Switching - not so easy after all

eur0

I switched dual-fuel from Scottish Power to Eon in December 2014 but the transaction is still ongoing. It seems that Scottish Power switched my electicity but not my gas. So I have dual-fuel with Eon and gas with SP. When I discovered this in March I contacted SP who admitted there had been some kind of mistake. They had continued taking payments and have still yet to transfer the credit balance of my account - nearly £800. Apparently these things take time. Is there anything I should be doing to resolve this?

System

Take it up with E.oN as the new supplier is responsible for managing the switching process.

eur0

I have. All Eon can do is give me a list of the requests they have made to SP. At the end of the day, SP have to do something. Would the energy ombudsman get involved in cases like this?

GingerBob_3

I've not switched since the days before the "big six" came into being, but it's clear that the process is a long way from satisfactory, despite all the cobblers to the contrary.

Can someone explain why the following is apparently not possible:

On moving to a new supplier you contact the old supplier with meter readings, stop the DD and inform them to send you a final bill/refund. If a final bill then you pay them by cheque. If a refund then they send it to you straight away.

Am I missing something - other than the criminal incompetence of the regulator?

eur0

Are you able to request payment of the credit amount at any time? If so, I would have secured that before starting this process. Then kill the direct debit. It's the fact they're hanging on to so much money and earning interest on it that's annoying.

System

You can ask for your credit balance back but you may not get it as the switching process has been activated. The danger of cancelling your DD without SP's agreement is that their systems will see this as a default and switch you to their standard variable tariff.

Ring the Energy Ombudsman; explain the problem and ask them advice on how best to move forward.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning eur0

I can't really comment on the Scottish Power bit. But I'm sorry we've not been able to help you so far with switching the gas.

What sort of mistakes were you told about? As the gaining supplier we're responsible for taking the supply over and sending your information to the losing supplier.

We should be able to tell you if there had been an objection or something like that.

If you'd like to try to switch again, please let me know and I'll help you as much as I can from this end.

Thank you

Helena

eur0

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

Good morning eur0

I can't really comment on the Scottish Power bit. But I'm sorry we've not been able to help you so far with switching the gas.

What sort of mistakes were you told about? As the gaining supplier we're responsible for taking the supply over and sending your information to the losing supplier.

We should be able to tell you if there had been an objection or something like that.

If you'd like to try to switch again, please let me know and I'll help you as much as I can from this end.

Thank you

Helena

Thanks Helena. Hopefully this should now be sorted. I contacted the Energy Ombudsman and explained the situation. Officially they only get involved after 8 weeks since the time of complaint (which appears to be when I first contacted SP about their error). However, they generated a case number for me anyway and gave me a special phone number that goes directly to the SP team who can fix the problem. They actually had all the necessary data and have arranged a refund of the credit balance within 10 working days. Once this has happened, I can then cancel the direct debit and ask my bank to refund any amounts taken in error under the direct debit scheme.

Pjst101

I'm in the same position, I switched dual fuel from Scottish power to eon at the end of January.

My gas and electric are now both with eon

Scottish power have give me a final bill for the electric but not the gas, when I rang them they claimed eon hadn't given them the final meter reading, I then rang eon who said they had, so I rang scottich power back and I spoke to a different person who admitted they have recieved the meter reading but said I couldn't have a final bill because they hadn't received confirmation from eon.

What a nightmare, I then rang eon back up who said Scottish power are talking rubbish.
Scottich power have the switch date and meter reading.

I have made a complaint with scottich power and been given a complaint number, apparently they resolve complaints in 10 working days, it's day 6 now and I've heard nothing.

What else can I do?
Thanks