Add your feedback on energy supplier Eversmart Energy

the_mandarin

JohnB47 wrote: »

I'm on their Welcome Home tariff and recently went through the process of complaining to the Energy Ombudsman about Eversmart saying that they had made a mistake in stating that this was a 'guaranteed price' deal.

The outcome was that Eversmart agreed that I had been misinformed and that Welcome Home is a fixed price tariff.

I have not heard anything directly from Eversmart about this - only their response to the Ombudsman and recorded in my complaint.

I was perhaps in the same situation that you were in. I, however, did not complain or do anything from my side because Eversmart Energy never really informed me officially about any price increase. They did try to coerce me over the phone by telling me that the fixed price rates would increase. But that did not happen.

I did intend to complain if they ever sent me a formal letter/email, but that never happened.

ChuckMountain

ChuckMountain wrote: »

Well I didn't get my call back yet ...

So to be fair I did get a call back this morning at just after 9am from a helpful member of staff who did try and help but couldn't really do that much.

The explanation was that although my tariff had ended in September 2018 they gave me 2 months goodwill before the price was put up. None of which was communicated to me. Last time when I rang up in August time I was told I would remain on the same tariff.

I asked about anything they could do, there are no other tariffs available and that I would need to raise a complaint via the email address. I mentioned I already had and she was able to see it in the complaints queue waiting to be addressed.

Whilst I was on the phone she produced another bill by ironically querying the smart meter reading to produce a more accurate bill which I am now fractionally back in credit again.

Opening the bill the reading type was given as customer which I queried and she said yes that is a smart meter reading. I asked why all my bills were estimates and she said that there are two different systems which don't appear to talk....

So still not happy if I had been told earlier I could have got a much better deal now it's going to cost me at least £25 a month more than if I had switched in October (ish) time.

Waiting to hear about my complaint now.

ChuckMountain

Afaik without a bill or ringing up you can't tell from their website what tariff you are on ...

the_mandarin

ChuckMountain wrote: »

Afaik without a bill or ringing up you can't tell from their website what tariff you are on ...

You may not be able to figure out the name of your tariff, but if you view any of your latest invoices, you can see the rate at which you are being billed - which should give you a good idea of the tariff that you are on.

JohnB47

ChuckMountain wrote: »

Afaik without a bill or ringing up you can't tell from their website what tariff you are on ...

You are correct. Neither your account on their website nor your bills state the tariff name. Only your welcome pack does that.

As 'the_mandarin' says, you have to inspect the unit/daily charge prices on each bill to ensure that you haven't been switched to another tariff.

Don't expect Eversmart to tell you anything in advance.

ChuckMountain

the_mandarin wrote: »

You may not be able to figure out the name of your tariff, but if you view any of your latest invoices, you can see the rate at which you are being billed - which should give you a good idea of the tariff that you are on.

Yes that's why I said without a bill you can't tell.

So my bill is generated on the 23rd of each month. The November bill was the same rates but the December bill which was only generated after I had the emails about the change in direct debit was much higher rates. Does not tell you the name of the rate

This showed one day of old rates and from the 25th Nov - 23rd Dec the new rates at the much higher rate.

Update: Just looked now as I thought I had saved that bill and somebody has reissued my bills, apparently I used over £400 of electricity between the 24th Dec 2018 and 5th Jan 2019

the_mandarin

ChuckMountain wrote: »

Update: Just looked now as I thought I had saved that bill and somebody has reissued my bills, apparently I used over £400 of electricity between the 24th Dec 2018 and 5th Jan 2019

That is practically not possible. However, one possible way to explain that would be if your prior readings were based on estimated readings and the last reading was an actual reading.

If a series of bills over many months (especially in winter) were generated using estimated readings, the actual difference will eventually add up and turn up as an inflated bill once an actual reading has been submitted.

ChuckMountain

the_mandarin wrote: »

That is practically not possible. However, one possible way to explain that would be if your prior readings were based on estimated readings and the last reading was an actual reading.

If a series of bills over many months (especially in winter) were generated using estimated readings, the actual difference will eventually add up and turn up as an inflated bill once an actual reading has been submitted.

And normally that would make sense, however it's not the case here.

They have rerun a whole series of bills and added a whole new series of readings into the website none of which I recognise or make sense apart from the last one. I have added some of my own readings in over time but their system only managed to remember the last one although I have my own record of them. The new readings don't make sense and I now have a negative bill from two consecutive smart meter readings....

The opposite has happened with the gas where I have hardly used anything in the last bill.

What's frustrating is if this stands my amount used will be far too high as its done at the much higher tariff....

To give you the figures the ending reading

New bill
05/01/2019 - 13,912.90kWh
25/12/2018 - 11,250.5kWh

My own meter reading of the 22/12/2018 was 13,434.7kWh

and the previous bill had the 23/12/2018 as 13,550.1kWh estimated which is about the right ball park...

I have also checked on the Smart Meter to see what the consumption was for the last year and videoed it just in case. The whole of December usage was 1,118.9kWh and so far in Jan I have used 194.3kWh.

I didn't save the bill this morning which was annoying but since then these new bills make no sense...

Needless to say, I need to change supplier ....

Agentleman

Do not respond to emails or live chat in the time frame specified, if at all; and resolution of queries not met. I’ve been with Eversmart since August 2018 and have not had one bill, been asked for a meter reading or been able to acccess the online portal. Who knows whether I’m in credit or debt, they certainly seem not to! The account create link sent does not work to which their solution was to say I hadn’t included the World Wide Web bit! It’s their link, I’m just clicking on it! And besides adding this didn’t make any difference, the link was resent and this still didn’t do it. Average call wait time quoted as 17 hours on Friday when calling to complain again.

I’m switching and complaining to the ombudsman, let’s hope they don’t block my switch.

JohnB47

Agentleman wrote: »

Do not respond to emails or live chat in the time frame specified, if at all; and resolution of queries not met. I’ve been with Eversmart since August 2018 and have not had one bill, been asked for a meter reading or been able to acccess the online portal. Who knows whether I’m in credit or debt, they certainly seem not to! The account create link sent does not work to which their solution was to say I hadn’t included the World Wide Web bit! It’s their link, I’m just clicking on it! And besides adding this didn’t make any difference, the link was resent and this still didn’t do it. Average call wait time quoted as 17 hours on Friday when calling to complain again.

I’m switching and complaining to the ombudsman, let’s hope they don’t block my switch.

Are you on the Welcome Home or Northern Glory tariff? Does your Welcome pack quote a 'Price Guaranteed until' date? If so I would advise you to sit tight, take monthly readings and supply them to Eversmart by email, every month. Also keep an eye on your direct debit amount. The above tariffs are apparently way lower than available now and both these tariffs have recently been confirmed as 'fixed' (one by Eversmart directly and the other in a case dealt with by the Energy Ombudsman).

Have a look at the thread 'Eversmart saying my deal isn't fixed'. It's a bit long now but have a look at page 12, post #235 onwards.

If you can put up with receiving absolutely no contact from them, you'll save money by just staying put.