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Co-Op Energy...Direct Debit Fraud?
Ok. First post & it's going to be a long one.
I moved home in October 2013 & was with Co-Op before so asked them to take supply from British Gas at our new house. They don't do transfers to other addresses but cancel & start afresh. We discussed payment options & they quoted me £30 more each month via Direct Debit than previous address. I asked to pay on receipt for a few months to get an idea of energy usage before setting up a DD. I did NOT, at any point on that call, give them my account details.
From October until January 2014 I heard nothing besides an e-mail welcoming me as a new customer. January came & I got asked for meter readings for my supply to swap the next day. I tried to object due to the huge timescale it had taken them to take my supply but I couldn't because I was outside of the 14 day cooling-off period. A few days later, when I checked my bank statement, I found a DD of £79 taken by Co-Op but immediately reversed by my bank due to lack of funds, resulting in a £25 charge from Santander. I called Santander, explained the issue & they waived the charge without any hassle. They also told me that the DD had been set up at the end of December. When I contacted Co-Op Energy I was told that there had been an "erroneous transfer" in the beginning & they'd tried to take the supply of a different house in my street, resulting in a whopping complaint. That explained the time taken to transfer my supply from British Gas but not the DD issue. Anyway, it transpires that, once they'd found the right house, they'd put me on a DD only tariff & so took my bank details from my account at the old address & pasted them into the new one. They didn't tell me about the wrong address problem, the tariff I was on, the fact I needed to pay by DD, how much the DD they set up without my knowledge would be or when it would be taken at any stage in the whole process.
Is this classed as fraud & if so, what do I do about it?
I'm still in talks with a manager about it all but they haven't discussed whether all this is even legal?
Thank you for any help offered in advance.
I moved home in October 2013 & was with Co-Op before so asked them to take supply from British Gas at our new house. They don't do transfers to other addresses but cancel & start afresh. We discussed payment options & they quoted me £30 more each month via Direct Debit than previous address. I asked to pay on receipt for a few months to get an idea of energy usage before setting up a DD. I did NOT, at any point on that call, give them my account details.
From October until January 2014 I heard nothing besides an e-mail welcoming me as a new customer. January came & I got asked for meter readings for my supply to swap the next day. I tried to object due to the huge timescale it had taken them to take my supply but I couldn't because I was outside of the 14 day cooling-off period. A few days later, when I checked my bank statement, I found a DD of £79 taken by Co-Op but immediately reversed by my bank due to lack of funds, resulting in a £25 charge from Santander. I called Santander, explained the issue & they waived the charge without any hassle. They also told me that the DD had been set up at the end of December. When I contacted Co-Op Energy I was told that there had been an "erroneous transfer" in the beginning & they'd tried to take the supply of a different house in my street, resulting in a whopping complaint. That explained the time taken to transfer my supply from British Gas but not the DD issue. Anyway, it transpires that, once they'd found the right house, they'd put me on a DD only tariff & so took my bank details from my account at the old address & pasted them into the new one. They didn't tell me about the wrong address problem, the tariff I was on, the fact I needed to pay by DD, how much the DD they set up without my knowledge would be or when it would be taken at any stage in the whole process.
Is this classed as fraud & if so, what do I do about it?
I'm still in talks with a manager about it all but they haven't discussed whether all this is even legal?
Thank you for any help offered in advance.
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