Co-Op Energy Asking for alot of money a year and a half after account was closed?

tiki

We we're with Co-Op Energy and every year I do the usual price check with Martins Energy Checker, and it was found that Sainsbury's was a lot cheaper, so I went through the right route and changed accounts, nothing awful happened and everything seemed to go smoothly, and since then I have moved again to a better deal, but on September 1st this year, I received a letter from Co-Op saying that we owed £73.55, so I rang them to see what this was for and they replied that it wasn't £73.55 it was actually £265.86, so I asked what this was for, and they said for the final bill that was never sent, they say they sent it in July last year, but we never received it, otherwise we would have dealt with it then, I tried logging into my account and I managed to get a copy of the final bill, but I phoned them to say we we're going away for just over 4 weeks, as I have just got over cancer and we wanted to get away for a break, so they said they would put a note on my account and I could deal with it when I returned. We retuned late last week to about 15 answer machine messages and about 6 threatening letters from them, so I have phoned Citizens Advice, and they are going to get back to me, but I had Co-Op on the phone this afternoon, quite rude, saying that I should have chased them last year for a final bill, well as far as we we're concerned we had paid up to date with the direct debit, and to send this through over a year and a half later and keep chasing me, is appalling. This is not our fault and surely they should have picked this up along time before, not leave it until now! The last thing we want is a bad credit rating, as we have never had one, and we do not want one through someone else's mistake, so just want to know how we stand on this? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Mr_Singleton

You used £265.86 worth of gas and they are now asking you to pay for it seems jolly decent of them to give you 18 months interest free credit on your debt!

Now what was your problem?

hilljd00

My advice to you would be to sit down and create a timeline; when you joined, when they took payments, when you gave meter readings and any/all forms of contact.

Another energy company tried this with me, after full investigation I learn't I was owed £238. They sent me a cheque a couple of days later.

tiki

Thanks for your advice, I am ringing them today to get a full run down of everything I paid them and meter readings, so I can check what they have against mine, and see how I get on. Thanks.

matelodave

I know its a PITA but it's worth while keeping all your bills, either paper ones or electronically for six years so you can always check yourself. Without your own evidence it can be really difficult to backtrack and see what if anything has gone wrong.

Keeping your own records of payments and consumption together with not accepting estimated bills - send in readings and get them revised - will avoid nasty surprises in the futre