This was the prices RED pasted onto my contract …
then 2 weeks later they send me an email with a brief mention of a variation in the quoted prices - up to 60% higher once you scroll to the bottom of the email and open the pdf file containing the rates !
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Should be posted under Scams.
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Welcome to the Choice Community Arbee 
Having the initial peak rate the same as off-peak, and balance of peak even less that off-peak would ring alarm bells, I’d suspect a misprint or something dodgy.
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I was with Red for many years (left because their solar tariffs were almost insulting compared to the better offers) but found them to be above board although not as good with paperwork as they should have been.
I complained about implied bad behaviour in that every year the ordering of xGST and inclGST columns seemed to reverse. Someone just looking at last years and this years would not always notice if they compared last years inclGST with this years xGST (a small hit); in the other year they would be seeing this years inclGST and last years xGST (a large hit) and usually have a closer look.
Other than slight of hand in that regard I could not think of any reason they would do that. It was all clearly labelled, but.
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Looks like you were one of the few lucky ones.
Their Product Review listing says it all.
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Maybe because they are still trying to break into the Queensland Market - but in 3 years I haven’t had a problem with them.
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While I regularly look at productreview it is a truth that such sites attract unhappy consumers far more readily than happy ones, and those griping at businesses seem especially eager to ‘warn others’ regardless of the merits or lack thereof.
I filter by looking at reviews looking for commonalities rather than individual gripes. While my older experiences with their CSOs was nothing but excellent there are many commonalities in the Red reviews of recent times, suggesting they have a lapse of leadership while putting their people under pressure to bring in and keep revenue however they can. It seems a reversion to the Aussie businesses of old where we must all be clueless mushrooms who will just take whatever.
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I was shocked at the bait and switch tactics …they had a huge red Tesla parked in the middle of Broadway shopping centre and a cadre of personable sales people - Canstar Reviews were impressive but the clincher was the lower rates they were offering - the real insult was the way the variation advice was buried in a PDF file at the very bottom of a welcome email sent the day before Xmas … shonky as !
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I was tempted for a minute (because they are Aussie) but when I compared their rates (off peak is completely useless to those of us who are home all day, and use most of their electricity in peak times) and found that the rates I have with Energy Australia are lower than most others.
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Hi there,
I would like to have comments on Red Energy electricity provider.
Thank you
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Welcome @honest
I have moved your post into this existing thread on Red Energy. Hopefully reading the above posts might answer some of your questions. If you further search the site for Red Energy, they have popped up in a few topics and reading those may also further help you.
Please note the topic heading here does not infer they are Cons, it was a question on whether they had done so or not.
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Yet Choice review gives them a quite reasonable rating, including 97% complaints score. https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/shopping-for-services/utilities/articles/red-energy
Something does not compute here!
Welcome to the Community @JeffH
Productreview is comprised of anecdotal ‘reviews’ that vary widely in ‘what and why’. Disgruntled or unhappy customers are far more likely to post than happy ones, unless there is ‘something else’ going on.
Choice reviews are based on member surveys.
The datasets are different with one a random and unfiltered unverified set of opinions and the other more focused and managed in as scientific a way as can be done for the purpose.
FWIW I was a Red customer for a decade and never had a worry about them until insulted by their solar pricing in 2019, but their customer service was always attentive when I rang to seek better rates and I never had a billing error. Over time they seemed to have become increasingly less competitive and as far as service what I experienced up to 2019 may have no bearing on what others experienced since 2019. Choice surveys try to capture that even if imperfectly.
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