Energy switch gone wrong

fourpocklington

Hi All,


So the story in full. August this year we moved in to a new house, the current suppliers are E.on for electricity and British Gas for gas. We left this as is for a while, on the variable tarrifs until we got settled. So mid September we used uSwitch to find the best tarrif and we found a decent deal on E.on and applied for the switch.



Fast-foward over a month later and we receive an email from E.on about smart meters. Great! I thought, looks like it's all switched over and I can get smart meters. When I tried to book the meters they said I could only have an electricity meter as that's all they supply us. When I called them and tried to understand why this was the case, they explained they had no evidence I had switched my Gas supply to them and that I was still on the variable tarrif for electricity, they advised I should speak to uSwitch.



So, I rang uSwitch and the first thing I hear is an automated message about switches to new suppliers being delayed. Anyway, after speaking to someone they explained that E.on have "backlog" and that they will chase this. When I asked about potentially cancelling the whole thing they said I was outside the 14 day cooling off period and I'd have to pay the £60 exit fee to E.on BUT that E.on would backdate the tarrif and compenstate me for the delay... I smell a rat...



So I rang E.on back, explained what uSwitch had said, after being passed around a few departments someone in the correct department explained that there was no backlog and that even if there was it wouldn't take over a month to switch my Gas supply as they have a 21 day energy switch guarantee to honour. They advised that if I could get the URN and FileId from uSwitch they might be able to trace the contract and find out what happened. I opened a complaint at this point and explained to the complaints handler that I would like to understand the facts i.e. do I have an active contract on the new tarrif for both fuels and am I indeed outside the cooling off period?


Still during the same day I emailed uSwitch and asked for the URN and FileId which they provided, so towards the end of the day I rang E.on again and explained I had this information, after being bounced around on the phone again I finally spoke to someone in the correct team. He took a look at my notes and after taking the URN and FileId from me explained that he couldn't use it to find anything immediately and that they could only "investigate". He said that in all honesty usually if these switches don't go through quickly they are usually "lost" and the chances of finding them are slim to none. He advised that the best option to "release" me was to cancel everything without penalty and allow me to either do a new application with E.on or choose another supply. I agreed and said that I would review the prices today and most likely switch to a different supplier. That night, I used the MSE energy club to switch to a BritishGas duel fuel tarrif i.e. switching my electricity supply away from E.on.


2 days later, I receive an email from E.on saying they've activated my contract for the switch... Right back on the phone, lots of bouncing around I finally speak to the proper department and explain everything, this time starting to get really tired and upset. They initially explain that they can cancel the Gas because it's "within cooling off" but the Electricity has always been with E.on and as I've just switched tarrif there's no cooling of and the exit fee applies... I explained about the previous call where it was agreed I could cancel, lots of on hold, speaking to managers etc. etc. they read through every note on my file and finally get to the last conversation I had.



They explain "Okay, we can see it was agreed you wanted to cancel the switch, it appears someone has setup a new application for you today to switch your energy, they should have confirmed this with you before doing so, but they haven't so I've agreed with my manager that we can cancel this for you".


So, all sorted. But, after all of this I had a thought about the call charges, which after checking would appear to be about £90 in total... which has probably wiped out most of the saving I would have made from switching my supply in the first place... Do I have any chance of claiming this back somehow? I've been with BritishGas for years in all my previous properties and this is the first time I've shopped around, I honestly feel like trying to switch was the worst thing I could have done after this experience.


On a plus note, less than 2 days after applying to switch to a BritishGas dual fuel tarrif I've received an email with my contract, so at least this one has gone through!

wakeupalarm

fourpocklington wrote: »

Hi All,

<snip>

So, all sorted. But, after all of this I had a thought about the call charges, which after checking would appear to be about £90 in total...

£90! Really? If you have proof of this that you can show I would add this to your complaint.

Raxiel

I don't know about £90 (are you including a cost for your own time and if so at what rate?) but when I had a complaint with E.ON last year they offered me some nominal compensation (about £10-20 I think) for all the call's I'd made chasing them, on top of the 'sorry' compensation for the issue that caused the complaint in the first place.


So there is precedent. If you still have your complaint handlers contact details then you could always give it a try, although if you've accepted their resolution and they've closed the complaint they're not obliged to re-open it.

fourpocklington

I worked out I had spent around 3 hours in total on the phone to them, their number isn't included in my contracted minutes so I'll be charged 55p a minute for the calls. The complaint handler was meant to be calling me back tomorrow, but they were also meant to call me before processing a new application for the switch so I'm not holding out much hope. I'm certainly not ringing them again, it's a minimum of 30 minutes each time just to get through to the correct person.


I thought energy switching was meant to be regulated and this sort of thing can't happen without massive penalties for the energy companies?