Spark Energy - action needed

[Deleted User]

My son moved into his first rented flat in August last year. The estate agent told him he didn’t need to worry about the electric supply as this was already signed up to Spark energy. He was signed up to their cheapest tariff online and told his monthly payment would be £35.

After some months he was told that his payments should have been £65 and this is what they would increase to. My son, who has mental health problems and really can’t cope with the stress this has caused, called Spark and was told that the idea of paying by direct debit was for him to build up credit. This simply isn’t right...you pay by direct debit to cover the cost of the energy you use or are going to use...if he wanted a savings account he’d go to a bank!! At this point he asked for some help and I found that he had never read his meter. The Spark website states that they will send their partner every three months to read the meter, but this never happened.

I spoke to one of their customer service people and I told him that I could not believe that after taking a reading his bill was so high. He lives in a studio flat, works all day every day and is only at home for about 4 evenings a week and half of Saturday and half of Sunday. He only has one small electric heater and is on economy seven.
The spark agent said that he would scrap the current bill and we could send in two meter readings each a week apart to get an idea of his actual usage. We did this and was then told that although they give a 10,000 Unit leeway, his readings were slightly over this so would need to be referred to their disputed readings team. Nothing to worry about I was told. We had to chase them up after waiting for weeks and have now been told that he should have been paying £117 per month!!! And even with what he has already paid he owes them £500!! For a studio flat, hardly ever there with one electric heater!! I don’t think so!!

After having done some research on this company it appears that thousands of other people have had similar problems. I emailed their CEO and was contacted by their complaints team again asking for readings - I told her they already had them, that they need to re-issue the bill as per the definite readings and that due to numerous breaches I will report them to OFGEM if this is not sorted to my satisfaction. I now haven’t had a reply even though they told me I would hear back within 2 days!
I notice that sometimes their rates changed twice within a month. Yet my son was never notified of any price changes. His meter has still never been read by their agent throughout the 9 1/2 months he’s been with them. I’ve taken further readings which confirm that his usiage over the week period we were asked to send is completely accurate.

This company is a nightmare, has already been heavily fined by OFGEM and is still getting away with their conduct. My nephew is with Spark and has been told that his electricity payments have been ‘lost’ and that he needs to claim against his bank when it is Spark who have ‘lost’ his money!

I have requested their bank details so my son can be making some payments by standing order while this is sorted. Again I have been met by non response. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed and take this complaint to the next level? Or does anyone from Soark wish to answer this publicly? I have never had the misfortune to deal with such an unscrupulous company who has zero care for their customers. And will be fighting this to the death on behalf of my son, my nephew and every other person who has the misfortune to be signed up to these cowboys.

Please let me know if you have similar experiences as my sister is looking into carrying out a class action against this company.

paddyandstumpy

I had a very similar experience, their service is abysmal.

I tool my complaint to the ombudsman who sided with Spark, despite a whole host of failings on their part. I was really disappointed, I work in the Financial Industry and the FOS hold us to account, this doesn't apply to the Energy Ombudsman!

I did however negotiate £150 off my bill and the option to drip feed it to them over 18 months, push for something along these lines.

I'd never touch them again though.

Former Spark Representative

Hi Deleted_User

Sorry to hear about this.

I'd be happy to check in with our Complaints team with regards to what's happening with the account.

Please drop me a line to the email address given in my profile, confirming your full name and the account holder's full name, along with the supply address.

Kind regards

Jenny
Customer Relations Manager