spark energy problems

suzyqiow

was wondering if anyone could give me some advice?
i moved into a 2bed flat on the isle of wight in july last year with a friend, when we initially moved in we tried to find out who our supplier was to give our opening readings (our landlord who we private let through didn't know) but couldn't find out. We initially contacted southern electric who said they would find out and contact them to switch over. turns out our supplier was SPARK ENERGY, they refused to let us swap as apparently our account was massively in arrears. at least we knew who to contact now, and after 18 phone calls we finally got to speak to someone at spark, we were told that the account on the property was over £500 behind (due to previous tenant), but once explaining we were new tenants and giving them our moving in readings... a new account was set up.
At this point, other than finding them hard to get hold of, we were happy. After a couple of months we got an estimated bill in the post, that day we rang with exact readings and they said a new bill was being sent out. for the first 11 weeks our bill was £25.12. during the next 11 weeks, things didn't go too smoothly with us living together and my flatmate decided to leave shortly before christmas, i then left at the end january as at this point i was only staying at the flat 2 nights a week and at my boyfriends the rest of the time. this meant we were in the flat for another 11 weeks after our last electric bill in total. during the week i moved out, our 2nd electric bill arrived.... this time for £490! i couldn't understand how a bill could go from £25 - £490?! i know it was winter, but neither of us had really been there for the last month, it seemed drastic. I contacted spark to tell them the final readings, our date of moving and to query the last bill. it took 28 attempts over 4 weeks to actually get hold of someone (at one point i was on hold for over 25 mins only to be hung up on when a voice finally answered). I spoke to a very helpful lady named Debbie, who told me to email all my details directly to her and she would send a new bill (she said £490 was an estimated bill and not to worry) to my parents address as i was staying with them. by this point it was march.
a bill never came, so i tried to contact spark again via email and phone. this went on for another few months. either no-one picked up, or returned my emails, during this time i actually moved off the isle of wight, but continued to try and speak to someone giving them my new contact details over and over. In June the new tentant of the property went to my old place of work (our family business) and spoke to my mother. he had a stack of mail addressed to me at the old property (although they knew i wasn't there) saying i now owed them over a £1000 and they were sending debt collecters after me. i tried to ring them straight away, and this time managed to speak to someone in only a couple of days of ringing. a gentleman named colin was very apologetic and after explaining my situation asked me to email him all my details, along with previous emails attatched, which i did that evening. I receieved a conformation email and was told someone would get back to me.
I have heard nothing back since, and tried to call numerous times over the last few weeks. then today my mum had another visit from the new tenant. spark won't let him have an account at the flat until i have paid mine. apparently my bill is now £2000.
i actually spoke to spark today, who said it hadn't been updated on their sysytem that i had moved out (even though they had been made aware of this one 3 occasions by phone and 5 by email). i explained EVERYTHING again, and he told me not to panic, and he would sort it out. after a 57 minute phonecall my new total is apparently £790. this is for the entire 6 months our lease was valid. apparently the £25.12 payment we paid for our first quarter was estimated and invalid (?) and this is the amount we used in our time.
am I the only one who thinks this is massively incorrect, I've never paid £790 for 6 years electric, let alone 6 months in a small 2 bed flat that was mainly empty for at least 7 weeks of that. i do not have £790 spare, and apparently i have to pay it now or face debt collectors. i just don't understand how it can be this much, especially where i KNOW the first quarter bill wasn't estimated.
if anyone has had similar problems, or has any advice on who i can turn to for help i would greatly appreciate it

Wywth

suzyqiow wrote: »

was wondering if anyone could give me some advice?
i moved into a 2bed flat on the isle of wight in july last year with a friend, when we initially moved in we tried to find out who our supplier was to give our opening readings (our landlord who we private let through didn't know) but couldn't find out. We initially contacted southern electric who said they would find out and contact them to switch over. turns out our supplier was SPARK ENERGY, they refused to let us swap as apparently our account was massively in arrears. at least we knew who to contact now, and after 18 phone calls we finally got to speak to someone at spark, we were told that the account on the property was over £500 behind (due to previous tenant), but once explaining we were new tenants and giving them our moving in readings... a new account was set up.
At this point, other than finding them hard to get hold of, we were happy. After a couple of months we got an estimated bill in the post, that day we rang with exact readings and they said a new bill was being sent out. for the first 11 weeks our bill was £25.12. during the next 11 weeks, things didn't go too smoothly with us living together and my flatmate decided to leave shortly before christmas, i then left at the end january as at this point i was only staying at the flat 2 nights a week and at my boyfriends the rest of the time. this meant we were in the flat for another 11 weeks after our last electric bill in total. during the week i moved out, our 2nd electric bill arrived.... this time for £490! i couldn't understand how a bill could go from £25 - £490?! i know it was winter, but neither of us had really been there for the last month, it seemed drastic. I contacted spark to tell them the final readings, our date of moving and to query the last bill. it took 28 attempts over 4 weeks to actually get hold of someone (at one point i was on hold for over 25 mins only to be hung up on when a voice finally answered). I spoke to a very helpful lady named Debbie, who told me to email all my details directly to her and she would send a new bill (she said £490 was an estimated bill and not to worry) to my parents address as i was staying with them. by this point it was march.
a bill never came, so i tried to contact spark again via email and phone. this went on for another few months. either no-one picked up, or returned my emails, during this time i actually moved off the isle of wight, but continued to try and speak to someone giving them my new contact details over and over. In June the new tentant of the property went to my old place of work (our family business) and spoke to my mother. he had a stack of mail addressed to me at the old property (although they knew i wasn't there) saying i now owed them over a £1000 and they were sending debt collecters after me. i tried to ring them straight away, and this time managed to speak to someone in only a couple of days of ringing. a gentleman named colin was very apologetic and after explaining my situation asked me to email him all my details, along with previous emails attatched, which i did that evening. I receieved a conformation email and was told someone would get back to me.
I have heard nothing back since, and tried to call numerous times over the last few weeks. then today my mum had another visit from the new tenant. spark won't let him have an account at the flat until i have paid mine. apparently my bill is now £2000.
i actually spoke to spark today, who said it hadn't been updated on their sysytem that i had moved out (even though they had been made aware of this one 3 occasions by phone and 5 by email). i explained EVERYTHING again, and he told me not to panic, and he would sort it out. after a 57 minute phonecall my new total is apparently £790. this is for the entire 6 months our lease was valid. apparently the £25.12 payment we paid for our first quarter was estimated and invalid (?) and this is the amount we used in our time.
am I the only one who thinks this is massively incorrect, I've never paid £790 for 6 years electric, let alone 6 months in a small 2 bed flat that was mainly empty for at least 7 weeks of that. i do not have £790 spare, and apparently i have to pay it now or face debt collectors. i just don't understand how it can be this much, especially where i KNOW the first quarter bill wasn't estimated.
if anyone has had similar problems, or has any advice on who i can turn to for help i would greatly appreciate it

I'm sorry, but I really do find your post hard to follow and more particularly pinpoint the actual issue you have, so please forgive me if I have things incorrect.

However, as far as I can tell, you were a tenant in a property that was supplied by Spark Energy and you appear to wish to raise a dispute with your bill and this is not helped by the fact that you are finding it difficult on frequent occassions to contact the supplier by both email & telephone.

Here is a link to the Spark Energy complaints procedure which includes a postal address.
http://www.sparkenergy.co.uk/pdf/complaints/complaints_process_july_2012.pdf

I would urge you to consider getting some help, perhaps from friends, family or your local CAB office in drafting your letter of complaint to them as if it is written in the same style as your post, the supplier may have dfficulty in actually identifying the actual complaint you have (like I appear to struggle with )

If you provide the actual meter readings at the start and end of your tenancy to the supplier, as hopefully were agreed with you and your landlord on both the ingoing and outgoing inventory/statement of condition documents, then the supplier should be able to accurately bill you based on those readings.

With regards the new tenant, then any dispute or non-payment of bills you are involved with should not affect the supplier setting up and starting a new account with the new tenant.
If the new tenant is having issues, and contacts you for help, I would suggest you give them the same complaints link and let them raise their own complaint with the supplier.