Acceptable time frame for refund on closed account

Marksfish

I left Flow 2 weeks ago and have a credit balance of about £200. Over the last 4 years, Flow have provided a statement within 5 days of meter readings being given, now I have left, there is no online statement, despite readings being given on departure day. I have also been told it will take "about" 8 weeks to process my refund. Seems a bit of an excessive timescale for me.

Any thoughts please?

Mark

System

Suppliers have up to 6 weeks to produce a final bill. Repayment of any credit depends on their internal approvals process. That said, most suppliers are pretty good about issuing a refund once they get the validated meter readings from your new supplier.

Validated readings are needed to ensure that your new and old accounts are opened/closed with the same readings. Validation is carried out by an industry third party which can take up to 10 days.

footyguy

Marksfish wrote: »

I left Flow 2 weeks ago and have a credit balance of about £200. Over the last 4 years, Flow have provided a statement within 5 days of meter readings being given, now I have left, there is no online statement, despite readings being given on departure day. I have also been told it will take "about" 8 weeks to process my refund. Seems a bit of an excessive timescale for me.

Any thoughts please?

Mark

2 weeks?

Give it a couple of months
...that's based on 6 weeks for a final bill, and then 2 more weeks to issue the refund, if any.

AbbieCadabra

i asked flow this a few weeks ago as we're switching away from them, today actually. they advised 2 weeks from final read being verified/received for bacs payment to your bank if you paid by dd.

however, they did also email me to advise that because we were already in credit they'd cancel our final dd due end of April, which they didn't do anyway. this was the opposite of what I was advised on the phone, i.e. must have active dd on account for switch to go ahead.

so who knows?!

Flow have been great whilst just reads entered online & bills produced, queries on leaving them have shown pretty poor level of service up to now (slow to reply to emails, giving info you haven't asked for & ignoring the actual query & giving out incorrect advice)

phguk

I think both old & new suppliers can influence when the refund is paid.

I'm in an identical position with Flow - I left for Avro on 10/May, unfortunately my direct debit took funds on 8/May and I'm now owed £300. To compound matters, Avro and many new suppliers take their first payment in advance. I provided the same meter reads to both suppliers on the switchover day.

Flow confirmed OFGEM rules give them 6 weeks to raise a final bill which is a precursor to a refund. But this final bill can't be raised until the new supplier confirms they've taken over the customer (Flow call centre op referred to a c-registration ?).

I spoke to Avro to chase up their acknowledgement to Flow and they tell me it takes up to 15 days to update a 'national' database.

Whatever the code of practice guidelines are, I'm wholly unimpressed and have seen no sense of urgency from either supplier. You have to wonder in whose interest OFGEM is working to allow suppliers to take 6-weeks+ to refund a credit balance ?

phillw

phguk wrote: »

You have to wonder in whose interest OFGEM is working to allow suppliers to take 6-weeks+ to refund a credit balance ?

My guess is the suppliers can't do any better without asking us for more money.