Refund from Energy Company resulted in Negative Balance

JP1977

1. Called supplier in Jan to ask about a refund of any Credit on the account.
2. Advised to provide Meter Reading and call back the following day, which I did.
3. Following this Meter Reading, I'm advised that my account was in Credit by £250+ and that I could receive a refund of £250.
4. Also advised at the same time, that my estimated usage would go up from £130 per month to £175 and that my DD would be adjusted upwards to account for this increase (as the Credit in the account would have absorbed this over the next 5 months I guess). 5 Months being what they term as the 'Annual review', whereby they aim to have your account balance at £0.
5. Anyway, this increase prompted me to search for a new supplier.
6. Believing my account balance to now be £0 and expecting upon switch to a new supplier, that I'd only have to pay existing supplier for energy used from the point of refund to the point of switch over (approx 3 weeks).
7. Having provided my final meter reading, our old supplier says we owe them more than £340.
8. To me, that suggests; Balance in Jan of £0 (following refund), and then in 3 weeks, we've used £340 worth of Gas and Electricity.
9. We have paid the increased DD of £175 since then, but they say we still owe them £166!.
10. I have spoken to them - They have said that the balance provided to me following the meter reading in Jan, did not account for any fuel used during November/December - despite a meter reading given the day before and them asking me to call back for an updated balance.
11. They first offered an apology (thanks, appreciated, but must do better), then after a couple of days, they called back and offered £27 as compensation.
12. I have rejected this offer. Instead, I have requested they acknowledge that had they given me correct balance advice in Jan, then I would not have been given (nor would I be entitled to) the £250 refund. As it happens, they did not give me the correct advice, they refunded me and that money was subsequently spent.
13. It is my belief that my balance right now, for 3 weeks use, should be closer to £90 (340 minus £250) and at this stage, having paid £175, they should owe me money. I have suggested they just set my balance to £0 and call it a day, which they have replied to by saying I will need to take it up with the Ombudsman.

Any advise on what to do here, or what I might expect by going down the Ombudsman route (timescales, likely result etc)?

Thanks!

System

Hi - welcome to the forum. The simple one first. You have to use the supplier's complaints procedure before taking your case to The Energy Ombudsman eight weeks later. If you go down The EO route then you have to accept that its decision is final. The process is not very quick.

Surely, what you need to do first is a calculation based on your tariff and two actual bills to determine how much your energy has cost less the amount already paid. Basing a complaint based on a belief is not a robust way forward in my view.

Suppliers have a duty to provide best advice but mistakes do occur and again, in my view, it is unlikely that The EO will write off any amount due. What it might do is offer you a small amount of compensation. It is not known for large awards.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Many people appear to believe that if a company make a mistake in your favour, they cannot rectify the situation, and are 'honour bound' to pay up!

That is not the case, even if the matter is in writing and it appears that your case the matter was dealt with by telephone.

You had the opportunity to calculate your bill exactly using the meter readings you supplied in January. Had you done so, you would have realised a refund was not due.

In situations like this, companies often offer a small 'goodwill' payment - presumably the £27?. However as you are switching from the company, their 'goodwill' might be in short supply;)

As you have suffered no loss, I agree with the post above that you are unlikely to get a recommendation from the Ombudsman that your debt written-off

teddysmum

You can request accumulated credit back but if you make the request near billing time, there will be no accumulated money to meet that bill.


People,on here, often say that they have a huge amount of credit due,but forget that bills are made up after power is used ,so a large portion of that money is there to meet the forthcoming bill for fuel used.

phillw

JP1977 wrote: »

1. I have spoken to them - They have said that the balance provided to me following the meter reading in Jan, did not account for any fuel used during November/December - despite a meter reading given the day before and them asking me to call back for an updated balance.

This is almost certainly true, it could be a communication mix up or an error by either party. However your loss isn't caused by the error, it is caused by your reaction to the error. So it's unlikely that they'll write the whole lot off & your provider will know this.

As you've rejected the initial offer then your only choice is to tell them you want to raise an official complaint. If you're angry and blame everyone but yourself then they are more likely to just take the risk and let it go through hoping that you'll end up with nothing. If you're polite and apologetic but mention the hardship then they may offer you more compensation to avoid going through the hassle.

I'd have taken the £27.