Pure Planet DD wrong. Large Debt

Chickusdickus

Hi all. Hope you're all saving money and the world.

We changed from Scottish Power 14 months ago, July 18 in a hope to Go Green and Save Money. Reviews were good and savings promising. We were paying around £120 pm with Scottish Power. We also run a Dog Grooming Salon on the Premises; hence why our bill was £120 in the summer months. We expected higher in the Winter, but we're not accountants or Energy Suppliers, so when we gave this info to PP and they came back with £48pp rising to £73pm in the Winter we thought it was a fantastic Deal. We've never questioned it till this month when I took a closer look at the Invoice to see we were £693 in debt! They have said it's a fault on both our parts. Personally I believe i'ts entirely theirs.

Oh, and even now to go to their site and put in a quote for this address it's a minimum of £80 pm.

We're not sure what to do next. They only have an App for Support, or E-mail. They've offered a re-payment plan of £60 and to increase our monthly to £110; basically it's going to go from £48 to £170pm....

I'm considering a formal complaint with the Ombudsman, but not sure.

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

RelievedSheff

I'm not sure what you have to complain about. You accepted the lower payment knowing you had been paying much more previously.

Why does it come as a shock that you are now in debt?

You need to keep a closer eye on your actual energy usage and keep track of your meter readings. You don't need to be an accountant to do that.

Bigphil1474

OP, firstly check the meter readings match up with the bill, so that you know the amount of energy being charged for is accurate.
Generally, I would advise working out what you expect to pay based on your usage in the past against the rates you are being charged, that way if you are underpaying or overpaying, you can tell your supplier. As you say yourself, you expect to pay the same all year round due to your business, so alarm bells should have rung when they said only £48 in the summer.
You need to remember that any monthly payments you make are not usually reflective of the cost of the energy you've used in any month. They normally predict your usage for the year, divide the cost of that by the number of months, and there's your sverage monthly cost.
Sorry, but if it's taken 14 months for you to notice that you have been underpaying and in massive arrears, then you are as much to blame as them IMO. You cant have been checking regularly. I'm with EDF and also just use an app, and check there regularly whether we are ahead or behind, and request an increase or decrease in monthly payment depending on time of year. I know that on my current tariff, £75 a month will leave me slightly in credit by the end of the 12 month term, so I try and stop them putting my DD up or down.
As they've offered you a repayment plan, and you seem to acknowledge you owe the money, I'd suggest doing that.

JJ_Egan

Business use does the ombudsman cover business ??
Does the supplier know you are business .


As a business you are supposed to pay attention to your bills and accounts .

The_Fat_Controller

Is this serious or just a wind-up ?

How could you even think you would pay less than half you were paying with Scottish Power ?

As for a formal complaint, you are kidding, right ?

JuneS

Chickusdickus wrote: »

Hi all. Hope you're all saving money and the world.

We changed from Scottish Power 14 months ago, July 18 in a hope to Go Green and Save Money. Reviews were good and savings promising. We were paying around £120 pm with Scottish Power. We also run a Dog Grooming Salon on the Premises; hence why our bill was £120 in the summer months. We expected higher in the Winter, but we're not accountants or Energy Suppliers, so when we gave this info to PP and they came back with £48pp rising to £73pm in the Winter we thought it was a fantastic Deal. We've never questioned it till this month when I took a closer look at the Invoice to see we were £693 in debt! They have said it's a fault on both our parts. Personally I believe i'ts entirely theirs.

Oh, and even now to go to their site and put in a quote for this address it's a minimum of £80 pm.

We're not sure what to do next. They only have an App for Support, or E-mail. They've offered a re-payment plan of £60 and to increase our monthly to £110; basically it's going to go from £48 to £170pm....

I'm considering a formal complaint with the Ombudsman, but not sure.

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I would respectfully remind you that the ombudsman will not consider any complaint unless:
a) you have allowed at least 8 weeks from submitting a complaint to the affected supplier to allow them to investigate propose a suitable resolution
or
b) You have received a 'deadlock letter' from the supplier following your complaint to them

I guess neither apply yet... :cool:

JuneS

The_Fat_Controller wrote: »

Is this serious or just a wind-up ?

...

We've both been here a long, long time, FC

Is the pope a catholic?
Do bears defecate in the woods?
Do we expect anything different today on these MSE forums?

kazwookie

Dog Grooming Salon

How much elect / gas does this business take up? I guess it depends on how busy you are, a % of each bill to the dog owners should be put aside to contribute to the elec / gas.


Clearly you need to check what you are using, for business and private and make the correct adjustments.

Talldave

What consumption figures did you give to PP? They're cheap but not half the price of everyone else. Alarm bells should have been ringing from your first statement. Why let the debt get so large before doing anything about it?

JuneS

kazwookie wrote: »

Dog Grooming Salon

How much elect / gas does this business take up? ....

Hopefully none whatsoever.

Under the terms and conditions the OP agreed to:

5.
Your obligations
You agree that:

5.6. you will use the Energy we supply for domestic purposes only;

https://cosmos-api.purepla.net/upload/7e747f73-ffcd-40ca-8e66-0872d89cc631

:cool:

Robin9

No sympathy with the OP - as well as not keeping their eye on the ball re electricity I wonder about

1) insurance -

2) change of use of the premises


OP - "Oh, and even now to go to their site and put in a quote for this address it's a minimum of £80 pm." What kwh figures - I hope you are not using the DD figure from SP - are you using ? How do they compare with the actual consumption?