Energy Misselling successes

JJ_Egan

Spammer reported.

ex2t633w

Not a success story, but don't know where to ask this !
My friend came here from Uganda, where there is only ONE supplier , and when she was telephoned by OPUS , a few days ago, she agreed to the contract verbally, thinking this was her only option, and now the poor girl is in panic mode !
Since then she has learned there are more suppliers but now is stuck with this one.
Can she cancel it on grounds of cooling off period, or lack of experience, etc ??

Gerry1

There is a 14-day cooling off period. Also tell her to stop cold calls by registering with the free Telephone Preference Service by making a free call to 0800 398 893.

stewie_griffin

Opus is a business only supplier i.e. they don't supply residential customers. I'd get your friend to call them asap to cancel and also find out who the existing supplier is as it sounds like the meter is registered as being for a business.

Gerry1

Sounds like your friend may not have registered with the existing supplier(s) and may therefore be on an expensive 'deemed' contract.

For electricity, she needs to ask the local distribution company who supplies her. She can call them free on 105.

For gas, she needs to visit https://www.findmysupplier.energy/webapp/index.html

MarinaPilar

Not sure if this counts as misselling but I am in a pickle with my energy supplier.
I use Flipper to change to new suppliers when the price is right. My last change was last July. My previous supplier People's Energy, had set a direct debit of about £120/month for dual fuel and when I switched I had over £400 in credit to claim back.
New suppolier is Avro and they set the direct debit at £81/month which seemed about right.
The next part is completely my fault. I'm an out of sight out of mind person, and knowing the payment was probably right and being forgetful I have not been sending meter readings. I know that this is bad!! I paid my direct debit every month without fail.
I was probably getting emails from Avro asking for meter readings but I managed not to act on them.
A couple of weeks ago Flipper forwarded an urgent email from Avro asking me to send a meter reading. They were estimating that I owed them about £445 and were going to take a payment of over £200 imminently. I was not happy but thought I only had myself to blame for not reading the meter sooner. I submitted a reading and waited for the new bill. I assumed it would be much lower. In the meantime a payment of £218 was taken.

It was over £500. They have set my new direct debit at £216 a month. How is this possible? Do I have any grounds to complain or ask this to be looked into? I don't know what to say to them because if the meter says that's what I've used then it must be right but I cannot afford these payments. I don't know what to do! I know I've been at home for the last year and probably had the heating on more than I would otherwise but would it really go from £81 a month to £216? I'd be so grateful for any ideas and advice, I don't know where to start. Most of the time it's just my daughter and I at home but there have been more of us here at certain times (I have 2 kids at uni). Gas central heating.

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately this shows why it's never a good idea to let a third party look after your bills.  You're very unlikely to get the best deals because they usually switch you only to companies that pay you commission, and it's probably only reviewed once per year.  But the worst thing, as you've sadly discovered, is that it's not a good idea to take your eye off the ball.  You'll miss any good deals that come along, but above all, you won't have a good understanding of your energy usage and it can all go pear shaped, especially when you don't give monthly readings and check the bills.

Sorry to preach, but first you have to know where you've gone wrong so that you can then understand how to get back on track, and it may help others not to make the same mistakes.

• Send meters readings every month and keep your own independent records.
• The new DD is much higher because it has to increase once to reflect your higher usage, and then again to start clawing back the arrears.  Your DD is not the same as your bill.
• Ask for a payment plan.
• You won't be able to switch from Avro when in debt, but check whether you can switch to a cheaper Avro tariff.  Start comparing with Citizens Advice and 'Which? Switch'.
• Make sure you're not using any electric showers, immersion heaters or electric underfloor heating.

MarinaPilar

Many thanks for the advice. I fully accept the blame. I’m just horrified that the bill could possibly be that much.

I’m never going to let this happen again obviously. What a wake up call 😢

Gerry1

Having just looked at the Flipper website, I'm seriously unimpressed.  They don't switch you if the saving would be less than £50, and they charge £30 for their service if they switch you.  Admittedly they look at the whole of the market, but you could easily end up paying £80 more than if you had taken control yourself.  You're not allowed to contact suppliers independently while you're in contract with Flipper, so you need to escape as soon as you can.

Worst of all, I have such cheap tariffs that any move would cost about £250 per year more because prices have risen steeply in recent months.  Bur Flipper didn't even bother to ask for my existing tariffs or energy usage before wrongly claiming that they could save me £52 per year !

But the good news is that you're not stuck on a pre-payment meter and Avro are pretty competitive, so things are relatively good apart from the arrears.  Summer time is two and a half weeks away so your energy bills should soon start dropping.  Things should be manageable if you can agree a realistic payment plan with Avro and perhaps reducing your consumption a bit by checking how many kWh you use each week.

MarinaPilar

It’s not good is it? 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’m out of there as soon as possible. 

In response to part of your first message, there’s nothing too fancy in the house that would be sucking up so much electricity. I have one basic electric shower in the loft and the other one is non electric. The electric one is used once a day by me. Gas heating, gas hob, electric oven.

in the statement which I looked at today they estimated my gas use for the next year as £360 and electricity as £1450 (approx). I have a four bedroom mid terraced house with some bedrooms not heated as not used. Does that seem right?