Right to change billing date with Solarplicity?

Jakubk

Hi

I am having a nightmare with my energy supplier Solarplicity, I could write a tome on all the problems but the one that I am having to deal with EVERY month is them billing me fake estimated bills BEFORE I have a chance to upload my meter readings (due to their systems and staff).

I called them again yesterday which was the first working day of the month and the fake bills had already been generated, even though I am still trying to get Octobers problems sorted after 4 phone calls and several emails.

The situation is that I signed up with them last year, it took forever to them to transfer and they made huge errors, but finally my account went live on January 8th after many calls of intervention due to failure on their part.

Now with most companies your billing anniversary would be the 8th of the month and with my previous suppliers I have always been able to move this billing date to suit my needs (as anyone might want to do according to their salary date).

I started with 4 months of no bills and then a faulty gas account, along with portal failure and problems that lasted even longer and problems still occur now.

Every month I have to go through a hassle of getting bills cancelled and re-issued with the correct amount, this month they estimated 300% more than I used!

I now want to know whether there is an OFGEM rule or other consumer law that allows me to specify a different date of billing.

The proposal I put to them was that they change the billing date to the 15th of the month but that the "readings" month runs from first to last day of the month. This would give me say the first 10 days to upload readings they could then bill using those reading and I could pay within 7 days (in fact I pre-pay my account quarterly because despite their original promise to replicate quarterly billing of my previous supplier, this turned out to be a salesman's lie).

All I want is a bill that reflects my usage, for that bill to be issued monthly which is their only option, this seems to be beyond their capability and every month I am having to spend HOURS on the phone or writing emails, they make lots of promises but FAIL to do what they say they are going to do.

The issue is not me; firstly their portal frequently does not work, but also they create work for themselves by not taking your readings, but having each an every one manually reviewed by their staff. This is nuts, all other energy suppliers I know gain the benefit of online by using the results uploaded by customers.

Every month I have to try to enter the readings again and again and again, the system is not updated, I then end up calling, getting no answer or more recently being put through to call centre in South Africa who are nothing more than a glorified message taking service. They have no power to enter the reading, are prevented from seeing my previous readings and simply send messages to the same pathetic UK staff who fail to respond. When I follow up the Staff in SA apologise but nothing changes.

I have complained to the Chief Exec David S Elbourne (David.Elbourne@solarplicity.com) and to complaints escalation manager Mia Patience (mia.patience@solarplicity.com). I received email confirmation that they BOTH read the messages, but they did not reply at all. I escalated AGAIN in accordance with their complaints procedure and still they did not reply.

When I raised a further complaint 3 months later about their lack of response with a copy to OFGEM I got an email from a bean counter at Solarplicity, unfortunately the response showed that they simply did not grasp the problem. Honestly, their reply was so out of touch with the complaint that one loses all faith in this AWFUL Company.

I have long believed that failure like this stems from poor management from the top down, it is a cultural failure systemic across the organisation. I honestly think this supplier is not fit to take on new customers, they have implemented the foreign call centre but they have no power to do anything or they say they are going to do something, make you wait 40 minutes while they say they are doing it and then it does not happen. To be honest I do not blame the call centre they are eager to help but are prevented from doing so by their management system implementation.

It is worrying that they do NOT appear to be following basic accounting principles, i.e. that they show corrections. For example they will say a reading is ACTUAL when they have never read my meter and the alleged amount was fake. Then instead of showing a credit of that bill and/or the reading, they just delete it or amend it and issue a new bill. This means they can make things up at any time and is very worrying in terms of trusting them or their systems.

I am trying to deal with the problems one by one, I have identified that the biggest problem is them generating bills without providing me a reasonable period to upload considering that they do not use the readings and/or the portal simply does not work.

Am I asking too much to expect to be able to have a bill issued on a specific date of the month for the readings of the previous month?

Is there an OFGEM or Consumer Law rule that I can refer to make them comply with this basic and normal request for a change in billing date?

welshmoneylover

Jakubk wrote: »

Hi

I am having a nightmare with my energy supplier Solarplicity, I could write a tome on all the problems but the one that I am having to deal with EVERY month is them billing me fake estimated bills BEFORE I have a chance to upload my meter readings (due to their systems and staff).

I called them again yesterday which was the first working day of the month and the fake bills had already been generated, even though I am still trying to get Octobers problems sorted after 4 phone calls and several emails.

The situation is that I signed up with them last year, it took forever to them to transfer and they made huge errors, but finally my account went live on January 8th after many calls of intervention due to failure on their part.

Now with most companies your billing anniversary would be the 8th of the month and with my previous suppliers I have always been able to move this billing date to suit my needs (as anyone might want to do according to their salary date).

I started with 4 months of no bills and then a faulty gas account, along with portal failure and problems that lasted even longer and problems still occur now.

Every month I have to go through a hassle of getting bills cancelled and re-issued with the correct amount, this month they estimated 300% more than I used!

I now want to know whether there is an OFGEM rule or other consumer law that allows me to specify a different date of billing.

The proposal I put to them was that they change the billing date to the 15th of the month but that the "readings" month runs from first to last day of the month. This would give me say the first 10 days to upload readings they could then bill using those reading and I could pay within 7 days (in fact I pre-pay my account quarterly because despite their original promise to replicate quarterly billing of my previous supplier, this turned out to be a salesman's lie).

All I want is a bill that reflects my usage, for that bill to be issued monthly which is their only option, this seems to be beyond their capability and every month I am having to spend HOURS on the phone or writing emails, they make lots of promises but FAIL to do what they say they are going to do.

The issue is not me; firstly their portal frequently does not work, but also they create work for themselves by not taking your readings, but having each an every one manually reviewed by their staff. This is nuts, all other energy suppliers I know gain the benefit of online by using the results uploaded by customers.

Every month I have to try to enter the readings again and again and again, the system is not updated, I then end up calling, getting no answer or more recently being put through to call centre in South Africa who are nothing more than a glorified message taking service. They have no power to enter the reading, are prevented from seeing my previous readings and simply send messages to the same pathetic UK staff who fail to respond. When I follow up the Staff in SA apologise but nothing changes.

I have complained to the Chief Exec David S Elbourne (David.Elbourne@solarplicity.com) and to complaints escalation manager Mia Patience (mia.patience@solarplicity.com). I received email confirmation that they BOTH read the messages, but they did not reply at all. I escalated AGAIN in accordance with their complaints procedure and still they did not reply.

When I raised a further complaint 3 months later about their lack of response with a copy to OFGEM I got an email from a bean counter at Solarplicity, unfortunately the response showed that they simply did not grasp the problem. Honestly, their reply was so out of touch with the complaint that one loses all faith in this AWFUL Company.

I have long believed that failure like this stems from poor management from the top down, it is a cultural failure systemic across the organisation. I honestly think this supplier is not fit to take on new customers, they have implemented the foreign call centre but they have no power to do anything or they say they are going to do something, make you wait 40 minutes while they say they are doing it and then it does not happen. To be honest I do not blame the call centre they are eager to help but are prevented from doing so by their management system implementation.

It is worrying that they do NOT appear to be following basic accounting principles, i.e. that they show corrections. For example they will say a reading is ACTUAL when they have never read my meter and the alleged amount was fake. Then instead of showing a credit of that bill and/or the reading, they just delete it or amend it and issue a new bill. This means they can make things up at any time and is very worrying in terms of trusting them or their systems.

I am trying to deal with the problems one by one, I have identified that the biggest problem is them generating bills without providing me a reasonable period to upload considering that they do not use the readings and/or the portal simply does not work.

Am I asking too much to expect to be able to have a bill issued on a specific date of the month for the readings of the previous month?

Is there an OFGEM or Consumer Law rule that I can refer to make them comply with this basic and normal request for a change in billing date?

In short I think your answer is no.

Jakubk

Thanks for reply, no need to quote whole message if you are next and if your answer is just "no"

System

In my experience, suppliers either have a billing date or will raise bills as and when readings are provided. I accept that this isn’t always made clear on the supplier’s website. For example, I am with Octopus and they always bill against the readings that I provide. Octopus is also flexible about DD amounts, and the payment date. I suspect that it makes it easier for a supplier to agree a new payment date, if there is credit in the account, or the customer wants to bring the payment date forward.

Jakubk

Thanks for your reply Hengus

Well I have dealt with all the large suppliers and a handful of the small, I have NEVER had a problem with them changing the billing date, they do it right there.

Same with water company, credit card company and my bank for statement date.

I only have to do this because Solarplicity are issuing these fake 300% bills before you can get a chance to enter your readings.

I am going to ask OFGEM to review their fittness to operate or at least take on new customers.

I URGE ANYONE UNHAPPY WITH SOLARPLICITY TO PLACE A REVIEW OF THEIR EXPERIENCE ON TRUSTPILOT BECAUSE I GATHER THAT OFGEM ARE LOOKING INTO THESE REVIEWS.

System

Jakubk wrote: »

Thanks for your reply Hengus

Well I have dealt with all the large suppliers and a handful of the small, I have NEVER had a problem with them changing the billing date, they do it right there.

Same with water company, credit card company and my bank for statement date.

I only have to do this because Solarplicity are issuing these fake 300% bills before you can get a chance to enter your readings.

I am going to ask OFGEM to review their fittness to operate or at least take on new customers.

I URGE ANYONE UNHAPPY WITH SOLARPLICITY TO PLACE A REVIEW OF THEIR EXPERIENCE ON TRUSTPILOT BECAUSE I GATHER THAT OFGEM ARE LOOKING INTO THESE REVIEWS.

Ofgem is not known for speedy investigations. For example, many of us were complaining about Iresa’s failure to comply with Standard Licence Conditions 2 years ago. Look how long it took before Ofgem launched a formal investigation which was dropped a few months later when Iresa failed.