New supplier forgot to change my account, now old supplier wants to bill us

spence2370

Wonder if anyone can advise us......

8 months ago we switched our gas to supplier A - and left supplier A to tell supplier B that we wanted supplier A to supply our gas.

However we have never received a bill for our gas from either supplier A or supplier B. So eventually we rang supplier A to tell them this - and it turns out, they never actually changed the account over from supplier B to supplier A.

Now supplier A are saying we need to pay supplier B for 8 months of gas supply - even though its their error that they didnt transfer the account over in the first place. Can they force us to pay this amount? Where do we stand?

tripled

Who else are you thinking will pay supplier B for the 8 months of gas you used? You would have had to pay one or the other anyway, so yes you'll have to pay.

Supplier 'A' isn't actually obliged to take you on as a customer, while I'm sure they wanted to, the fact it didn't happen due to an error doesn't mean they have to give you anything, although if you are worse off and complain bitterly they may give you a goodwill gesture.

As for supplier B, all they knew was they'd paid for gas, and you'd used it! Once the amount has been outstanding for 28 days they won't allow you to change until your accounts have been brought up to date.

beeniemac

If you didn't receive a bill for 8 months why didn't you question it?

In short, yes you owe the money to your 'old' supplier.

Your request to withdraw may have been rejected by your old supplier, but I'm sure one of the two would have written to you about it. It seems that the agent that dealt with it didn't finalise the sale/contract.