Contact Energy is offering incentives to stay with the company in an attempt to halt the flood of customers signing up with its competitors.
[comment caption=Are you thinking of switching power companies?]Following the company's announcement of 10%-15% price rises last month and a director fee pool increase last Thursday, consumers have chosen to shop around for better power supply deals.
Consumer New Zealand's Powerswitch website received a surge of 3081 visitors last Thursday, chief executive Sue Chetwin said.
On average, the website received 750 visitors daily.
This figure shot up to 2800 last week.
Some of Contact's customers had called the company, but the figure was not significant, said communications manager Jonathan Hill.
"Some people are ringing us and telling us they are thinking of leaving, and we are taking the opportunity to explain to them our strong roots in the community."
However, a Dunedin woman said Contact had gone one step further and rang her to offer incentives to remain with the company.
Marion Potter made the switch to Meridian Energy two weeks ago "before it all hit the fan".
She was unimpressed with Contact's price increases and the increase to its director fee pool.
She was contacted on Tuesday by a call centre operator who offered her either 200 Fly Buys points, or $50 off her bills for the next two months if she signed on for one more year.
She was not convinced by the offer and said it came down to principle and her bottom line.
"They will have a few phone calls to make," she said, if they tried to ring all the customers they were losing.
Mr Hill said it was common practice to offer incentives.
"It is a reflection of how important those customers are to us," he said.
Meanwhile, other power retailers have been receiving high volumes of phone calls from Contact customers keen to switch power providers.
TrustPower received 800 calls last Thursday and another 1200 from Contact customers over the following days, community relations manager Graeme Purches said yesterday.
Of those callers, 863 switched from Contact to TrustPower.
"The phone has been running hot . . . It doesn't seem to be stopping."
Tentative inquiries about switching had become expressions of intent, with 65% of calls now about confirming a switch, Mr Purches said.
He expected that percentage to increase when Contact customers received their next power bill and saw in print the impact of the price increase.
A newcomer to the Dunedin electricity market, Mercury Energy, had also experienced "really high and incredibly positive interest" in its arrival, spokeswoman Hannah Searle said.
Due to the influx of calls, the company extended its call centre operating hours over Labour Weekend.
Along with hundreds of calls coming in, there was also an increase in visits to its website, she said.
The number of calls coming into the Meridian Energy call centre was so high staff had to take numbers and call customers back as soon as they could to switch them, external relations manager Claire Shaw said yesterday.
"We are getting through this pretty well though and our customers are happy with the service we are offering them," she said.
The company experienced a 200% increase in calls last Thursday, including a significant number of people from Dunedin and a high proportion of Contact Energy customers
How to switch power companies
If you feel you are getting a bad deal from your electricity provider, it is generally easy to switch.
Shop around for the best deal by either contacting power companies directly and asking for pricing plans, or you can visit Consumer New Zealand's Powerswitch website: www.powerswitch.org.nz.
This site offers information about power companies.
If you decide to switch, contact the power company you would like to change to and inform it.
You should confirm with the company any savings you expect to make before you switch.
Your new retailer will inform your old retailer of your intentions and the two companies will then decide on a date on which either retailer will read your meter or estimate your reading.
The switch can take up to 25 working days.
Source: Consumer New Zealand.
