MSE Cheap Energy Club - switch did not go through

JennyP

I tried to switch suppliers in October using Cheap Energy Club. The switch did not go through. Cheap Energy Club blame Sainsburys but Sainsburys tell me that they have no record of Cheap Energy Club ever putting the switch through. I have lost out on the cheap deal I thought I had signed up for which is now no longer available and the cashback that was promised.

There seems to be no customer service in terms of sorting this out. Just bland apologies.

Wondering if there is any recourse in situations like this? Is it worth complaining to Ofgem for example? I really trusted this site and am mightily hacked off! Not to mention, out of pocket.

System

Clearly something has gone wrong but referral sites such as MSE CEC are just that - a referral site. The gaining supplier manages the switch and a lack of emails from them should have sent up a flag that something had gone amiss with the referral.

If you haven't actually applied to switch as far as the supplier is concerned, then it has done nothing wrong. You could though ask MSE to investigate. I assume that you got a confirmatory e-mail from MSE? If not, finger trouble perhaps?

JennyP

Hengus wrote: »

Clearly something has gone wrong but referral sites such as MSE CEC are just that - a referral site. The gaining supplier manages the switch and a lack of emails from them should have sent up a flag that something had gone amiss with the referral.

If you haven't actually applied to switch as far as the supplier is concerned, then it has done nothing wrong. You could though ask MSE to investigate. I assume that you got a confirmatory e-mail from MSE? If not, finger trouble perhaps?

I had the confirmation email so thought that was it. Then got lazy and didn't follow through. Somewhere had it in my head that it could take up to 12 weeks so thought I was just unlucky and it was slow.

Switched myself now to Avro - directly not through a comparison site - and according to my lovely Excel spreadsheet, will only be about £20 a year worse off so it isn't the end of the world. Just irritating!

System

JennyP wrote: »

I had the confirmation email so thought that was it. Then got lazy and didn't follow through. Somewhere had it in my head that it could take up to 12 weeks so thought I was just unlucky and it was slow.

Switched myself now to Avro - directly not through a comparison site - and according to my lovely Excel spreadsheet, will only be about £20 a year worse off so it isn't the end of the world. Just irritating!

Hope it goes well. FWiW, under Supply Licence Conditions, all transfers are should go through in a maximum of 35 days from receipt of your application to switch (14 days cooling off plus 21 days). Many now do it in 17 days but not all suppliers are signed up to this voluntary code.

footyguy

JennyP wrote: »

I tried to switch suppliers in October using Cheap Energy Club. The switch did not go through. Cheap Energy Club blame Sainsburys but Sainsburys tell me that they have no record of Cheap Energy Club ever putting the switch through. I have lost out on the cheap deal I thought I had signed up for which is now no longer available and the cashback that was promised.

There seems to be no customer service in terms of sorting this out. Just bland apologies.

Wondering if there is any recourse in situations like this? Is it worth complaining to Ofgem for example? I really trusted this site and am mightily hacked off! Not to mention, out of pocket.

Not worth complaining to Ofgem - they don;t consider individuals complaints.

Far better to start with contacting the MSE CEC - contacts link at bottom of the page.

MSE_Dan_L

JennyP wrote: »

I tried to switch suppliers in October using Cheap Energy Club. The switch did not go through. Cheap Energy Club blame Sainsburys but Sainsburys tell me that they have no record of Cheap Energy Club ever putting the switch through. I have lost out on the cheap deal I thought I had signed up for which is now no longer available and the cashback that was promised.

Hi JennyP

It sounds like on this one Sainsbury's have messed up. If we've confirmation of your switch (it sounds like we do), it will have been passed to your supplier to action and it should have kept you up-to-date.

We often hear of people ringing up suppliers to get an update on their switch, only to be told there's no record of it. This is really frustrating, but generally a sign of poor customer service - the agent can't find it on the system because it has been moved into a 'pending' or 'rejection' queue to be manually worked.

We've complained long and hard to suppliers to stop its agents saying things like this, indeed it is one of the things we try to insist on when we organise a collective.

In this case, I'd predict that Sainsbury's had a problem processing this but failed to let you or us know. From your message, I wonder if we'd already checked this out for you and explained that we feel Sainsbury's is at fault?

Brickwoman

I've just had the same thing with Bulb energy, I cant even use the MSE site to get a new deal as they have everything greyed out out saying "switch in progress" when I rang Bulb they have no record of me at all. I'm about to go on standard tarrif so will be paying a fortune not to mention the fact I lose the cash back. I'm also worried if I go through uswitch or another site they may still put my application through and I'll be in a right mess. The worst thing is there is no one at MSE you can talk to! I've emailed them but heard nothing.

[Deleted User]

Bulb have a referral scheme which pays better than any MSE cashback deal.
So get a referral code and go directly to Bulb's website if you wish to use Bulb.
The referral thread for Bulb can be found here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5747310/bulb-energy-referral-thread
Go to the end of the thread and you will see that some codes are for £100 currently.

And finally ignore the Cheap Energy Club, just as they have ignored you.

tgon

Brickwoman wrote: »

I've just had the same thing with Bulb energy, I cant even use the MSE site to get a new deal as they have everything greyed out out saying "switch in progress" when I rang Bulb they have no record of me at all. I'm about to go on standard tarrif so will be paying a fortune not to mention the fact I lose the cash back. I'm also worried if I go through uswitch or another site they may still put my application through and I'll be in a right mess. The worst thing is there is no one at MSE you can talk to! I've emailed them but heard nothing.

Same for me. Waited 14 weeks. Emailed MSE Energy Club but no response ☹️