Energy Company Dispute - am i in the right?

dusty123 · 3 September 2019 at 2:55PM

@Takmon

Takmon wrote: »

Personally i think that's silly but then i have been in peoples houses and they have piles of paperwork and unopened letters in random places such as on shelves and on the coffee table, so i assume your one of those kinds of people.

To assume is to make an '!!! out of u and me'. If you had any idea how organised I am, you would be shocked. I'm a web developer, and ironically have actually been working on an application for managing supplier relationships, dates and renewals, but I digress.

I've relied on renewal letters/emails in the past, but have always switched, kept spreadsheets of incomings/outgoings, filed away documents like a dream. Whether I shouldn't have relied on a renewal letter/email is a trigger is by-the-by. I posted the original comment to gauge opinion on the actions of PFP, that affects all their customers, not just me, but you insist on focusing on my admin skills and making assumptions.

dusty123 wrote: »

@Takmon humour me, let's take it a question at a time

Do you acknowledge that a licensing condition exists, stating Energy Providers must notify customers that a fixed tariff is coming to an end?

Takmon wrote: »

Yes and they did tell you but you chose not to read the email.

Great. We're in agreement: energy companies have a legal duty, as per their licensing conditions, to notify customers coming to the end of their fixed tariff contract.

Next question. Hypothetically, if an energy company sent an email with a subject line of 'GDPR Update', and the 'end of fixed tariff' letter as a PDF attachment, would you think this is fair with that subject line?

dusty123 · 3 September 2019 at 2:57PM

rb10 wrote: »

To me, this seems like a clear breach of the license conditions.

Whilst it is true that you'll have known the expiry date in advance, that's somewhat missing the point. The rules say that energy companies have to provide a clear and separate notification of the expiry of a fixed term, and so they have to comply. Whilst the rule is arguably unnecessary (and definitely very consumer-friendly) it is part of the rulebook.

From what you have posted, the Ombudsman don't seem to have fully understood - putting it solely on a welcome letter and bills isn't enough to meet the requirement, so I would be challenging their decision there. You shouldn't be disadvantaged where an energy supplier has failed to meet their requirements (even if you could have avoided it).

Thank you for focussing on the licensing conditions, and commenting on the point at hand!