I do understand your concerns Cooky and I've passed your comments on to the manager of the department concerned.

Although you're unable to access the 'Switch Now' page when you log in to your account, you can still see the tariffs generally available in your area on the main website.

To do this, please select 'Products & Services' from the top of the page. On the left hand menu, select 'Prices & Discounts' and pop your Post Code into the box provided. Click 'select' and all the tariffs will be listed.

Alternatively, pop your annual usage in kWh on to one of the independent comparison sites. This will list all the tariffs generally available both with us and the other suppliers.

Sorry this is not ideal but hope it helps a little.

This is all very well but when the new tariffs come into force this month I want to be able to look at all the options available and work out the quarterly/annual cost each tariff will cost. At prersent Your website won't allow me and I have no intention of sitting on the phone for half an hour talking to a representitive and writing down EVERYTHING that is shown to those that can see the options on the website.

Looking back, I had no intervention when I signed up to the Age UK tariff, no-one contacted me to see if I was making the correct decision then to sign up, but as soon as I want to move away then blocks are put in place. By all means have a service that flags up when someone on this tariff wants to move and you then make contact but blocking them from even seeing what tariffs is available is disgusting and with this I SHALL be making a complaint to the ombudsman.

Hi Cooky

Sorry for the late reply. Not been around much recently.

I'm also really sorry we've offended you but please be assured this was certainly not the intention. If I may just explain the reasoning behind the message on our website about Age UK tariffs.

Age UK tariffs tend to be taken up mainly by our more vulnerable or senior customers. To make sure we offer these customers our full range of products, it was agreed with Age UK that we would provide a contact phone number rather than just letting them switch tariff without full knowledge of their options.

We do have other products available, such as Staywarm or our social tariffs, aimed exclusively at vulnerable customers or those later in life. Because these tariffs have restricted availability due to specific eligibility criteria, they're not available through the website.

A customer may be better off on one of these tariffs. Therefore, we wanted the opportunity to explore these options with the customer before they moved to an alternative E.ON tariff. In this way, we can be sure they're provided with all the right information to make an informed decision based on their individual needs.

Additionally, we also like to remind people of the benefits of the Age UK tariff.

Cooky, I'm sure you're more than capable of choosing the right tariff for your mother but, I'm afraid, our system isn't clever enough to recognise this. Consequently, we've adopted a 'one size fits all' solution by providing the Age UK customer service free phone number to allow us to identify a potential vulnerable customer and discuss their individual needs.

The discussion allows us to make sure people are aware of other services we provide to try and help our more elderly or vulnerable customers. This includes offers we have available from time to time like free loft and cavity wall insulation.

We can also give energy efficiency advice to help people reduce their ongoing usage and so save money.

In no way do we consider pensioners to be incapable. On the contrary, our actions are just a recognition that the tariffs available through the website don't include all those they may benefit from. The message is an attempt to address this.

Please accept my sincere apologies for any offence caused but I hope the above explains our genuine attempt to try to give a better service to our more vulnerable customers.

Malc

Hasn't it always been the same. Until you give up being a consumer and start doing everything for yourself e.g a bit like the Good Life, you will treated as a revenue stream.

I think much of the behaviour of companies these days should be subject to more regulation by the OFT. Companies should not be able to offer special deals to new customers, unless they also offer the same to existing customers. So for example, if say SKY TV wanted to offer 3 months free, they would have to offer the equivalent to existing customers.

The other aspect which is not always fair are the contractual terms that apply e.g the various fees, including cancellation.

Yes as consumers we have choice and can read the contract terms before buying, but not many consumers will spend a few hours reading all the t&c's before making a decision.

Can you not use this site here> http://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/

or

USwitch here> http://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/ppc-rev/cheapest-energy-prices-content/

That would be nice but not an option. If they won't let you view the tariffs online they're not going to send the literature in the post, what's the difference? They seem to think if your elderly your uncapable to arrange this yourself.

They offered to tell me what was the best tariff for me, ME I, want to work that out for myself, I want to sit with ALL the information in front of me so I can determint which one I want.

I don't want to spend an hour or two on the phone writing down every tarif with all the different rates and clauses and options

Ok so the tariff info is not online, but surely they can post it to you, as they must have the rates written down somewhere.

I'm a 50 year old who has moved in with his mother to care for her as she suffers from Alzheimer's. Last November I used the E-ON online comparison charts to go through ALL the tariffs and work out what the quarterly costs would be for my mothers home, eventually picking the Age UK tariff.

Now after all the price rises and reductions I thought I'd go through them again and see if we were still on the best tariff,

What do you know. E-ON won't allow me to go back online to compare the tariffs anymore. After being shut out of the comparison site I contacted them and was told that I had to discuss it with them in case I got confused or made a monumental error trying to pick a new tariff, FOR CHRIST SAKE I PICKED AND MOVED OVER TO THE AGE UK TARIFF WITHOUT ANY HELP WHY WON'T THEY LET ME SEE THE TARIFFS TO MOVE AROUND.

They obviously think pensioners (of which I'm not) are incapable of conducting their own affairs or is it a ploy to keep them so confused that they'll give up trying to find the information.

For god's sake, they do everything they can to get you to do everything online and when you do....they stop you.

After contacting them they say this ploy is an agreement between E-ON and Age UK and was sorry I was not informed about this when transferring my tariff and yes, it isn't mentioned on their website so customers will only find out when they try to transfer, and yes they will be looking into this (I don't think so).

So I'm now looking on independant tariff comparison websites where with a click of the button I will be away from E-ON as fast as possible.