The Billing Code -Time limits for issuing a final bill?

greeneggsandham

Does anyone know where I can get a full copy of the Billing Code for switching energy suppliers? I've searched ofgem's website & googled away but not found anything. I was wondering whether it says anything about a reasonable time for issuing a final bill after switching supplier.

Here's my 'Scottish Power Saga' so far (no real way to keep this short I'm afraid):

I switched from Scottish Power to EDF last October 2013; EDF took over my electricity supply on 30 October and my gas supply on 7th November. I supplied my final readings on 1st November. In December I phoned SP and was told they had received my final readings and I would get my final bill by the end of December. My account was in credit. By January I still hadn't received my refund, and my electricity account was still 'live'. I tried to chase this up by phone but was kept on hold for hours and repeatedly cut off, so I sent an email on 20th January to customer.services@scottishpower.co.uk and social@scottishpower.com , and mentioned that the billing code states that any refund should be made within 28 days of switching. They phoned me on 28th January but I couldn't speak to them myself because I had just got home from having my wisdom tooth removed! They told my mother that they were sending out a refund of the remaining credit on my account, and I received a cheque dated 30th January, so I considered the matter closed and assumed they had closed my account.

Now suddenly out of the blue I have received a letter dated 19th April 2014 to say that “You have recently changed supplier and have an outstanding bill of £64.78 with Scottish Power”. I emailed them on 21st April to find out what it was all about, and they called me today, 30th April, and told me that my previous final electricity bill had been estimated, and an updated final bill had been issued on 11th April (five months after the switch took place, and which I haven't actually received yet).

Now I guess my question is, are they allowed to take five months to issue a final bill, even though they acknowledged receipt of the final readings by December? How could they issue a refund of the credit on my account if they hadn't issued a final bill yet? Is there some kind of reasonable cutoff point for sending final bills on closed accounts? Otherwise, they could hit people with surprise bills years later! I can't believe that I'm still having to waste time dealing with this six months after beginning the process of switching. And, in a final irony, I received a message from the energy switch club informing me that a cheaper tariff has become available and suggesting that I switch supplier, even though I'm still battling with the last switch! It makes a complete mockery of the idea that its supposed to be easy to switch supplier.

greeneggsandham

Update: found the billing code here: http://docs.energy-uk.org.uk/publication/finish/43-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/411-the-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills.html

Interesting points of relevance to my particular problem:

3.8 If you provide a valid read it will be used to produce a revised
bill/statement, if appropriate. This will be sent out within 10
working days.

But also:

Suppliers have signed on to the Back Billing
Principles. Each and every back billing case will be
assessed on an individual basis by your supplier.
5.1 If your supplier is at fault, they will not seek additional
payment for unbilled energy accrued more than one year
prior to the bill being issued.

So, they certainly haven't complied with 3.8, but 5.1 seems to allow them up to a year to mess about!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

The law in England and Wales is 6 years to recover a debt. Under certain circumstances, energy companies will only bill for a year (although that is self-regulation rather than having any basis in law).

5 months is fair game, I'm afraid.

greeneggsandham

Fair game, according to the law, but shockingly bad practice in my opinion. And they have failed spectacularly in living up to their own guidelines, which they have laughably published on their own website! Spot the difference ;-)

Scottish Power's “Supplier change timeline” from their website: http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/support-centre/switching-supplier
“In line with standard industry processes, once you have made your application to move to your new supplier, it can take approximately 9 weeks to switch supply and for us to produce your final bill and a further 2 weeks for you to receive this. If you have not received your final bill within 11 weeks, please!contact us. “

That is exactly what I did. And here is the actual timeline:

03/10/13 Application to switch supplier
01/11/13 Supplied final readings (4 weeks)
07/11/13 New supplier took over (5 weeks)
19/12/13 Email from EDF confirming that final readings had been passed on to SP
19/12/13 Contacted SP to chase up final bill (11 weeks, as suggested), confirmed final readings received, said final bill would be issued by end of December.
24/12/13 SP issued ESTIMATED final electricity bill
20/01/14 Still no actual final bill, or refund (almost 16 weeks). Contacted SP again, sent complaint.
30/01/14 Refund received (17 weeks after application)
11/04/14 Final (actual) electricity bill issued (27 weeks after application)
19/04/14 Notification of final bill actually received (28 weeks after application).

Would I have grounds to complain to ofgem?

spiro

greeneggsandham wrote: »

That is exactly what I did. And here is the actual timeline:

03/10/13 Application to switch supplier
01/11/13 Supplied final readings (4 weeks)
07/11/13 New supplier took over (5 weeks)
19/12/13 Email from EDF confirming that final readings had been passed on to SP
19/12/13 Contacted SP to chase up final bill (11 weeks, as suggested), confirmed final readings received, said final bill would be issued by end of December.
24/12/13 SP issued ESTIMATED final electricity bill
20/01/14 Still no actual final bill, or refund (almost 16 weeks). Contacted SP again, sent complaint.
30/01/14 Refund received (17 weeks after application)
11/04/14 Final (actual) electricity bill issued (27 weeks after application)
19/04/14 Notification of final bill actually received (28 weeks after application).

Would I have grounds to complain to ofgem?

The bad news is that EDF are the cause for you initially receiving an estimated CoS bill. In elec it is the new suppliers responsibility for supplying the reading to the old supplier. Therefore in this instance I would be speaking to EDF to find out why they did not use your reading assuming you provided the reading to EDF and not SP.

undaunted

The back billing code is here http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication/finish/43-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/412-the-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills-back-billing-for-domestic-customers.html but in short yes - rightly or wrongly - they can get away with billing you 5 months later. If the bill was estimated & is now merely being adjusted however presumably your new supplier will only be billing you from the correct figure too so you should be very little worse off in the end shouldn't you?

bill-from-derby

Received a final bill from Extra Energy, in December 2015. they are billing me from July 2014 until feb 2015; this is the date I left them and switched to Sainsburys. I have tried any number of times by various means to contact them, but all methods have drawn a blank. Can they now ask me to pay (they have taken £192 from my account and have not responded to my communications); it is after all not my fault they are so late.

System

bill-from-derby wrote: »

Received a final bill from Extra Energy, in December 2015. they are billing me from July 2014 until feb 2015; this is the date I left them and switched to Sainsburys. I have tried any number of times by various means to contact them, but all methods have drawn a blank. Can they now ask me to pay (they have taken £192 from my account and have not responded to my communications); it is after all not my fault they are so late.

Sadly, poor customer service does not get the customer out of paying a genuine debt. I would ask for a detailed bill and I would then look at it very carefully before deciding what to do.

Cardew

bill-from-derby wrote: »

Received a final bill from Extra Energy, in December 2015. they are billing me from July 2014 until feb 2015; this is the date I left them and switched to Sainsburys. I have tried any number of times by various means to contact them, but all methods have drawn a blank. Can they now ask me to pay (they have taken £192 from my account and have not responded to my communications); it is after all not my fault they are so late.

They have 6 years(5 in Scotland) to collect a debt.


If you discovered they owed you money, you would have up to 6 years to demand payment.