Fed up with Economy Energy! Should I wait or go to Ombudsman?

muhandis

Hi,

I moved home about 4 months ago and my gas supply at the old address was with Economy Energy.

2 days after moving, I called them, gave them a final meter reading and asked them to send me a final bill and close my account. They asked me to leave the Direct Debit up so they could take any final payment due or make a refund direct to the account. I followed this up with an email with the same details - meter reading, date of move and my forwarding address.

A couple of weeks later, the usual DD went out again. So I called them and asked what's going on - they said they are in the process of closing the account and should happen in a week. A month later they take another payment, I call them and they say the same thing. I then put in a formal complaint to their complaint email address (should have done it earlier!) and receive an instant auto acknowledgement. I made it clear that if they did not close my account, give me a final bill and refund any extra credit, I would take it to the ombudsman at the end of 8 weeks from the date the complaint was made.

The 8 weeks end on Thursday (25th Jan) and I just received an email from them with a final bill and this message -

I attached a copy of your final Gas statement onto this email for your perusal. We have started the process to refund the amount of £xxx. We have sent this to our finance team to be investigated. If your refund has been approved, the amount will be in your bank account in the next 5-10 working days. If for any reason, your refund request is denied, we will contact you to inform you of this.

If they had said that the refund has been sent and will be in my bank account, that would be fine and I would be happy to wait for a week and see. But the wording seems like they're just trying to buy time just before the 8 weeks expire.

I was thinking of replying to their email saying that I will wait until Thursday (8 weeks from my complaint) and if the money isn't in my account then, I will go ahead with the complaint to the Energy Ombudsman as (hopefully) that will concentrate their minds.

What would you do? I'm just fed up of chasing and following up with them. Are they charged by the Ombudsman if customers make a valid complaint? I sure hope so!

I don't know what it is with gas accounts, but I had the exact same issue with EDF when I switched to Economy Energy, they took ages to close my account citing something wrong with their billing system. But at least they did it when I lodged a formal complaint and credited a small goodwill payment to my account as well. These guys at Economy are just another level of incompetent!

Thanks in advance,

K

Edit: Dammit, just noticed that they missed out the last DD they took, so even their final bill is incorrect! Aaargh!

KeithP

Have you now cancelled the Direct Debit?
They can refund to the bank account without a DD being in place.

You might want to read the Direct Debit Guarantee, where it says:

Direct Debit Guarantee

If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society

Consider getting your bank to refund those amounts taken after you terminated the agreement.

muhandis

Yes, I have now cancelled it.

Don't want to go down the route of invoking the DD guarantee yet as even if the bank refunds the debits post account closure, EE will still owe me money.

KeithP wrote: »

Have you now cancelled the Direct Debit?
They can refund to the bank account without a DD being in place.

You might want to read the Direct Debit Guarantee, where it says:

Consider getting your bank to refund those amounts taken after you terminated the agreement.

agrinnall

muhandis wrote: »

Don't want to go down the route of invoking the DD guarantee yet as even if the bank refunds the debits post account closure, EE will still owe me money.

I don't understand your reluctance, if you do this then you'll have some of the money in your bank account and it's a smaller amount that you'll need to pursue them for (Ombudsman or Small Claim).

muhandis

At the moment, I'd rather first deal with EE and the Ombudsman rather than add another player (the bank) to the mix. Don't know what bureaucratic hoops I'll have to jump through to prove that EE weren't supposed to take a payment given that technically I'm still an EE customer as they haven't closed my account.

If it does get to a stage where EE goes incommunicado or doesn't action an Ombudsman refund order, will definitely invoke the DD guarantee for the whole amount they owe me.

agrinnall wrote: »

I don't understand your reluctance, if you do this then you'll have some of the money in your bank account and it's a smaller amount that you'll need to pursue them for (Ombudsman or Small Claim).

Looloo68

Hi go straight to the ombudsman , economy energy are just a joke the have strung me along for weeks over an error on a bill, if you look them up they have been investigated and fined £250000 for miss selling and have a string of legal issues around them. Do not give them any more time. Good luck

muhandis

Absolutely, they are a joke.

Went to Ombudsman, told them I need a correct final bill and a refund of the credit on my account. They talk to EE and agree these steps as a resolution to be enacted within 14 days.

EE send me a letter saying they've done what they were supposed to - include the same (incorrect) bill and refund a partial amount to my bank account. I email their complaints team about this, haven't heard back from them yet.

I'm just waiting for the 14 days to elapse so I can go back to the Ombudsman and tell them EE haven't done it yet.

I sure hope the Energy Ombudsman charges energy companies that mess up a good amount of money.

PS: Talked to my bank about a DD refund, they want me to send them proof that EE owes me that money.

Looloo68 wrote: »

Hi go straight to the ombudsman , economy energy are just a joke the have strung me along for weeks over an error on a bill, if you look them up they have been investigated and fined £250000 for miss selling and have a string of legal issues around them. Do not give them any more time. Good luck

Theta101

Any update on this?
Did you get your money?

I'm in a similar situation with TOTO Energy

muhandis

Yup, all done now. Took about 4 weeks from when I formally complained to the Ombudsman.