I’d like to further address the concerns being raised here, but I want to make it very clear that we do not want take away from anyone who wasn’t satisfied with their Bill Hero experience and the importance of that feedback. Our primary role is always to support you as consumers and we view the feedback we receive very seriously, as we do for all of our recommendations.
To put this in context, CHOICE recommends a large number of products, services and brands across a wide range of categories. Our recommendations can change based on feedback, due to product/service changes, test results and other factors unique to each area. Sometimes we see products improve, other times we tell people to avoid certain things. In either case, we expect we will receive a number of strongly worded complaints directed towards CHOICE as even with consensus or evidence-based reasoning, there is never unilateral agreement at large scale. There’s a broader discussion on recommendations at CHOICE here.
What’s important is that a process of continual assessment occurs encompassing many different touchpoints, from feedback to test results and consumer surveys - lot’s of different channels of information. Generally speaking, It’s not that we don’t hear or understand the frustration of a negative experience at an individual level, but rather we think it’s reasonable to consider all the information when formulating our advice or position. Part of this is considering potential broad level benefits or detriments too.
For example the energy market, for those who live in a deregulated zone, has long been identified as confusing and an area where people can struggle to find best deal. As part of our research in this in area, we also confirmed a lot of people were either apathetic or unable to regularly review their energy provider due to time or other challenges.
To address this, in the past we created our own energy switching service: Transformer. This was an extremely technically ambitious project for CHOICE, something that gave us unique insight into the challenges of energy markets, switching (and switching services), but also showed the huge potential for consumers to save money. For those who signed up, we collectively saved people $1.8 million in real terms - a huge win for consumers. So while we understand that people have different perceptions of savings and value, we also consider the real world data and whether a product/service is providing a tangible benefit for enough people when we go about recommending things or not.
There were challenges with Transformer as well, dealing with third party energy suppliers is time consuming and building complex systems that everyone can access and use is tricky. Ultimately we decided to close down the service. However, we still frequently hear that people have trouble with the energy market in terms of confusion and price, and it is our understanding that these costs are forecast to continue rising sharply.
It was on the basis of our understanding of switching services, the current market state, the potential value for consumers and the volume of people coming to CHOICE for advice in this area that we are engaged in a partnership with Bill Hero. However, as I’ve said above, this is not a blanket endorsement of Bill Hero for every person under all circumstances nor is it a claim that any product or service is beyond improvement. Rather, our current assessment indicates a significant benefit for people is available under certain conditions, and reasonable protections for those who don’t meet the conditions.
We felt this point was reasonably clear in plainer speak on our article on energy switching, but I can see based on the comments here we may need to review this. For the record, on the same page we talk about Bill Hero, there is a state-based guide for people who would prefer to do their own energy switching. The article begins, “Do it yourself, or have someone do it for you – finding the best energy provider doesn’t have to be a hassle” and this shapes the advice and messaging that appears throughout. There are a number of supplementary articles on energy issues too. We’re happy to hear suggestions on how we can improve this resource to make these points clearer.
To clarify some further points specifically about Bill Hero, we understand the customer service concerns raised here and of course we agree, nobody wants to have a poor service experience. While there’s no excuse, we consider that generally across the board we continue to see supply-chain problems and, even as of today, issues across industries caused by staff shortages (due to COVID and non-COVID illness). From the conversations I have each day, I’m sure many of us will have encountered this personally (or heard about it through friends and family), and perhaps even from the other side within their own workplaces. It’s not an attempt to downplay the issue, but we are trying to approach this reasonably wherever it occurs while we recover from a major global incident. As indicated above, we also balance this with continual input including the positive feedback we receive - in other words, we are monitoring and assessing change.
The price to sign up to Bill Hero isn’t $100, it is currently $49 for electricity and $79 for electricity + gas. This price level factors in to our value assessment too. There is a minimum savings guarantee for that sign up cost ($100 or $150 for both), which is based on calculations of previous energy bills. We consider this guarantee and the conduct we’ve seen towards providing refunds when requested is a reasonable safeguard for consumers to either try to achieve value or have their money returned (surely a win-win), and therefore we continue to partner with Bill Hero as one option to lower energy bills. However, it is up to each person to decide whether it’s worthwhile for their individual situation, whether the price is right, whether you are happy with the amount of technical information you receive and so on. We can’t stress this enough - do your own research and then decide based on the best option for your situation.
The offer is that Bill Hero “automatically monitors every bill for you, and calculates what each bill would cost under every other plan in the market, so you’ll always know if you’re on a good deal.” Just be aware - this will still require some input from you. For example, you will need to provide some previous billing history, there is an Explicit Informed Consent requirement to switch your provider etc. Although in many cases switching is relatively low input, in some cases, the switching process requires you to go through a sign up process or provide more info depending on the supplier. This information is available in detail on the Bill Hero site, so read it carefully before deciding whether it is worthwhile or not for you.
Everyday, people contact CHOICE for personal assistance with a vast array of consumer issues, from faulty products to safety issues to refunds (just be aware we do not provide individual representation, such a lawyer will perform). Generally, CHOICE members have told us in the past that they see this as an altruistic benefit of membership and a core function of the organisation rather than as something they wouldn’t want their membership to fund, but that is a bigger question - memberships costs, value and funding can be discussed here. For the purpose of Bill Hero and this thread, the offer remains the same - reach out to me directly, or request help in this thread and we will assist in any way possible including via our partnership if an issue occurs.
Please also keep adding your feedback - good or bad - so that we can continue to assess our advice and make sure that we are offering the best available solutions to energy problems.
