Co-operative Energy reviews: Give your feedback

boobbby

Co op energy advise that I will get a refund of £321 which I should receive in the next 14/21 days. They have known for ages that I was paying too much but I stayed because the fixed rate I was on could not be beaten. Anyway let’s hope my new supplier gives better customer service which I will report on in due course.

Consumerist

boobbby wrote: »

Co op energy advise that I will get a refund of £321 which I should receive in the next 14/21 days. . .

In my experience it will be 21 days to the day. A nice little Chrissie present, nonetheless.

boobbby

Left the Co op on the 4th October and was sent the final bill to that date and was promised a rebate of £321 which I received today. I then decided to double check my payments to the Co op and after I had moved to my new supplier I can see the Co op at the end of October took another payment of £83 which I suppose is typical of them and I have now had to request they refund this payment. Wonder if I will get it before Christmas !!

stinkymojo

Hi, I was hoping someone could help me. I switched my elderly Mother to the Co-operative energy
onto a dual fuel fixed tariff, two years ago. When the term was coming to an end the Mercedes comparison tool advised considerable savings by switching to another company and we initiated the switch. The switch took place 25th September 2017 and we began receiving information from the new supplier. My mother's direct debit for the second year of the Co-op energy was to be either £207 or £215 a month over that year but totalled the £2341. Anyway, final bills have arrived saying we owe the sum of £2103.87p. Now if we owe that, we owe it, but I am astonished that we should owe nearly another whole year's monies? Why has the direct debit been so insufficient in covering the usage? And yes, I realise that it's been insufficient because the usage has apparently been greater than projected, but why on earth was this allowed to happen? Why did they not alter the direct debit amount if the sum they were taking was wholly inadequate to cover the cost of our usage? They have not responded to my enquiry of last weekend and but have rung from a call centre to ask for immediate payment via credit or debit card three times this week which I have fielded saying I'm waiting for a response to my enquiry and have now been asked to do a sent a further letter threatening to refer the matter to a debt recovery agency if it is not paid immediately. If anyone has any can advise me as to what I should be doing to investigate this matter or indeed questions I should be asking of them, I'd be most grateful. We were owed money by the previous supplier when we switched, but it would appear that the usage figures used to obtain a switch and estimate of savings, which were not the same each time are now totally out of date, without anything significantly changing to my knowledge. Have I made a mistake? Have they? Should I make payment now and continue investigating the matter, or hold out until matters are clarified. Do suppliers not vary direct debit payments to cover usage? And if not, do they not have an obligation to make the customer aware that the payments being made/taken are totally insufficient? Many thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give give me.

stinkymojo

NB. MSE, not Mercedes! Sorry.

victor2

stinkymojo wrote: »

... My mother's direct debit for the second year of the Co-op energy was to be either £207 or £215 a month over that year but totalled the £2341. Anyway, final bills have arrived saying we owe the sum of £2103.87p. Now if we owe that, we owe it, but I am astonished that we should owe nearly another whole year's monies?....

That does seem like a huge usage. Is it mostly on electricity or gas?
Look back over the previous bills if you can and see where the debit balance started increasing.
It hasn't been caused by something silly like the gas meter changing from imperial to metric, but still being billed as if it were an imperial meter is it?
Electricity meters are simple, as they show units directly in kWh, as billed.
I am also surprised they didn't adjust the DD amount, but unless there's been a significant change in lifestyle, I don't see how the usage could have increased so dramatically, assuming the initial figures were realistic.
Be careful with the estimated usage for your new supplier too. If your mother now has a high usage, and that has not been used to calculate the DD amount for the new account, it could also be isufficient.
Never use the current monthly cost to calculate a new estimate, always use annual usage in kWh for each fuel.

exasperated_Clive

Hello,

I’ve never done this before (relative novice) so fingers crossed.

I am at the end of my tether with COOPERATIVE ENERGY!

I am unable to access my ONLINE account online!

It seems that I am also unable to receive many of their emails (though have received some). I have contacted them on numerous occasions over many months, have gone through an account reset, tried using their recommended Mozilla Firefox as a browser etc. all to no avail.

The blame is put down to me using a ‘tablet’ (IPad) as well as having a BTINTERNET EMAIL ADDRESS. (BT take no responsibility for me not receiving the emails). Apparently, their website is only fully compatible with personal & laptop computer's, using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. It currently only works on some tablets, so as a rule they always advise customers to use a PC or laptop to access their account.

Co op didn’t inform me of any possible problems before I joined them because not every customer will encounter these difficulties. They certainly knew all about it! Had I have known I would have gone elsewhere.

I have made an official complaint, requested a ‘goodwill payment’ to compensate me for my continuing inconvenience, stress etc etc over the months. (Could then buy a compatible computer!).

I have now requested that senior management get involved - quite simply, I don’t know what else to do, I have had more than I can cope with! Because they advised me to use a PC/laptop and Firefox they refuse to compensate me! They seem to think that they have filled their obligation (paper bills for the time being). It’s almost farcical! I signed up in ‘good faith’ and, through no-fault of my own, am unable to access my account. It seems to me that Co-operative Energy’s online system is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE!

Please, does anyone know how I can get this resolved? I just want to view my energy details online. As I said, I am at the end of my tether!

Thank you, in advance.

exasperated Clive

Consumerist

exasperated_Clive wrote: »

. . . Please, does anyone know how I can get this resolved? I just want to view my energy details online. As I said, I am at the end of my tether! . . .

The simple truth seems to be that you can't. They introduced a new online system a few years ago and it has been pants ever since.

In practice, as long as you receive your statements, you can keep track of your usage, which is the most important part, until you are able to switch.

lizzietwo

The only way I was able to get my dispute resolved was to email one of the executive Officers.

If I give a name in this email it will be moderated, so just google cooperative energy ceo, when you find his name then there are also email addresses shown on line for him.

Good Luck

exasperated_Clive

Many thanks to both of you for your responses!

Up the ladder we go........