Spark Energy - warning - do not touch with a bargepole

Minxywitch

Hey everyone,

This is going to be slightly longwinded & ranting, so you may want to
get a cup of tea.

.................

My brother and I rent a 2-bedroom terraced house together. I've
rented for years, so am used to dealing with various companies &
setting up accounts for the utilities.

However, I've had such a bad experience with Spark Energy that I
wanted to warn others about it.

When we moved into the property at the end of November 2009 we were told by the letting agency that the electricity & gas had been switched over to Spark Energy who are meant to be a tenanted-property specialist. We didn't have to do anything, the letting agents had given Spark Energy our details & the meter readings (the property had been empty for a couple of months prior to us moving in as it was being redecorated). Fine, so we'll wait for our Welcome Pack.

I got a letter from Spark Energy about a month later asking for the
meter readings & for me to fill out a Direct Debit form so that they
could set our account up, and then they'd write to us to say how much
it would be for.

Now I think about it, that was probably stupid of me, but anyway. I
knew I could always cancel a Direct Debit. So off goes my form with
the details.

I then didn't hear anything until 1st February 2010, when I had an
email saying that I'd save money if I set up a direct debit with them,
as they'd noticed I hadn't done so far. Er, what? So began a long
email trail with them.

Anyway, they eventually decided to find my form (that I sent off in
December 2009) and just emailed me to tell me they were setting up our
account at £150 a month for the gas & electricity. Now, having rented
before, I knew this was extortionate. So I emailed to ask where on
earth they'd got that number from - there are 2 of us living in a 2
bedroom house - it isn't Hugh Hefner's palace!!

I said I'd be happy for it to be set up for £70 a month, to be
reviewed every quarter. I did some searching on price comparision
websites and they were trying to charge us double the annual amount of other companies.

They then decided that actually, they didn't supply our property with
gas - Scottish Power hadn't relinquished that to them. So then they
wanted to charge us £70 a month for just the electricity. By this
point I had cancelled my direct debit as I wasn't prepared for them to
be taking money out of my account without my control.

In the meantime I had to contact Scottish Power, explain to them what
had happened - they were fine, gave me an updated bill and we solved
that nice & easily.

So I contacted my letting agents, explained what had happened and
asked permission to leave Spark Energy and go back to Scottish Power
for the electricity (as it had been before Spark took over). They
agreed, and I am in the process of switching over now.

In the meantime, I had heard nothing from Spark Energy - I was
(foolishly?!) presuming they would send bills to us either monthly or
quarterly - you know, as normal utility companies do.

So then on 19th May I receive a bill from them, with the details for
February 2010, but a higher bill that I presumed went from when we
moved in at the end of November to now. I paid this via online
banking on 20th May, and thought that would be that.

No.

I then get a letter from Spark Energy on 3rd June 2010 chasing the
payment. As a reminder, I only received the bill on 19th May 2010.
So they were chasing me approximately 2 weeks after invoicing me.

However, as I always do, the day after I received the bill I paid it.

I paid Spark Energy directly using the bank details they specified,
and I did it through my online banking. My account says that that
payment went out to Spark Energy on 20th May 2010, so even allowing
for a couple of days for the money to transfer through, they will have
received it around 24th May 2010.

I emailed Spark Energy’s Customer Services on 5th June 2010 to explain
this and ask why my account hadn't been settled.

On 9th June 2010 they replied to say that the payment wasn’t showing
on my account and that they would forward my original email to the
finance team to trace my payment and therefore clear my account.

I have then received a letter from LCS Civil Enforcement threatening
legal action, which is completely unnecessary as I’ve paid my bills,
it’s Spark Energy that are in the wrong as they’ve mis-allocated my
payment somewhere.

The service that I have received from Spark Energy is the worst that I
have ever received from any supplier. I have rented properties for
several years and have always paid my bills on time and have never had
any difficulties setting up or paying my account.

Therefore for Spark Energy to be sending debt collection letters to me
down to their own inefficiency as they cannot trace my payment is
beyond ridiculous.

I have emailed Spark Energy again to insist that they find my payment,
clear my account, and contact LCS to take me off their records. I am
also writing to LCS to explain all of this, and I will also write to
Spark Energy's Head Office. My letting agency are aware that we have
had issues with Spark Energy, but I will be giving them a copy of my
correspondence as well so that they are aware. After all, there are
many other properties on their books that will also undoubtedly be
being signed up to Spark Energy.

I am disgusted by the way that Spark Energy have been so poor in their
administration and their customer service, so I wanted to warn others
out there that they are an awful company and to stay well away from
them.

How will I find out whether this has affected my credit rating by
being incorrectly referred to a credit agency? If it has, I will have
to take further action to ensure that my name is cleared.


Nikki

:mad:

Coopdivi

Similar problem here.

http://www.sparkenergy.org.uk/

Minxywitch

At least I'm not alone, not that it helps either of us!

Thanks for sharing that - an interesting read (if a little too familiar).

When will companies learn that you just can't behave like this these days - people talk!

Nikki

lavender_girl

Oh yes, spark energy ...

Minxywitch and Coopdivi, I am sorry to hear about your recent troubles with Spark energy.

We have recently moved and found it a nightmare at first, to find out who the energy suppliers were for the property, we then found out, that it was with British Gas.

We shopped around and found that Eon would be best for us, through the very helful service moveme.com, as this was the first time we had dual fuel. So we set everything up and everything was going fine until I went online to see where we were with setting up an account with Eon, taking over our gas and electricty. On our account it said that our account transfer had been cancelled due to problems with our current suppliers not agreeing to the transfer. We thought this was odd as just had our final bill from British Gas. So eventually we got hold of someone at Eon and discovered that Spark energy have stopped it, saying they are our suppliers. My husband had a few calls from them demanding we set up etc... but we said no as the property was with British Gas, we then got letters etc...and we sent a letter saying that we did not wish to have our energy through them.

I read through their terms and it says - how did we get your details? Under this it says that it's our rental agent who supplied the information and it was a part of our tenancy??? We got in touch with our agents and they say they didn't know anything about it!

So my poor husband is trying to sort it out with Spark Energy as they have been so unhelpful etc...

With all that goes on when you move, you just wish that things like this wouldn't happen don't you.

We are still confused on where they got our details and my husbands mobile phone number???

Oh well, we just hope it will get sorted soon. Eon and British Gas have been fine and we really appreciate that, we just can't believe how easy it has been for Spark energy to object and try and take over our account!

Well you learn something new everyday don't you ...