Help with dealing with a complaint against former supplier

jalexa

pinkpinkuk wrote: »

Also would appreciate less of the digging, guys...

Sorry I'm confused.

"I never had access to any of my bills, so I didn't see the "thumbs down sign". It was an online account and they didn't send me an access code so I couldn't access my bills, and they wouldn't send me a copy of my paper bills"

and...

"...they also admit that it took "several attempts" to get paper copies of my online bills..."

I don't mean by that that I don't believe that you don't have a valid complaint in respect of serial customer service failure, but in making a complaint you need to have a deliverable in mind. IMO, the failure to send paper bill copies at the first time of asking is the central failure, though your OP fails to explain the timeframe when a paper bill was eventually provided, giving you first sight of the estimated reading "thumbs down".

In continuing this you need to have a deliverable outcome in mind to settle the complaint. What outcome do you have in mind?

I think (in complaint handling speake) Southern Electric have put their hands up and offered reasonable payment terms and a £37 bill reduction. I can only fault the "£37 bill reduction" not being a £50 ex-gratia payment.

That said, it is 100% your call whether to accept the current offer or go to the Energy Ombudsman. `There is no "cost" to you but you will be asked to indicate an acceptable outcome, which may well be judged on its "reasonableness".

Terrylw1

Ah, now I'm with you.

So, a 2 rate E7 billed to standard rate.

If this occurred on a cpswitch, it would involve you using a switching site or speaking to a salesman. If you used a site and picked standard when you should be E7, you would be responsible. If you spoke to a salesman who advised you to go standard when he should have advised E7 because you had storage heating, it would be mis sale issue.

You were a change of occupier though hence there is no sale involved.

So, you have to consider a different approach. If you could see the bills, it would be likely you would have raised at the point of the first bill being received.

- were you informed that you would be billed on standard? Was any sales based discussion to advise initiated when you registered with them?

- you couldn't see your bills so couldn't raise it until now and you thought you would be on E7 pricing not standard.

- put your consumption into a switching site and see if all the prices are better on E7 than standard. This means you should be E7. Suppliers often use a 70/30 split or the more recent 76/24 as the break even point for E7. So, you should E7 if your off peak usage is higher than the low value or if lower you would need standard pricing. This is an old fashioned method and its a remnant of the nationalisation processes. Pricing has greatly change since and regional prices differ so using a switching site to do this calculation is far more accurate.

- did you know it was standard? If not, this is not your fault unless you ignore the bills you get.

- billing a property with storage heating should E7 unless they use a lot in the daytime. If they do, its personal to that customer and may not continue with next customer.

Think about these points because these would be factors considered from their side in investigating the complaint.

Terrylw1

Based on the above, if they did not advise you, you didn't know it would be standard rates and you had no bill access to raise a query - they should completely rebill your account on E7 pricing.

The error may be on the previous account though. If the previous customer was on standard, you should have been asked about what you wanted. If the previous customer was E7, its a very different issue and they are at fault as unless you asked for standard, they should have defaulted it to what the previous customer was on.

I have also point out that its very easy for someone to miss this. It could even be the previous customers fault and they accepted being overcharged.

Another consideration is your meter. Not all E7 meters are allowed to operate in a standard billing role. To check this means obtaining a couple of data items off your distributors MPAS. If you want to do this, let me know on this thread and I can help you get the data items and I can confirm if you meter can work this way (its all standard data you and other customers share for your meter and cannot be used other than to understand how your meter works)