Small supplier Eversmart Energy stops trading - MSE News

matelodave

rome1067 wrote: »

I was with Eversmart from around December 2017 until September 2019 but have no copy invoices as everything was online. I have the start readings and the readings that Utilita started with can anyone supply me with the standard rates Eversmart charged so I can calculate if I was owed anything. We paid £137 per month and as they went bust in September I would have expected to have some credit due from the summer months.
Thanks

Energy rates are related to where you live, so will vary and there were probably several different tariffs kick around during that period as well. So what tariff were you on and where do you live - someone might know.

You should always keep copies of your bills and correspondence to cover this eventuality - just download PDFs and save them. Hopefully you are doing that now with whoever is supplying your energy - you dont know when they might go bust or their system might crash.

Keep your own records, do not just rely on them being online and always being availble

Stratus

Five months after the demise of Eversmart I finally have closure with Utilita.

Utilita credited my account with my Eversmart balance. The only discrepancy I can pick up between my calculations and theirs is they appear to have added another days standing charge, which at 22p, I'm not going to quibble.
I had to provide them with a spreadsheet of my calculations based on my meter readings, a copy of my final Eversmart bill and a screenshot showing my final direct debit to Eversmart just before they closed down. I don't imagine OFGEM expect customers of failed energy suppliers to have to do all this.

Of all the failed supplier experiences I've had, this has been the most arduous and drawn out.
Nevertheless, lessons to take away from the experience are:

1. Continue to download and keep all bills as soon as they are available.
2. During the winding up of an energy supplier, take regular meter readings, especially at key dates such as the beginning of supply by the SOLR
3. In future, as soon as I hear a supplier is going under I will cancel the direct debit so administrators can chase me if anything is owing and I'm not having to chase the SOLR for the credit balance.

Time to move on.
How long will Symbio survive I wonder?

JohnB47

Just had a text from Utilita:

"I have requested for your Eversmart final bill to be produced, there is a long wait for this so I have placed your account on hold until it has been completed and we have any debit or credit from Eversmart transferred to ourselves".

OK by me.

AirCooledHeaven

JohnB47 said:

Just had a text from Utilita:

"I have requested for your Eversmart final bill to be produced, there is a long wait for this so I have placed your account on hold until it has been completed and we have any debit or credit from Eversmart transferred to ourselves".

Strange that they're claiming there's a long wait, I had my final Utilita bill including my Eversmart credit balance over two weeks ago. There's something dodgy about this company, my original final bill didn't include my eversmart credit, I rang to complain, within 8 hours I had an email detailing my correct bill. Can't help thinking they're trying to hang on to eversmart credit balances from those customers who didn't know they had one.

JohnB47

AirCooledHeaven said:

JohnB47 said:

Just had a text from Utilita:

"I have requested for your Eversmart final bill to be produced, there is a long wait for this so I have placed your account on hold until it has been completed and we have any debit or credit from Eversmart transferred to ourselves".

Strange that they're claiming there's a long wait, I had my final Utilita bill including my Eversmart credit balance over two weeks ago. There's something dodgy about this company, my original final bill didn't include my eversmart credit, I rang to complain, within 8 hours I had an email detailing my correct bill. Can't help thinking they're trying to hang on to eversmart credit balances from those customers who didn't know they had one.

Well, I received two bills from them, neither of which mentioned the Eversmart credit balance. So I sent them an email with my last Eversmart bill attached and showing my credit. I'm presuming the belated text is in response to my email. So yes, its curious how they can sort you out pronto but I'm having to wait.

ivanleo

AirCooledHeaven said:

Strange that they're claiming there's a long wait, I had my final Utilita bill including my Eversmart credit balance over two weeks ago. There's something dodgy about this company, my original final bill didn't include my eversmart credit, I rang to complain, within 8 hours I had an email detailing my correct bill. Can't help thinking they're trying to hang on to eversmart credit balances from those customers who didn't know they had one.

That's not how this works, there's no eversmart credit balance for Utilita to hang onto. After all, Eversmart went bust, did't it?
What actually happens is Utilita pays out of its own pocket to refund everybody their Eversmart balances, and then applies to OfGem for a Supplier of Last Resort payment to recoup the cost. The SOLR payment is recovered via the power distribution companies who charge energy suppliers, so effectively the cost gets spread across all energy users via the standing charge (this year we're all paying about 60p a year to cover existing SOLR payments for Iresa and a few others). The process is designed to be cost-neutral for the SOLR, it's not as if Utilita got handed a big bag of cash from Eversmart. As I said, Eversmart went bust so the idea that there's a pot of money sitting somewhere is fanciful.

AirCooledHeaven

ivanleo said:

AirCooledHeaven said:

Strange that they're claiming there's a long wait, I had my final Utilita bill including my Eversmart credit balance over two weeks ago. There's something dodgy about this company, my original final bill didn't include my eversmart credit, I rang to complain, within 8 hours I had an email detailing my correct bill. Can't help thinking they're trying to hang on to eversmart credit balances from those customers who didn't know they had one.

That's not how this works, there's no eversmart credit balance for Utilita to hang onto. After all, Eversmart went bust, did't it?
What actually happens is Utilita pays out of its own pocket to refund everybody their Eversmart balances, and then applies to OfGem for a Supplier of Last Resort payment to recoup the cost. The SOLR payment is recovered via the power distribution companies who charge energy suppliers, so effectively the cost gets spread across all energy users via the standing charge (this year we're all paying about 60p a year to cover existing SOLR payments for Iresa and a few others). The process is designed to be cost-neutral for the SOLR, it's not as if Utilita got handed a big bag of cash from Eversmart. As I said, Eversmart went bust so the idea that there's a pot of money sitting somewhere is fanciful.

I'm fullly aware of how it works thanks. However, I'm not sure there's any requirement for Utilita to prove to OFGEM that the Eversmart credit balances reclaimed have actually been refunded/credited to the Eversmart customers.

ivanleo

AirCooledHeaven said:

I'm fullly aware of how it works thanks. However, I'm not sure there's any requirement for Utilita to prove to OFGEM that the Eversmart credit balances reclaimed have actually been refunded/credited to the Eversmart customers.

Probably not, but any delays in issuing refunds are more likely down to incompetence than conspiracy.

Stratus

ivanleo said:
That's not how this works, there's no eversmart credit balance for Utilita to hang onto. After all, Eversmart went bust, did't it?

What actually happens is Utilita pays out of its own pocket to refund everybody their Eversmart balances, and then applies to OfGem for a Supplier of Last Resort payment to recoup the cost. The SOLR payment is recovered via the power distribution companies who charge energy suppliers, so effectively the cost gets spread across all energy users via the standing charge (this year we're all paying about 60p a year to cover existing SOLR payments for Iresa and a few others). The process is designed to be cost-neutral for the SOLR, it's not as if Utilita got handed a big bag of cash from Eversmart. As I said, Eversmart went bust so the idea that there's a pot of money sitting somewhere is fanciful.

This isn't the case with Utilita and Eversmart.
As I posted further up the thread, one of the reasons OFGEM selected Utilita as SOLR was that they promised to honour Eversmart customer credit balances without drawing upon the industry levy.

The details are in this letter from OFGEM:
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/159777

HHarry

Well the cynic in me wonders if Utilita are going the same way as Eversmart.

They've taken on all the administration costs of transferring over these Customers (as well as the credit balance responsibility) and I imagine that a fair few of them have transferred in a very short space of time.

 If you're going bust, there's little incentive to sort out accurate bills, and no money to refund credit.