Problem trying to leave gas compay

Mr_BOOMBASTIC

Hope this is the correct place to post this. If not could it be kindly moved to the correct place

Hi i'm looking for some advice hopefully from someone

It's a long one but i'll shorten where i can so bare with me.

We switched energy companies for both Gas & Electric over 15 months ago from Scottish power to First Utility. We had a slight problem with the switch over as there seem to be an error on Scottish powers records when we gave them our final reads. It appeared for some reason there number for the gas only was higher than the read i was giving them which was odd because the gas meter is at the front of the property accessible to the gas man whenever he wanted. Now i know the meter had been read several times as i had been in when the gas man came to read the meter, so why the hell it always said estimated on our bills is beyond me, as i gave them reading several times myself over the phone.

Anyway they sorted out the problem their end. I think they took an average of our yearly usage and billed us for the finally month based on an average. Which to be honest probably worked out better for them than us but i couldn't see another way out. However at the time i assumed this to be the end of my problems, but soon after the switch the previous incorrect meter reading that i assumed would have been corrected was passed over to my new company, now with this company it was all manual, you had to read your own meters and input them on line, which at the time i assumed would be better as i would never be worked on an estimated reading as it was down to me to input correctly and on time, which we did. But obviously the problem starts with the new company as my reading does not reflect the pass over reading they had received. After a lengthy phone call they said they would put the amount (i.e the difference between the wrong reading and my correct new reading on hold while it gets dealt with separately and resolved) so all seemed good start a fresh with correct reading and continue forward from here. As a result we were advised to ask them to remove our direct debit details and just pay over the phone each month with our card until the matter was resolved..anyway month after month goes by, we ring to find out the decision several times but its still being handled they tell us, and just to continue as we are. Now it got to the point 3 months ago were we had spoke to them several times and we are still were told its being handled. So after this time they are no longer the best supplier for us as there are cheaper alternatives and we want to switch to save money. We tell the new company E.O.N the situation with the outstanding problem they think its fine as that was being kept separate. So we go ahead with the switch only to receive a letter from E.O.N saying they have only changed the electric as First Utility wont allow the swap on the gas, so now i'm stuck paying gas to company and electric to another....plus i'm not getting the money saving on dual fuel because only one of my fuels switched.

So we ring First utility and ask what's going on to be told the matter needs resolved before we can switch the gas despite the fact they have had over 12 months to sort it out at that point. We were assured it was being handled and we'd get a resolution soon. So we leave it a months, get the usual email from First Utility saying the need the meter reads, so we ring them to pay the gas over the phone to which we are told not to pay anything at the moment just to wait until its all resolved. We ask can we just pay for what we have used that month gas wise so were not hit with a big bill. But we assured it would be better just to leave it alone and just wait. So regrettably we do as we are told. Another month passes and still no result and another email asking for reads and there is an amount of £542 outstanding on the gas section so we think get in finally sorted, seems a bit steep but we can talk to them and ask how they achieve this figure, so we phone just to be told that is an incorrect amount and to ignore it as its still be handled, we ask again please can we/should we pay something at least for last months gas to reduce the overall bill to be told its better if we don't, so now we owe 2 months gas + whatever gets resolved, needless to say we are getting seriously stressed out as we have other problems with a poorly new born and all the usual things that go a bit pear shaped in day to day life and we just don't need the extra hassle, anyway 11 days ago a bill arrives totally different to the others its not a PDF file like the others its like this is finally the bill we have been waiting for just in my email for £852 and it actually say (We now consider this query resolved and we will be taking your payment on Monday 28th March). And we think TAKING THE MONEY??? how are you going to "TAKE" the money as we under their request cancelled our direct debit so obviously i would like a bit more information as to how they arrive at this figure...not just give us this amount of money and expect it to be available in my bank. Now unfortunately i was away with work so didn't realise i had this email until Friday gone...still plenty of time to pay once given an explanation from them how the arrived at £852. however the email stated if i had a problem with the amount i have 5 days to phone them and query this...5 DAYS are you KIDDING me its took 14 months to get an answer and i get 5 efffing days.

So i phone my bank and explain the above and tell them that there is no way they are to pay this money to First Utility as i need to speak to them first, to which they tell me they have already requested the money and the direct debit is being processed...how the hell can they just reinstate an old direct debit that we cancelled over a year ago to take any amount of money they wish on any day the want!! THIS CANNOT BE LEGAL surely not? where is data protection??.

My bank tells me i cannot stop the direct debit and i will receive a charge as i don't have a spare £852 in my bank...obviously i know this myself, Then my bank tells me they tried to take money last month and i got charged for that too...!!!!!! they just tried to take money from a dead direct debit without billing or telling me...AGAIN HOW IS THAT LEGAL. basically we are screwed nothing we can do we can stop the process..so disgusted and very displeased with myself i had to transfer the money from my kids savings to avoid getting the charge as as usual no-one would answer the phone at First utility so i could complain...tried all morning Saturday after an hour of holding i gave up as last month it cost me £12 on my phone bill ringing their 0845 number and spending hours on hold. Anyway today we get through and speak to them telling them the whole scenario, to which we are told the email that said (We now consider this query resolved and we will be taking your payment on Monday 28th March) is a load of crap and that's not the final amount it should have been around £200 less!!!! !!!!!! so not only have you took money out of my bank its for too much as the figure was totally rubbish and I'm to just ignore that letter....so obviously we ask for the money back to which we are told we have to instruct our bank to retrieve the money.....we ask if we can speak to a manager to deal with this as we've had enough...to be told there is no manager for us to speak to but one will phone us back within 7 days time...

Any help as to legally if they can do what they have done to us would be truly appreciated as we are now at a loose end with these jokers...and are still just going round in circles and are back to square 1 except we are £852 lighter... I'm livid with this company to think they can treat us like this...we are trapped by them until they feel like they want to let us go..

Thank you if you made it to the end and are still awake

Big thank you if you have and valid advise

KimYeovil

I did go a bit cross-eyed and skimmed but could you say - did you pay anything to anyone for gas for fourteen months or so? If not, surely you had put the money aside precisely so when you would have to pay for it there wouldn't be any difficulty? Or have I blurred past where you explained away that?

Ah, okay, I did blur past that bit.

Okay, I would sort out the dates yourself, sort out the date you wanted to change to E-on. Then calculate how much you are losing through not being switched to E-on. Summarise thsi in a complaint to First Utility and tell them you are taking off the money you are losing. Add some charges for the telephone calls and correspondence. Tell them what your final balance is.

And stop wasting time on the phone. Just correspond in writing with them.