Just had a visit from a representative of Southern Electricity.

Along with various graphs and diagrams he basically said that Southern could 'see' that my tarriff was high (I am with British Gas for both gas and electricity).

I had no reason to doubt the guy was a genuine representative. My concern is the obfuscation these people seem to go through. I am well aware that there are competing services but my feeling is that in the end the market pulls their prices together, and based on previous experiences the hassle of changing billing etc. isn't worth a saving I can never accurately quantify anyway.

His goal was to get me to move supplier. He knew it, I knew it. Had he been honest about this rather than trying to imply that Southern were already responsible for my supplies and BG were just some kind of middleman I would respect that approach more. Probably still wouldn't have switched though!