Co-operative Energy reviews: Give your feedback

AJR01

My fixed-term contract with Co-op Energy ends on 31/05/16 and I have applied to switch to another supplier. Today I received a letter from Co-op Energy with the following warning:
As you are currently in a fixed-term contract, you could be subject to an exit fee if you leave before the end date of 31/05/2016. Your contract has £30 exit fee per fuel, so you will need to pay this before you leave.
There then follows half a page of ways in which the fee can be paid.


As I am within the last 49 days of my contract term and cannot be charged an exit fee, I find this letter from Co-op Energy to be very misleading, even fraudulent. It certainly reinforces my decision to switch.

Rubidium

AJR01 wrote: »

My fixed-term contract with Co-op Energy ends on 31/05/16 and I have applied to switch to another supplier. Today I received a letter from Co-op Energy with the following warning:
As you are currently in a fixed-term contract, you could be subject to an exit fee if you leave before the end date of 31/05/2016. Your contract has £30 exit fee per fuel, so you will need to pay this before you leave.
There then follows half a page of ways in which the fee can be paid.


As I am within the last 49 days of my contract term and cannot be charged an exit fee, I find this letter from Co-op Energy to be very misleading, even fraudulent. It certainly reinforces my decision to switch.

Yes you are correct, confirmed here on the UKpower website https://www.ukpower.co.uk/cancellation-fees

The co-op are still the worst energy supplier and will tell you all sorts of lies. Trying to communicate with them is painful, they should be fined by the toothless regulator or lose their licence to supply.

Consumerist

AJR01 wrote: »

. . . As I am within the last 49 days of my contract term and cannot be charged an exit fee, I find this letter from Co-op Energy to be very misleading, even fraudulent. It certainly reinforces my decision to switch.

Since Co-op would be in breach of their licence conditions to charge an exit fee in these circumstances, you could complain directly to Ofgem about it, as well as Co-op.

MichaelMcCarthy

I have found them really reasonable! The customer service has always been top notch. I would certainly recommend them.

System

Consumerist wrote: »

Since Co-op would be in breach of their licence conditions to charge an exit fee in these circumstances, you could complain directly to Ofgem about it, as well as Co-op.

To be pedantic, you cannot complain to Ofgem. What you can do is report the Coop to Ofgem at consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk. You will get a standard response along the lines of we will put your comments on file to discuss with the Coop etc etc etc.

FOREVER21

AJR01 wrote: »

My fixed-term contract with Co-op Energy ends on 31/05/16 and I have applied to switch to another supplier. Today I received a letter from Co-op Energy with the following warning:
As you are currently in a fixed-term contract, you could be subject to an exit fee if you leave before the end date of 31/05/2016. Your contract has £30 exit fee per fuel, so you will need to pay this before you leave.
There then follows half a page of ways in which the fee can be paid.


As I am within the last 49 days of my contract term and cannot be charged an exit fee, I find this letter from Co-op Energy to be very misleading, even fraudulent. It certainly reinforces my decision to switch.

Don't worry yourself too much about the statement in their letter as has been said you can switch without exit fees

I received a similar letter last Sept when I told them I was leaving also within the transfer window and was not charged a fee, I think it must be just a standard letter.
Hope you manage to get a final bill from them it took me 6 months to get mine and I had to go to the Ombudsman in order to get it.

AJR01

FOREVER21 wrote: »

Don't worry yourself too much about the statement in their letter as has been said you can switch without exit fees

I received a similar letter last Sept when I told them I was leaving also within the transfer window and was not charged a fee, I think it must be just a standard letter.
Hope you manage to get a final bill from them it took me 6 months to get mine and I had to go to the Ombudsman in order to get it.

I'm not concerned in the slightest about paying exit fees, as I know that I don't have to. My concern is that the wording of the letter could lead someone less knowledgeable about switching to pay Co-op Energy £60 unnecessarily.
Thanks for the tip about potential problem with the final bill.

Consumerist

Hengus wrote: »

To be pedantic, you cannot complain to Ofgem. What you can do is report the Coop to Ofgem at [EMAIL="consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk"]consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk[/EMAIL]. You will get a standard response along the lines of we will put your comments on file to discuss with the Coop etc etc etc.

To be equally pedantic, you can, and should, complain to Ofgem if an energy supplier breaches its licence conditions.

What is also true, however, is that Ofgem will not pursue the particular matter independently of all other complaints it receives but will add to its statistics when deciding what action, if any, to take against a supplier who is consistently in breach.

Micflair

These guys are a joke.

Received a direct debit review from them yesterday stating I'm going from £55 a month to £120 a month as I've not paid my last 3 bills.. Checked my account and I've had a direct debit setup with them for 2 years with no problems and no underpayments. For some reason they had not taken a payment from me in 9 months. When I rung them to ask why they hadn't taken the money they couldn't tell me. Just said it was their fault and offered me £90 compensation. Now I'm going to be out of pocket for £70 a month. Grrr.

boobbby

I was thinking how can anybody not realise they are not paying a. DD of £55 a month for 9 months. On the other hand if this means you receive £90 for not checking statements then what do I know 🤔 . I have just changed to the September 2017 Tariff which is one of the cheapest energy tariffs on the market. If the change of Tarriff goes as well as it did last time then it won't be long before I am back moaning about Co op energy, although somehow they have managed to get my bills correct each time.