Add your feedback on energy supplier Extra Energy

Flashgordon

Some 5 months since an agreed Ombudsman Resolution and Extra Energy finally paid the Goodwill Gesture into my account. It took them 54 days to pay back the amount they owed under the Back Billing Code having originally raised a complaint with EE in February.
Can enjoy Christmas having finally got this dreadful company out of my life.
Wonder what happened to the Regulators investigation into their malpractice?

applicationcen

You have done well. I had a complaint against them found in my favour from the Ombudsman. Despite EE writing to me to confirm they had corrected both the gas and electricity they had not done so. They elected to start action on the Gas contract until I had to point out to BOTH the Ombudsman & EE that they had simply not done everything they agreed to do.

They had 7 days to comply that was a couple of weeks ago and still no final resolution to the outstanding gas bill. You have to stay on top of everything and be very detailed with the Ombudsman - if they understand what has gone wrong they will call EE and have a go.

Make it as simple and logical as possible to help the Ombudsman do their job.

applicationcen

So today I find a letter from Credit Style Ltd of Sheffield telling me that they have been instructed to act on behalf of EE.
Yet another random amount of - now - £215.95 being demanded in flagrant disregard of the instruction given to them from the Ombusdman 3 months ago.

EE is using legal threat as a medium to harass people!

This is beyond disgusting.

regis598

The joke is that EE ignore the Ombudsman, It was agreed that I would receive an award and a letter of apology for the poor service I had received. The award took 43 days to be credited to my bank account and the letter is still outstanding after 55 days.

If I had treated EE like this I would have had debt collection agencies hammering on my door.

OFGEM are a totally useless organisation who do not look after the interests of the customers.

jazzy

I finished with extra energy around two months ago, my account is around £250 in credit, although I have not received the final bill. I emailed EE for the final bill so that I could work out my credit. No reply which was expected.
At what point should I try to put the pressure on EE? and what procedure should be applied to try to recover the money that's owed?

hra_2

Just noticed this policy document setting out the process the ombudsman says it will follow when a remedy is not implemented:

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/downloads/Remedy%20Implementation%20Policy%20-%20Energy.pdf

A "reminder" about this document may be one way of chasing up the Ombudsman for remedies outstanding after 28 days where no exceptional circumstances have been claimed and agreed.

If the policy were followed it would have some fairly major disincentives to EE and others e.g. the £100 surcharges, the monthly reporting, the new case fee and the discussions with the regulator about the firm's fitness to trade etc.

footyguy

jazzy wrote: »

I finished with extra energy around two months ago, my account is around £250 in credit, although I have not received the final bill. I emailed EE for the final bill so that I could work out my credit. No reply which was expected.
At what point should I try to put the pressure on EE? and what procedure should be applied to try to recover the money that's owed?

If you want to hurry them up, the only reasonable way to do that would be to follow their complaints procedure.

You can then go to the ombudsman 8 weeks after you originally lodge your complaint.

However, the ombudsman service is currently taking several months to get round to investigating any complaint, so it could easily be 6-9 months before you get a resolution ... by which timeExtra Energy would probably have produced a final bill for you anyway.

Still, if you start now, at least you get yourself in the quue, rather than having to go to the back of it should a final bill not be forthcoming.

I wouldn't worry too much about then getting repaid. If the final bill shows you are due a refund, then I would expect the money to be repaid shortly thereafter, just as if the final bill shows you owe Extra Energy some money, they will expect you to pay the balance owed promptly.

applicationcen

I would for the sake of completeness assume EE will try to deny you made a complaint by email. Send a written complaint with a copy of your original email (showing the date the email was sent) via registered postal service. Retain the receipt provided by the post office. That way you have them time stamped with no ability at denial that the 8 week period has elapsed.

I called the Ombudsman initially on the 13th May 2016 to ask how to do the complaint and they were really good at saying what was needed to do. They took a verbatim description and that was the basis of the complaint.

The Ombudsman responded to my complaint very quickly. I provided them with the information on the 17th of May and the case was accepted the SAME DAY.

If your complaint is simple and easy to understand they will respond quickly. If the Ombudsman has not responded to you then phone them up.

IN my case I had detailed evidence and pictures of meter readings to verify actual readings, copies of estimated bills and was able to point out in plain english what was wrong and where EE had acted unlawfully.

Ombudsman takes longer to investigate if the evidence is complicated or not documented well.

So think out what you need to say, upload the pictures, pdfs and written complaint, give the Ombudsman permission to act.

When emailing EE with ANYTHING then cc the ombudsman on the same email. I have noticed that EE have stopped sending receipts / confirmations from their customer service, contract renewals and internal Ombudsman department email addresses. No doubt they will claim technical issues, but if you cc the energy Ombudsman then a record of your correspondence has been made.

What is meant to happen is that the Ombudsman liases with EE and you no longer have to communicate with EE. What happens in practice is the EE ignore their commitments to the Ombudsman and keep sending bills out, making unlawful claims and accelerating legal action against people. It is essential to record this with the Ombudsman - so copy everything over to them which denies EE the chance to slime their way out of responsibilities.

DONT delay -

footyguy

The ombudsman service will not consider any complaint until at least 8 weeks have passed since you originally complained to the supplier (or you have a deadlock letter from the supplier)

Please do not bombard the ombudsman service with emails - they are busy enough as it is.

Once you have legitimately asked the ombudsman service to assist you in your complaint, all negotiations should go through the ombudsman service - you will probably find the supplier will no longer be prepared to discuss the complaint directly with you.

applicationcen

The Ombudsman is there to assist you.
They will provide you with guidance on how to process your complaint.
When the ombudsman fails to meet its own promises DO call them and email information to them.
If the energy company fails to comply with the Ombudsman's instruction - YOU must tell the Ombudsman.