I really question Choice’s decision to partner with Bill Hero, based on two problems I’ve experienced as a new sign-on:
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Their electricity comparison ignored the fact that I’m on 100% Green Power with my existing provider, which meant the apparent savings they claimed to have identified were unrealistically inflated, as was the range of alternative providers available for switching to.
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Their customer service is really poor. There’s no telephone or other human-facing customer service. The only mechanism is to leave an online message, where there’s a statement they’ll get back within a few hours. In fact, there’s been no response after two days. The previous explanation from months ago is that they’ve been affected by Covid. That’s not good enough – if they really do have problems, they should set realistic expectations on their website or at least on an auto-reply email.
As it turned out, I’ve stayed with my existing electricity provider since there were various things I didn’t like (Chinese ownership, poor green credentials etc.) about the restricted list of alternatives filtered for 100% Green Power I had to manually create. Bill Hero has saved me some money on gas by pointing me towards a cheaper plan from my existing provider, but the saving is less than the $79 upfront I paid them, and there’s no option for try before you buy or a cooling-off period.
In light of all these issues, I’ve cancelled my account with Bill Hero, and will be using the free government comparison websites in future. It hasn’t been a pleasant experience and I don’t understand why Choice is endorsing them.
