Southern Electric tried to switch my energy supply to them, without my consent

SpongeBobSP

Recently, I received a letter from British Gas (my current supplier for Gas and Electric), informing me that they are sorry to hear I am leaving them and have joined someone else. This was a complete shock to me as I have not instructed anyone to takeover my fuel supply. I spoke to BG and they informed me that Southern Electric have informed me that they will be supplying my fuel. Again, this was a shock to me, as I have not signed anything or verbally instructed anyone to change my fuel supply.

I would like to know what Southern Electric are upto. This is completely unacceptable and has caused me considerable stress and anguish, and has wasted my time in switching back to British Gas.

Can utilities do this without my consent?

Voyager2002

No, they cannot do this to you.

However, Southern Electric is generally considered a better supplier than British Gas, so in your situation I would not have been too upset.

SpongeBobSP

Voyager2002 wrote:

No, they cannot do this to you.

However, Southern Electric is generally considered a better supplier than British Gas, so in your situation I would not have been too upset.

That's not the point. It's the principle that really angered me. How can they do this without consent and information? The first I hear is a letter from BG saying 'sorry you want to leave'. It is out of order!!!

tripled

The short answer is no,they can't do it without your consent. Southern Electrc have been in hot water before with their sales tactics and were on watchdog earlier this year.

The best bet is to call Soutern up and dispute the contract, they should then return the account to BG for you and you won't get billed by them. If for any reason they refuse to do this, you can either complain to energywatch, or ust phone up British Gas and ask them to switch you back. However if you do the latter, because of the transfer process you will end up having to pay Southern for about 8 weeks.

Merlin139

They are not suppossed too but they do. I changed from Powergen to Npower 18 months ago 2 months later I received a letter from Powergen welcoming me back too them. I had not done this so got on to them and the final explanation was that one of their CS staff had changed me back because they wanted too. The long and the short of it was that it took another 8 weeks to sort out and Powergen did not bill me for the electricity that I used.

Have now switched to a cheaper supplier.

Point to note when did you last check out if you could be getting your Gas & Electric cheaper elsewhere?

Cagey

Sounds if they are still up to their old tricks but even allowing for the principle of the thing I would consider the switch as BG are the costliest supplier with the poorest customer service.

JonathanA

It could be a totally different explanation. We, recently, changed our energy supplier for both gas and electric. The gas went through with no problems, but we kept being told that we had 'cancelled' the electricity change. We had done no such thing, it turned out the company concerned had got an incorrect meter number for our property, so they were contacting someone else to switch them, and obviously they didn't want to switch so kept saying no! This went on about 4 or 5 times before they finally got the message - despite us and the other people telling them - and they got the right number.

Definitely worth asking them for further details as, in our case, it was an error on one company's part that led to 6 months of trying to sort it out. They may not be up to their old tricks, it could be a genuine error.

No, I know that doesn't sound convincing, but until I'd been there, I wouldn't have believed it either!!

You could try Southern Electric customer services - have your meter number to hand & see what they say. The company I dealt with gave me all sorts of details about 'my' account with them, and then realised they were talking to a totally different customer when they eventually acknowledged they had an incorrect meter number.

Hope you get it sorted