Energy companies’ hurdles prevent thousands of consumers from jumping on the cheap gas price

“The operator told me it would take between a week and ten days to send a communication via email, but since then i have no idea” he assures. He began to think about the energy movement in August. Couldn’t get them to pick up the phone. In October, he thought seriously, after confirming in a simulation that it would go “from around 70-odd euros to 42-43 euros in last month’s consumption”. Called 4th, 13th, 14th, 15th and nothing happened. Almost two hours of unanswered wait in total. On the 19th, it took five minutes for them to reply, “To be honest, the operator had very limited knowledge of service-related issues. I asked if I should send the meter reading face-to-face or have no idea.”

In the industry, they admit that this is “daily bread”. The sudden increase in gas prices and fears that the cost will increase further in winter due to supply cuts from Russia are causing a “flood” of demand for the transition to the regulated tariff. Last year, when the value of gas in the wholesale market was multiplied by six, about 4,800 Galicians left the free market to ease the receipt, 25% more than the previous yearAccording to the latest data from the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). Despite this, the majority of customers who opted for direct quotes from marketers in the community: 5,300 did the opposite by switching from regulated to free, and 27,800 changed companies before they left the free market.

Naturgy is the leader in Galicia in terms of number of customers. As reflected in the latest analysis by CNMC’s autonomous communities, it exceeded 220,000 in 2019, 77% of total supply points (291,000). “The company is using all means to participate in the strong increase in the number of customers’ requests for transfers to the TUR rate,” sources from Naturgy in Galicia say. your TUR (Natural Gas and Energy) marketer and “increased the number of agents to answer calls over the phone channel.”

Endesa, the second main operator in the community, did not elaborate at the time of evolution in the regulated rate marketer (21. Energy); and Iberdrola announced yesterday that, spherenergyIt has accumulated more than 60% increase in requests from 111,000 TOUR contracts at the end of September to 180,000 in the last few days.

The energy giant, led by Ignacio Sánchez Galán, has been collecting data in the last hours to try to soften the lead character debate after discovering the internet manipulation of the Curenergía address to hide it in user searches. Lawyer Samuel Parra, consumer rights and data protection expertHe explained on Twitter that Iberdrola’s last resort rate marketer had added a “noindex” tag to his website’s source code, “so it disappeared from Google searches.”

“And why don’t they want consumers to find Curenergía? Because while the price of Iberdrola gas was 0.185 Euros per kilowatt hour (kWh), it is now 0.069 Euros in Curenergía, almost three times cheaper”, condemned Parra. The aforementioned remained silent. Briefly, without mentioning Iberdrola, the Ministry of Ecological Transformation insisted on companies’ “obligation” to offer their customers “simple and affordable access, with or without barriers and total cost, regardless of the rate at which they wish to contract transparency”. The team, led by Teresa Ribera, also reiterated that CNMC is “already investigating whether accessibility and transparency are guaranteed by marketers” in the face of numerous complaints about phone service in recent weeks to formalize the change. “This Ministry – highlighted in the note – will continue to pass on necessary information to the CNMC to facilitate the investigation in question”.

Ribera told Congress yesterday that Secretary of State for Energy Sara Aagesen held a morning meeting with the people in charge of CNMC, who recently opened a case on the industry due to potential obstacles to blocking change. “I understand that they must be overwhelmed right now. I dare not say whether they are responsible or not. I believe that their clients should make an effort to fulfill what they want from them.” The Curenergía website reappeared on search engines yesterday. Internet.