electric account transferred without knowledge

pennypop

Hi can any one help , not sure if posting in the correct place. I am part of a charitable company of volunteers that have taken over the running of a local community hall, obviously picking up all the utility bill etc. we have various user groups that hire areas of our hall complex and pay us weekly rents (inclusive of all utilities), back in September 2012, I tried on behalf of the company to move our energy suppliers from those that the local council use to ones of our choice, in November I was informed that although the gas had transfered successfully, the electric could be transferred as it had already been transferred in June. With further investigation I found that one of the user groups has been cold called and told "you are on emergency electric you need to switch to our company", this they agreed to , then went to find their electric meter, we advised them they don't have an individual meter, we only have 1 meter for the whole building. The user group then phoned the company back and told them they had no authority to agree the transfer, they didn't need the transfer. This was ignored by the new electric company. At this stage this was totally without knowledge of any one in the charitable company. Subsequently, I have had numerous telephone conversation with the Electric company, firstly they refused to talk to me as my name or the company name where not on the account, due to data protection. I spoke with Ofgem, who advised me that I had to wait 8 weeks before they could get involved, then the electric company said if we cleared the debt they would transfer it back to the original company, even though not in my company name we are OK to clear the debt, never at any stage have we argued that we have used the energy, but it is being charged at over twice the rate we would have paid. after 8 weeks Ofgem then advised me that as the account is not in my companies name they could not take the case up, it wasn't an illegal transfer as anyone answering the phone could take out a contract, even though our company doesn't have a telephone line in the building. to date this has cost my company over £4,000, and I feel unfairly treated on behalf of the company, we are a charity. can anyone offer any advice, can we claim any form of compensation.

Fire_Fox

Have you written to the energy supplier several times, exhausting their formal complaints procedure as detailed on their website?

Wywth

pennypop wrote: »

Hi can any one help , not sure if posting in the correct place. I am part of a charitable company of volunteers that have taken over the running of a local community hall, obviously picking up all the utility bill etc. we have various user groups that hire areas of our hall complex and pay us weekly rents (inclusive of all utilities), back in September 2012, I tried on behalf of the company to move our energy suppliers from those that the local council use to ones of our choice, in November I was informed that although the gas had transfered successfully, the electric could be transferred as it had already been transferred in June. With further investigation I found that one of the user groups has been cold called and told "you are on emergency electric you need to switch to our company", this they agreed to , then went to find their electric meter, we advised them they don't have an individual meter, we only have 1 meter for the whole building. The user group then phoned the company back and told them they had no authority to agree the transfer, they didn't need the transfer. This was ignored by the new electric company. At this stage this was totally without knowledge of any one in the charitable company. Subsequently, I have had numerous telephone conversation with the Electric company, firstly they refused to talk to me as my name or the company name where not on the account, due to data protection. I spoke with Ofgem, who advised me that I had to wait 8 weeks before they could get involved, then the electric company said if we cleared the debt they would transfer it back to the original company, even though not in my company name we are OK to clear the debt, never at any stage have we argued that we have used the energy, but it is being charged at over twice the rate we would have paid. after 8 weeks Ofgem then advised me that as the account is not in my companies name they could not take the case up, it wasn't an illegal transfer as anyone answering the phone could take out a contract, even though our company doesn't have a telephone line in the building. to date this has cost my company over £4,000, and I feel unfairly treated on behalf of the company, we are a charity. can anyone offer any advice, can we claim any form of compensation.

You need to give your employees more training

Nothing to stop you switching your electricity supplier again if you wish ... as long as it complies with the contractual terms of the supplier you currently pay.
Maybe whoever controls your bought ledger should have some training too if they are not clear who you have supply contracts with and therefore who they should be paying.

dogshome

I'm wondering if your present contract is for a 'Business Supply', as £4,000 in extra costs since June 2012 doesn't seem a feasable difference for a change to one Domestic supplier from another
Also
" You are on an Emergency Supply at high rates" is a classic ploy of the many sharks that swim in the Business Supply market.

I don't know if your charity status and annual consumption warrents Domestic v Business Utilitys, but it worth checking

Fire_Fox

Wywth wrote: »

You need to give your employees more training

Nothing to stop you switching your electricity supplier again if you wish ... as long as it complies with the contractual terms of the supplier you currently pay.
Maybe whoever controls your bought ledger should have some training too if they are not clear who you have supply contracts with and therefore who they should be paying.

You misunderstood the post. It was a member of a user group (likely a voluntary organisation) of a community hall that switched, the OP is a volunteer for the charitable organisation which runs the hall. Nobody is an employee of anybody else, but there are two separate organisations involved, one has erroneously taken over the supply from the other and switched to boot.

Wywth

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You misunderstood the post. It was a member of a user group (likely a voluntary organisation) of a community hall that switched, the OP is a volunteer for the charitable organisation which runs the hall. Nobody is an employee of anybody else, but there are two separate organisations involved, one has erroneously taken over the supply from the other and switched to boot.

I must admit, I was somewhat confused by the OP, but was going particularly on this part

pennypop wrote: »

to date this has cost my company over £4,000,

Fire_Fox

Wywth wrote: »

I must admit, I was somewhat confused by the OP, but was going particularly on this part

You missed the part prior to that where the 'company' is described in more detail

pennypop wrote: »

Hi can any one help , not sure if posting in the correct place. I am part of a charitable company of volunteers that have taken over the running of a local community hall, obviously picking up all the utility bill etc. we have various user groups that hire areas of our hall complex and pay us weekly rents (inclusive of all utilities), back in September 2012, I tried on behalf of the company to move our energy suppliers from those that the local council use to ones of our choice, in November I was informed that although the gas had transfered successfully, the electric could be transferred as it had already been transferred in June. With further investigation I found that one of the user groups has been cold called and told "you are on emergency electric you need to switch to our company", this they agreed to , then went to find their electric meter, we advised them they don't have an individual meter, we only have 1 meter for the whole building. The user group then phoned the company back and told them they had no authority to agree the transfer, they didn't need the transfer. This was ignored by the new electric company. At this stage this was totally without knowledge of any one in the charitable company.