Cheaper plans released by AGL

[Rowdy1961]

I receive so many marketing emails from and other contacts from AGL but never anything about AGL releasing cheaper electricity plans. Why? I have had to change my plan 3 times in 12 months only after I contacted AGL. Why are we not being notified when new plans are released ?

The recent change was the seniors saver plan I was on. The plan had not changed only the rates had dropped but I had to ask AGL for the cheaper rate to be applied.

Is there a reason why AGL doesn't notify customers or simply provided best rate to its customers?

This is so wrong and very questionable of this practice is legit

[Xander-AGL]

Hi @Rowdy1961, thank you for reaching out.

I can certainly understand your perspective, as a consumer myself, but if you look carefully at your invoices and updates from us, we will regularly check and advise if you could save by being on another plan.

Alternatively, if you wait for the end of you plan period (normally 12 months) we will send you advice approximately one month before it is due to end to advise you of the new plan that will automatically take over, or to contact us to see what the current best offer has become.

Kind regards,

Xander

[Rowdy1961]

Thankyou and this is not a reflection towards you

But I find such a response very unacceptable. Such action <> by
AGL is taking advantage of your customers. Both the Federal Government and
the regulator are considering making it compulsory for energy retailers to
automatically place customers to their cheapest plan.

Having to review plans, Bills every month simply should not be required.

As I mentioned I changed my plan 3 times in 12 months which I find totally
unreasonable, a waste of my time. and cost me during the months before I
discovered the cheaper plan.

This shouldn't be necessary and I would expect many of your customers have
automatic payments set up and would hardly read a bill. My mother-in-law is
with AGL and cannot read her bill as she is legally blind.

For a company to charge their existing customers higher then their cheapest
rate is unreasonable and highly questionable. It seems appropriate for the
Federal Government to move and hold Electricity Company's to account,
similar to the Supermarket investigation into price gouging. This is Price
Gouging by definition.

Regards

[jaskol]

I agree with the OP - the way you are conducting yourselves regarding cheaper plans is really bad. While checking for cheaper rates I got a call from Alinta and they beat your rates by a bit... not too much but enough for me to consider switching. Before switching I did what I thought was the right thing and called AGL, said I was going to switch unless you beat Alinta's rates and your rep said there was nothing that was cheaper than Alinta's prices. I switched. Now, after switching, your company is calling me a lot (twice today) and you MAGICALLY have super duper cheaper rates that just can't be beat... all after I spent my valuable time creating a verbal contract and answering questions with Alinta's reps on the phone to switch companies. Very poor form and bad service. You should have given me an awesome deal when I gave you the chance before switching. I don't care if every energy company does this, I was your customer and you should have treated me better. In the Financial Review it states that "AGL's core net profit in 2023-24 should jump to between $580 million and $780 million". I'm happy I'm not contributing to your profits. I am now encouraging everyone I know to contact Alinta and see if their prices are better than yours as well as contacting energy brokers to get them to find cheaper rates and switch away from you. Everyone reading this post please check out free broker services to get better rates and switch away from AGL if that's cheaper for you.

[megan_AGL]

Hi jaskol,

Thank you for reaching out.

We sincerely apologise and want to assure you we truly value your business and understand your disappointment with the way your recent experience was handled.

Your feedback is incredibly valuable and we will take this on board with our practices in the future. 

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need any further assistance https://www.agl.com.au/help-support/contact-us.

Kind regards,

Megan