First Utility - Messed Up (surprise!)

Jamie_Cortez

Alright keeping this as brief as possible.

I left FU in April/May of this year and moved to the Co-Op (Mistake!) Whilst with Co-Op i did not receive a final bill from FU the account was paid DD every month and slightly in credit by about a £1 , since then i have moved to OvO as Co-Op were terrible and a nightmare.

Today to my surprise i receive an email saying my latest FU bill is ready, i open it up and it says they owe me £268, i phone them up to sort out my refund and the nice lady tells me she can just leave it on the account to pay my monthly gas bill......What monthly gas bill?!

Turns out they never closed my gas account and as far as they are concerned still had it, they forwarded me to leavers who say my bill is wrong they owe me nothing infact i will owe them in the region of £400 when they process my leave date and they will contact me tomorrow with the actual figure.

I contacted OVO, to find out when they took over and confirm they have my gas supply they do and took it from the co-op in September

What are my options here? this is 7 months on since i left and somehow i've gone from no contact to a refund to potentially owing them hundreds of pounds...........and i have no idea how!

modsandmockers

Jamie_Cortez wrote: »

Alright keeping this as brief as possible.

I left FU in April/May of this year and moved to the Co-Op (Mistake!) Whilst with Co-Op i did not receive a final bill from FU the account was paid DD every month and slightly in credit by about a £1 , since then i have moved to OvO as Co-Op were terrible and a nightmare.

Today to my surprise i receive an email saying my latest FU bill is ready, i open it up and it says they owe me £268, i phone them up to sort out my refund and the nice lady tells me she can just leave it on the account to pay my monthly gas bill......What monthly gas bill?!

Turns out they never closed my gas account and as far as they are concerned still had it, they forwarded me to leavers who say my bill is wrong they owe me nothing infact i will owe them in the region of £400 when they process my leave date and they will contact me tomorrow with the actual figure.

I contacted OVO, to find out when they took over and confirm they have my gas supply they do and took it from the co-op in September

What are my options here? this is 7 months on since i left and somehow i've gone from no contact to a refund to potentially owing them hundreds of pounds...........and i have no idea how!

Jamie - if you have a contiguous series of bills starting from before you left FU, then it should be straightforward to check that the meter readings are also contiguous. You will then know which supplier you have paid for which bits of your energy consumption. If there are gaps or inconsistencies in the meter readings then you will be able to tell if there any corresponding gaps or inconsistencies in the payments which you have made. If there is no paper trail, then neither you nor the call centre staff of the various suppliers have any basis for discussion or negotiation. If you have received bills but no longer have them, then try to get copies.

alphonso24

you will not get any money back from worst utility until you contact the ombudsman they having a policy of earning interest on the money owed to the vast amount of people who leave because of the terrible customer service as detailed on watchdog last week. The company Is only interested new customers not treating fairly or compensating its old one's. I left FU about the same time after getting no bills since the previous August each month phoning twice.To try and get a bill and always the same promise within 28 days you will be able to see your bill on line (tosh) it never happened.The week I left I got a email detailing if I owed more than £ 200.00 you can not leave so I phoned again for the first time I got a call back no problem I was £300 in credit which would be in my account by the end of the month that month no refund and they took the direct debit when the bill finally come £700 difference from the previous. Anyone out there thinking of joining Fu better to buy 6 inch nails and hammer them into your head (less painful in the end).