You’ve got to wonder about Genesis Energy

Yesterday an email came from Genesis Energy titled "Check you are on the best plan".

This is a good idea. But it is so poorly done, I'm less happy with Genesis as my energy provider.

I probably won't change provider, but today I'm thinking about it. Before I saw the email I wasn't.

Here's how Genesis screwed a decent customer relationship:

The email says I used 22,623 units of energy in the past year.

It then says if I used less than 8000 kWh (kilowatt hours) I would be better off with one plan and if I used more I'd be better off with another.

Easy-peasy, the letter says I used 22,623 units. That's 22,623 kWh isn't it? So its the big hitter plan for me.

Not so fast. 22,623 kWh is a huge amount of electricity. I've a Physics degree and while I'm out of touch with the subject, I still remember this would be a lot of kWh.

So, I ring the 0800 number at the bottom of the email and ask about the relation between kWh and 'units'. We'll forgive the poor English implicit in this – technically the kWh, or perhaps more accurately the Wh is a unit in the usually accepted sense.

On the phone. And lo. I'm asked for a customer number. Now I have this to hand, it's in the email, but I'm buggered if I'm going to let them know it's me who is calling. For all I know, Genesis might regard this kind of question as impertinent and mark my CRM record as a "difficult customer" to be deliberately given the run-around in future encounters and charged extra "difficult" fees.

Three times the phone system asks me, and not politely to enter my customer number. Eventually it gives up and I reach another menu where I have to listen through a long list of options before reaching the "all other enquiries". My telephone handset has a timer. It took nearly three minutes to reach a human. There was no music on hold. That's a big plus point for Genesis.

Eventually I reach an operator. I explain about the email and the mention of "units" and ask how many units are in a kWh. She then asks me again for my customer number and almost cuts me off when I don't provide it. She says she can't help me without looking at my customer records.

I tell her she isn't listening. The question is generic. It is independent of my customer record. After a couple of turns of the loop, she gives in and tells me there are 660 units in a kWh.

Now I'm curious. What exactly are the 'units' we are talking about here? It's clearly nothing to do with electron volts eV. It could be related to the Joule or perhaps the calorie. Can anyone enlighten me?