before you actually get to speak to somebody, which is bit annoying.

"Press one for this, press two for that,"

when I'd rather just speak to a human being.

If you was ringing to be a new customer,

I bet you'd get answered in one minute.

In our last series, we tested how quickly the phone companies

put you through to a real person when you call.

But, looking at our postbag again, it quickly became clear

that there's an entirely different industry

that keeps you hanging on, and on, and on, and on.

The energy regulator Ofgem added fuel to the fire

by announcing that there'd been more complaints

about the big six energy companies

in the first quarter of 2014 than ever before.

So, armed with that, it was pretty clear who we should be testing

in our next customer service challenge.

So, we recruited a group of helpers,

assigned each of them their own energy company,

gave them a phone and a stopwatch,

and asked them to make one call an hour from 10am to 7pm,

timing how long it took from the moment the call connected,

until an actual human being picked up at the other end.

-PHONE:

-Good evening, you're through to British Gas. How can I help today?

Key to our team were members of a local synchronised swimming team.

They're used to working hard together.

..7,8.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

But if things go as we think they might,

this could be the last time today they'll be able to keep

their usual synchronicity.

# Somebody, answer the phone... #

We called the main customer service number of the big six -

British Gas, E.ON, EDF Energy, Npower, ScottishPower and SSE -

a total of 14 times each.

To make sure we weren't just calling on a bad day,

we spread those calls over two different weekdays.

-PHONE:

-We're busy helping other customers at the moment.

Please hold, and we'll be with you shortly.

MUSIC PLAYS

So, how did they do?

Well, after all that, the best performer of them all

turned out to be...

Ta-da.

..British Gas.

Which also happens to be

the single biggest supplier of gas and electricity to British homes.

-PHONE:

-Good afternoon, and welcome to British Gas.

We were able to speak to one of their team on average

in 2 minutes and 41 seconds.

And on their fastest call,

they only kept us waiting for 1 minute 15 seconds.

The next quickest were EDF Energy,

on average keeping us on hold for just a shade under three minutes.

-PHONE:

-Hello, you're through to customer services.

At their best, EDF picked up after one minute and nine seconds,

the fastest that any of the big six answered one of our calls.

Next up, E.ON with an average call time

of around three and a half minutes.

But the calls our synchronised swimmers made in the early evening

took much longer to connect,

in one case more than ten minutes.

PHONE RINGS

-PHONE:

-Thanks for calling E.ON.

Fourth of the six were SSE

with an average waiting time of just under five minutes.

The longest wait with them was more than 13 minutes.

But, looking on the bright side,

they answered much faster around mid-afternoon.

Well, so far, calls to four of the big six

have connected to a human being in an average of under five minutes.

But I'm afraid it was all downhill from there.

When it came to the last two companies -

Npower and ScottishPower - we had to wait a LOT longer.

-PHONE:

-Good afternoon, and thanks for calling Npower.

Npower, the company that proportionally had more complaints

from its customers in the first quarter of 2014

than any of the rest of the big six.

They took almost 13 minutes on average to answer our calls.

The shortest wait was four and half minutes,

and the longest - almost 21 and a half.

-PHONE:

-We sometimes record and listen to calls

to improve our service.

But even that pales in comparison

to the worst performer in our big six customer service challenge.

A company who, each time we called,

greeted us with this recorded message...

-PHONE:

-Thank you for calling ScottishPower.

Good news, we've now extended our customer service opening hours...

Well, that's lovely but

the average time we were on hold to ScottishPower

was 34 minutes and 16 seconds.

Even our shortest call to them

clocked in at more than 18 minutes.

But the longest was 53 minutes and 7 seconds.

Yep, that's nearly an hour.

-PHONE:

-One moment, please.

And it might have been even longer

but we'll never know because,

at that point, we were cut off.

So, on that call, even after 53 whole minutes,

we never got to speak to an actual human being.

In total, we spent more than six and a quarter hours

on hold to ScottishPower.

Peter Murray from Which? says that's outrageous.

Energy prices are consumers' top financial concern,

and over the last few years

we've seen really big hikes in energy prices

which are hitting an awful lot of consumers really, really hard.

And so, consumers feel really frustrated

when they have a basic problem with their energy supplier

that they want resolved

but they have to sit on the phone for a long time

to get it answered,

and that's why energy companies need to do a lot better,

and up their game,

and make sure that they're answering their phone calls quickly.

But there was still one more twist to come in our test.

When you're stuck on hold

listening to the same music again and again,

I bet you've had a sneaking suspicion

that if you were calling up as a new customer

rather than an existing one,

they'd answer your call a lot more quickly.

Let's see if that's true.

Well, what do you know, it was.

We didn't call E.ON

as they simply referred new customers to their website.

But we rang the rest of the big six's numbers

for new customers a total of three times each.

And, without exception, we got through to someone

faster than we did when calling as an existing customer.

British Gas, again, answered most quickly,

in less than 30 seconds every time.

But just about all the companies

picked up the phone to new customers

in an average of around a minute or less.

-PHONE:

-Good afternoon. Can I take your full name, please?

Even ScottishPower who, remember,

took more than 34 minutes on average

to speak to existing customers...

-PHONE:

-Good afternoon, you're through to ScottishPower...

..well, they picked up one call to their new customer line

in just 31 seconds,

and the others in less than 90.

It shouldn't be the case that existing customers

of energy companies have to wait a lot longer

for their calls to be answered

than people who are phoning up an energy company

to switch to them.

People who are existing customers deserve to be treated

in exactly the same way as new customers,

and that's something that energy companies have got to put right.

When we put our test results to the big six themselves,

each of them stressed how committed they are

to providing good customer service and dealing with calls quickly.

And either quoted the average waiting times from their own tests

or emphasised the improvements they've made to speed things up.

A couple of them insisted that, despite our experience,

they DON'T prioritise new customers over existing customers,

while the others pointed out

that the skills required to deal with calls

from new and existing customers are very different,

as is the volume of calls to each line.

And ScottishPower, who took the longest time to pick up the phone

when we called,

apologised to any customer who's found it difficult

to contact them recently, putting it down to a difficult move

to a new £200-million account management system,

which they accept has led to a dip in customer service levels.

But they've taken on hundreds of additional call-handling staff

and extended their call centre opening hours,

so they're confident

customers should see real service improvements.

But what does the body that speaks for ALL energy providers

make of all this?

Later in the programme we're getting straight to the point

with Energy UK.

The reality is that there are many instances

where the customer service is just atrocious.

If it's the middle of winter,

the last thing you want

is for your boiler to pack up

and leave you without either heating or hot water,

or, worse still, without both.

That's why so many of us

take out special cover to make sure that if that does happen,

then things will be sorted out by expert engineers fast.

But here's a story to really send a chill down your spine.

It involves a family in Wolverhampton

and a policy that came with the promise of

365 day cover and protection.

Not entirely accurate as it turned out

because, when their boiler broke down,

they were left in the cold with no heating or hot water

not for just days, or even weeks,

but for months.

There's rarely a quiet moment in the Walker household.

Over the past 25 years, Graham and Linda from Staffordshire

have fostered over 50 children,

and had seven of their own.

As foster parents, it's absolutely vital that their home is safe,

secure and, most importantly, warm.

That's why, in April 2012, they spent around £1,700

on a brand-new boiler to power their hot water and central heating.

-Graham!

-Hello, Angela.

-Good to see you.

-Lovely to meet you.

-You too.

-Come through.

-Yes, please.

The new boiler worked just as it should for the next 18 months.

But then, as boilers sometimes do, it stopped.

I'm assuming then, that this is where said boiler lives.

Said boiler lives in there, yes.

There it is. There's the villain of the piece.

Not very old.

You don't realise how bad it is.

You just don't realise

cos you automatically get up in the morning...

I have a shower,

Linda has a bath, the kids have baths, showers, whatever,

and, all of a sudden, there's nothing there, so, what do you do?

Well, Graham didn't for a moment think that

the broken boiler would prove to be more than a brief inconvenience.

After all, he and Linda had been paying almost £14 a month

for a boiler care policy

that would cover repairs in just this kind of situation.

So, Graham picked up the phone to the boiler care provider

Home Energy Services, or HES,

whose website says that they offer

365 days of care and protection.

Told them we needed somebody to come out straightaway basically,

cos we've got a 365 days a year cover call out.

And I wanted someone out quite urgently really

cos we've got young children in the house

and we needed hot water and central heating.

But the company's response was NOT what Graham was expecting.

They gave me an appointment within two weeks,

exactly two weeks.

-Two weeks without central heating and hot water?

-Yes.

-I bet you didn't put up with that.

-No, I didn't.

Graham convinced HES to bring the appointment forward by a week.

Even then, everyone in the house faced seven days

with no heating or hot water...in November.

What did you do initially?

Got the pots and pans out of that cupboard,

put them on the hob,

boiled them, carried them upstairs to the bath.

It took me 1 hour 35 minutes to fill a bath,

for one person to have a bath.

After a week of going out to friends' and neighbours' homes

to wash, and wearing extra layers indoors,

the HES engineer came to fix the boiler.

But there was a problem.

The engineer told Graham that he'd need to order a new part

which would take at least a week to order.

But when they came to fit the new part, it blew straightaway,

so the family had to wait again.

And it took three more engineer visits

and another two and half weeks before the right part was fitted.

You must have been tearing your hair out!

-That's being polite.

-Polite.

-THEY LAUGH

After they'd spent a month with no heating or hot water,

the boiler was fixed.

But a week later, and just a week before Christmas,

it stopped working again.

Graham now knew that any new parts would most likely only arrive

after the New Year,

meaning that his family would have to face Christmas Day

without any heating or hot water.

To help the family cope with the cold,

HES did give them a small heater.

But that only saw the family's electricity bill hit the roof.

-So your electric bill's gone up?

-Yes, astronomically.

It was a £160-something for two months.

Christmas came and went, as did even more unsuccessful engineer visits.

Eventually, the boiler looked like it was repaired

but, even then, the heating and hot water only worked intermittently.

We got to the stage where I said to these guys...

I said, "Look, enough's enough."

I said, "If you don't fix it this time, you can put a new boiler in.

"You shouldn't need to put a new boiler in.

"As we've said, it's only two years old.

"But you're not capable of doing the job,

"so I suggest you get a new boiler in."

As it happened, that was when it got fixed.

At last, more than three months after it first broke down,

the boiler was mended for good,

and the family could finally have a bath in their own home.

But Graham and Linda can't understand

why had it taken so long.

They'd only taken out their boiler policy

which, remember, had assured them of a "24/7, 365 days a year cover"

in the belief they would ALWAYS be able to keep warm and clean

And if it did break down,

what was your expectation of the kind of service

you were going to get

from the insurance policy that you had?

Somebody out within a couple of days to mend it.

I think a couple of days I would have been happy with or accepted.

Linda's being lenient.

I would have expected someone out within 24 hours.

When we spoke to Home Energy Services

they told us that, on this occasion,

they did not provide the high level of service

that customers have come to expect,

for which they apologised.

They said the problems

were partly due to the uncommon make and model of the boiler,

which made sourcing the necessary parts difficult.

In the end, they had to order direct from the manufacturer in Italy,

causing further delay,

particularly as the manufacturer was closed over Christmas.

They explained that, although Home Energy Services

operate a 365 day a year service,

unfortunately, their suppliers and boiler manufacturers

do not necessarily replicate the same opening times.

Even so, they made every endeavour to rectify the situation.

But it was only after the first fault had been fixed

that they were able to identify further ones.

They added that

from around 200,000 appointments every year,

only 1.4% result in a complaint.

But they have now given the family

a goodwill payment for the inconvenience caused

and made improvements to their support systems

to ensure that nothing similar happens again.

But with many of us now signing up for boiler care policies,

personal finance expert Sarah Pennells says,

"You might need to pay close attention

"to make sure that the level of protection

"is exactly what you think."

Boiler insurance can be value for money

as long as you're clear about exactly what you're getting.

What you're not buying is peace of mind.

You're buying cover that will pay out in certain circumstances.

As long as you understand those limits, it can work for you.

All these policies say they've got a 24-hour staffed call centre.

Well, that's fine.

But what they don't say is how quickly you'll be seen.

So look at the small print

and find out how quickly an engineer will get to you.

They'll normally prioritise people who are older

but with some policies, you may have to pay quite a lot extra

to get seen the same day.

But while boiler cover may not always give

quite the service you assume,

Graham still feels that the length of time it took

for his family's problems to be resolved was far too long.

It was just horrendous really.

It was...unbelievable.

Guys that I have a drink with over the road, people in the village,

nobody could believe that we had no hot water and central heating.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain,

a woman who's become something of a superhero to her neighbours

after coming to the rescue of anyone

who's been charged too much for their energy.

Somebody came up to me and said, "Are you the leccy girl?"

And I said, "Well, if you mean I help people out

"with their electricity bills where I can, then, yes."

Every summer we open up our annual pop up shop,

and this time we brought it to one of the biggest shopping centres

in the West Midlands...

..where we had more people than ever before

calling in for help and advice.

So you've now got to think about

bringing a claim in the small claims court

and putting together the evidence that you're going to need

to make that claim.

Our team of experts were on hand, not just for one-to-one advice,

but also running workshops for passing shoppers.

Chances are that your personal information

may well have been exposed to hackers at some point

over the last 18 months.

We also set up our famous gripe corner,

where you couldn't wait to tell us

about the things that annoy you the most.

What really annoys me more than anything is the energy prices.

It seems that they have no consistency.

The biggest rip off for me in Britain is theme parks

as I can't afford to take my daughter to one

as they're too expensive.

I get annoyed with the cost of travelling with buses and trains.

I think it's a rip off.

-Hello, good to see you. Hi. Do take a seat.

-I'm Sarah.

Richard Rice came to see financial expert Sarah Pennells for advice,

after receiving a bill from his energy company

to do with a gas meter that he's never even used.

Everything in the property is electric.

There is a gas meter there.

No gas has ever been used.

In December I was sent a bill.

For what?

I was told it was a standard charge for having a gas meter.

And how much was it

-£5.

-Right.

So I turned around and said to them, "Why?

"I'm not using any gas."

After considering Richard's case,

the energy company agreed to waive the £5 standing charge.

But then its policies changed,

and Richard was shocked to receive a second bill,

this time for a much higher amount, just under £24.

I love this. What do you owe?

£23.91.

Your gas use this winter - zero kilowatt hours.

-In other words you're paying £23 for nothing.

-Correct.

My first step would be to contact the company that you're with

at the moment, and say you're going to switch elsewhere,

you don't see why you should pay this,

you don't think you should,

and you want to switch without paying it

but if they're prepared to not charge you, you'll stay with them,

and see what they say.

The other option is that you look around,

cos there are at least two companies that I know of

that won't charge you if the pipe is capped off and you don't use gas.

That seems just too simple.

THEY LAUGH

I mean, is it that simple, Sarah?

In terms of getting the money back that you've already paid...

-I haven't paid them.

-Right.

I've refused point blank.

Is he going to get into difficulties or problems then

-for having done that?

-Well, what I would say is

you've got two choices about this outstanding money.

The first is to work out whether you want to bite the bullet,

basically pay the £20, or whatever it is,

and know that when you switch,

-you will never have to pay that charge again.

-OK.

Or if you want to say, "Right, it's an unfair charge,

"I'm going to dispute it, and I won't pay,"

all I would say is don't, whatever you do,

ignore the problem

because if they record it as an unpaid debt,

that could really come back and bite you

-for years to come in terms of how it affects your credit rating.

-OK.

-But hopefully we've given you a few options there.

-Yep, you have.

-And you'll go into battle?

-Yes, I will.

THEY LAUGH

If you've ever received a gas or an electricity bill

that's a LOT higher than you were expecting,

then you'll know that sorting out any mistake

that might have been made

is not necessarily going to be straightforward.

Not least because, despite pledging to make things a lot simpler,

the energy companies can still bamboozle us

with all of those figures and confusing tariffs.

So, how wonderful for a group of residents in Liverpool

to have their very own consumer champion

right in their midst,

a neighbour who doesn't just have an eye for numbers,

but who's more than happy to go into battle

on behalf of those who just might need her help.

Sandra Harvey may look pretty unassuming

but appearances can be deceptive.

And for the residents of this block of flats,

Sandra is something of a superhero.

# She's electric... #

I saw her at a tenants meeting.

I was impressed by the way she grasped issues really quickly.

She's the leccy girl, she's everyone's best friend.

And if you need something, ask Sandra.

Meet Leccy Girl.

She has single-handedly slashed some of her neighbours' electricity bills

by up to 50%.

To date, I've managed to save individuals

with their own individual billing getting on for £7,000,

ranging from £165 as the smallest rebate to £3,300 as the largest.

Sandra discovered her super skill quite unexpectedly.

When she and her neighbours were told that their housing association

planned to increase their service charges,

she wanted to find out exactly what they'd be paying more for.

I hunted out all my old service charge sheets,

conferred and contrasted one with the other,

tonnes and tonnes of paperwork,

working out, took me hours, and hours, and hours.

To her surprise, Sandra discovered inaccuracies

in the housing association's accounts for her building.

When the tenants took her findings to a tribunal,

the housing association was told to slash their service charges

and give residents over £77,000 of their money back.

In the two years following that first victory,

Sandra has found her talents have been in high demand from neighbours.

When they feel their bills don't stack up,

they know exactly who to call.

Pru called for Sandra's help

when she received a surprisingly large electricity bill.

Because the readings were so complex,

I didn't even know what time they started switching to night-time,

so I felt totally powerless really with this.

Pru's far from the first person to be bamboozled

by the confusing figures in an electricity bill.

Luckily for her, she had Sandra to come to the rescue.

At first I couldn't make head or tail of Pru's bills.

I looked like a mad scientist

when I was scribbling away with calculations,

"Argh, that's no good!" Throw it away,"

when that eureka moment came and I thought,

I can see what they've done,

they've mixed up the day and the night rates.

When she discovered the source of the problem,

Sandra took her calculations to supplier ScottishPower

on Pru's behalf,

and, in the end, the company apologised,

refunded the overpayment

and compensated Pru for its mistake.

Really thrilled, yeah. I think I...

-Did I buy some flowers for Sandra?

-Yes, you did.

As news of Sandra's success spread,

neighbours started calling her not just by her real name

but by her superhero name.

Somebody came up to me in the streets by the local shops,

and they came up to me and said, "Are you the leccy girl?!"

And I said, "Well, if you mean I help people out

"with their electricity bills where I can, then, yes."

I then started getting other cases in

because I was worried...

I assumed that if this has happened to one person,

it could have well happened to other people on the estate.

Another neighbour, Agnes,

has also received a bill that seems too high.

And, once again, the person to help is Leccy Girl.

I calculated that your bill should have been about £240.

E.ON are saying it's £477.83.

Not a chance on it.

-I can see straight off what they've done...

-Yeah.

They've mixed the rates up.

Sandra's convinced that the day and night rates have been mixed up,

and that Agnes has been overcharged by more than £200.

It completely mixed them up,

so your bill - forget what E.ON says -

it's not... What do they say? ..£477.

Wow.

Bit of a difference.

Another case solved for Leccy Girl,

leaving Agnes to take her findings to her energy supplier.

Leccy Girl is not just for me, she's for everyone.

She's everyone's favourite person.

A survey this year found that three quarters of people

find their energy bills confusing,

and only 40% of us understand the calculation on our bills.

Leccy Girl's advice did help Agnes reduce her electricity bill.

When their mistake was pointed out, E.ON brought the bill down

to a much more affordable £206,

and told us that it's sorry for any inconvenience and worry

that this may have caused.

The company recommends anyone who has concerns

about their energy bill to contact them,

saying, there's often much that they can do to help.

Now, of course Leccy Girl can't sort out all our energy bills,

but she does have advice for those of us

who don't live in her neighbourhood.

Tip number one - learn to love your electricity meter.

Know exactly how it works

so you can confidently and competently

take your own readings.

Once you've learnt how to read your meter properly

and take the readings,

never ever rely on the power companies' estimates.

If a bill turns up, immediately check your meter against their readings

and, if they're out, either underestimated or overestimated,

ring the power company or e-mail them immediately

with the correct readings,

and then they will be sending out an amended bill.

My final tip is,

if you really, really want to understand and know

your electricity consumption,

is buy one of these little gizmos.

What you do is you plug that into a plug socket.

Say you want to test your television, how much that's using in an hour,

switch as much off as possible

that you don't need on, and that will tell you exactly what it's using.

I was horrified to find out that my flat-screen television

was using 400 watts an hour,

whereas my old analogue was only using 30.

That's a bit of a difference.

Sandra's hard work sorting out other people's energy problems

has really paid off...

to the tune of more than £32,000 in refunds and rebates

for her neighbours.

If only every street in Britain was lucky enough

to have its own Leccy Girl!

Most companies you tell us about haven't set out to rip you off,

so when you feel that's what's happened,

it may be that their terms and conditions

just weren't clear enough,

or there's been a genuine mistake

which they've been slow to put right.

Whatever the explanation,

when things go wrong you need to know what to do and where to turn,

so we've put together a guide of tips and advice.

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

Or, for a hard copy

send a stamped A5 self-addressed envelope

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

Next, at a time when we're all paying

higher gas and electricity prices,

the whole idea of bringing your bills down

and making your home more energy efficient sounds pretty appealing,

especially if it means that helping your finances

is helping the planet as well.

That was the thinking behind a big initiative

launched by the government a few years back

but it's one that hasn't exactly been a roaring success.

And on top of that, it now seems it may not be quite as good a deal

as you could be told by the people trying to sign you up.

It's after school art club in the Cassidy household,

and what their grandchildren are drawing is a subject

especially close to Tony and Margaret's hearts -

conserving energy.

Since retiring and spending more time at home,

they've both noticed just how much it takes

to keep their 1930s terraced house warm.

Well, you have to have the heating on fairly full most of the time

which is a basic problem cos it costs a lot of money.

And that's why a call Margaret received right out of the blue

in December 2013 caught her interest.

A recorded message suggested that,

through the government-backed Green Deal,

she could cut her bills and make her home more energy efficient.

An advisor then explained more,

saying that his company could get Margaret and Tony a new boiler

or better insulation for their house

without them having to pay for it up front.

We did need a new boiler probably,

and if we were going to get so much help to get it,

then perhaps it was something I could look into.

One man who knows all about the Green Deal,

and how to make homes more energy efficient

is insulation evangelist Andy Walker.

What do you understand the Green Deal to be?

I understood it to be a process where...

..the householder is helped to insulate their homes,

to keep themselves warmer.

As well as that, to bring energy bills down

and to help with the environment.

The Green Deal is administered through private firms and tradesmen

who carry out assessments on your home,

and then come up with a plan of how to improve its energy efficiency.

They usually charge for that assessment

which is to see if the Green Deal

is something suitable for you, and your home could benefit from it.

In Margaret and Tony's case,

the assessment was £249

but they were told that this upfront cost

would effectively be cancelled out

by the savings they would make later.

So what they were being offered wouldn't just save them money

but, overall, cost them nothing.

"You can't lose money on this deal," he said.

"It's impossible to lose money."

-I see.

-And he must have said that about five or six times

-in the time he was sitting...

-The actual word "impossible"?

-Yes.

-Yes.

The price of the proposed new boiler

would be somewhere between £2,200 and £3,000,

with the cost of that paid back over time

from the savings made through the energy bills.

So far so good.

But when they looked at the paperwork more closely,

things didn't seem quite so impressive.

They would pay the boiler off at no more than £33 a year,

a figure they could easily afford

if their energy bill dropped by a decent amount.

But the company was estimating that they'd save just £34 a year

on their bills. So, in other words,

Margaret and Tony would end up pocketing a measly £1 in savings.

They weren't convinced that the figures stacked up

with the other energy-saving measures the company was recommending

because, although they would be making savings,

they'd be paying off the costs for years.

We'd have to live to 150, I think, to be able to pay for all of it.

In fact, with the size of the repayments, it would take 112 years

to pay off the cost of their Green Deal home improvements.

Even the fittest pensioner

couldn't count on being around for as long as that.

Environmental experts

have claimed that the savings originally estimated

under the Green Deal were a little over ambitious.

For example, when the Green Deal launched,

the government suggested that by using the scheme

to get a new boiler, you could save up to £305 a year.

Critics say the saving would be a less dramatic £70 a year.

But the Department for Energy & Climate Change

disputes such claims, saying that while potential savings

are highly dependent on individual circumstances,

their initial calculations were robust but cautious.

It advises consumers to shop around

to find the best price for their assessment.

And the department pointed out that they've now made changes

to the Green Deal, which they're confident

will make the whole thing both simpler

and more attractive to consumers.

They expect as a result,

that interest in the scheme will increase.

We also contacted the Green Deal provider

which assessed Margaret and Tony's home.

It told us that the estimated savings for their home

came from indicative, average costs and not actual costs,

and that if it had been given the chance to go any further,

the couple would have seen the real savings

they could have gone on to make.

So with the Green Deal clearly not providing the kind of savings

Margaret and Tony would really benefit from,

not to mention them being £249 down

for the assessment they forked out,

signing up to a scheme like this

isn't the only way that you can bring down

what you spend on your energy.

Expert Andy has simple tips that could save us all some cash.

Some of the things that we can do are cheap, if not free,

and behaviour change is a big part of that.

It's HOW we use our houses.

Turning things off we're not using.

Turning down the radiators.

Drawing your curtains.

Insulating your pipes.

These are very simple things.

They only cost a small amount of money

and, yet, can make a very big difference.

So it's time for Andy to see

if he can make the Cassidy's home more energy efficient.

And first, he needs some very willing helpers...

Margaret and Tony's grandchildren.

-I'm Josh.

-I'm Amy. "I'm Summer."

I'm Liam.

Andy's arming the kids with a smoke pen,

to find the drafts where cold air from outside is getting in,

and a thermal gun, to find the spots

where the heat from inside is leaking out.

These two little pieces of kit could help identify the trouble spots

that cause Margaret and Tony's heating to work overtime.

So, while the kids go in search of the hot and cold spots,

Andy gives Tony and Margaret a few radiator rules.

Now, with some radiator foil, very easy to get at your DIY shops,

if we stick that to the wall behind the radiator,

and we can tuck it down,

cut it so that it's just a couple of inches down

below the top of the radiator,

and a couple of inches in from either side,

that will reflect a great proportion of the heat

that would otherwise have gone back and come back into your room.

-Back into the room, yeah.

-Yeah.

Now do that on all your radiators and you'll be losing less heat.

Next it's the kitchen.

So, one of the things that I'd noticed straightaway

is that we've got bare copper pipes here

with only partial insulation on them.

One of the things you'll have to fix as part of this,

which should be also to your advantage,

are these halogen light bulbs.

More than 90% of the energy that goes into a halogen light bulb

-comes out as waste heat.

-Really?

If we swap those for LED light bulbs,

not only do you get a really good light at low energy,

but that means that we can pack insulation directly above it.

-Oh, right.

-So that's two birds with one stone.

Andy's found a series of things that can be improved,

some inexpensive and easy, others more pricey and far bigger jobs.

But Margaret and Tony seem very keen to follow his advice.

What do you think you'll do?

I'll probably do the insulation in this one.

-And the radiator foil?

-Yes.

-Oh, yes, that's a good one.

-Yes.

And doing those in all the rooms in your house would make a difference.

-Hmm.

-Yeah, it certainly would.

It's clear from our stories today that the list of complaints

about energy companies isn't getting any shorter.

They may not treat you as well as you'd like,

perhaps make mistakes with your bills

or just generally charge too much.

And then, of course,

they can sometimes keep you hanging on the telephone

when you really do need to speak to them.

The umbrella body for most of the energy companies,

the big six and the small providers as well,

is called Energy UK.

They've been on this programme before,

in fact, several times.

So, what will they have to say this year?

Lawrence, this is the fifth time I've been here to these offices

to interview for Rip-Off Britain,

and each time you say to me, or your representative says to me,

"Changes don't happen overnight."

The reality is that those changes have not happened.

Since we last spoke actually,

there have been a tremendous amount of change.

Things we're making happen faster are things like faster switching,

so we're making it easier for people to change companies.

We've also introduced clearer, simpler bills

so people can get a better understanding

of how they're using electricity and gas.

And we've also reduced substantially

the number of tariffs,

the whole point being to make it easier for our customers,

and to actually make sure that they're on the best tariff

for their personal circumstances.

Now that's a very good spiel from your point of view

but the reality is that there are many instances

where the customer service is just atrocious.

And we've done it in our office. We've carried out our own survey,

and we've been sitting there 40-45 minutes before you get to a person.

If you have a problem with your bill,

if you've got to sit on 40-45 minutes,

you're frustrated by the time you actually get a person.

I agree, and look,

all I can say is

we haven't performed as well as we would want to.

There are instances where companies are turning the boat round,

if you will, where, actually, wait times and volumes are falling.

The past few months have been particularly busy

for the energy companies.

Not only were they all forced by the government

to reduce the number of tariffs they each offer to just four,

but, in June 2014, the energy regulator Ofgem

referred the whole industry for an investigation

by the Competition And Markets Authority

over whether it really performs

in the interests of you and me, the consumers.

There is going to be elements we agree and elements we disagree

but I think, overall, the most important thing is

that the industry welcomes this because we want to get trust back.

I think what's really frustrating is you watch on the telly

and you see that the energy companies

are making enormous profits

and, yet, consumers look at their bills,

and their bills are going up and up. It's very hard to take.

Well, I think we need to base these conversations around fact,

and actually look at the actual numbers that companies are making.

If you look at their accounts for last year, so 2013,

on average it was around £45 per household.

That's the margin before interest and before tax.

-What, that you make?

-That the company makes on average, yeah, yeah.

So these aren't vast numbers.

We also are investing that money back,

and introducing new systems,

and helping the country move to a new, low-carbon future.

You're a very nice man and we've liked talking to you,

but can you guarantee our viewers that you will act a bit faster

and not just talk about it?

We are pushing all the companies as hard as we can,

I'm happy to make that statement.

And we want to solve these problems.

Here at Rip-Off Britain

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

Confused over your bills?

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.

I think it's true to say that the cost of heating

and powering our homes

is something on which almost everyone has an opinion.

And it's certainly something that we'd like to hear about from you

because very soon were going to be having a special week

of live editions of Rip-Off Britain.

It's certainly a chance for all of us to bring you up to speed

on the most topical of consumer situations.

You can find out how to do that and get more information

on some of today's stories

at our website, that's bbc.co.uk/ripoffbritain.

You'll also find on the website full details

of ways that you can get involved in some of those live programmes

that Angela was talking about.

They're coming up very soon.

And, who knows, perhaps you might even take part on the day.

But, for now, I'm afraid that's all we've got the time for,

so from all of us on the Rip-Off Britain team,

thanks for watching, and we'll see you very soon.

-Bye-bye. ALL:

-Bye.