Add your feedback on energy supplier Spark

MillicentBystander

I see Ofgem have taken up Consumer Futures' and BBC Watchdog's complaints and launched an investigation into this company. Will be interesting to see what the findings are. Their place at the top of the switching sites seems to have been taken over by Flow (for the moment).

http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/news/news_story.asp?id=198802&title=Spark+Energy+investigated+by+Ofgem+

Wywth

sovilla wrote: »

Sometimes yeah, then after 6 years they are not enforceable.

6 years? :eek:
But in the meantime, you could face demands, possible legal action, debt collectors, bailiffs, etc? You'll probably have your credit file trashed too? Hah! That's a good deal???

iainscomputer

Jake07 wrote: »

Add me the list of Spark victims please. They are dreadful. Reeds Rains have a contract with them by which, unknown to the tenant, they switch you over to Spark energy. Is there a clause in the tenancy agreement about this? (I do not have the agreement at hand)

In my case Spark did not bill us for the ENTIRE 2012, and only after we moved out, they chased ME (although there were 4 people on the tenancy agreement) for the entire owed sum for gas (I had managed to keep the current electricity supplier). They were so cheeky that they went through a debt-recovery agent Clark & Buchanan.

Do you guys think I can legally request that bill to be re-issued as 4 separate bills in the name of each tenant? Spark DO have the tenancy agreement so they can see that 4 people were living there. Am I legally liable for the whole bill?

I have lodged a complaint with spark on several points two main of which are: why is 1 tenant liable for the bills of all, why had there been no bills for the entire year. I will keep you posted about the outcome of the complaint. If they refuse - do you think I have a chance with the energy Ombudsman?

Thanks

We rented out my wifes house using Reeds Rains & they changed the supply over to Spark Energy! We had been in their shop up to 10 times & this was NEVER mentioned, we wouldn't have agreed to it.
It is in the tenancy agreement, but only 3 lines at the top of page 4 & we missed it. It might be in the tenancy but it is morally wrong & corrupt to change the utility supplier when you are not paying the bill.
Our tenant is a single mum with limited income & she now has to struggle with these shysters to change the utilities over.

Wywth

iainscomputer wrote: »

We rented out my wifes house using Reeds Rains & they changed the supply over to Spark Energy! We had been in their shop up to 10 times & this was NEVER mentioned, we wouldn't have agreed to it.
It is in the tenancy agreement, but only 3 lines at the top of page 4 & we missed it. It might be in the tenancy but it is morally wrong & corrupt to change the utility supplier when you are not paying the bill.
Our tenant is a single mum with limited income & she now has to struggle with these shysters to change the utilities over.

Sounds more like an issue with the letting agent you appointed.

sovilla

Wywth wrote: »

6 years? :eek:
But in the meantime, you could face demands, possible legal action, debt collectors, bailiffs, etc? You'll probably have your credit file trashed too? Hah! That's a good deal???

As previously stated im bankrupt, so credit file already trashed. I refuse to pay a debt I didnt sign up for or want in the first place.

Coincidently they have just emailed me my final bill. Maybe there are staff checking out these forums. I owe them over £1000, cant afford to pay it. I have 5 kids and only work 20 hours. They can have £20 a month or take me to court.

Im wondering as I didnt sign anything to transfer to spark, I wasnt aware my utilities had changed and its not in my tennancy agreement can they enforce this debt?

Wee_B

We had to rent a house for a year and had no choice but to use Spark Energy. I'm pleased to say we never had a single problem with them. When we bought our new house, for convenience, we just stayed with the supplier the previous owners had - British Gas. Our energy bills were horrendous (OK, it's quite a big house, and old, but not THAT big). We rejoined Spark because they could save us over £70 a month (Yes, £70 a month)! We were wary at first because of the all the bad feedback we saw but they have addressed this quite openly on their own website and pledged to improve. From the first phone call, where I grilled them about this bad feedback and what they had so far done to change, I can only say I have been very impressed. I have never had to wait long for them to pick up the phone (and there is a call-back service available if you are waiting) and they have been unfailingly polite and helpful. The changeover from British Gas went very smoothly and all is going very well so far. So - I hope that helps other people decide. If anything changes, I will post again

MillicentBystander

Welcome to the forum. Interesting first post. I have to ask - what is your annual usage to be saving £840 per year with Spark compared to British Gas? I'm assuming you used the actual annual consumption figures to get to this projected saving with Spark?


PS Forgot to ask, which Spark tariff are you on and which British gas tariff were you on?

CharlieCatEsq

Hello, first time poster!

I joined up mostly because i live in a shared house and didnt want the hassle of working out what everyone owed each month and the shock of a winter fuel bill on the door mat! We pay £70 for gas and £70 for electric a month between the 3 of us and it has, so far been fine...

Apart from when i realised that we had stopped payiong EDF has Spark had told us we had switched for gas, had been paying spark but they hadn't made the switch at all!

Ended up owing EDF a few hundred pounds in arrears but when i spoke to Spark they agreed to allow us to stop paying them gas money for the length of time they had not actually been supplying us.

Slightly concerned that they reissued me a bill that showed us only paying them £70 a month for the entire year instead of a few months but i plan on having a word this week. I don't want them to land us with a huge bill at the end of the year as it defeats the object.

I say if you can afford it, avoid them but for a simple price plan for a shared house where a different DD amount is due each month and thats too much hassle to sort, they come up pretty good.

lstar337

Lol, just searched this thread out because I did a comparison site search for our latest consumption figures on all the top comparison sites, and was informed that I could make an annual saving of £177 by switching to Spark.

After just reading the posts on here I thought I would go direct to the Spark website to see what it had to say, and guess what?

We have 0 options that could save you money.

So it seems that some of the top comparison sites (2 recommended Spark) are talking BS.

Unless there is an explanation that I am missing?

MrX

I joined them in March 13. Since then they have happily taken my monthly DD but have never issued a bill. Three times they have set dates when one will be issued. 3 times they just move it a few months down the line. I've asked them one more time what the hell is going on before I contact the ombudsman.

Terrible company.