MEDIA RELEASE
19 March 2009
Free Electricity at Powershop
Internet power retailer powershop.co.nz is giving all its customers $50 worth of free electricity this April.
Powershop Chief Executive Ari Sargent said the April Clearance showed Powershop’s unique retail business model at work.
“Surplus electricity contracts combined with a 20% drop in wholesale contract prices mean we can offer our customers this special deal. An end of season clearance, if you like. We said we were going to take a radically new approach to selling electricity - this is what we mean,” he said.
Mr Sargent said the offer was available in the online shop to all existing customers and new customers who signup before 31 March. Customers do not have to agree any minimum loyalty period. He promised more pleasant surprises for Powershop customers in the future.
“We’re planning other red light specials and offers that will change the way people think of electricity. As far as we’re concerned electricity is now a fast moving consumer good – like any other product on the supermarket shelf.”
“Powershop is the unfinished business of the electricity reforms of the 1990s. Consumers deserve a properly competitive retail market. Powershop is intent on delivering it,” he said.
The $50 free power offer is open to all current Powershop customers or customers who sign up by 31 March. The electricity must be consumed in April.
About Powershop
Internet startup Powershop is the world’s first shop for electricity. Powershop customers buy electricity in advance from a range of products in the online shop. Powershop also offers a range of tools to help its customers understand more about how they consume electricity so they can reduce their usage.
For more details visit powershop.co.nz/promo/clearance.
Right now i am about to buy a spring is sprung special but have the message “We estimate...
I take number 2 back. I’d completely forgotten about the “Available unit...
may i have further details. I live in Katikati Bay of Plenty post code 3129
April 12th, 2009 at 5:42 pmPlease tell me more. I am with Meridian at present.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:45 pm@reed:
Unfortunately we do not currently supply the Bay of Plenty. Add your name to our mailing list and we’ll let you know when we get to your area.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:56 pm@David Witt:
More details can be found at http://powershop.co.nz/promo/clearance. Your signup needs to be complete by 30 April, so you will need to sign up within the next day or so to ensure that you can access this promotion.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:59 pmYou guys launched recently and the offer above says have to sign up with you by 31st March which is already gone.is the offer still valid?
April 14th, 2009 at 9:44 pm@Payal:
The offer is technically available to all customers who have completed their switch by 30 April. We advised customers to start their switch by 31 March to ensure that their switch was complete in time. It is now unlikely that your switch will be complete by 30 April, but this depends on your current retailer (some are faster than others).
Another option for you is to pick up a signup pack from your nearest The Warehouse store - we have a ‘pay $20 get $50 signup pack’ on sale there.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:49 pmHi, I signed up for PowerShop before 31 March. I got a letter confirming the switch from my currently company won’t be completed until 22nd April. I understand the $50 free electricity must be consumed in April, so how am I going to benefit from this offer? This seems extremely unfair to new customers! What is your response?
April 15th, 2009 at 9:57 am@Linda:
The April Clearance product you will be granted is actually valid until 31 May 2009, so you should have no problem using it all.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:23 amIf I sign up do i still get my yearly bonus from Mercury?
April 16th, 2009 at 3:34 pmI have just received my account from Mercury do i still pay that if I sign up today?
@Elaine:
The rebate that Mercury pays comes from the Auckland Energy Consumers Trust, and yes, you will still receive this rebate if you are a Powershop customer.
Yes, you will need to pay this. You may also receive one more final account to cover the power you use between today and when Mercury finalises your account.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:47 pmMy current supplier is Meridian. If I transfer to Powershop now can I still receive the $50 credit
April 20th, 2009 at 6:13 pmYour clock is 1 hour fast. I hope your power arrives at the right time. Written at 5.15pm
April 20th, 2009 at 6:16 pm@Graham Thomson:
Your switch needs to be complete by 30 April. This depends on how quickly Meridian processes your transfer so I cannot guarantee this. Most retailers take 2-3 weeks, but Meridian is generally takes less than a week.
If you get in quick you might just be in time.
April 20th, 2009 at 6:37 pm@Graham Thomson:
We pride ourselves on anticipating customers needs
Do you think delivering power an hour early is taking this too far?
April 20th, 2009 at 6:37 pmHi Ari,
Re: MEDIA RELEASE dated 19 March 2009 - Free Electricity at Powershop . The media release says that the $50 has to be used in April. Is this in addition to the $50 free power offered for new Powershop customers? I look forward to your response.
Regards,
Linda
April 21st, 2009 at 1:39 pmA New Customer
@Linda:
This is the same $50 worth of free power. When your switch is complete you will need to go to the ‘Buy Power’ page and redeem your free power by clicking the banner above the standard electricity products.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:03 pmHi I am thinking of switching to powershop but i’m not sure if i am in a qualifying area. I live on the awhitu peninsula (waiuku), we class this area as auckland but its a bit of a grey area to classify, would you be able to let me know if i can get it here or not.
Thanks
April 21st, 2009 at 3:42 pmTania
Hi Ari,
April 21st, 2009 at 7:56 pmTell me, is the change over from Meirdian free? And if your promise of cheaper power turns out to be not quite what the customer expects or hopes for, Is there a charge to go back to original supplier??
Thanks
@Gareth:
There is no joining fee to signup to Powershop, and as far as I know Meridian do not charge fees if you leave - so there should be no cost involved.
Powershop offers customer a 60 day ‘trial’ period. During this time if you decide to leave we will refund you the cost of any unused power. After this 60 days you can still leave, and we will not charge you any fees, but you will forfeit any unused power, which you can obviously avoid by not leaving until you have used all of the power you have bought. There are some other circumstances we will refund unused power, say if you move house to an area we don’t supply.
April 21st, 2009 at 8:19 pmHi
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 amI live in Timaru and am moving house this weekend. Can I sign up with you today as a new client without transfering from another provider? Also will power be connected straight away?
Regards
@Chris:
Unfortunately, we do not supply Timaru at this point in time.
If you are moving out of Timaru to an area where we do supply, yes by all means signup today and enter your move in date during the signup process.
If the property that you are moving to has not been disconnected by the previous retailer (or is not a new connection) then it will remain connected. However, if it has been disconnected we will have to arrange a reconnection. Call us on 0800 462 668 if you have any doubts or need more information.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:26 pm@Tania:
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - we needed to check what network area Waiuku is in. As it turns out you are in the Counties Power network area. We do not currently supply this area, but we will be in the next few months.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:45 pmHi when will powershop be in Rotorua any time frame thanks
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:15 pm@Shawn:
Sorry, we do not have an expected date for Bay of Plenty at this stage. We’ll keep you posted though.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:32 pmYour offer of $50 free power to all new customers appears to be a misrepresentation as you state elsewhere the transfer process usually takes 2 weeks and only applies for power used until the end of April.
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:43 amHaving been advised by you on April 20 that my transfer has been sent to my current provider and is being processed, yesterday, April 21 I received a further email saying the
actual transfer would take place on May 22.
Please explain.
@Wendy:
The $50 free power offer states “customers will need to sign up before 31 March 2009 to ensure their switch is complete prior to 30 April”. The duration of the switching process is out of our control - the regulations allow the losing retailer up to a month to action a switch request, but in practice it usually takes 2-3 weeks. It would appear that Mercury is taking the maximum allowed time to process your switch.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:38 amhey there just wondering this is similar to what mercury offers to nz customers on those auto card swipes u take to the petrol station/nz post shop to top up. say i want 20dollars on my power i take this card in and top it up and automatically tops up my power. similar in any way? besides powershop being an internet based product?
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:44 am@mel:
I think the Mercury card system is designed to work with their prepaid meter systems. With Powershop it is more of a mechanism to pay for your power over the counter.
You are right that Powershop is an internet business, but there are a surprising number of people who prefer to pay their energy bills over the counter in cash, or using EFTPOS. This is the main reason we have introduced these cards, but we do intend to promote other uses, for example, pay your elderly grandmother’s power, or a student son/daughter etc.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:01 amThankyou for your reply.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:07 pmI note that you have now removed the $50 free power for new customers offer from your products web page.
This does not address why this remained on your shop page from 31 March until now, making the offer misleading.
I appreciated the call back from your Rod Mc Intyre and the intent to honour this, However I hope this is an isolated example of confusion on your website.
@Wendy:
Sorry if we managed to confuse you. We did try to make things as clear as possible. But there are some things that are beyond our control, and in hindsight running a promotion for both existing and new customers (with an inherent delay for new customers) has created a few issues for us.
The April Clearance product does still appear in our shop page, because this is an exact copy of what current customers see. I guess the lesson we take from this is to be more careful to make sure that product descriptions are clear for both customers and general website visitors alike.
Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:43 pmjust wondering if Otaki is covered under the Wellington district.
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm@Kirsten:
No, we are not yet supplying Otaki. Join our mailing list and we’ll let you know when we are.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:00 pmHi
April 29th, 2009 at 7:42 pmStill waiting for my 5 character reference code to reflect on my bank statement, so am unable to shop for power as yet. Will I still be able to take advantage of the $50 free power?
@Tracy:
You can still redeem your $50 free power. You will need to do this before the end of tomorrow before the offer expires. To do this, login and go to the ‘Buy Power’ page. There is a banner above the products in the shop - click this and follow the instructions to redeem.
Your authorisation code should show up in your bank statements in the next day or so. If they don’t, give us a call and we will look into it for you.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:46 pmI am with Meridian and my last bill was $102.15 with prompt payment discount. I used 563 units (mix of night and day) and so the average unit cost was 18.11c
May 6th, 2009 at 1:12 amThis is cheaper than all your deals (except 150 units at 16c which will only cover a small fraction of my power usage) The other problem with your site is that your estimates change the power charge based on usage but that doesn’t seem right to match products available e.g. no products for 15c/unit. This concept would be OK if it saves money for me it does not.
@me:
Powershop stands by its commitment that if you’re a typical customer you will save money over the course of the year(see our FAQs page for details.
However, as our pricing structure is fundamentally different to existing retailers you cannot simply compare prices at a single point in time. The best way to get an estimate of your potential savings is to use our savings calculator.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:02 amDo you cover Rolleston?, I like what you are doing.
May 9th, 2009 at 11:17 pm@Robert:
Yes, we do supply Rolleston.
May 10th, 2009 at 7:25 amDo u supply to wanganui?
May 12th, 2009 at 10:57 am@N3m3s1s666:
No, sorry we don’t currently supply Wanganui. Subscribe to our mailing list and we’ll let you know as soon as we are.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:57 amHi, I am with meridian at the moment and have a power manager. I am in a rental property, can i switch to you without any hassel please?
May 13th, 2009 at 1:35 pmThanks
@Alexis:
Sorry, we cannot currently supply customers with power managers. We are working on other prepaid solutions for the future.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:25 pmDo you cover Pukerua Bay?
May 24th, 2009 at 2:55 pm@Erin:
Yes, we supply Pukerua Bay.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:02 pmMore promotion please - the Dams are overflowing, aren’t they ?
Thanks !
May 25th, 2009 at 9:50 amHi, we are on Meridians “Power Manager” (Pre-paid power), in Christchurch . . are we able to switch easily? And also what happens in the unlikely event that we use all our power credits? will the power be disconnected until we buy more or do we go into a negitive balance??
June 17th, 2009 at 1:11 pm@Daniel:
Unfortunately we cannot currently supply “Power Manager” customers without replacing your meter.
If you use all of your purchased credits you will go into negative balance. We will automatically top-up your account after we read your meter/review your account.
June 25th, 2009 at 9:03 pmHi
I’ve just read the above blog comments and have been trying to work out whether powershop is cheaper than other retailers in my area. I have previously used http://www.powerswitch.org.nz to do this, but powershop is not included in the list. Are you able to compare powershop pricing options on powerswitch? Will this be possible in future? Or is it too changeable? How do I know for sure I’ll save money with you?
Thanks
July 21st, 2009 at 2:45 pm@Kim:
Unfortunately powerswitch is currently unable to incorporate our pricing - we are told they will be upgrading their system soon. We do appear as a link at the bottom of the page.
For now I would suggest that you go to powerswitch and compare the estimated annual energy cost with our savings calculator estimated cost with Powershop - be sure that you have the same tariff configuration and annual consumption selected.
Sorry, it is a bit of mucking around, but you will be able to see how we compare.
July 21st, 2009 at 4:20 pmAs soon as I can use you guys with power manager, I am switching.
I’m on prepay, you are a prepay provider.
Switch to power manager and you will get 1/2 the rental properties in chch, especially at your prices.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:09 pm@Damon:
Unfortunately we cannot supply properties with Power Manager meters because the recharge technology is owned by your current retailer.
October 8th, 2009 at 11:00 pm