Refunds of credit post switch

Johnyb

Are there any regulations on the timescales a provider has once the account has been switched before they provide a final bill & payback any credit?

In the last few years, every time i've moved I've had to constantly chase for final bill & repayment. In one instance (Toto) it took about three months, and now I'm 6 weeks post switching (from Arvo) without this being sorted. I'm having to chase them, they claim I should confirm my final reading with my new supplier (which is madness as I gave them to my new supplier so know exactly what they are) and it will take upton 6 weeks to calculate a final bill. Utter tosh.

Benight

Johnyb wrote: »

Are there any regulations on the timescales a provider has once the account has been switched before they provide a final bill & payback any credit?

In the last few years, every time i've moved I've had to constantly chase for final bill & repayment. In one instance (Toto) it took about three months, and now I'm 6 weeks post switching (from Arvo) without this being sorted. I'm having to chase them, they claim I should confirm my final reading with my new supplier (which is madness as I gave them to my new supplier so know exactly what they are) and it will take upton 6 weeks to calculate a final bill. Utter tosh.

Welcome to MSE :hello:

It's not utter tosh, I'm afraid.

Suppliers are expected to produce a final bill within 6 weeks.
(this allows in part for verification on teh start readings provided to the new supplier, and then those verified readings then to pass to your old supplier)
Settlement of the final bill is then expected to take place within 2 weeks of that.

The 6 weeks is from the date of teh actual switch (not the date you applied for a switch)

If the bill has not been produced after the 6 weeks, then I would suggest you follow the suppliers complaint procedure.
The supplier is allowed up to 8 weeks to resolve any complaint. So it sounds like they will do that if they say they will produce a bill within 6 weeks, but at least it starts the clock running.

Johnyb

They've already had nearly 6 weeks and yesterday quoting another six weeks. Once they have the final readings it should take a few days to create the final bill not weeks.

And having 8 weeks to resolve a complaint is preposterous. They want their money paid every month on time, but don't have to rush to give it back. Very one sided, regulators should out tighter deadlines on refunds.

Benight

Johnyb wrote: »

They've already had nearly 6 weeks and yesterday quoting another six weeks. Once they have the final readings it should take a few days to create the final bill not weeks.

And having 8 weeks to resolve a complaint is preposterous. They want their money paid every month on time, but don't have to rush to give it back. Very one sided, regulators should out tighter deadlines on refunds.

You asked if there were any regulations.
No there are not, but I have explained the expectations.

Ofgem decided not to introduce any penalty (yet) for suppliers that fail to produce a bill within 6 weeks.
However, there is now a penalty for failing to repay credit within 10 working days of production of that final bill

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/04/energy-customers-to-get-p30-compensation-for-delayed-credit-refu/

As I said, it's 2 weeks settlement, either way after production of the final bill. But there is no automatic penalty if you don't. So yes, one sided ... in favour of the customer.

In regards to complaint timescales, again it is not a regulation, but you can take the matter to the ombudsman if a satisfactory resolution is not provided by 8 weeks.
There are no current plans to change timescales in regards to complaint resolution.

If you want to rant, MSE has a specific board for you to do that here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=82