Consumer advocates warn against the electricity suppliers Voxenergie & primastrom. There are a striking number of complaints about unlawful price increases, inadmissibly increased discounts and the ignoring of the special right of termination for both companies. Both companies do not respond to inquiries.
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Consumer advocates warn against these electricity suppliers.
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Affected electricity companies do not answer
On May 4, 2022, PC-WELT asked Voxenergie and primastrom for a statement on the allegations made by consumer advocates. To date (May 11, 2022) voxenergie and primastrom , which give the same street address in Berlin, have not responded.
Update end, beginning of the original message: consumer advocates warn of these electricity suppliers
The Bavarian consumer center and the Rhineland-Palatinate consumer center warn of two electricity suppliers. According to the consumer advocates, since January 2022 “the complaints to the consumer advice centers about the questionable behavior of voxenergie and primastrom have skyrocketed”.
The complaints are usually about “the fact that the two providers have increased the agreed consumption price sharply despite the price guarantee”. The two criticized electricity suppliers had often also increased the monthly payment extremely sharply. Furthermore, both companies repeatedly ignore the statutory special right of termination that customers are entitled to in the event of contract or price changes, as consumer advocates emphasize.
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The consumer centers advise affected customers not to pay the inadmissibly excessive claims.
“The Federal Network Agency, as the responsible supervisory authority, should intervene quickly and effectively in view of the numerous breaches of contract,” demands Marion Gaksch, energy law expert at the Bavarian Consumer Advice Center. “In the case of the consumer centers alone, the number of reported cases should be several thousand.”
Fabian Fehrenbach, energy law expert at the Rhineland-Palatinate consumer advice center, agrees with his colleague from Bavaria on these points.
The consumer advocates from Lower Saxony also warn against Voxenergie and primastrom. The Lower Saxony write literally: “Please understand that we can hardly cope with the flood of inquiries about primastrom GmbH at the moment. Be patient!”.
In turn, the Brandenburg consumer advice center issued a warning to voxenergie.
Federal Network Agency has been informed
According to their own words, the consumer advice centers informed the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) via their Federal Association (vzbv) about these abuses at an early stage and asked for regulatory intervention. The Federal Network Agency is currently examining the market behavior of the providers that has been criticized by the consumer associations. The consumer advice centers offer information on problems relating to electricity and gas contracts here. You can use this link to complain to the Federal Network Agency about an electricity supplier.
The reviews of primastrom on trustpilot are extremely negative.
In this context, the consumer advocates point out the problem of the legal assessment: because those seeking advice would ask again and again whether these processes are fraudulent or whether behavior is relevant under criminal law. However, the answer to this question is not the responsibility of the consumer advice centers, as they emphasize. Rather, this question would have to be assessed by the criminal investigation authorities. This in turn requires a criminal complaint to the police or the public prosecutor’s office, which only those affected can report themselves, as consumer advocates explain.
