Changing electricity suppliers

**Beemer** · 24th January 2007, 09:36

We're currently with Meridian, no real problems and we're on the low user option so our bills are pretty low. However, I did a check with Consumer's powerswitch calculator yesterday and discovered if we changed to Genesis, we could save $140 a year. Now that is not an insignificant sum, so we're seriously considering it, but in the last Consumer survey of power suppliers, they only scored 61% in the customer satisfaction rating.

Are any of you with Genesis or have been in the past? If so, how did you find them? For $140, as long as they are reasonable to deal with, I'm happy to change, but I'd like a few opinions first.

**oldrider** · 24th January 2007, 10:08

Originally Posted by Beemer

We're currently with Meridian, no real problems and we're on the low user option so our bills are pretty low. However, I did a check with Consumer's powerswitch calculator yesterday and discovered if we changed to Genesis, we could save $140 a year. Now that is not an insignificant sum, so we're seriously considering it, but in the last Consumer survey of power suppliers, they only scored 61% in the customer satisfaction rating.

Are any of you with Genesis or have been in the past? If so, how did you find them? For $140, as long as they are reasonable to deal with, I'm happy to change, but I'd like a few opinions first.

Watch out for hedged rates and peak prices it can get expensive when the peak price goes sky high during shortages! Cheers John.

**Beemer** · 24th January 2007, 10:22

Originally Posted by oldrider

Watch out for hedged rates and peak prices it can get expensive when the peak price goes sky high during shortages! Cheers John.

As mentioned, we are on the low user rate so our daily rate - which is often the biggest component of the bill - is just 37.50 cents per day. Genesis' unit rates are 18.41 for the anytime and 14.11 for the controlled, whereas Meridan has just increased their rates to 22.04 and 15.64 respectively. We have a wet back on the fire so our hot water heating component of the bill is very low in winter.

Anyone out there use Genesis and has some good or bad stories to tell?

**GR81** · 24th January 2007, 10:41

genesis seems to work for me.

**merv** · 24th January 2007, 11:00

We're on Genesis like most of Porirua - Hutt Valley area as they picked up the old Trans Alta customers a few years back. I have no hassles with them and would say I like them as a company. As for the bills, power/gas seems damned expensive these days anyway.

In my previous working life Genesis came to the party when Trustpower wouldn't when our contract ran out and NZ was having that power crisis back in 2001. I was grateful to them - their corporate hospitality was good too which you as a customer can help fund.

**Beemer** · 24th January 2007, 11:06

Thanks Merv and GR81, sounds like switching may be a goer then! We have never had any problems with electricity suppliers - but then we pay our bills by direct debit, have never missed any payments and have an accessible meter and no dogs!

We were with Contact Energy when we lived in town but their daily charges were over $1 and we had to pay about $25 a month whether we used the gas or not. We currently use between 4000 and 6000 units a year so we're well within the low user bracket.

**Flyingpony** · 24th January 2007, 12:06

It can take a few weeks or months for the switch over to take place. By now you've forgotten you made a request in the first place and thought, they lost the paper work.

Then suddenly you get a bill from Meridian for $1.40 and wonder :spudwhat:

Then two or three months passes without a bill but the power hasn't been disconnected. Then suddenly

the Genesis bill arrives.

They don't tell you when you're being switched etc. But maybe they've picked up their ball since my experience in Auckland back in 2000 :spudwhat:

**Beemer** · 24th January 2007, 12:34

They have changed the processes so when you switch it happens much faster - they legally have to switch you within a set time limit now. Our bills are usually only about $60-$80 so even if we didn't get billed for a couple of months, it wouldn't be one of those $600 power bills anyway!

**merv** · 24th January 2007, 12:38

How on earth do you live so cheaply? - my power/gas bill per month is normally over $200 and that's with compact fluoros having replaced all the upstairs downlights.

**Beemer** · 24th January 2007, 12:59

House is only six or seven years old and is brick, has good insulation and well-fitted aluminium windows. Slate floors in the kitchen and dining room hold the heat, we're on a ridge so we get all-day sun. We have a log burner that heats the water in winter (which is when our power bills are just $50 or so!) and I rarely use the clothes dryer. I have an electric heater in the study but otherwise don't use any heating during the day. We both have at least one shower each a day, and we hardly ever use the bath as it's a big triangular spa bath (we hate it) and it takes too long to fill. We don't have kids, so the lights aren't on in every room and when I cook, it makes enough for two meals so it therefore saves on power. Biggest part is the daily charge - if we had to pay $1 a day, our bills would be at least another $20 per month. We only have electricity so we're not paying two daily charges either.

We're very lucky because our house is so warm that apart from the heater in my study in winter, we don't even have to light the fire until the sun goes down as the house remains warm unless it's a really cold cloudy day. Oh, and we're the types to put on extra clothing rather than turn the heater on!

**k14** · 24th January 2007, 13:10

Yeah make the change, it will be worth it. At my flat we changed to Contact about a month ago and the process was sweet as. A 10 min or so phone call and it was all taken care of. Two weeks later Trustpower (rip off merchants) sent us the final bill and then a few weeks later we got the first Contact bill. Very painless indeed.

**Steam** · 24th January 2007, 13:23

I used to work for Contact Energy in the Call Centre, and for a small fee i can tell you how to avoid paying power bills entirely. Note; Takes organisation and willingness to commit fraud.

**Beemer** · 24th January 2007, 13:23

I'm just waiting to hear if they charge a bond as that would negate the benefits of changing. I doubt they will as we have always paid our bills on time and own our own home.

I used to work for Contact and didn't want to be with them when we moved out here as I didn't want the nosey cows in the call centre accessing my account details! Plus they were one of the dearest around Levin - in fact they don't even feature on the same page as the cheapest options given when I looked at switching.

**Jantar** · 24th January 2007, 13:45

Originally Posted by Beemer

However, I did a check with Consumer's powerswitch calculator yesterday and discovered if we changed to Genesis, we could save $140 a year.

Don't always believe the Consumer information, When we switched from TrustPower to Meridian, the powerswitch calculator indicated that Meridian would be only slightly dearer. Once the Meridian bills started arriving we were pleasantly suprised to find that total payment to Meridian was almost a third cheaper than Trustpower.

The reason that we switched wasn't because of price, it was because everytime I called TrustPower to ask anything they lied to me. I changed to a company that I could Trust.

I believe that in the North Island Contact, Genisis, Mighty River and Meridian are all about equal. In the South Island its close between Contact and Meridian.