Solarplicity/TOTO shambles

Delburn

Jakubk wrote: »

Solarplicity HIKED the Tariff and Standing Charge in preparation for the move to Toto, I was not informed of the rise, only noticed it when I was querying something else.

Now the billing system where we have all our historic bills is DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE, they have been messing with the digital certificates since Friday because they are trying to keep ownership with what companies are left out of the administration.

This is OUR data being passed from pillar to post to different companies who we did not have a trading relationship with. Surely the website needs to be managed by the administrator and OFGEM needs to keep it operational for us but not under the control of whatever the new or latest company is called.

Re the digital certificates. Perhaps someone(?) was being a nuisance and trying to get the certificates revoked.

Agree that the energy supply part of the website should be with the administrators. Solarplicity should not be allowed to continue putting out their propaganda on it. Solarplicity appear to be getting away with dragging everything out, because there is nothing showing the administrators have actually been appointed yet.

Delburn

macman wrote: »

So you were not on a fixed tariff?

Energy companies are required to send out a tariff renewal notice, if they want to vary your charges at the end of a fixed rate.

Solarplicity have a proven track record of failing to send out these notices. If they have not sent the notice, then the change in rates is invalid.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/system/files/docs/2019/02/notice_of_reasons_for_solarplicity_po.pdf

Jakubk

Solarplicity sent notice that were backdates but their envelope scan provis when they were sent.

There were plenty of people on TrustPilot who mentioned this and some on this forum

I contacted OFGEM and was told they had to re-issue notice of proposed change with the correct notice, I told Solarplicity that I formerly rejected their fake notice and that until they issued proper notice I would remain on old one (as OFGEM has indicated) THEY IGNORED IT.

The most recent change to Tariff was done just prior to selling the customer list to TOTO.

There are administrators were appointed by the Court for a handful of companies, officially Solarplicity says it has stopped trading, but it controls the website and still manages the stoke partnership.

CR-2019-003873 GAMMA RAY AM LIMITED
CR-2019-003874 SOLARPLICITY SUPPLY LIMITED
CR-2019-003876 SOLARPLICITY SERVICE LIMITED
CR-2019-003877 PEERGLOW ASSET LIMITED
CR-2019-003878 SOLARPLICITY ENERGY LIMITED
CR-2019-003879 SPTMY LIMITED
CR-2019-003880 SOLARPLICITY UTILITY SERVICES LIMITED

Winding up order issued by HMRC

This is deja vu

AMP 5000 LIMITED Company number 09749982 previous called Solarplicity Limited

There is a pattern of name changes and late filing of accounts (smaller penalty) plus a failure to register charges on two London Flats to related company, under inadvertence.

Assets like head office have charges on them in name of Pension of CEO & Family. There is a complex web of companies, on the face of it the administrator is going to have a tough time, I think Andrea Leadsom needs to get involved, have all of the companies (including those connected to all the officers - because they have relevant charges) under the control of the Administrator.

Delburn

Jakubk wrote: »

Solarplicity sent notice that were backdates but their envelope scan provis when they were sent.

There were plenty of people on TrustPilot who mentioned this and some on this forum

I contacted OFGEM and was told they had to re-issue notice of proposed change with the correct notice, I told Solarplicity that I formerly rejected their fake notice and that until they issued proper notice I would remain on old one (as OFGEM has indicated) THEY IGNORED IT.

The most recent change to Tariff was done just prior to selling the customer list to TOTO.

There are administrators were appointed by the Court for a handful of companies, officially Solarplicity says it has stopped trading, but it controls the website and still manages the stoke partnership.

CR-2019-003873 GAMMA RAY AM LIMITED
CR-2019-003874 SOLARPLICITY SUPPLY LIMITED
CR-2019-003876 SOLARPLICITY SERVICE LIMITED
CR-2019-003877 PEERGLOW ASSET LIMITED
CR-2019-003878 SOLARPLICITY ENERGY LIMITED
CR-2019-003879 SPTMY LIMITED
CR-2019-003880 SOLARPLICITY UTILITY SERVICES LIMITED

Winding up order issued by HMRC

This is deja vu

AMP 5000 LIMITED Company number 09749982 previous called Solarplicity Limited

There is a pattern of name changes and late filing of accounts (smaller penalty) plus a failure to register charges on two London Flats to related company, under inadvertence.

Assets like head office have charges on them in name of Pension of CEO & Family. There is a complex web of companies, on the face of it the administrator is going to have a tough time, I think Andrea Leadsom needs to get involved, have all of the companies (including those connected to all the officers - because they have relevant charges) under the control of the Administrator.

Thanks for the info on the tariff changes. Solarplicity are doing the normal misleading. They said Solarplicity Supply Limited had ceased trading and Solarplicity Energy had withdrawn from the Community Energy Scheme.

There is nothing to suggest Solarplicity RAC Limited and related companies will cease trading even if Solarplicity has given this impression. As you say they run the scheme, but they also own the panels. The split on the Solarplicity website was an attempt to give the impression that the scheme had nothing to do with Solarplicity. They then stated deleting "Solarplicity" from the company names in the terms and conditions, even though this left company names that were already owned by completely unrelated businesses. There will probably be a rename of Solarplicity RAC Limited next. I think there is little chance of the administrators being appointed to Solarplicity RAC because they were mainly funded by a completely separate party to the rest of the Group, ABN AMRO. They have been putting in equity capital into Solarplicity RAC recently to fund the panels.

It would be interesting to know whether Solarplicity RAC are now getting a commission from Toto Energy, and whether this enabled money to be diverted away from Solarplicity Supply.

Yes, I have seen the complex web of companies and charges. The problem is that this is common and can be perfectly legitimate, unless it can be proven that something dishonest was done. If you can prove something dishonest great.

Jakubk

I think that it is pretty stinky to not pay your VAT etc (this is OUR money, we were charged it AND we are tax payers so it puts more burden on us.

It is not the first time and this is why I think the Government needs to investigate and hold officers to account for ALL the activities of ALL the companies the officers have been a part of.

The reason I feel this way is the evidence shown by events in the filing of these companies with name changes, resignations, the lack of filing of accounts on time as a pattern, the name changing to very similar if not identical names. People expect a corporate structure but this is way more complex and when you drill down you see charges in the names of pension, sometimes you would expect to see a Director FUND the business with their Pension, rather than have it own the head office.

We can see this behaviour in older addresses of related companies.

Directors come and go but these ones that resign then join or remain on what I think might be the new companies that they intend to save.

When you look at the related companies that have been allowed to go into insolvency you see they too did not file their accounts.

My feeling is that the only way the administrators will be able to figure out what has been going on is to be given control to all companies the Directors have their names on or their charges on.

It seems to me that at the very least all directors should be suspended pending investigation.

We expect this kind of behaviour from shoddy builders or double glazing companies who run a company into the ground and phoenix into a similar or identical name.

Solarplicity Directors have had plenty of warnings, they were not allowed to take on new customers because they had a policy of not listening, not engaging, not responding, just letting the complaints escalate to the ombudsman and crediting a paltry £50 penalty.

They put in a call centre from South Africa who were brilliant, but who were not enabled to actually to anything. They could not even do simple things like take meter readings.

Solarplicity were very keen on getting the money in for Smartmeters but report after report of botched installations on Trustpilot.

For my part it has been a nightmare, first 5 months no billing, then billing on one energy but not the other.

The online portal was a nightmare, hardly ever worked and when it did readings taken would not be applied to the account despite screenshots and videos I have showing it said it did. I found out later that each and every reading has to be manually put in or approved, this might explain the plethora of errors reported by Solarplicity customers.

Accounting does not seem to be a strong point for the Directors with this late filing but the Solarplicity system was designed to allow things that would have it banned by HMRC if it were an accounting system. Normally you NEVER delete a transaction, you counter it with a credit with a note explaining and you re-bill. It allows for a small thing called an AUDIT TRAIL. I saw bills disappear as if they had never existed, I saw readings disappear, I saw readings that were ESTIMATES put in as ACTUAL, Solarplicity have never read my meters and the only actual readings are those I provided and doing that was like pulling teeth.

Now you might ask "why is this important" well because the energy comanies now share all their readings so they are set in stone. I contacted the ICO and tried to get Solarplicity to correct the false readings, THEY REFUSED, so I made a SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST on the advice of the ICO and this was IGNORED.

I could have left but look at what happened to those that tried, TrustPilot is full of them, one energy only transferred, continued billing by BOTH, calls to call centre resulting in NOTHING, no call backs, no emails, nothing.

Complaints were not escalated in accordance with the company's own complaints procedure so no six week letter. Emails to Mia P who was supposed to be in charge of that show received but nothing done.

OFGEM did give me some advice to put down my complaints as 6 different complaints with the solution I wanted. I did that and got a single reply (probably because it was copied with the email from OFGEM) which just ignored the issues I raised. Then I got a six week letter, then they stopped trading.

What this and the behaviour reported by customers on Trustpilot shows is that the Directors have a blatant disregard for regulation, they are happy to pay the eventual fine or penalty because not everybody has the strength and determination to see the complaints through. Plus they "gatekeep" the complaints by not issuing the 6 week letters.

Honestly I am skimming the surface of the problems with Solarplicity here.

I honestly hope the Administrators / Government will determine that they are not fit and proper people to hold directorships or run companies.

Delburn

Yes, I spoke to that person in charge of complaints on the telephone once. Tried to tell me that even though I had signed-up for a fixed renewal tariff with unit rates quoted in an email, that the rates in the email were wrong and they could charge me a higher unit rate. Even though they kept on charging this higher amount, the unit rate they have supplied to Toto for my account matched the email, not the higher rate that Solarplicity said was the correct rate.

Some interesting comments here from liquidators regarding alleged preferential payments to directors, all settled out of court of course:

21/7/2016 report: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06838573/filing-history
14/3/2017 report https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04827006/filing-history

norricorp

As Dawn says "Anyone can see toto's tariffs available to new applicants on their website." - yes NEW applicants, not existing customers. So when the correct address is entered, there is a message of existing customer and no tariffs are shown.

And I noticed today that the Solarplicity account is no longer available - the certificate has expired. And weirdly, now they have ceased trading, their remaining customers (those not moved to Toto) have been moved to EDF. I guess Toto have not impressed in their first month.

I think overall my main worry is I have no idea what bill I am going to get at some point. So far, Toto have not done a single thing they said they would, either in announcements, emails or from support.

DawnCrush

norricorp wrote: »

As Dawn says "Anyone can see toto's tariffs available to new applicants on their website." - yes NEW applicants, not existing customers. So when the correct address is entered, there is a message of existing customer and no tariffs are shown.

Oh please, just refer to the website

e.g.

What if I want to switch to a TOTO tariff?

Of course you can! There’s a link in your email ‘Your first day’, which you’ll receive in the coming days. You can follow that link to switch to one of our great fixed deals right away.
Alternatively you can call back in whenever you’re ready for the best energy deal of your life!

https://totoenergy.com/solarplicity-customers#faq9

And I noticed today that the Solarplicity account is no longer available - the certificate has expired. And weirdly, now they have ceased trading, their remaining customers (those not moved to Toto) have been moved to EDF. I guess Toto have not impressed in their first month.

Your logic makes no sense, sorry.

Toto only took over some, in fact most but not all, of Solarplicity's customers before Solarplicity ceased to trade.

Those customers not agreed to be switched to Toto by Solarplicity in their agreement were then switched to EDF who were the SoLR appointed by Ofgem.

But you know that, I'm sure. :cool:

Delburn

DawnCrush wrote: »

Oh please, just refer to the website

e.g.
https://totoenergy.com/solarplicity-customers#faq9

As I have said before people should not trust what Toto say.

The link referred to gives no details of any rates and is just a request for a call back.

Toto have said at least three times in welcome emails etc, they would send out alternative tariffs and so far have not done so.

I have cancelled my DD five times because the amounts claimed are not owed, and Toto are still retaining my bank details.

I have been promised a call back and am still waiting after over a week.


Overall there are a lot of puzzling features of the Toto/Solarplicity transaction. Eg
How were the transfer/remaining customers selected and was this in the best interests of Solarplicity's creditors.
Toto have taken on contracts which they acknowledge they do not currently have the information to fulfil. They say they will receive this on 1/9/19, but it would appear they have no way of ensuring this happens, as promises from Solarplicity are worthless now they are in administration.
Have Toto and Solarplicity acted in concert in relation to the highly suspicious double DDs numerous customers report?
There is an ongoing relationship between Toto and Solarplicity RAC. How did the common directors of Solarplicity RAC and the insolvent Solarplicity companies resolve any conflicts of interest this created in the contract negotiations?
The finances and risks of the transaction do not appear to make sense from Toto's point of view. Eg they are taking on an unknown value of customer credit balances which Solarplicity cannot pay them for. This makes me suspicious of the rationale for the transaction.

It will be interesting to see what the first administrators proposals say.

DawnCrush

And as I've said before...

DawnCrush wrote: »

But never allow the facts to get in the way of a good rant :cool:

:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool: