Help! - we are owed 700£ by Spark Energy - back-billing?

KatharinaP

A while back we decided to pay a direct debiticon of 200£ to Spark energy our supplier.
Since then we have regularly checked the meter and added the numbers into our account.
We also had someone come around a couple of times to take the reading.

Recently My boyfriend discovered that we had 800£ in our spark energy account.
He contacted Spark energy to get a refund. they wanted another meter reading, which we gave them last night.

Their reply was:

"Thanks for that. The bill at the end of March wasn't charging for your gas so I corrected everything on your account so that it'll bill correctly going forward.

As at the end of May, the credit balance is now £ 310.37.
Would you like me to refund you about £300 and then set the direct debit at £100 per month as that's your average usage?
Please bear in mind that refunds do take 28 working days to process.
Alternatively, we could lower your direct debit to about £65 per month if you prefer."

To me, this doesn't add up and sounds like a con.
How could we have used 500£ of gas in the last 3 months, if our average according to them is 10£ a month.

I know that back-billing only applies to bills that are over 12 months old,
but can we fight this?
get the Ombudsmanicon involved?

Thanks for your help

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Firstly let us deal with the 12 month back-billing rule. That provision only comes into force when you haven't received bills for 12 months(where the company are at fault). In that case you would only pay for the last 12 months energy and the period before that would be waived.

However even if those circumstances applied, if you have paid them money(i.e. your DD) they can use that money to offset any refund which you might otherwise have been entitled.

The '£10 a month average for gas' is presumably £100? also presumably that is also for electricity? The only way to check how much you should be billed is from the consumption calculated from the meter readings.

That £100 monthly is the average. In winter your consumption will be much higher.

So I am not sure of the grounds for your complaint.

Bigphil1474

I had a fairly similar issue last year with my EDF account, where my credit shown on the website was about £470 but as I was on there to put a meter reading on, I did that, and the balance was adjusted to about £100 credit. It sounds like you didn't actually have an £800 credit - more likely that your payments were up £800 subject to used gas or electric being charged for - they said the bill in March didn't cover gas? which suggests that the difference is the gas used up to March from the previous period, as well as any gas used from March, which would explain the big drop. For my house, we use about 60% of our gas in the winter months (give or take) so if yours is £1200 a year, then that would be about £800 over the winter = about £160 a month over 5 months ish. As Cardew says, check from your readings.

System

To answer one of the OP's points, 'yes it is possible to use £500 of gas in a Winter period' if you are not taking note of your consumption. I check my meters once a week and enter the readings into a 99p app called METERS. This shows me how many days since my last bill, and the cost of the energy that I have used. The app takes a couple of minutes to configure. For example, you have to enter tariff details and a starting meter reading ideally from your last bill. It will display the dat in graphical form. The app will also do energy price comparisons.

https://grahamhaley.co.uk/meters/

Finally, disappointing as it is for you, I agree with the above posts. Credit balances are meaningless unless based on actual meter readings. Even then, the balance is only accurate on the day that the bill was raised. I would take the £300 credit; I would check my annual consumption in kWhs not £s to see if I was on the cheapest deal. At the moment, separate suppliers are cheaper than dual fuel.

EdwardB

I took a look at that app and would never install it.

They make money from you switching which they can do directly from the app, so charging you for the app is a con.

Also shows they do not have a clue about reciprocity in buying behaviour, if they had made the app free they would probably have 100 or even 1000 times the sign ups

System

EdwardB wrote: »

I took a look at that app and would never install it.

They make money from you switching which they can do directly from the app, so charging you for the app is a con.

Also shows they do not have a clue about reciprocity in buying behaviour, if they had made the app free they would probably have 100 or even 1000 times the sign ups

Why is it a con? The supplier comparison is a useful check but I would never use it to switch. It is linked to an Ofgem-approved comparison site which I suspect keeps most of any referral fee. The other app functions are in my view well worth 99p if someone is busy and can't be bothered to produce a spreadsheet etc. At the end of the day, it is a personal choice.

DavidP24

I agree

Do not pay to be sold to and you are spot on about conversions.

EdwardB wrote: »

I took a look at that app and would never install it.

They make money from you switching which they can do directly from the app, so charging you for the app is a con.

Also shows they do not have a clue about reciprocity in buying behaviour, if they had made the app free they would probably have 100 or even 1000 times the sign ups

DavidP24

It is a con because they are charging you to sell to you, I have developed apps on both Apple and Google Platform.

If you make an App free loads more people will try it, then have some features an in app purchase or have a pro version.

If you have an App that costs £1 and you get 500 sales a month, you have your £500 less commission, say you have a 10% conversion of those 500 users and you make say £20 aff commission in month one. So 500 x 10% = 50 x £20 = £1000+£450 is £1450 Income

Now compare if the App is free and you get 5000 sales a month, you lose your £500 less commission, but still have you have your 10% conversion but of those 5000 users, so now you make 5000 x 10% = 500 x £20 = £10000 total Income

And that is Month 1, as long as they have the App you can market something to them for a commission or you can ask them to fill out a survey and find out what things they are interested in, then send them offers that they are more interested in.

You are right, it is personal choice but you are being sold to, it is how online works. With facebook we get the function of the social network for free in return for being sold to.

Same with TV, with netflix you pay for content, with ITV but you agree to be sold to.

So why pay to be sold to just because vendor has not got his act together

Hengus wrote: »

Why is it a con? The supplier comparison is a useful check but I would never use it to switch. It is linked to an Ofgem-approved comparison site which I suspect keeps most of any referral fee. The other app functions are in my view well worth 99p if someone is busy and can't be bothered to produce a spreadsheet etc. At the end of the day, it is a personal choice.