Spark Energy: Switched without my permission

The_Occupier

The_Occupier wrote: »

Account no: ***removed by forum team***

Sorry forum team, but trying to get his sorted, it doesn't help that Jenny doesn't receive any private messages

Former Spark Representative

Hi The Occupier

That's a MSE decision rather than a Spark decision.

As I've mentioned already, you could have contacted me using the email address in my profile, but I did manage to get your customer reference number before it was deleted and I have replied to your email.

Kind regards

Jenny
Customer Relations Team

greedyorca

I own a property that was rented out whilst I was in Australia for 13 years. The agent was BairstowEves and it’s predecessors. My tenant vacated on 14 May and as owner I took possession of the property as my place of residence.

Prior to returning to the UK, I contacted the tenant and asked him who was his energy supplier so that I had a benchmark to compare other suppliers against. He informed me that it was Scottish Power, so I logged into energy supplier comparison sites and chose Pure Planet.

Several weeks passed by and I never received an invoice from Pure Planet, so I called them. They told me that they had not been able to switch from my current energy supplier, as I owed that supplier (Spark Energy) money. Until then, I had no idea who spark Energy was, as mail that is addressed to the householder or occupant from companies that I do not have dealings with is binned unopened, as I consider it junk mail, unless it is from the government.

I therefore called Spark Energy, who informed me that BairstowEves had switched the energy supplier to Spark Energy on 30 April, which was 2 weeks before my tenant vacated. BairstowEves had not consulted me or the tenant before doing this.

I have been trying to resolve this issue with BairstowEves and Spark Energy. During a telephone call to SparkEnerg they informed me that it was not their problem, and they could not change the commencement date to when I became responsible for the energy bills. This could only be done by the governing body that they sit under, but they would make a note on their system that this should be passed on to the governing body.

Despite me raising the issue with BairstowEves, who caused the problem, and raising it with them in in my response to the tenant exit inspection report as a failure of the tenant to comply with the Tenancy Agreement clause relating payment of utility bills, Bairstow Eves finally responded about 2 or 3 weeks ago stating that it has been passed on to their relevant department, but I have heard nothing from them since.

With reference to Spark Energy, I keep writing responses to them regarding the constant invoices and reminders that I receive stating that I have overlooked payment, stating I will not be paying any invoices that include the 2 weeks that I am not responsible for. I sometimes receive an automated response and more recently a response that stated I would be contacted within 5 business days, but there has been no contact.

Meanwhile, I am stuck on a punitive rate for gas and electricity, so it makes no sense to Spark Energy to resolve it quickly. In addition, they have included admin charges and late payment charges, which I have told them I will not be paying, as this issue is not of my making.

Where do I go from here, as I seem to be stuck with an energy supplier that I never appointed, and it is causing me and my wife a great deal of stress, which is one of the main reasons we came back to the UK, especially as my wife has lost her hair due to a stress related condition?

dogshome

greedyorca

I'm afraid that, probably in ignorance of current Utility Supply rules in the UK, you made some errors when taking up residence.


When moveing into a dwelling, you are duty bound to report your residence to the EXISTING utility supplier/s to that property - By skipping this stage and immediately opting for Purple Planet you bounced the system and wasted time.
It matters not that you thought Scot Power were the supplier, if you had contacted them you would have quickly found out the actual supplier was Spark.


Binning mail sent to this address, but not in your name, would have been better inscribed "Nor known at this address" and returned, as Spark would have then sent bills addressed to 'The Occupier' which you would have opened



Understand Spark !
Spark get their customers by paying a bung to Letting Agents to change the UtilitySupplier to Spark whilst a property is in limbo between tenants
They are aggressive and retain customers once they are in the net by refusing to allow customers to Switch supplier because the account is in debt, no matter how small that debt is.


YES you have a grievance with start date of this account, but my advice is to forget it and pay the outstanding bills, even overpay a bit, and start the Switch process to another supplier immediately

takman

greedyorca wrote: »

as mail that is addressed to the householder or occupant from companies that I do not have dealings with is binned unopened, as I consider it junk mail, unless it is from the government.

Well you must now realise that's a pretty silly thing to do; it takes very little time to open a letter and quickly take in the contents before binning it.

Former Spark Representative

Hi greedyorca

Thanks for your post.

I've already picked up your concerns via another online post you made, and I've emailed you directly, giving you a couple of options about how we put things right for you.

Please respond to my email when you've got a moment and I'll be happy to help.

Kind regards

Jenny
Customer Relations Team

lewisa

dogshome wrote: »

greedyorca

Binning mail sent to this address, but not in your name, would have been better inscribed "Nor known at this address" and returned, as Spark would have then sent bills addressed to 'The Occupier' which you would have opened

Just want to add the Scottish Power sent a letter to my address for a previous occupier and it was informing them of the court date where they were applying for a warrant to disconnect because of unpaid debt. This was an unmarked envelope, no company name or return address visible. It turns out that HMCTS do not send official summons for this.

Every letter that lands on my doormat gets opened, regardless of who's name is on it, or how private the letter appears to be(HMRC, Child Maintenance, NHS, whatever), they all get opened.

They absolutely never get put back in the post with 'not at this address'.

The_Occupier

Jenny I would like an update, on my current issue

Former Spark Representative

Hi The Occupier

Please drop me a line to the address in my profile with your full supply address, and I'll be happy to give you an update.

Kind regards

Jenny
Customer Relations Team

The_Occupier

Issue with supply has now been resolved, and being sorted, all though will take 6-8 weeks for me to switched back to Scotish Power

Thank You