Thanks I’ve sent an email seeking assistance. I like the idea of the service and I think it can work. Currently it doesn’t work for me. They could look at closing to new customers until they have capacity to cope with the load.
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Spot on @Dees11
The continuing excuse I see is that Bill Hero is a small operation, and it seems they have little capacity to service existing paying customers, let alone an influx of new customers.
Choice should stop taking commissions for sending people to Bill Hero, and simply mention them as one of the available comparison sites run by both private and Gov.
Bill Hero is a good idea, but it seems a poor business as it currently operates.
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Which ever way any of us might choose to go including self help, it’s a very confused market place. It’s further complicated by rapidly changing circumstances for supply. Add to that a market, industry and supply regulation system which involves multiple bodies (AEMO, AEMC, AER-ACCC, state and federal ministers, QCA-QLD) and variations between and within states/territories.
It’s understandable many consumers would prefer to go to a third party, truely independent, who knows with intimate detail all of the retailers, plans and offers for every consumer/user need.
I have previously contacted Choice Customer Service with a complaint about Bill Hero.
By way of background, I am a retired engineer and have been quite active getting good electricity rates myself in the past, so don’t think I was paying much “lazy tax”.
After reading a recent Choice article I decided to try Bill Hero – within 2 hours my credit card was charged and I received an email with a link to results claiming an annual saving of $147
On proceeding I noticed my results were very similar to the government website “Energy Made Easy”
I found at least my 3 cheapest options did not have access to the Bill Hero promised switching service – I had to do the hard yards. On further investigation I found several issues with the providers highest on the Bill Hero list - I could not find the rates claimed by Bill Hero and there seemed a fair bit of confusion which I was not able to clarify re plans and rate structures.
So I sent several further emails seeking clarification from Bill Hero – and eventually I received a reply responding in part to my earlier query, but not providing sufficient detail to enable me to proceed with the switch. As a result I replied to Bill Hero with a further clarification request – three months and a few emails later I’m still waiting.
I have several concerns as follows
- Bill Hero seems to have a slick sales function designed to address membership enquiries and then to bill you with results which to me look entirely like those publicly available from “Energy Made Easy”
- I have found several providers do not allow the Bill Hero claim of “We will do the switching” which falls back to the account holder which we know can be a time consuming and confusing process
- Bill Hero service once you have paid up but have additional enquiries is poor at best, and in my case almost non-existent
I thought I should raise these issues with Choice so that you can find out what exactly Bill Hero is doing. Perhaps one option is to upgrade the money back guarantee – giving the consumer more choices if Bill Hero cannot perform the switch.
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Is it so for a consumer looking for the best deal? The consumer is not concerned about AEMO, AEMC, AER-CCC just their own bottom line and sometimes whether there is green energy and how much.
I don’t need to know the intimate details of the retailers nor their business models. They are middle men who buy on the left hand and sell on the right and add a markup for their smiling faces and billing services.
It should not be that involved, nor is it, in my opinion. I compare the offers per kwh and the fine print whether they can randomly change the rates, surcharges, and so on, and press the ‘join me up’ online or by a phone call as applicable.
The following paragraph has been edited to correct the pricing reference.
@BrendanMays seems to imply Choice remains happy to endorse Bill Hero even considering its operational pains and even when there is a government site doing the same or similar footwork to identify best deals for consumers for those willingly paying the $49 or 79 for the [successful] service rendered. For that it seems reasonable to expect someone to be on the other end of the ‘phone’ in a reasonable time, which posts suggest does not happen.
He has also encouraged unhappy Bill Hero customers to engage via Choice. Is that a service subscribers should be underwriting on what might (or might not) be a routine basis?
How many Bill Hero customers are happy with the service? If the posts here are say a few percent it would be anomalous. If their experience is pervasive another conclusion could be made.
I’ll second that if the posts here are reflective of the norm or even of a substantial minority.
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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.
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Hi. I have been a Choice member for some time. After reading an article they wrote about electricity bills etc, and following their advice and recommendations, I joined BillHero in April 2022. Since my receipt, I have received NO service. I have today contacted them to ask What The?. But, really? Not Happy, Choice. Why trust your service?
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Welcome to the Community @narayansmate,
I merged your topic into this existing one where others have expressed similar dismay about Bill Hero. Note Choice reply just prior to your post.
I very much dislike this comment “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.”. I paid so someone would do it for me. NO response other than a receipt is not what I would call having someone else do it for me. And, to me, it is misleading for any consumer who reads that article.
Hi Gavin,
Sorry to hear you have been having some trouble, we’re happy to assist you with your complaint. We might need to get some further details from you regarding what’s been happening since you signed up in April, we appreciate this might involve some private details so please get in touch via DM or email community@choice.com.au.
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Hi @JBNA1975, are you still with the BillHero or no longer ?
I’m curious to know if the Billhero service is actually working or not working as it should despite paying some fees 
Hi - I’m happy to provide further details as required - just let me know your requirements
I’m still with Bill Hero (reluctantly) - they have not responded to numerous emails, and in my case their recommendations seem pretty useless
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I have also been disappointed by Bill Hero, after following what to all intents and purposes looked to be a recommendation from Choice, regardless of how you want to word it. I’ve not had responses to my emails either, and the initial recommendation I attempted to follow through on didn’t work out due to the supplier not taking new customers (as far as I could ascertain).
After contacting Choice member services I did receive a phone call from Bill Hero, however as it was from a number I didn’t know I didn’t answer (due to out of control spam calls I receive these days!) and wasn’t able to get back in touch.
I’ve cancelled the renewal and requested a refund, but at this point I’m basically chalking this up as a disappointing learning experience and attempting to make sure that no-one else also has to have the same experience and loss of money!
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I wish I had found this thread before I signed up, have tried emails and phonecalls with no reply. Had to book a phone conference call, a week away! Shame on Choice for promoting this mess.
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I don’t understand either why choice is so protective of bill hero.
I have been with them for over a year. All energy bills go to them direct at clientname@billhero.com.au as an example. Auto-forwarded to you. Bills are checked as if the saving is over your pain threshold you get links to a handful of cheaper options. Easy especially if you don’t minds changing as current providers very soon lose their competiveness.
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I am a long time subscriber to Choice who have recommended Bill Hero as a company? /organisation? to manage electricity and gas accounts to get the best savings. I find it very concerning that they only have online contact and no direct phone number. I had questions about how they manage security from hackers and other questions about the privacy of my details. It leaves me VERY uncertain about Bill Hero
