GB Energy Supply reviews: Give your feedback

System

erutrepa1 wrote: »

Yes thank you for stating the obvious :T:T

Yes I supplied my meter readings on time, and online, and the Account Status £270 Credit on my Account Page ;-) led me to strongly believe I was in credit.

Their online system showed every meter reading I had submitted, but did not process them onto my payments/balance; this of course I could not see, as they hadn't, as per their terms & conditions & promises, had not supplied me with regular bills. TBH I wasn't concerned about the lack of bills, as my agreed D/D was being paid on time, and that should have covered the amount used, as I'm not home much, usage is very low.

You still haven't answered my question. What are you hoping to achieve by going to The Energy Ombudsman (OFGEM will not consider individual complaints)? Had you requested a statement, and had GBEnergy failed to provide one for 12 months, then you might have a case against them under THe BackBilling Code. A change in your balance of £540 does not suggest low usage to me. DD Payments - without a bill - are a meaningless way of monitoring an energy account.

erutrepa1

Thanks again.

GB Energy failed to send me bills. The account balance was incorrect; my payments and usage was not updated or equated. Due to the fact of not receiving bills I could not see if they were making errors on my charges, but as with all other accounts, banks, pensions, credit cards it is always the case that the consumer , us, has to 'believe' the balance on our online account is correct and up to date.

Yes I should just bend over, and say thank you GB Energy; even though you did everything wrong I should just say thank you for such a ridiculously low standard of service.

A change of the account balance, according to GB Energy, of £540, doesn't actually mean it is correct, or maybe I should now start believing that they have got it right this time, and not the amount stated on my account before?

Thanks for the OfGem info, it is actually Ombudsman Services: Energy I need to contact once I have exhausted GB Energies complaints procedure, which I'm sure I will.

System

erutrepa1 wrote: »

Thanks again.

GB Energy failed to send me bills. The account balance was incorrect; my payments and usage was not updated or equated. Due to the fact of not receiving bills I could not see if they were making errors on my charges, but as with all other accounts, banks, pensions, credit cards it is always the case that the consumer , us, has to 'believe' the balance on our online account is correct and up to date.

Yes I should just bend over, and say thank you GB Energy; even though you did everything wrong I should just say thank you for such a ridiculously low standard of service.

A change of the account balance, according to GB Energy, of £540, doesn't actually mean it is correct, or maybe I should now start believing that they have got it right this time, and not the amount stated on my account before?

Thanks for the OfGem info, it is actually Ombudsman Services: Energy I need to contact once I have exhausted GB Energies complaints procedure, which I'm sure I will.

I can appreciate that you are annoyed - I would be as well. You thought that a £270 windfall was coming your way and it has turned into a £270 debt. GBEnergy has some questions to answer but the best that you can expect from them is a small payment in compensation, and time to pay. The fact that you have a debt suggests that your monthly payments may have been set too low and this, with the debt, will result in an increased monthly DD payment.

If you have got 4 months of your life to waste taking this to The Energy Ombudsman then that is up to you. The Ombudsman's investigation process is glacially slow and it tends to do nothing more than ensure the supplier has acted fairly once it realised that something had gone wrong. If you are looking for a write off of debt, then you may be disappointed. As I am sure that you know, it is only charges due which are more than 12 months old which are written off under The BackBilling Code.

JohnB47

Have you worked out what the actual situation is, i.e. whether you owe them or they owe you and what is the amount? Sorry if you've already stated that.

I switched to GB energy a while back and have just received my first bill. All seems fine. I also have a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of my costs, so I never get a big surprise.

backfoot

erutrepa1 wrote: »

I've been paying my D/D monthly , though I had not received any bills.

I checked my account balance 2 weeks ago and it showed a credit approx £270, great I thought!!

I contacted them to initiate a credit transfer to me.

As if by magic 7 bills arrived overnight, and abracadabra I'm now, wait for in , approx £270 in arrears.....

I've started a complaint procedure against them and will follow this through to OfGem as I like to keep up to date with my bills, and now through their poor processes, and their claim, I am now in arrears, or owe them. Very very poor response initially telling me I should have kept an eye on my account....... I'll update with the final outcome, but I will not recommend GB Energy to anyone at this stage.

Trying to fill in the gaps, it looks like the billing process hasn't worked for seven months. (now received 7 bills). This covers the winter period so it is not unusual for charges to exceed monthly DD's. This would reverse in the summer period.

It is also true that GB energy take a months payment in advance, so it also appears the DD may be set too low.

I think you can ask for a full explanation from them for not receiving bills in accordance with their normal procedures. I receive a monthly bill a couple of days after submitting a reading. May I ask why you didn't query 'non receipt of bills' with them at the outset? Especially so, if you had diligently given them meter readings.

You would also have known that the balance shown only represented payments as it would be your monthly DD multiplied by 8 taking into account the payment in advance.

You now have the bills to check the correct units , tariff charges and payments.

It is hard to see any complaint beyond the lack of automated billing which may get you a small compensation payment. (£25 to £50) but I don't see they have any other liability sorry.

JohnB47

Oh and one other point. I opted to receive all prompts by e-mail, including messages that my bill was available online. I can't remember if GB gave an option for everything to be done by post.

So my question to erutrepa1 is, did you check your GB online account to see if you had bill's? Could be that your spam filter stopped you receiving emails advising you that bill was ready.

backfoot

Good point John. I get an email notification of my monthly bill which contains that bill as an attachment. It is also accessible online.

The OP, however, indicates that a large credit balance was showing and no bills were present. Then suddenly 7 bills appeared !

I would be asking GB why this had occurred and do they accept there was a fault in their system?

Robin9

It's odd that a credit of £270 turned into a debit of £270

Just wondering if OP misread his original account balance.

mrke

Robin9 wrote: »

It's odd that a credit of £270 turned into a debit of £270

Just wondering if OP misread his original account balance.

Quite likely.

I believe energy companies tend to show account balances in this format:

an outstanding amount owed by you as: £270

an in credit account balance as: -£270
.

System

mrke wrote: »

Quite likely.

I believe energy companies tend to show account balances in this format:

an outstanding amount owed by you as: £270

an in credit account balance as: -£270
.

From my latest GB statement

Your account balance CR £35.12