All energy companies get my address wrong

windyhorace

Hi all,

Whenever I switch energy companies, they get my address wrong. I live in Scotland and we sometimes have strange ways of writing addresses in blocks of flats. Say for example I lived at "3/6 Acacia Avenue" (which basically means "Flat 6, 3 Acacia Avenue")

Energy companies ALL send mail to:

6 3 Acacia Avenue

Which, when printed on an envelope, can't look like anything other than 63 Acacia Avenue. This isn't helped by the fact that in my street there's a real-world equivalent of this imaginary 63 Acacia Avenue, so any switch-related mail inevitably goes there. (It's another block of flats too, so these letters frequently just go missing entirely.) In the past this has led to switches being reversed when letters are returned undelivered. Luckily as things move online more and more it has become less of a problem, however I'd still like to fix it if I can.

It's not even as if our flats are new - they're over half a century old.

I'm working on the assumption that the energy companies have a shared MPAN/MPRN database, and after a little googling I even found a name for it - "ecoes". It seems that punctuation or special characters within address fields is a big no-no for ecoes, which would cause problems for people like me even if they hadn't managed to reverse the flat and building numbers.

The thing is: it doesn't matter how many times I try to explain this issue to individual energy companies, it never gets fixed. Some companies are better than others at amending my billing address on their own system, but every time I switch it's back to square one.

Does anyone know how I go about getting my property's record amended? Should I just chip away at my current (new) supplier until they get the message and do something about it, or can I submit a correction by myself?

Thanks for reading.

Bruce

Jackandn

Is the issue for you that they have the address wrong and you want it right or not getting information such as bills and changes of terms and conditions?

If it is missing information it may be a good idea to go to online bills and opt to receive information by email rather than post. Alternatively you could just ask the supplier to put your address down somewhat inaccurately as for example Flat 6, 3 Acacia Avenue instead of 3/6 Acacia Avenue then at least the post will get to you. Hope this helps

gt94sss2

What does the Royal Mail say at https://www.royalmail.com/find-a-postcode ?

You can update/correct the details at https://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/update-your-address

anniecave

I used to work in electricity billing and if I recall correctly ECOES was only for electricity and yes this is the central record of your electricity supply MPAN. Your current supplier needs to ask for this to be amended if it is not a match to the Royal Mail system, so yes you would need to ask for this to be done. Getting them to actually do anything is hard work though.

I am not sure about gas, but I think there is a similar database for a gas MPR, and yes the route would be the same, via your current supplier.

House_Martin

Stop using that ludicrous eg 3/6 Acacia Avenue, which you say "basically means " flat 6 , 3 Acacia Avenue.
It does nt !...it just confuses. Do it properly..first line.... Flat 6, second line 3 Acacia avenue and your problem will go away.
I work as a meter reader for many suppliers and seeing 3 forward slash 6 does nt make sense. Just do it correctly in the first place and avoid any possible confusion. It only takes a few seconds to get it right first time..
I have to find lots of ludicrous addresses and I think most of my colleagues would just dump address headings like that and walk on by. We do not like knocking on the wrong doors

AndyPK

yeah you could ask your supplier to change it on the national database which takes 28 days.

if you use the EON site for a quote, it gives you the address that is stored on the database

or put in the house name field, Flat 6 or whatever to make it obvious

raleighjoan

House_Martin wrote: »

Stop using that ludicrous eg 3/6 Acacia Avenue

Sorry, but that is sheer ignorance.

The 1/2 and 1F2 systems are traditional and well-established in Scottish cities. Yes, it's unfamiliar to those of us who live elsewhere but for a meter reader in that area it would be basic, everyday knowledge. It is not complicated, it's just different to how England does it. Neither way is more "correct".

I see no reason why people living in Scotland should completely change how they address their homes just to suit energy companies' poorly-designed computer systems. There is really no excuse for databases not handling basic punctuation in the year 2018.

Carrot007

You can get them to chanmge it but check the royal mail address as above as if that is wrong if may revert back in future.


Everyone gets my address wrong on two counts. However fortunatly it is nothing that causes issue. (they a. split the first part of road name into two words when it is one, b. insist I am in a different county to what I am (the first two letters of my postcode are mainly for a different county)(fortunatly county is not part of a valid address so ignored)).

Carrot007

raleighjoan wrote: »

I see no reason why people living in Scotland should completely change how they address their homes just to suit energy companies' poorly-designed computer systems. There is really no excuse for databases not handling basic punctuation in the year 2018.

I think it is more the person initially setting them up looked at it and thought that must be an error. Although in the DTN certain characters are restricted so it might be that. The network was set up with the cooperation of all entities so the Scottish ones should have complained and they can still lobby for a change. This is not individual supplies systems at issue.

alleycat`

As someone who works in IT special characters have restrictions for very good reasons.


They actually have "meanings" and can cause unexpected or serious problems, especially when inserted into a database.


They're restricted from entry for a reason and not to annoy.


I sympathize that this is causing you problems but i'd suggest altering the way you do it for your own sanity.

tberry6686

I've lived in all three of Scotlands largest cities, in flats and worked as a postman delivering mail to flats in those cities.

I've never heard of the addressing method used by the op so that would suggest it is used rarely.

Why not do the sensible thing and use the correct address. You can get it from royal mail if you don't know it.