Solar energy - Feed-in Tariff payment delays - your experiences?

dprice1164

There's a clear under performer there.

mysterons

Better add a -1 to the +1 that I gave E.On way back then, now 71 days and counting since last TGM reading sent and acknowledged with no payment or statement issued by them :mad:

carolinabirichina

Hi again

well my FIT payment cheque from British Gas finally turned up last Friday - it took 35 working days!

I am going to wait and see what happens with the next payment - the reading for which is due on the 23rd August.

Perhaps this was just a blip because I see that they are now supplying a "proper" statement with the cheque showing how the payment has been calculated which they never did before.

Mind you, I would still like to change to a company that does direct payments into a bank account instead of cheques which I think are a pain.

The_Green_Hornet

jkpaul wrote: »

I thought this thread was an excellent idea, but with so many pages & posts found it easy to get lost, lose track of the best FiT companies and to keep a mental note of the ones to avoid.

A useful "point in time" summary but I think a deeper analysis is required, especially on the one company that everyone seems to be pointing their fingers at, namely E.ON.

From reading all the comments on this thread, and from my own experiences with E.ON, my summary of their performance is as follows:

Up until late last year E.ON were paying FIT payments into their customers bank accounts within two to three weeks of receiving the generation meter readings using a manual process and virtually everyone was happy with their service, so much so that people were strongly recommending them on here.

With the upsurge of installations and FIT applications at the end of last year, E.ON started to struggle with their manual payment process and started to inform customers that payment would be received within 30 days which they then increased to 45 days. Understandably, some posters were unhappy with the delay and started to post negatively on this forum. However, beneath all the bravado of threatening litigation and the like not many of them went through the official complaints procedure with E.ON.

Those posters who did follow the E.ON complaints procedure found that their late payments issues were being resolved and that in many cases E.ON offered compensation for the inconvenience.

At the same time E.ON communicated that they were in the process of transferring payments from a manual process to a computerised system and that once migrated future payments would be made within 5 days of the meter reading being received. A poster has already confirmed that this is the case.

So where does that leave you with the original question of who is the best FIT company and who are the ones to avoid?

Well in reality if your existing electricity supplier is one of the big 6 then you will likely be restricted to using them as your FIT provider so unless you are prepared to move supplier you won't have any choice.

Yes, E.ON did have problems with their old manual processes but they do seem to be addressing them by introducing a new computerised system so with a little patience service will be back to normal, and if it is not then simply use their complaints procedure to get it sorted out.

Yut_Man

Nice to see someone has tried to gleam useful info from this thread. Its nice to see the break down but you need a life. these post go on forever.

: >

Seanymph

I've only just found this thread - and had posted in utilities about EON's FIT payments - for information from my experiences....

EON were not computerised in any way - they had us all on spreadsheets. This meant fairly quick payments got slower and slower because more people signed up and it was more cumbersome.

They introduced a 'new' 'automated' system.

They didn't tell anyone - and stopped paying under the old system even though people weren't yet on the 'new' one. They have between 10 and 20,000 people still awaiting input (as of the week before last).

I threatened to complaint to their regulatory body - they have officially been given 90 days to make payments to people before a complaint will be entertained, they are happy they are working within those guidelines.

If anyone wants the number to the complaints team who sorted it out for me pm me and I'll pass along the name and number.

She managed on a Monday to find my records, input them, and when I refused to allow them a further 15 days for a payment raised a manual BACS payment which arrived in my account on the Thursday.

Four days.

It can be done -she was brilliant - but if you don't chase it and complain you remain in that pile of 20,000 that they are 'slowly working through'.

Once you are IN the automated system then apparently payments will be executed within 5 days of receiving your readings - it's the fact that they have cancelled the old system and therefore have no effective means of paying you until you are input into the new system and they don't have the staff to effect that any quicker.

But they can - phone, and complain.

mistermoneysaver

System installed at the end of feb 2012 (27th) still waiting for EDF to make a first payment!!!. I wonder how many other EDF customers are waiting for their money? I suspect EDF has a very nice high interest account keeping all of our lovely money!!! B!"£$%^s

Who pays my tariffs to me?


Although the FITs are established in law, rather than coming from the government, the tariffs are actually paid by the energy suppliers.
When you register a system for the fits you nominate which energy supplier you want to use. Under the legislation, this supplier is called the 'FITs Licensee'.
Where does the money come from?

It comes out of the pockets of the supply companies because they are really nice guys!

No seriously...
The suppliers pass on the cost of the Feed-In Tariffs scheme to all their electricity customers.
... so the bottom line is that people who don't install renewable energy systems pay for those who do!

Martyn1981

Martyn1981 wrote: »

SDJ & Orrery, as promised, reading submitted today. So who will get paid first? Or all together?

Update in a month perhaps!

Mart.

Payment received today, so a mid month reading took 1 month. Previous payment 27/4/12, so 11 days faster this time.

I assume (?) that all payments will go through nowish, if so, then a late month reading is probably the best with EDF. Interesting to know if the early and late submissions are paid at this same time.

Mart.

sly_dog_jonah

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Payment received today, so a mid month reading took 1 month. Previous payment 27/4/12, so 11 days faster this time.

I assume (?) that all payments will go through nowish, if so, then a late month reading is probably the best with EDF. Interesting to know if the early and late submissions are paid at this same time.

Mart.

I've not received either a remittance advice nor the credit into our bank for my reading submitted 25/6. That implies that they aren't all processed for payment on the same day.

orrery

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Payment received today, so a mid month reading took 1 month....
...Interesting to know if the early and late submissions are paid at this same time.

Yes, interesting experiment. Mine was the very start of month - nothing yet.