Small supplier Eversmart Energy stops trading - MSE News

JohnB47

DL1995 wrote: »

Finally received email from Utilita they are to pay me a cheque £229.13, hurray you would think.
Only I calculate£379.66 is due. Emailed back with details of direct debits taken and spreadsheet calcs of my usage how values were arrived at VAT etc. Received email today saying £229.13 Cheque sent case is now closed!


Suggest you check your refund amounts it seems Utilita are mathematically challenged, shall we say!
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

Hopefully you will have been able to send them copies of your last bill from Eversmart and your first bill with the company you moved to after Utilita. These will confirm the start and finish readings for your contract with Utilita.

Stratus

Finally received a couple of bills from Utilita after leaving them for Symbio on 17th October.

Their bill from 1st to 17th October looks OK given that it's based on my submitted readings (147kWh).

Their bill from 18th to 30th September is definitely not OK. They used an estimated opening reading giving my consumption of 535 kWh. Their opening reading would have been about the beginning of August. My actual consumption, based on actual reading taken on 18th September gives 153 kWh.

No mention of credit from Eversmart.

Ho Hum!

JohnB47

Stratus wrote: »

Finally received a couple of bills from Utilita after leaving them for Symbio on 17th October.

Their bill from 1st to 17th October looks OK given that it's based on my submitted readings (147kWh).

Their bill from 18th to 30th September is definitely not OK. They used an estimated opening reading giving my consumption of 535 kWh. Their opening reading would have been about the beginning of August. My actual consumption, based on actual reading taken on 18th September gives 153 kWh.

No mention of credit from Eversmart.

Ho Hum!

Did you supply that 18th Sept reading to Eversmart and get a statement from them?

Stratus

JohnB47 wrote: »

Did you supply that 18th Sept reading to Eversmart and get a statement from them?

I think the website was no longer available then. I can't imagine not doing so if it was.

I've just calculated my own final bills with Eversmart up to 17th September taking account of credit and the final direct debit taken on 10th Sept and I left with a credit of £41.98.

My total bills with Utilita from 18th September to 16th October come to £60.23 (inc VAT) so, offsetting the Eversmart credit, I owe them £18.25.

So do I pay this to Utilita now or wait for them to issue a correct bill, which I've requested?

HHarry

Stratus wrote: »

Finally received a couple of bills from Utilita after leaving them for Symbio on 17th October.

Their bill from 1st to 17th October looks OK given that it's based on my submitted readings (147kWh).

Their bill from 18th to 30th September is definitely not OK. They used an estimated opening reading giving my consumption of 535 kWh. Their opening reading would have been about the beginning of August. My actual consumption, based on actual reading taken on 18th September gives 153 kWh.

No mention of credit from Eversmart.

Ho Hum!

Exactly the same here. The estimated figures for the 18th Sept are wildly out - nearly a £110 in Utilita’s favour, and my £21 credit has disappeared.

All meter readings supplied as requested.

I do have a bit of a black hole in that the last bill I have from Eversmart covers to the 8th September - so I have 10 days to pay for; but that’s more than covered by my credit.

JohnB47

HHarry wrote: »

Exactly the same here. The estimated figures for the 18th Sept are wildly out - nearly a £110 in Utilita’s favour, and my £21 credit has disappeared.

All meter readings supplied as requested.

I do have a bit of a black hole in that the last bill I have from Eversmart covers to the 8th September - so I have 10 days to pay for; but that’s more than covered by my credit.

Have you been asked for readings by Utilita? The only contact I've received from them is the 'Welcome' and the 'Sorry you're leaving' messages.

Stratus

I've paid Utilita the £18.25 I calculated I owed them.

I would have liked to have had them issue a correct bill first but their previous ones called for payment of £129 by the 16th January (tomorrow), even though I only received them on the 13th.

They don't appear to have looked at any data from Eversmart and their estimate for September was simply ridiculous. I use less than 10kWh per day but their assumption was that I was using over 40kWh per day.

Calculating my correct bill was slightly complicated by Utilita having the two rates (to compensate for no standing charge) and also those two rates changing on the 1st October.

Fortunately I was taking meter readings at the important dates of the transfer, the important one being the 18th September. At that time I think Eversmart had been taken down so I couldn't give my reading to them and my Utilita account hadn't been fully set up yet so I couldn't give it to them either. But me having that reading on the 18th means I could finally calculate what I owed for the final period of Eversmart between their last invoice and their transfer of customers to Utilita on the 18th. Customers of failed energy suppliers shouldn't have to do this when transferring to a SOLR.

I now need to hear from Utilita confirming they are happy with my calculations and the payment I've made. We'll see.

Stratus

OFGEM's letter explaining their decision making process in appointing Utilita as the SOLR makes for some interesting reading regarding the honouring of credit balances with Eversmart.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/159777

There has been no credit balance shown on my bills from Utilita despite the following in OFGEM's letter:

"Honouring account balances

As per our SoLR guidance, Ofgem operates a safety net through the SoLR process which protects consumers’ credit balances.15 We recognise that a key concern for customers of Eversmart (both existing and past customers who may still have been owed money by Eversmart) would be whether their credit balances would be honoured. Indeed after ensuring continuity of supply, protecting consumers’ money (existing and past customers), was one of the most important factors in our decision.

Of the submissions we received from suppliers, a majority – including Utilita– confirmed they would honour the credit balances for Eversmart’s customers. Given the implications for overall consumer confidence, as noted above, we also considered whether suppliers would honour the credit balances of former Eversmart customers who had switched away but were still due a credit refund. A majority – including Utilita – confirmed they would honour these credit refunds."

It appears that Utilita were not intending to use the industry levy to recover their costs in honouring the Eversmart credit balances:

"Use of the industry levy

Utilita waived its right to make a levy claim for costs associated with onboarding Eversmart’s customers. Utilita also agreed to waive its right to make a claim for the costs of honouring credit balances, unless the indicative costs provided to potential SoLRs were significantly understated. Utilita agreed to absorb costs up to a significantly higher cap than the costs indicated at the time, and as such (subject to the caveat above) it is unlikely they will make any claim, hence reducing costs to the wider industry and consumers overall."

So far Utilita appear to be choosing to ignore credit balances as it will be in their financial interest to do so.

HHarry

Stratus wrote: »

Customers of failed energy suppliers shouldn't have to do this when transferring to a SOLR.

That’s the bit that concerns me. MSE’rs are a pretty clued up bunch. We’ve both been overcharged by about £100, but have spotted it and have the figures to challenge it - goodness knows how many won’t.

Redbullmaster

Had a bill for £82.31, phoned up Utilita said they didn't have my last bill from Eversmart, so they estimated it.

Also had no record of a payment I made in September for £56.65

Was in credit for about £50 on my last Eversmart bill, so emailed them that and my account statement from my bank showing my payment in Sep.

See what they come back with, not impressed with the handling of this from the start.