First utility taking 10 working days to refund credit

loadsamoney33

Hi,

Decided to switch energy supplier on the 7th of September to bulb, I was a first utility customer with first utility fitted smart meters, which you'd think would allow them to read my meters quickly and produce a final bill quickly on the switch over date.

Switch over date was 27th September, I knew my first utility account had a reasonable amount of credit in it so I was expecting this to be refunded in a sensible amount of time.

Checked my first utility online account and saw they had calculated the final amount of £170, rang them to get this sorted out / refunded, was told it takes 10 working days to refund the money.

Am I being unreasonable in saying this is ridiculous amount of time ? anyone else experienced this ? I have lodged a complaint via the energy Ombudsman. From the point I decided to switch energy providers to the date of the refund, this will be over 2 months.

Thing is if I decided to not pay my energy bill for over 2 months I'm sure I'd be getting red letters and grief off my energy supplier. The justification they gave over the phone is the refund has to go through several departments, this is why they can't refund me sooner even though their billing system had clearly calculated what they owe me.

wavelets

loadsamoney33 wrote: »

Hi,

Decided to switch energy supplier on the 7th of September to bulb, I was a first utility customer with first utility fitted smart meters, which you'd think would allow them to read my meters quickly and produce a final bill quickly on the switch over date.

Switch over date was 27th September, I knew my first utility account had a reasonable amount of credit in it so I was expecting this to be refunded in a sensible amount of time.

Checked my first utility online account and saw they had calculated the final amount of £170, rang them to get this sorted out / refunded, was told it takes 10 working days to refund the money.

Am I being unreasonable in saying this is ridiculous amount of time ? anyone else experienced this ? I have lodged a complaint via the energy Ombudsman. From the point I decided to switch energy providers to the date of the refund, this will be over 2 months.

Thing is if I decided to not pay my energy bill for over 2 months I'm sure I'd be getting red letters and grief off my energy supplier. The justification they gave over the phone is the refund has to go through several departments, this is why they can't refund me sooner even though their billing system had clearly calculated what they owe me.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=74780609&postcount=279 :cool:

Yes.

System

Suppliers have up to 6 weeks from the date of the actual transfer of supply to raise a Final Bill: credit repayment will then follow. To raise a Final Bill, the old supplier requires industry-verified meter readings from your new supplier. Have you had a Final Bill?

[Deleted User]

Just another reason not to switch

OrangeBunny

I've had to use Resolver twice in 6 months to get a credit refund from FU as they refused to refund the overpayments. A third complaint is ongoing as they kept some of the credit as I'd changed supplier, & took two further direct debit payments, one of which was after the account hasd been closed. I'm not sure if this is illegal or immoral for a company to do this, especially as they owed me money. Their replies signed by Marvelous are patronising, F*** U would be more appropriate for their greed & appalling attitude towards customers.