Add your feedback on energy supplier Sainsbury’s Energy

JohnnySmith

Have made a complaint against Sainsbury energy to the Ombudsman and Data protection office.


Uswitch did not make clear Sainsbury would not be billing me and the supply would be via British Gas nor any phone call or letter at the time from Sainsbury so an unidentified Br Gas DD was canceled by my bank as I had 12 other regular BR Gas direct debits monthly going out so this one looked like an anomalie or duplicate. Sainsbury energy do not send any notice or letter informing that you’re in arrears or that they will report you to credit file agencies, ever heard of a utility company reporting to credit agencies so this is a new thing - just their billing letter with arrears is amended informing you payment will then be collected by quarterly billing and so its not clear what you need to do or there is some issue and therefore looks confusing and instead they report the arrear immediately to all credit reporting companies as a means to get paid by the customer asap – saves them from engaging debt collecting companies and so fees or sending any letters informing of arrears to customer. Unscrupulous new practice now being used by some companies – thought Sainsbury’s were more reputable than that but seems like a sheep in wolves clothing industry is forming - stay well away from this type of practice and any company who does this as once your credit file is damaged it reduces your loan rating and they will not remove it even after you have paid within 24hrs of noticing any arrears or credit file issue. Terrible complaints service handling too - as take weeks to respond and all they do is hide behind online terms saying Br gas would be supplier and billing (not sure why Sainsbury are even in the picture then!) and the online info does not upload either at uswitch point of transfer or later on – constantly down or having opening browser issues. No telephone call by uswitch or Sainsbury making clear who is the supplier and who will bill – nightmare new supplier and practice so BE AWARE!

DebbieKW

My experience with the switch away from Sainsburys was it went ok but the real issue was settling the final bill. I was in credit before it was raised so the amount I owed was less than the final invoice. However Sainsburys aka British Gas debited the final invoice amount not the outstanding balance. They claimed it “sometimes happens” Not sure how this could possibly be the case because I would have thought it would be automatic.
Two months later I was still owed money and only the threat of the regulator extracted it from them. My advice would be when you’re switching keep signing in to your online account and checking it. And don’t give up on demanding your money back - contrary to what they seem to think, it’s really your money not theirs.

wavelets

British Gas is closing this brand to new applicants today.
Existing customers will all be transferred to British Gas branding in April.
Existing tariffs will be be honoured until their expiry.

More details here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/02/sainsbury-s-energy-to-close-and-customers-to-be-switched-to-brit/