Help! I've been sent a huge final bill.. even though I left them 17 months ago

albo2002

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I've received a 'final bill' from Spark Energy for several hundred pounds even though I left them in the spring of 2010!

The story is that I was with Spark Energy from 2008 to 2010. I had all sorts of problems with them, including they failed to put me on the correct direct debit despite several requests.

Then in early 2010 I received a huge bill from them. When I queried it they sent me a list of my bills going back to 2008 and I noticed various errors in their accounting.

When I told them this they accepted it and sent me new bills - which also contained errors, which they also accepted.

I got fed up and in about March 2010 I tried to switch to nPower (Spark verbally allowed me to do this), on a much cheaper tariff and with various cashback incentives that were worth about £200. However, Spark blocked the move, stating I hadn't paid a bill that they hadn't even sent me!

When I brought them up on this they again admitted their error again and offered me money off the final bill which they still never then sent me. They then did allow me to switch.

17 months on and out of the blue I receive a 'final amount due', stating that if I dont pay in 7 days they will pass this onto their collections team and charge me 15% more!

I've heard of a 12 month back billing rule. Does that apply here? Is there anything I can do?

albo2002

And if the back billing rule does apply, are Spark even part of the code?

albo2002

My letter of complaint to Spark:

Dear Spark Energy

I wish to make a complaint about your services.

I have received a bill from you for £544 and there are a number of issues I have with it. Firstly, I left your company more than 17 months ago.

Secondly, the issues I had prior to leaving were never resolved.

In December 2009 Spark Energy decided to reduce my direct debit from over £100 per month to £55 per month. The reason for this was because I was £235 in credit on the account.

In February 2010 I asked to find out how much credit I was still in. Despite repeated requests by me over the next two months, Spark was unable to tell me, so I decided to switch supplier, lured by a £130 Quidco cashback for joining nPower. Unfortunately Spark prevented the switch taking place, stating that I owed them £600 - something I had never been informed about.

I contested this figure on the basis that it was ludicrous that I had spent £600 + £235 + over £300 (in direct debit payments) in just four months in my two bedroom flat. Spark Energy came back to me to state that there had been accounting errors (which were not specified), but I now owed £470. I contested this, and asked to see a breakdown of the accounts.

When I was sent this I noticed that the accounts had not included £525 of payments I had made from September 2009 to March 2010. I informed Spark of this and was told they would investigate this and that I would have a £20 goodwill gesture applied to the account (which was never applied).

Shortly afterwards, I switched and never received a final bill payment (nor the results of the above investigation), despite requests by me for one (I was under the impression that I was owed about £70 by Spark).

17 months on I receive a final bill for £544. On top of that, on the bill it states that I'm still a customer of Spark and details how much of their energy I have used in the past 12 months. And it confusingly states on one page that I have 10 days to pay the bill and on another page that I have 7 days to pay it.

I called Spark today to enquire about this and was told for details of compensation and resolution of these problems, I need to email you. I was also told that Spark is not a member of Ofgem, However, according to Ombudsman Services: Energy, which is Ofgem approved, Spark Energy is a participating company.

Could you please clarify the above matters for me?