My energy supplier keeps making errors - what can I do?

albo2002

Hi all - any advice would be much appreciated.

I've been with Spark Energy (duel fuel) for a couple of years and last November they reduced my monthly bills from £100 per month to £55, as I was about £235 in credit.

At the beginning of February, due to the cold January we'd had, I sent Spark a meter reading to see if my bill should go back up, but they said they were unable to process this due to them changing their billing procedures.

In March, I tried to switch from Spark to nPower, as Quidco was offering £130 for switching, and nPower was offering a better deal than Spark.

But at the start of this month nPower informed me that they had twice applied to Spark to switch the account over, and Spark had refused this on both occasions.

I called up Spark and was told I owed £500 (this was the first time I'd been notified of any bill I owed). I disputed this and sent in an up to date meter reading.

The following day I was told I now owed £600.

I live in a two-bed flat. I have not used, in the five months from November '09 to March '10, £600 + £235 + (£55x5) £275 of energy = £1,110, or well over £200 per month, when previously the maximum I spent was £100 per month.

So I disputed it again and a few days later Spark came back and said I still owed £600.

I asked for a breakdown of monthly costs since November, and they came to £835 - still far too high and nearly £300 lower than the £1,110 they claim I've used. What's more, they said I used three times as much energy in November '09 as I did in October '09, which is ridiculous. So I disputed it again.

Today Spark called me and said they had detected an error in their accounting, and now I owe £470, as they 'missed' a payment I made 'ages ago' for £130.

Yet £470 is still far more than I think I owe and this detection of a missed payment still doesn't deal with the errors I've detected.

I'm worried that I'm going to lose the £130 quidco cashback as this looks set to drag on and on.

Any advice?

st999

Providing £ amounts is meaningless without providing kWh usage, as no-one knows what amount of gas and electricity you have used.

Stan

albo2002

In late October my readings were:

Gas: 01208
Electricity 59641

In early April they were:

Gas: 02302
Electricity 62910

kjsmith7

The gas consumption is roughly 12,000kWh which is high consumption for a two bed flat in the Winter. The electric consumption is 3,269kWh, which is the average consumption in the UK for a year...

albo2002

kjsmith7 wrote: »

The gas consumption is roughly 12,000kWh which is high consumption for a two bed flat in the Winter. The electric consumption is 3,269kWh, which is the average consumption in the UK for a year...

thanks. Are they abnormally high?

More gas was used in Jan and Feb due to the cold, but I don't think any more was used in November, December or March than normal, and I dont think I used any more electricity during those months than normal

Farway

albo2002 wrote: »

thanks. Are they abnormally high?

More gas was used in Jan and Feb due to the cold, but I don't think any more was used in November, December or March than normal, and I dont think I used any more electricity during those months than normal

My electricity usage [lights, tv, computer, kettle only, not cooking or heating] was 1,561KW for one year [9 April to 13 April]

So yes I reckon your use is high, but I am not average consumer I know

kjsmith7

I would take a peek at those previous readings. Are they correct/actual readings? Was/were the meter/meters misread by yourselves or the utility company now or in the past?

Fire_Fox

albo2002 wrote: »

I asked for a breakdown of monthly costs since November, and they came to £835 - still far too high and nearly £300 lower than the £1,110 they claim I've used. What's more, they said I used three times as much energy in November '09 as I did in October '09, which is ridiculous. So I disputed it again.

More gas was used in Jan and Feb due to the cold, but I don't think any more was used in November, December or March than normal, and I dont think I used any more electricity during those months than normal

I think you are kidding yourself, the first snow was before Christmas! Winter 08/09 we only had two weeks of snow in February, it was warm enough for some days in December and January to have our heating off (even with softy southerner ex ). The previous two winters were some of the warmest for many years and energy prices were massively lower then.

Using three times more energy in November as October is quite possible - my winter quarter averaged £35 a month with barely any heating (16C), friends of mine with similar flats are using £100+ a month for the same period. :eek:

Having said that £200 a month sounds excessive and it is odd that you are overusing both gas and electricity. What have you got that eats electricity - power shower, immersion accidentally left on 24/7, tumble dryer, laundry on hot wash, loads of halogen lamps, plug in electric heater? Are you being billed for the correct gas units, cubic feet or cubic metres (check the bill against the meter itself)?

albo2002

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Using three times more energy in November as October is quite possible - my winter quarter averaged £35 a month with barely any heating (16C), friends of mine with similar flats are using £100+ a month for the same period. :eek:

Having said that £200 a month sounds excessive and it is odd that you are overusing both gas and electricity. What have you got that eats electricity - power shower, immersion accidentally left on 24/7, tumble dryer, laundry on hot wash, loads of halogen lamps, plug in electric heater? Are you being billed for the correct gas units, cubic feet or cubic metres (check the bill against the meter itself)?

The thing about November is that I was away for a week. I do have a power shower, but none of the other things were used.

I've made an official complaint to Spark Energy, which I'll post below.

albo2002

Dear Spark Energy

I wish to make an official complaint about the way Spark Energy has handled my account.

On February 5, 2010 I submitted a meter reading to Spark as I knew a lot of gas had been used in January, and wanted to see if I owed any money, and wanted to pay any amount that I did owe immediately. Unfortunately, Spark did not get back in touch, so I contacted Spark again, and was told I couldn't be told if I owed any money until the end of March.

I found this quite unprofessional, so I investigated what other energy providers could offer me, and discovered that nPower were offering a cheaper deal than Spark, plus with an offer of £130 simply for joining. So I switched to them.

March came and went and Spark never got back to me to tell me how much I owed, which I found unacceptable.

At the beginning of April, nPower informed that Spark had refused the switch. I contacted Spark and was told the reason why is because I owed £500. I found this completely unacceptable that Spark had not informed me of this before; I had made two fruitless approaches to Spark to find out how much I owed and in the end it was a competitor of Spark that informed me of a problem. I have received no explanation as to why the communications were so poor.

Furthermore, the £500 seemed a ridiculously high figure to owe, so I submitted a new meter reading to Spark in the first week of April. I was then told that I owed just under £600. I enquired about the account and was told I was £235 in credit in November. Given that I live in a two-bed flat, I found it impossible to accept that I had used £235 plus £600 plus my monthly direct debits (well over £300) from November to March, so I contested the figure. Disappointingly, three days later, on April 9, I was called to be told 'no progress' had been made on progressing this.

On April 12 nPower contacted me to say that they had now twice been refused to switch by Spark and they would try a third and final time on April 22, if that failed I would lose the £130 offer that they no longer run.

So I contacted Spark to see what was going on and was told that progress had been made on the account, and I did still owe £600. Again, I was angry that it took me having to contact Spark to find out something that Spark should have told me about, and again I contested the figure as it was too high. The details, for instance, stated that I had used nearly 7 times as much gas in November as I did in October, even though I was in the flat significantly less in November than I was in October.

Incredibly, the next day I was called back to be told that I now owed just over £470. I asked where this £120+ reduction had come from and why it wasn't detected the first time I contested the figure, and was simply told that this was a payment that hadn't been noticed that I had made 'way back when'.

Unsatisfied and now having no faith in Spark's accountancy procedures, I asked to be sent a full monthly breakdown of my account, which I received on April 14. I immediately spotted a glaring error in them: no direct debit payment I had made since September 2009, which amounted to £525, had been credited to the account, and I was actually owed over £50. I was flabbergasted that no-one at Spark's accounts department had detected this.

I called Spark the following day and explained this, and received a call back several hours later. I was told that the £525 I had paid between September 2009 and March 2010 had come up on my account as being paid before August 2009, which, to me, seems incredible. I was told that this was an innocent accounting error but meant that I still owed £470. I asked to be sent a breakdown of the amended accounts, and was told I would be emailed them immediately. As of the following morning, I have still not received this email.

As you may have guessed, I have no faith in Spark's abilities to work out who owes what to who. Spark's communications and accountancy procedures have been both totally unprofessional and unacceptable throughout.

As a result of this, I have now lost the £130 that nPower would have given me, and I'm currently missing out on the reduction I would receive every month on their tariff, as this drags on and on.

At the very least, I expect Spark to pay me the money I have missed out on as a result of their own incompetence, on top of extra compensation that I feel I am owed. I would also like a full breakdown of my accounts from the start (as I have been promised but not delivered), so I can work out what is going on.

Yours Sincerely

albo2002