Solarplicity: Add your feedback

lewisa

North_Of_Utopia wrote: »

I keep blocking the phone numbers

I would never block the phone number of an energy company.

Their failings at communicating will often form part of a complaint and if you are blocking their numbers then you won't have a leg to stand on if you find yourself in a Ombudsman complaint situation and are citing their communication problems as evidence.

tonyf33

wavelets wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=74780609&postcount=279

Haha, yeah, it's been a few years since I last frequented the forums, changed my user email 4 times since and my utilities about the same

keanufan

I changed to Solarplicity to save money. They didn't use the starting readings I gave, they made up their own figures. Wouldn't reply to emails, eventually spoke with someone who confirmed they did have my readings but couldn't tell me why they weren't using them.


After 3 more attempts by email to get them corrected I had to go to the Ombudsman who got it sorted.



I gave regular readings which weren't used, they estimated figures for their bills which of course then made no sense at all.



No one to answer the phone, over half an hour & still no answer. Left after 9 months with them, took them over 3 months to refund money they owed me, I only knew I had it by checking my bank a/c, no letter or any contact from them & I only got it after using MSE Resolver letter, they just won't respond to emails. I would never recommend them to anyone.

wavelets

keanufan wrote: »

I changed to Solarplicity to save money. They didn't use the starting readings I gave, they made up their own figures. Wouldn't reply to emails, eventually spoke with someone who confirmed they did have my readings but couldn't tell me why they weren't using them.


After 3 more attempts by email to get them corrected I had to go to the Ombudsman who got it sorted.



I gave regular readings which weren't used, they estimated figures for their bills which of course then made no sense at all.



No one to answer the phone, over half an hour & still no answer. Left after 9 months with them, took them over 3 months to refund money they owed me, I only knew I had it by checking my bank a/c, no letter or any contact from them & I only got it after using MSE Resolver letter, they just won't respond to emails. I would never recommend them to anyone.

Another one :eek:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=74780609&postcount=279

Someones out gunning... :rotfl:

Terresa

I thought I would update people as to progress about my complaint against Solarplicity.

Soon after my last post, just over a month ago, I did a manage to convince the Energy Ombudsman to investigate my complaint against Solarplicity.

I am impressed with the speed in which the ombudsman then progressed matters, and now about a month later, they have provided their proposed resolution.

My complaint was essentially regarding the repayment of credit on my account/final bill after I had left Solarplicity. The amount was not huge, and was, in the main, due to another monthly payment Solarplicity took after I had left them.

To their credit, Solarplicity were quite prompt in producing the final bill. This was provided about 3 weeks after I had actually left them, and was due for settlement 14 days thereafter i.e early June

As the money had not arrived by the due date, I emailed them to ask for the return.

The supplier denies ever recieving that email. However the ombudsman found against them in this regard.

However, the ombudsman did inform me that the supplier had scheduled a payment to me by early August i.e. 2 months later.

But by early September, the supplier still had not made that payment, and indeed their records show that scheduled payment was then cancelled.
The supplier did not explain to the ombudsman why payment was not made, nor why the scheduled payment was cancelled.

However, looking at the dates, it would appear the scheduled payment was cancelled when the supplier received an LBA (letter before legal action) I sent by regular post. The supplier confirmed to the ombudsman they had received this letter, and that they have still not responded to it almost 6 weeks later.

It would seem Solarplicity were spoiling for a fight with me over the money they owed me. :mad:

In short, the ombudsman have completely upheld my complaint against Solarplicity.
The ombudsman found the supplier willfully withheld the refund of money they knew was rightfully mine and had completely failed to respond to any communication I had sent them in this regard.
Furthermore, whilst I had no direct evidence to prove the difficulties I experienced in attempting to call this supplier to discuss this matter, the ombudsman said in all the other curcumstances, that they would also uphold this part of my complaint.

So the supplier has now been ordered to:
1. Repay the amount they owe.
2. Pay an additional goodwill gesture (which actually is greater than the amount they originally owed)
3. Apologise in writing for their lack of customer service.

But in speaking with the ombudsman, I was informed that the money they now have to pay me would pale into insignificance compared to the fee the ombudsman will now charge the supplier for having to investigate and resolve this matter.

I wonder if the supplier will pay up now? :cool:

Terresa

Purplebeard wrote: »

I've been with Solarplicity since September 2017 and have been quite happy with them.....until today.
I am a low user of energy, gas 5020kwh, electricity 1650kwh per year which costs £412 per year and Solarplicity were the cheapest supplier I could find. The switch went smoothly and as I've said I was perfectly happy with them.
I received an email from them today informing me that my tariff, Fair Market Price Variable is being discontinued from 26th October and their next best tariff (Smart Fixed September 2018) will cost me £151.89 MORE per year.
Now I appreciate energy is getting more expensive but a hike of £151.89 per year for a low user is ridiculous.
I have since been back on the Cheap energy Club and changed to Out Fox The Market which is costing £456 per year or £44 more than my current Solarplicity tariff.

To be fair, the tariff you were on was the same one we were on.

It was a variable tariff, and so the supplier could have increased or decreased the price at any time. That was a known risk we were all aware of when we took up the offer of this ongoing tariff.
What they actually did was to withdraw the tariff to new customers over 6 months ago, and replace it with a different, more expensive tariff.

I'm sure it was mentioned on MSE, possibly in this thread, at the time.

I felt the writing was on the wall then, hence why we switched 6 months ago. By acting promptly, we actually secured a fixed tariff 6 months ago that was marginally cheaper than the Solarplicity one.
It wouldn't usually have been a large enough saving to have warranted us switching, but this new tariff was lower priced, fixed ... and in the circumstances of Solarplicity having removed their tariff from sale, we went for it.

In all these circumstances, it should come as no great surprise that Solarplicity have now decided to pull the plug completely on this old, low priced, variable tariff.
If they had not done so, I'm sure you would have faced some quite large increase in price anyway, as other suppliers are doing. At least one competitor has already raised their prices 3 times this year.

The fact the supplier has opted to replace their tariff with a more expensive one, rather than increase the price of the existing tariff is, imho, neither here nor there.

Fi81

Switched in May, although the gas switch took a second attempt in September. Communication was pretty poor i.e. they didn't tell me there was a problem with the gas switch - I had to chase.
I also had to chase to get meter readings applied - getting responses takes quite a long tie.

I've switched away after only 6 months as they have put up my tarrif so much.

Dbu

I thought I’d briefly add my own experience. I got a smart meter in April. It never worked and was never going to. Solarplicity haven’t updated the meter information and haven’t resolved this over several months. I’m now over £400 in credit and have stopped my direct debit. I just want to move my supply to someone competent, but I can’t while this remains unresolved.

I’ve raised this with the ombudsman and am forwarding all the correspondence I can. Alas some was direct on the Solarplicity website, but that hasn’t worked for months.

The strange thing is that call centre staff are lovely and sympathetic, but they don’t seem able to resolve anything either.

Please avoid them!

Gwynd

An update on my situation with Solarplicity.

I contacted the Ombudsman, who advised me to "make an official complaint" to Solarplicity, so I sent an email detailing my "official complaint".
I then gave the necessary 2 months for Solarplicity to resolve my complaint - other than 1 phone call, in which I asked if they could call me back half an hour later (bad move on my part, but I didn't want to discuss it in a schoolyard), I heard nothing.

I contacted the Ombudsman in September, they reached a decision on 11th October, and gave Solarplicity until 8th November to resolve my case, their decision was:

Require Solarplicity to:

• contact you to arrange a suitable appointment for an engineer to attend the property and ensure that the electricity smart meter is commissioned;
• provide you with an in home display unit for the electricity smart meter;
• upon commissioning the smart meter issue an accurate bill that bills on the fixed tariff rates and review your monthly direct debit;
• provide an apology in writing for the shortfalls in customer service and the time you have spent complaining about the issue; and
• apply a credit of £150 to your bank account as a gesture of goodwill to acknowledge the shortfalls in customer service and inconvenience caused.

I heard nothing from Solarplicity until Wed 7 Nov at 22:20 (yes that's right, the day before they were supposed to have resolved everything), when I received an email asking if they could send an engineer to look at the meter on the 16th November.

I received the £150 goodwill payment into my bank account on the 9th of November, we'll have to see how everything else works out I guess.

One odd thing I was told by the Ombudsman for you ex-LoCo2 customers.

Solarplicity has supplied your property since 2014. I acknowledge that you have advised that it took supply from LoCo2 on 2 May 2017. However, this was a rebranding as LoCo2 and Solarplicity are the same company. Having reviewed the national database for electricity meters (Ecoes) I am satisfied that you have been supplied by Solarplicity since 1 July 2014.

Regards
Gwynd

Gwynd wrote: »

I'm a long standing LoCo2 customer, I joined back in 2013.
If it weren't for the fact that:
1: They owe me money
2: They gave me half a smart meter (I have the meter, but not the in home display unit)
3: Due to 2, I don't know what's going on with 1.

I'd be long gone, it's got so bad, that I'm having to post things like this on their facebook page, just so that I have a record of it:


[QUOTE=Gwynd;74358449I'm a long standing LoCo2 customer, I joined back in 2013.
If it weren't for the fact that:
1: They owe me money
2: They gave me half a smart meter (I have the meter, but not the in home display unit)
3: Due to 2, I don't know what's going on with 1.

I'd be long gone, it's got so bad, that I'm having to post things like this on their facebook page, just so that I have a record of it:

Now, I know that I'm not the only one who has complained about Solarplicity's customer service of late, but I thought I'd post this again, more so I have a record of what happened than anything else.

13th March
I sent a message via the Enquiries section of my account to find out whether my LoCo2 energy plan was an "eligible Energy Plan" for the "Free LED service", as I did not have a contract pack to refer to for further details (because I'd my LoCo2 account had been transferred).
I sent several further messages, but received no response.

14th April
I was supplied with a "Smart Meter", however, there was an issue with it. I'm not sure what exactly the issue was, just that the engineer said there was an error, and he'd contact me once he'd clarified with Solarplicity what the solution was (the lady he needed to speak to was not in the office on Saturday afternoon).
I have heard nothing since that visit and am still wondering:

A: Whether he'd found a solution?

B: Whether he needed to come back out?

C: What happened to the separate display unit, which he appears to have taken with him?

Whether I could please be sent the instructions for the meter, as I wasn't left anything?

19th April Having received no response to any of my queries regarding the above, I went to the "Enquiries Section" of my account, and received this message "Internal Error There was a problem processing your request.
Please contact us for assistance."

19th April
Emailed to "contact us for assistance, other than:

"Thanks for getting in touch with us.

This is just a quick note to say we've received your email and to let you know that a member of our customer services team will aim to get back to you within 5 working days. - In busy periods this may take a little longer, but we will get back to you as soon as possible."

Had no further response.

2nd May
Having tried every other avenue I could think of, I left a post on the Solarplicity facebook page (this one oddly enough).
Recieved this response from page.

"Solarplicity
Hi Mark, sorry to hear that you have had issues getting in touch with us. If you let me know how I can help I will do my best to do so. Regarding your smart meter we had no feedback from the engineer to look into any issues, so we will contact them to find out what they meant by that. Is your meter working okay?"

I then PM'd them the whole sorry story above, have since heard nothing.

10th May.
Sent another email to Solarplicity as this page keeps telling me everything has been sorted, received another:
"Thanks for getting in touch with us" automated email, and nothing since.

Last time I went to my account, it told me there was a message in the "Enquiries Section" but when I try to see it, it crashes.

So I posted on here, asking what happens if I leave, particularly as I currently have "half a LoCo2 smart-meter".

I was asked to contact with further information.

So here you go ladies and gents, as much of the whole sorry story as I can remember.

I assume I will now get another response asking me to PM the whole story all over again, to then hear nothing back.

That was posted on their facebook page 3 days ago, no reply as yet.

Inigo_Montoya

recently come to the end of my fixed price tariff guarantee period but not had any notification at all the price will increase

tried to give readings to generate a bill to see if the price has changed but all the reads are being ignored - tried about 4 times now

suspect the price HAS changed because during the fixed price period every read was registered & a bill was generated

can see a complaint to the ombudsman fortcoming