Add your feedback on energy supplier Extra Energy

chippy65old

I switched via Martin's Energy Savings Club in November 2015 with a Direct Debit of £72 pm. I received a bill in Feb 2016 and was marginally in debt. The last bill I received in august this year I was £64 in debt but the Direct Debit shot through the roof to £111. After emailing them for an explanation, I did not receive a favourable answer and have since cancelled the Direct Debit after clearing the outstanding debt and are now in the process of looking for an alternative supplier.
I feel their biggest problem for me is they only send out bills every six months which does not allow you to keep track of usage. Sorry would not recommend ExtraEnergy but that my personal opinion.

regis598

There are obviously certain members on this forum who are permitted to say what they like without risk of sanctions.

Wayward_Son

I had the misfortune on signing up for Extra Energy in 2014.

Things went badly from the start!

Due to a poor website interface I was unable to supply my opening readings. I tried to send them via their Account messaging system but that too was unreliable & not working. I then emailed them my opening readings, which they auto-acknowledged but then ignored!

They set my account up with made-up readings & sent their fictional, incorrect ones to my old supplier leading to an OVERCHARGE on my final bill, which I then had to dispute to get the refund I was due from my old supplier.

Extra Energy completely IGNORED an email from me complaining about their use of the incorrect readings & asking them to correct their mistake! I then submitted a Formal Complaint about terrible so-called service, which they acknowledged but again totally IGNORED!

I decided it was worth paying the £25 exit fee to leave after a few weeks & get away from such a poorly run, uncaring, ignorant company. I was promised a Final Bill within 6 Weeks of leaving.

6 Weeks passed without them generating my final bill! Then 6 months passed without any bill, (they boldly & clearly PROMISE a Bill every 6 months but when challenged they say there's a clause in the contract that allows them to not honour this). Then a WHOLE YEAR passed, NO BILL! So, understandably I assumed that they would not now produce a bill, (as OFGEM does not allow 'back billing' over a year old!

Imagine my SHOCK, surprise & anger to start receiving harassing emails & lots of phone calls from DEBT COLLECTORS around 20 months later, especially as they had NEVER even sent me a bill! In the Contract it CLEARLY said that Extra Energy would send a letter BEFORE involving Debt Collectors but they admitted on the phone that they don't actually send letters first* & just pass, (sell), it on to Debt Collectors regardless! *They have since removed that promise from their current contract so BEWARE!!!

It transpires that they only produced my first/final bill 13 months later, (I had switched twice in that time), but FAILED to send it to me; the contract I signed promised the Bill would be sent by email but they did not do this they just posted it to my online account which I didn't see because I stopped checking after a WHOLE YEAR had passed!!!

According to my calculations I estimated that I would have owed them just £3-£4 but they are claiming it's £47. After spending ages finding & looking through old emails & bank statements I discovered that they failed to take a £44 Direct Debit payment, which I didn't notice at the time because it was a few days before Christmas & I was very busy. They had no reason for failing to take the payment as there was plenty of money in the account and I had not cancelled the Direct Debit, (all of which I have confirmed with my Bank & Extra Energy simply failed to present the payment due to poor organisation)!

I have made several frustrating phone calls to them & sent a Formal Complaint by recorded delivery, including copies of all the emails I originally sent and a copy of my contract which they have breached. They admit they should not have raised a Bill after 13 months as it is against OFGEM's Back Billing rules but since then they have taken off the first month and generated a NEW BILL 21 MONTHS later!

I now need to submit a new Formal Complaint to dispute the new Bill which I believe is against the Back Billing policy, and am still waiting for a response to my formal complaint about the fact they have breached the contract by setting Debt Collectors, (a very AGRESSIVE & persistent company called Allied International Credit, based in Glasgow), on me without even bothering to send me a bill in the first place, let alone contact me by the promised letter before passing the matter on to Debt Collectors!!!!!

Extra Energy are not only disorganised, chaotic, unhelpful, uncaring, unprofessional & untrustworthy, they are actually also dishonest & underhand as they are happy to blatantly breach the contract, destroy your Credit Rating, set the Debt Collectors on you without notice or warning, and RUIN your life!!!!!

BE WARNED; if you value your Credit Rating, time, mental health & privacy AVOID these slimy, cheating, cowboys LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!! Even if these losers are the cheapest, it is NOT WORTH the hassle; pay a little more and go with a better company - this lot are only dirt cheap because they have NO proper Customer Service & cheap IT which is not up to the job - I'm surprised they haven't been stripped of their Energy Supply Licence yet!

UPDATE: Despite my formal complaint to Extra Energy weeks ago the Debt Collectors are still bombarding me with annoying, harassing phone calls, & my old workplace has even written to me asking me to stop the Debt Collectors harassing THEM, (I no longer work there but the debt collectors won't accept that - well, apparently they say they do but then just call back an hour later - I doubt that will help my reference when I need it)!

footyguy

Wayward_Son wrote: »

I had the misfortune on signing up for Extra Energy in 2014.

Things went badly from the start!

Due to a poor website interface I was unable to supply my opening readings. I tried to send them via their Account messaging system but that too was unreliable & not working. I then emailed them my opening readings, which they auto-acknowledged but then ignored!

They set my account up with made-up readings & sent their fictional, incorrect ones to my old supplier leading to an OVERCHARGE on my final bill, which I then had to dispute to get the refund I was due from my old supplier.

Extra Energy completely IGNORED an email from me complaining about their use of the incorrect readings & asking them to correct their mistake! I then submitted a Formal Complaint about terrible so-called service, which they acknowledged but again totally IGNORED!

I decided it was worth paying the £25 exit fee to leave after a few weeks & get away from such a poorly run, uncaring, ignorant company. I was promised a Final Bill within 6 Weeks of leaving.

6 Weeks passed without them generating my final bill! Then 6 months passed without any bill, (they boldly & clearly PROMISE a Bill every 6 months but when challenged they say there's a clause in the contract that allows them to not honour this). Then a WHOLE YEAR passed, NO BILL! So, understandably I assumed that they would not now produce a bill, (as OFGEM does not allow 'back billing' over a year old!

Imagine my SHOCK, surprise & anger to start receiving harassing emails & lots of phone calls from DEBT COLLECTORS around 20 months later, especially as they had NEVER even sent me a bill! In the Contract it CLEARLY said that Extra Energy would send a letter BEFORE involving Debt Collectors but they admitted on the phone that they don't actually send letters first* & just pass, (sell), it on to Debt Collectors regardless! *They have since removed that promise from their current contract so BEWARE!!!

It transpires that they only produced my first/final bill 13 months later, (I had switched twice in that time), but FAILED to send it to me; the contract I signed promised the Bill would be sent by email but they did not do this they just posted it to my online account which I didn't see because I stopped checking after a WHOLE YEAR had passed!!!

According to my calculations I estimated that I would have owed them just £3-£4 but they are claiming it's £47. After spending ages finding & looking through old emails & bank statements I discovered that they failed to take a £44 Direct Debit payment, which I didn't notice at the time because it was a few days before Christmas & I was very busy. They had no reason for failing to take the payment as there was plenty of money in the account and I had not cancelled the Direct Debit, (all of which I have confirmed with my Bank & Extra Energy simply failed to present the payment due to poor organisation)!

I have made several frustrating phone calls to them & sent a Formal Complaint by recorded delivery, including copies of all the emails I originally sent and a copy of my contract which they have breached. They admit they should not have raised a Bill after 13 months as it is against OFGEM's Back Billing rules but since then they have taken off the first month and generated a NEW BILL 21 MONTHS later!

I now need to submit a new Formal Complaint to dispute the new Bill which I believe is against the Back Billing policy, and am still waiting for a response to my formal complaint about the fact they have breached the contract by setting Debt Collectors, (a very AGRESSIVE & persistent company called Allied International Credit, based in Glasgow), on me without even bothering to send me a bill in the first place, let alone contact me by the promised letter before passing the matter on to Debt Collectors!!!!!

Extra Energy are not only disorganised, chaotic, unhelpful, uncaring, unprofessional & untrustworthy, they are actually also dishonest & underhand as they are happy to blatantly breach the contract, destroy your Credit Rating, set the Debt Collectors on you without notice or warning, and RUIN your life!!!!!

BE WARNED; if you value your Credit Rating, time, mental health & privacy AVOID these slimy, cheating, cowboys LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!! Even if these losers are the cheapest, it is NOT WORTH the hassle; pay a little more and go with a better company - this lot are only dirt cheap because they have NO proper Customer Service & cheap IT which is not up to the job - I'm surprised they haven't been stripped of their Energy Supply Licence yet!

UPDATE: Despite my formal complaint to Extra Energy weeks ago the Debt Collectors are still bombarding me with annoying, harassing phone calls, & my old workplace has even written to me asking me to stop the Debt Collectors harassing THEM, (I no longer work there but the debt collectors won't accept that - well, apparently they say they do but then just call back an hour later - I doubt that will help my reference when I need it)!

I have to ask, why have you allowed matters to escalate to this level?

You can go to the ombudsman as soon as 8 weeks after a complaint has been raised. If appopriate, the ombudsman has the powers to order a supplier to suspend collection activities whilst they investigate a complaint.

regis598

From personal experience the Ombudsman operates in a similar fashion to EE, totally useless and I do speak from personal experience.

regis598

The reason EE still exist is because the regulators decline to take any action against them. There are 2826 messages on this forum and few if any are complimentary about the performance of EE and I am sure the rest of them are not making up stories just to get EE into trouble.

ianG

Wayward_Son wrote: »

I had the misfortune on signing up for Extra Energy in 2014.

Things went badly from the start!

Due to a poor website interface I was unable to supply my opening ............ old workplace has even written to me asking me to stop the Debt Collectors harassing THEM, (I no longer work there but the debt collectors won't accept that - well, apparently they say they do but then just call back an hour later - I doubt that will help my reference when I need it)!

Personally, I would have involved a national paper consumer rights investigator. I had a dire experience with EE and asked for the Telegraph's Jessica to get involved and she did contact me but by then I had got EE off my back. It will not change their business procedures one jot but it should at least get you out of their clutches.

Others have mentioned elsewhere about energy companies practice of upping your DD and only doing twice or once yearly bills: The reason is that it allows them to collect the VAT and hang on to that for a good deal of time (to help their cash flow I assume), before they have to pay the money back to HMRC and you!

The_Model_Tree_Man

I left this company in August last year - they are a nightmare!
1. This company have failed to send me a final bill.
I left them in August 2015. They never sent a final bill and on the 25th August this year I received an email from a debt collection agency!
I spoke to Extra Energy direct and was informed that the final bill was issued in March 2016 (some 6 months after I had moved away), I have never received this email!
I have now paid them £198.74 as the final balance.
2. Speaking to Extra Energy they aren't interested in anything and insist that six months is an OK time to issue a bill - even if I haven't received it why haven't I received any reminders.

This company has me fuming (as you can probably guess), I always pay my way on time and do not appreciate being treated in this way.

footyguy

The_Model_Tree_Man wrote: »

I left this company in August last year - they are a nightmare!
1. This company have failed to send me a final bill.
I left them in August 2015. They never sent a final bill and on the 25th August this year I received an email from a debt collection agency!
I spoke to Extra Energy direct and was informed that the final bill was issued in March 2016 (some 6 months after I had moved away), I have never received this email!
I have now paid them £198.74 as the final balance.
2. Speaking to Extra Energy they aren't interested in anything and insist that six months is an OK time to issue a bill - even if I haven't received it why haven't I received any reminders.

This company has me fuming (as you can probably guess), I always pay my way on time and do not appreciate being treated in this way.

I'm pretty sure Extra Energy say they only bill every 6 months in the terms you would have agreed to.

Your bill would have been available from your online account. I agree it is unfortunate that you didn't get an email informing you of it's availability, but if you knew there was a bill outstanding, an additional 5 months was surely more than enough for most people to have checked their online account.

Edit: Also if you owed almost £200 after just 12 months with them, then it sounds like you got the anicipated annual usage seriously wrong when you first joined them ... so much so that it could have affected who was the best supplier/tariff for you.

hra_2

The_Model_Tree_Man wrote: »

I left this company in August last year - they are a nightmare!
1. This company have failed to send me a final bill.
I left them in August 2015. They never sent a final bill and on the 25th August this year I received an email from a debt collection agency!
I spoke to Extra Energy direct and was informed that the final bill was issued in March 2016 (some 6 months after I had moved away), I have never received this email!
I have now paid them £198.74 as the final balance.
2. Speaking to Extra Energy they aren't interested in anything and insist that six months is an OK time to issue a bill - even if I haven't received it why haven't I received any reminders.

This company has me fuming (as you can probably guess), I always pay my way on time and do not appreciate being treated in this way.

If you never had a final bill, how do you know that their demand is correct?

Also BTW the licence conditions actually set a 6-week deadline to "take all reasonable steps" to send a final bill and to send a quarterly bill to any customer who requests it or has an online account: they are currently being investigated by Ofgem for this and much more:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/investigation-extra-energy-supply-ltd-and-its-compliance-its-obligations-under-gas-and-electricity-supply-licences-slc-7b-14-21b-25c-27-31a-and-consumer-complaints-handling-standards-regulations-2008