MSE News: Co-op faces customer backlash following bungled system upgrade

johnbhoy10

teabelly wrote: »

Does anyone have the CEO or equivalent email address? These clowns are sending me bill demands when I switched months ago and paid up in full before leaving. All the old billing data is obviously in the old portal which isn't accessible.

Anyone else had this problem?

I sent an email to-

info@cooperativeenergy.coop

and copied this guy in-

ramsay.dunning@cooperativeenergy.coop

Make sure you put 'complaint' in the mail subject line. Got an automatic response straight away and then an email about 5 days later to say they were looking into y complaint. Then got a phone call from a bloke start of this week who said he would be my case manager and would be overseeing my switch away from them to make sure it goes smoothly. He also offered me compo which will be in the final bill whenever they send it! Didn't ask for the compo but he seemed most insistent.

MichaelBoltonA

Last night (June 26th ) I waited over 45 minutes for my call to be answered - The call agent apologised but confirmed that they are still having problems and issues with many customers.
After launch I wrote to the CEO of MidCounties Cooperative and received a call from one of his exec board. Even he seemed unaware of the scale of the issues with the new system and processes.
There are huge issues with the transition of customer account numbers - requiring a strange process of logging in, reregistering and setting up your online account again with new details emailed to you.
all old bills and information is now removed and to access a bill you must email a request and they will post your bill to you.
I asked why they did not email or contact all customers in advance saying the bills would not be available and providing an opportunity to download or save them before the date of switchover. The senior executive thought this a good idea but yet no one at cooperative energy management level, marketing, customer support or project team on the new system thought to implement this.
The system is a bodge of an off the shelf oracle system that has a user interface and design that looks 15-20 years old.
Tiny white writing on a purple background. The instructions are written as if you are a corporate user ( because they've just put a bad web front end onto a new backend system.) Can't log in it tell you to contact the system administrator. Postcodes are Zip Codes, Address lines repeated twice, no useful usage information, confusing layouts. Interestingly over the weeks more and more of the content has been turned off due to inaccuracies. Like the charts showing your previous bill amounts which decided to use only one decimal place.
They admitted to me that the volume of calls go so great that despite the website and twitter pointing to the customer support number they were cutting people off when calling to "Avoid a long wait" so there was no way of contacting them as emails were taking in excess of two weeks to reply to.
There were issues logging in, seeing data, seeing correct data and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
I posted screenshots of the inaccuracies and bad interface on facebook and twitter and was banned from both. The review section on the cooperative website was removed and negative posts deleted. When I spoke to a cooperative Social media manager she laughed and said they had made no changes and hadn't noticed.
There is a deliberate imitative from the company to deny the issues and downplay them. And it has taken excessive efforts to remove comments from people with problems or issues.
The energy is not so competitive as it was and the service levels they were recognised for in their early years is a long gone distant memory with service equal to or worse than the biggest providers.
Three months on the interface is still a mess, still wrong and still causing issues. email go unanswered and wait times excessive.
Literally FIRST to WORST in the space of six months.
I've just left and even that process was painful as they blocked my move. WHY you ask it seem the new system automatically blocked requests to move accounts and you guessed it took hours to get through to resolve just to leave them.
I would never use them again and am hugely disappointed that a supplier that promised so much so failed so massively.

janb5

johnbhoy10 wrote: »

I sent an email to-

[EMAIL="info@cooperativeenergy.coop"]info@cooperativeenergy.coop[/EMAIL]

and copied this guy in-

[EMAIL="ramsay.dunning@cooperativeenergy.coop"]ramsay.dunning@cooperativeenergy.coop[/EMAIL]

Make sure you put 'complaint' in the mail subject line. Got an automatic response straight away and then an email about 5 days later to say they were looking into y complaint. Then got a phone call from a bloke start of this week who said he would be my case manager and would be overseeing my switch away from them to make sure it goes smoothly. He also offered me compo which will be in the final bill whenever they send it! Didn't ask for the compo but he seemed most insistent.

I am currently waiting for the Ombudsman to address my concerns- namely having £1000 in my account which hasn't been paid and unable to speak to a manager as there isn't anyone available. Oh and not being able to login into my account Thanks for the email information- I have emailed him and fingers crossed. I think we are going to wait a long time for our money!

System

A case-worker from Ombudsman Services Energy has just phoned me. They do have a means of contacting Co-operative Energy - who have apparently agreed that they will generate my final bill, and will pay me the token £25 compensation I sought for my wasted time.
Meanwhile it remains deeply worrying that Co-op Energy management (if there is any) are in denial about how bad the mess is.

zappster

Today I received a letter from Co-op Energy saying "Sorry to hear you're thinking about leaving" ...

We left them in April.

Jennifer_Jane

zappster wrote: »

Today I received a letter from Co-op Energy saying "Sorry to hear you're thinking about leaving" ...

We left them in April.

Yes, I got one the other day. I actually left in February (which was on the complaint e-mail I sent). They seem to be even further in the mire than I'd thought.

Mehitabel9860

Did the user who left Coop in March 2015 ever get a correct final bill? I haven't despite loads of requests. email headed Official Complaint has produced no response.

Mehitabel9860

My switch away was effected in March - have received no final bill despite many requests, just a standard email response that mentions reply to follow in "days". Nope, not even months. Got an email 26th June with mention of "bill" on website - no, just incorrect figures showing Mandate applied 26/6 ( stopped it Feb). Arrows on website page don't lead to info of bill - just make screen go white (and me go red in face!)

janb5

Have you considered going to Ofgen? I have and am waiting for the return of my money + realised they haven't called a bill since December despite taking my money monthly!


I start with Flow tomorrow.

System

Unfortunately, Ofgem explains as follows:

What is Ofgem’s role in complaints and enquiries?

We don’t have a direct role in dealing with individual disputes between customers and energy suppliers. We collect information from a range of sources as part of our market monitoring activity, and keep markets under review to ensure that all licensees comply with the relevant legislation and licence obligations.

For Ofgem's guidance on how to complain, see
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/domestic-consumers/making-enquiry-or-complaint