USwitch failed switch due to technical error, not honoring fixed tariff applied for

savingup80

I received an email today from Uswitch saying that the switch I applied for back in September has not gone through because of a technical error. The tarriff is now so much more because of the recent energy price rises. I switched when Martin was hammering the point home in his weekly emails and now this happened!!

Email:

"Re: npower
Thank you for getting in touch regarding the npower switch.
The tariff you applied for was the Go Fix 7, but this will not be honoured as the switch failed due to a technical error. All switches sent on that day never arrived at npower so you will need a new quote for a new tariff. We are very sorry for the delays and inconvenience, we have strived to contact each customer affected by the error, but unfortunately this was not always possible"

Has anyone had a similar experience? Do I have any leg to stand on with uswitch or npower?

Any advice would so greatly appreciated.

rogerblack

Depends on the 'technical error'.
If the emails (say) arrived at npower, and they dropped them on the floor, perhaps you might have some grounds.
If it wasn't sent by uswitch, then you could try to sue them for damages, but this seems fairly unlikely to succeed, unless you can show they've been grossly negligent.

notbritishgas

I think this reinforces the point that use the comparison sites like U switch to find the cheapest option, then use a cashback site like topcashback to do the switch. That way you apply directly on the energy companies website, cutting out the middle man.

Of course if you do not want cashback then apply straight on the energy companies site.

macman

Did you not chase NPower after 10 days or so when you had not heard anything?
The above advice is spot on-no middleman if you use a cashback site.

savingup80

I used Topcashback to access Uswitch to get cashback as that was the best deal at the time. Obviously a rookie error. Everyone who switched to npower via uswitch that day will be in the same position, quite a few I'd imagine as it was the same day Martin made a last massive push in his weekly email advising everyone to switch. I called npower after 2 weeks and they said the switch takes time to come through.