Isupplyenergy messed up my account!

spacekitty31

Hi all, this may be a bit long winded but please bare with me and sorry if it gets confusing!
My partner joined isupplyenergy in July 2014, everything was ok except we managed to get into about £200 of debt with them and arranged to pay this off at £15 a month which we was doing. We started a new contract with them the following July 2015 as we found the were the cheapest around at the time with a quote of just £35 a month.
Our total balance was £135 as of 9th January 2016, so was going down nicely and all was good until the February statement we received which said £169 which I assumed my last payment didn't show up. I checked and it turns out my bill for the month was £93, with the debt added on top. As you can imagine we were pretty shocked by the huge raise in monthly payments, so of course contacted them and they said it was only an estimate and they hadn't received an meter readings since February 2015!
They suggested to send 2 meter readings 2 weeks apart so they can get a better estimate, just received the bill today of £995 from them, turns out I should have been paying triple what we have been and now really stressed as we can hardly afford the normal bill amount let alone adding the extra for the debt we owe! Apparently we should of been sending meter readings a month so they could of kept up to date but we were never told too and I've always had a prepayment meter before moving here so all I am used to is topping up a key!
Is there anyway we can get the amount lowered or looked at again? Or even would it be possible for me to open a new account with a different supplier (I remember trying before and they refused to release him from the account due to the £200 we owed them. But I don't see why they wouldn't if it was my name?!?)

Anyone able to help please?

cifpower

Looks like a large catchup bill. Your bills have been issued with estimated readings and when you finally gave them actual readings you were billed for what you have actually charged.

Why did you not give them a reading for over a year?

Best you can do is offer an amount which is both affordable to you and reasonable to them to cover your monthly usage and which helps lower the debt. And start getting into the habit of submitting monthly reads.

footyguy

spacekitty31 wrote: »

Hi all, this may be a bit long winded but please bare with me and sorry if it gets confusing!
My partner joined isupplyenergy in July 2014, everything was ok except we managed to get into about £200 of debt with them and arranged to pay this off at £15 a month which we was doing. We started a new contract with them the following July 2015 as we found the were the cheapest around at the time with a quote of just £35 a month.
Our total balance was £135 as of 9th January 2016, so was going down nicely and all was good until the February statement we received which said £169 which I assumed my last payment didn't show up. I checked and it turns out my bill for the month was £93, with the debt added on top. As you can imagine we were pretty shocked by the huge raise in monthly payments, so of course contacted them and they said it was only an estimate and they hadn't received an meter readings since February 2015!
They suggested to send 2 meter readings 2 weeks apart so they can get a better estimate, just received the bill today of £995 from them, turns out I should have been paying triple what we have been and now really stressed as we can hardly afford the normal bill amount let alone adding the extra for the debt we owe! Apparently we should of been sending meter readings a month so they could of kept up to date but we were never told too and I've always had a prepayment meter before moving here so all I am used to is topping up a key!
Is there anyway we can get the amount lowered or looked at again? Or even would it be possible for me to open a new account with a different supplier (I remember trying before and they refused to release him from the account due to the £200 we owed them. But I don't see why they wouldn't if it was my name?!?)

Anyone able to help please?

Have you been supplying meter readings?
If so, they would all be visable via your online account.

As for never having been told to supply meter readings, read the reminders on the last page of every statement. One of them clearly reads:

As part of this contract you agree to provide meter readings via your online account page. We will send you reminders via e-mail when these are due. If you do not provide a meter reading when requested we will estimate the amount of electricity you have used and use this to produce your next statement

iSupplyEnergy do request by email a meter reading before they produce a statement (unless you provide meter readings frequently, and even then they still sometimes send such an email)

See also the terms and conditions you agreed to abide by, in particular:

16.3 Unless you have a pre-payment meter in which case you only need to provide us with an opening and closing meter reading, you must provide us with a meter reading at least 4 times per year or otherwise at the times detailed in Your Energy Plan or as requested by us prior to the Energy Plan Start Date and if the Contract between us ends under Condition 15.4 or Condition 19. When you provide a meter reading we will be able to bill you more accurately. We may sometimes need to validate the meter reading supplied.

The supplier is unlikely to allow you to switch supplier if they have demanded money from you.
Note: this only applies if they have demanded the money owed, rather than just indicated via a statement that you owe them some money.
If you do manage to switch supplier, then they will produce a final bill, and if that shows you owe them money, they will expect it to be paid promptly.

Kitchen_Sink

spacekitty31 wrote: »

... I don't see why they wouldn't if it was my name?!?)

(a) It's not that simple to just change the name on the account in an attempt to avoid money owed.

(b) your bankruptcy you planned only 6 months ago :cool:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5327802
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5328950
... and even if you didn't go through with that bankruptcy application, your credit history that made you, and Step Change, even consider it.