Economy Energy customer service

Ian_Skinflint

Does anyone use this supplier? I switched to them this spring after a few years with First, and I'm not at all impressed.

I noticed that my Direct Debit didn't go out on the allocated day, so I tried logging into my online account to see what my balance was. This was about a month back now, but the online account has been down the whole time.

I called customer services on Saturday - they were open 0800-1800 according to their website, which I thought was quite good - and after some time on hold, was told I'd have to try the number for their Direct Debit team. I found this number on the website and gave them a call (this department was listed with the same opening hours), but after half an hour of holding the line went dead. I tried again, and the same thing happened - half an hour of holding, then the phone peeping out and the line going dead.

I called the (open) customer services department again, and was told that the Direct Debit team aren't open on weekends at all, and I'd have to try again today.

Since this morning I've had several calls with them to try and iron things out. They've been having some "problems" with their website (no shіt), and also more than a few customers have not had the request for their Direct Debit put through to their banks this month, a situation they are trying to remedy by "putting together a spreadsheet" of affected customers.

I was put through to the actual Direct Debit team eventually (the number listed on their website goes through to a different department entirely), but after an aeon of hold music I was told that the department was busy but that a callback was being arranged from a manager within the next half hour. This is close to three hours ago now, and I've called back again to ask what's going on, only to be put on hold yet again to speak with the relevant department. 20 minutes and counting now.

I'm interested to hear what anyone else's experience with this company has been like. I get the impression that the entire operation is run out of some bedroom somewhere, such is the joke that is our privatised energy industry.

Nationalise these useless twаts pronto. The whole thing's a shambles.

ritaburrows

Hopefully they are just going through a blip of a period. I am glad I read your post. I thought the My Account was only down for a few days. That has saved me checking every day.

I called this morning and found the system will not allow you to choose an option. I finally let it ring out until I reached the sales team. I asked them about the issues with their phone and they ignored the question completely, offering to put me through to the direct debit team.

No answer after spending ages waiting. I gave up whilst reading your post. I wanted to ask about my Direct Debits. I think I will just wait and see what happens.

The shame of it is i chose Economy Energy because they seemed smaller and the customer service reviews were high. Hmmmm. I hope I haven't made a bad choice here.

Get Labour back in and we can see about Nationalising these companies for better service!

Ian_Skinflint

Rita, so have you had the same issue that your May payment didn't go through? My was supposed to be my first payment to them, as my switch only completed in mid-April.

Soon after making my last post, the hold ended and I spoke to someone who told me that they couldn't tell me my balance or take a payment because "the person" who does that was busy with another call. I questioned whether they meant "the person" rather than "the team" or "the system", but, yep, it seems like they have just one person working for them who can deal with payments. I'm on hold yet again after another half an hour waiting for a callback that never materialised.

I think I want to leave this company. Can I do that even with 11 months left in a contract with them?

footyguy

Heres a link to the Economy Energy feedback thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5468653

Although a longer thread on the company can be found here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4399311

Here is the forum search function
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php

so that you can find all the other previous comments on this supplier too

HTH

footyguy

Ian_Skinflint wrote: »

...
I think I want to leave this company. Can I do that even with 11 months left in a contract with them?

Domestic customers can leave their existing supplier any time they like - all you have to do is initiate a switch to a new supplier of your choice and the new supplier will take care of it all for you. Switching takes a minimum of 17 days and possibly as long as 5-6 weeks.

This MSE article explains more
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

Don't forget to check the terms & conditions of your existing contract to see if you may incur any early exit fees, and if so what they are (typically about £25-£30 per fuel where charged)

Ian_Skinflint

footyguy wrote: »

Domestic customers can leave their existing supplier any time they like - all you have to do is initiate a switch to a new supplier of your choice and the new supplier will take care of it all for you. Switching takes a minimum of 17 days and possibly as long as 5-6 weeks.

Don't forget to check the terms & conditions of your existing contract to see if you may incur any early exit fees, and if so what they are (typically about £25-£30 per fuel where charged)

Sorry, I knew I could switch, I should have phrased it more carefully as "is there a way to leave a tariff even while in contract without paying the exit fee due to extremely poor customer service".

I'm not particularly hopeful of a positive aswer.

Ian_Skinflint

footyguy wrote: »

Heres a link to the Economy Energy feedback thread
HTH

It does. The forum I use most regularly has a knackered search function, so I'm just in the habit of using google to search for threads instead. I did do that before making this thread, but obviously not very skillfully.

footyguy

Ian_Skinflint wrote: »

Sorry, I knew I could switch, I should have phrased it more carefully as "is there a way to leave a tariff even while in contract without paying the exit fee due to extremely poor customer service".

I'm not particularly hopeful of a positive aswer.

You are correct, a positive answer is not going to be very forthcoming,

You will not be able to get out of the terms of the contract you have agreed to abide by unless you can convince the ombudsman service or law courts it would be right for you to do so in the circumstances.

You'd probably have more luck pushing for say a £25 goodwill gesture because of any any bad service you have experienced

footyguy

Ian_Skinflint wrote: »

It does. The forum I use most regularly has a knackered search function, so I'm just in the habit of using google to search for threads instead. I did do that before making this thread, but obviously not very skillfully.

Interesting

It's in the very first entry when I search google


and as you can see, that first entry also includes a link to more results from MSE

Good luck!

footyguy

ritaburrows wrote: »

...

Get Labour back in ...

You'll get another chance by 2022 at the latest

SpotlandRules

Going off reviews I have read, they get more complaints then the big 6. On that fact, I would avoid them like the plague.