Southern Electric

Matahari11

I moved into my property on 13th July 2007, and set about informing suppliers that i was the new tenant.
on the side in the kitchen was a welcome pack from powergen, so i filled out the meter readings and sent it back.
powergen contacted me to inform me they where not the current provider but as a new tenant I was welcome to become a new customer. After some reflection I decided to go with eon for both gas and electric as i'd also collect clubcard points. I set up to pay by direct debit, received my contract and got on with life thinking everything was sorted. Several months later a sales rep knocked on my door, i'd just got in from work and wasn't really interested in chatting as i made quite clear, but the sales rep was quite pushy, insisting he could save me money, that he had all my details and that it was just a formality of signing the new contract. After confirming my meter and direct debit details, i signed the contract before realizing the rep was not from Eon as i'd first assumed, but was from NPower and what i'd actually signed up to was to switch provider. I was annoyed by this, but decided not to take it any further at the time as the deal did seem to be better and would save me money in the long run.
The problems started a few months later when i received a bill from Southern Electric for about £1,500 addressed to me, but in a surname I never use!
I contacted Southern Electric to ask them why they where sending me this bill, and how they had got hold of that surname.. and why they'd put it on the top of their letter when they have never had a contract with me.
They told me they had taken over supplying the property 2 months before i took on the contract. I explained to them, that they may well have done, but not with me, that as a new tenant i had the right to choose my own supplier, which i had done.
I then contacted NPower to be told that they weren't supplying my Electric because Southern Electric had refused the move.
This got me wondering about Eon, who i'd been paying by direct debit for all those months as i believed they had been supplying me. So I contacted them, via several heated calls and emails, with no response.
Southern Electric told me that Eon had never supplied me and that they should refund any money paid, which they never have! and even said they could claim it for me and knock it off my bill.
I wasn't happy about this, as it seemed to me that would be accepting I was liable for £1,500 bill from a contract that was set up with someone else 2 months before i took the property on, and that my right to choose provider was being taken away from me.
Eventually I decided and informed all 3 companies that i would not be paying any of them, till i knew who i was paying and for what.
I asked Southern Electric several times who had given them my other surname and what right they had to tag it on to a bill with no contract or agreement from me, which they refused to reply to on several occasions until I threatened to take legal advice.
Then i was told that they where given my details by my housing association as they had a contract with them to supply the whole block of flats. I started knocking on neighbors doors, to see who their suppliers where and if they knew of a contract with our housing association, which they didn't and all had different providers, so i rang my housing and asked them, asking them why if they had a contract with Southern Electric was i told i was responsible for sorting out my own suppliers when i signed the tenancy. My housing where quite clear they would not give out tenants details, unless for legal reasons and that they didn't have a contract with anyone. I was told to take advice on the matter.
I went back to Southern Electric, confronting them with this information, and asking them why they where now lying to force me into a contract with them which i didn't accept. I got no response from this, and as i'd stopped paying my bill with Npower as i'd signed for a package i wasn't receiving, they started sending me debt letters as they where still supplying my gas!
As the months went by, I was getting no where, Eon never paid me back or explained why they where taking money for a service they weren't providing. Southern Electric wouldn't back down and the bill had now grown to over £2000, even though they themselves told me exactly when the contract was taken out and that it wasn't with me. there response was they had been supplying the property, the money had to be paid and they would not let me switch until it had been. Instead they started sending me disconnection notices.
I was exhausted, I'd been fighting for months and getting no where, I have 2 children and so couldn't risk having our supply cut.
I felt i had no option but to be forced to accept the debt and be put on key meters as i didn't have several thousand pounds to clear it in one hit. when i agreed with Southern Electric to install the meter they said they would put the debt at £1000 to take into account the time before i took over the property, but once fitted a bill arrived stating I owed over £2000 and that the debt had been added to the meter.
Since then i have been having to top up both gas and electric at a rate of £25 each = £50 a week in total.
This was steep but just about affordable while i was working, but i lost my job at christmas and my partner is unable to work at present as he is waiting for an operation.
i haven't received any benefits to date but have been told that between us we will receive around £100 per week. I can not afford half of that on gas and electric..
Is there anything I can do?

dogshome

Hi Mataharill - Strewth, I've read of other Supplier tangles caused by greedy salesman and very late bills from unkown suppliers, but yours really takes the biscuit.

You need to get this adjudicated as soon as possible, however the Ombudsman is funded by the Industry and is not likely to be of much help, so get in touch with Consumer Focus
WRITE to them setting out the history as succinctly as you can, and send copies of the letter to both Southern Electric and Eon

The industry has an arrangement between the companies that when a Switch fails, the new supplier which in this case is Eon, returns the money paid for thier bills to the customer and the original supplier, (SE), then bills for the power used. Why Eon have refused to follow this path remains to be seen, but the fact that you have been forced to accept PP metering to pay a debt to SE, when you have already paid Eon for most of this Power & Gas is astounding.

Nitha

That's an awful story bless you. I've had a bad experience with SE who misled me into believing my rates would be lower when in fact they are much higher and have left us with a £250 bill (on top of our monthly DD) for only 2 month's supply.

Keep fighting SE and get as much help from support groups as possible.

Gurn_2

its not SE's fault, and what makes you think as a new tenant you can decide who you are going to pay for electric?
First you should of found out who was the current supplier SE, and then "switched" supplier to EON.
EON can not just keep the money you paid them in good faith if they were not the supplier, id start by getting that back for starters!
Did you take meter readings when you moved in?
were SE sending you bills?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Matahari

This sounds like a real mix up. May I ask a few questions?

When you originally contacted us in 2007, did you confirm the meter serial numbers for your property? Did you take these numbers directly from the meters?

Before you changed to Npower, were we sending you bills with these numbers on?

The reason for the questions is I suspect we may have taken over the supply for the wrong property back in 2007. This can happen, particularly in blocks of flats.

Did you keep a note of the meter serial numbers before they were changed to prepayment? If you did, check these against any bills you received before the prepayment meters were installed.

It may be Southern have supplied the energy all along but because of discrepancies with the meters, the property has been billed by other suppliers.

If I'm right and we have been charging for the wrong property then, as dogshome says, we definitely need to refund the money you've paid us.

As you've contacted us before but not received an explanation, I would refer this to our Director's Office (contact details are on your bills). They will raise a complaint and one agent will follow this through to a conclusion.

I'm sorry previous contact with us has not been satisfactory but hope this points you in the right direction. Give me a shout if I can help further as will be happy to do so. Drop an email to the address in my Profile if you prefer.

Malc