Back Billing or Rebilling??

Cardew

kimplus8 wrote: »

Ask to have the reports from the engineers and all call transcripts included.
.

What engineers are involved?

kimplus8

They have said above that a meter engineer came and looked at the meter and said it was only reporting a single figure.

Streaky_Bacon

Along with the evidence gathering advised by the posters above, you should consider posting a redacted copy of the ombudsman's response here.

It is important to see exactly what evidence the ombudsman took into account, and the exact reasoning behind their decision.

basil3legs

A quick update on this. OK, having typed most of this, not so quick! Sorry for this but it is helping me go back through all the details as I am just a volunteer trying to sort this mess out. This will be helpful when I speak to CAB later. It is also difficult to go through the statements as there are so many different versions now!

You also need to bear in mind that I was the model of politeness with everyone at the Ombudsman throughout this dragged out process as I was obviously trying to get them to side with me so would not want to upset them.

It is also worth knowing that the Ombudsman tends to reply by email late, as in after normal business closing times, on a Friday afternoon for some reason. This further delays everything.

Firstly, this is an un-incorporated Tennis Club so I'm not sure how they will chase anyone for the debt other than the club assets themselves or who they would bring a case against.

On the question of whether we are a Micro Business, there are 3 factors for this, according to Cardew's link, and it reads (although it doesn't really make much sense on the utility side of things) that we have to only pass one of the 3 factors.

These are:
Have under 10 employees - We have none, we are volunteer run and all the coaches are self-employed.
Used under 293,000 kWh of Gas per year - Our gas supply is mainly used as a back up in case of a power cut to run a gas motor to keep an air-dome inflated. The dome does have gas heating but that hasn't been used for years as it was too expensive (and in-efficient) to run. Man up and put a track suit on! We have used maybe 1 cubic foot in the last 3 years.
Use under 100,000 kWh of Electricity a year. We use around 65,000 kWh per year, mainly to keep the dome inflated and then for flood lights. The re-bill Scottish Power sent, that the Ombudsman initially believed stated we use 120,000 kWh per year. We have records going back years showing our usage so there is no question there, just Scottish Power lying.

The original decision made in July 2018, which pretty much agreed with Scottish Power was mainly garbage. By this I mean everything about it was wrong, as though the Ombudsman hadn't even read the complaint.

They stated we weren't a Micro Business based on Scottish Power's lie stating "Due to the usage at the property, you do not qualify for any reduction under Energy UK’s Code of Practice for Accurate Billing as it exceeds the limit of 100,000 kWh per annum for a Micro Business." and had all our rates messed up stating : "The company confirms it estimated your usage and that it held information stating that the meter on site is a three-rate meter. Within your complaint you comment that the meter should be a two-rate and that the company billed you as a single rate. ". They had also completely failed to notice the discrepancy between the final bill up to May 2014 and the new one issued starting from that date.

This decision was, obviously, NOT agreed with. My emailed response started with : "Unfortunately I feel that you have most of the facts incorrect so please let me start again. This was pretty much all conveyed to the person I first spoke to at The Ombudsman Service and also restated in the email sent to be added to the case. I cannot see any record of this on your system so maybe it was never added." and explained everything again from the start.

It turned out that Scottish Power had NOT supplied them with all the details when I had been advised by them they they had. Due to a change in their billing system they had supplied NOTHING from before May 2014.

I finally received a copy of a bill up to May 2014 from Scottish Power in September 2018. This showed a closing total across the 3 estimated readings of 290,507 kWh where as the re-bill starting from May 2014 started with a total of 150,876 kWh showing us being recharged for 139,631 kWh we had already been billed for.

Finally this sunk in and the Ombudsman completely changed their decision. They then suggested Scottish Power manually re-billed right back until 2011 on a single rate stating "We have now reached the end of our investigation process and there is no opportunity to appeal. You now have to decide if you agree to accept our decision in full and final settlement of the dispute." and "If you agree, we will contact Scottish Power and confirm that you accept this in full and final settlement of the complaint."

My emailed response to this, dated 14th Sept, states "That sounds fair enough, my only concern being what rate will be used for the period to be billed at a single rate. We were supposed to be on a 3 rate tariff which works out better for us than their single rate tariff due to the amount of use we have during Evening/Weekend and Night time."

I then spoke to the Ombudsman by phone, I assume on the 18th Sept, again asking about the rate they would use as a single rate. I could not agree to the single rate being used but was told it would be a favourable rate. The conversation basically ended with me stating I could NOT agree to this resolution without seeing the bill but being told they wouldn't produce the bill unless I agreed. That's how it was left. Unfortunately the Ombudsman Service have deleted all their phone recordings for this case so I cannot prove this. They also have no way of proving I agreed to this. I am guessing the date of the phone call as later that day I received an email from the Ombudsman thanking me for accepting the decision!

Scottish Power provided this bill and changed the starting figures yet again making the bill go up even further! They had worked out a new bill, I guess using their standard single rate, increasing the bill by a further £13,614.94 but then stating that as we had been under charged by £13,614.94 they were unable to apply an account credit!

Looking back through my emails, I have one from the Ombudsman dated 16th Oct stating:
"On 18 September 2018 you accepted our decision and we notified Scottish Power of the required actions to resolve your complaint. We asked them to complete all of the actions by 16 October 2018.

Scottish Power has not provided confirmation to us that it has completed these actions. We want to reassure you that we are in contact with Scottish Power about this. We have reminded it of the need to complete the actions as soon as possible or to provide us with an explanation of why it cannot do this.

We appreciate your patience and assure you we will carry on monitoring this until Scottish Power has fully completed the actions and we will contact you as soon as we have any further information."

I received the new bill from Scottish Power in a letter dated the 20th October so, if they argue I did agree to the new bill, I guess I can argue they failed to produce the bill within 28 days.

I emailed the Ombudsman on the 24th October after receiving the new bill but have somehow managed to lose that email but have a response from them thanking me for it. Annoyingly I have a gap in my sent emails there and can't remember if any more were sent or if any more phone calls were made other than chasing up a response - and of course they have deleted all phone calls pertaining to the case.

I finally received an email back from my Investigating Officer on the 16th November stating:
"I have reviewed the statement of account that Scottish Power sent you and in comparison to bills issued in 2011, there is a significant discrepancy with the readings used. As such, I will contact Scottish Power and aim to provide you with an update within the next ten business days."

After umpteen phone calls chasing this up and several "Thank you for your patience" emails nothing had happened by the start of February 2019! However, in the mean time we managed to move our account to a new supplier. Scottish Power immediately tried to take over £16,500.00 from our account which bounced although it did cost us £15.00 in bank charges.

I emailed the Ombudsman about this and got a reply from someone else there stating they had confirmed there was an outstanding bill and as we had moved supplier we should contact Scottish Power to pay the bill!

I then emailed them back stating the whole point of the case was that we DIDN'T owe Scottish Power any money and that, NO, we were not going to make any money available to them!

8th March - another "Thank you for your patience" email from our investigating officer stating:

"We agree that the statement of account provided by Scottish Power does not fall in line with the billed readings and as previously advised, this complaint is more complex than originally anticipated. This is due in part to the inclusion of changes in tariff prices and periods which will affect the overall balance with the application of meter readings.
We have required further information for review before we could confirm a change to the decision and whilst this is still in progress, I hope to be able to update you by the end of next week."

20th March I chased up again by email.

3rd April with still no progress I again phoned Scottish Power and actually got through to someone who would talk to me rather than passing me through to their "Ombudsman Team" who would then say they couldn't speak to me. It says a lot when they have an "Ombudsman Team"!

This is where it finally came to light regarding the second meter change which clearly the Ombudsman was not aware of either.

I emailed the Ombudsman with this information along with a copy of the Voluntary Standards for Backbilling of Microbusiness Energy Customers referring them to where it stated Scottish Power's Maximum Backbill length was 1 year and also to an example in there which I felt related to our issues as per the latest revelation:

Example 5: Supplier fault - Fault with electricity meter

The customer contacted the supplier as they hadn’t received a bill for seven months. After investigating the issue, the supplier discovers that the metering details are incorrect following a meter exchange carried out three years before the date of the customer’s call.
Does the supplier’s backbilling limit apply?
Yes. The period of the electricity backbill is within the limits of the standard. However, as the customer has taken steps to ensure that they are billed correctly, this should be taken into account when dealing with the backbill."

I receive back an "I am out of the office until.." email.

I waited until after this date, giving a week to look into this and then chased up again.

After still no response I again phoned and eventually the case was passed over to a new Investigator. As previously stated, someone had mentioned some family issues, without going into any details obviously, with the original investigating officer so maybe she left her job.

Anyway, the new guy sounded fine on the phone and appeared to understand what I was saying. However, when he had looked into this and finally emailed me back 2 weeks later he stated they had fully investigated the case and the September 2018 decision was final.

I emailed him back again trying to state our case. I had also, in the mean time, found out that one of my emails, the one were I stated I had spoken to Scottish Power and finally discovered the second meter change. had been forwarded to Scottish Power for comment but Scottish Power would not send me over their reply. I asked for a copy of this.

This was sent through to me and all the reply pretty much stated was that they had underbilled us by £13,614.94 (as per the single rate calculation) and addressed none of my questions regarding the Voluntary Standards on back billing.

I immediately replied to the Ombudsman stating the undercharging by £13,614.94 was a complete lie by Scottish Power. I also stated "The problem with the meter is their issue, not ours. Believe it or not, we aren’t allowed to change or reprogramme electric meters!" and that they had totally ignored any mention of the Voluntary Standards.

I did state "Is anyone ever going to give me the courtesy of explaining what the point of that Standard is and why we aren’t covered by it? This is getting more and more frustrating as nobody wants to listen to what I have to say or answer what should be simple questions. This is also taking up a lot of my time in what is a voluntary role. If you are not going to answer my concerns, what is my next step? Watchdog or a Solicitor?". This is probably the only time I stated anything slightly "shirty" to the Ombudsman.

I then got a reply again stating they had made their final decision however it also stated:

"In regards to the voluntary code, this would only apply to any previously unbilled charges. As the rebill reduced the charges, this would not apply."

I can't swear on here as it will just come up with exclamation marks but "WHAT ...!!!"?? The rebill increased our bill by over £14,000.00!!

It also stated: "As you have received our final decision, our role in determining the complaint is over and there is nothing further we can do. You have asked what further actions you can take. Please note that you are now free to take an alternative recourse, such as court action.

I hope you will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for the service to respond to any further correspondence about the decision."

OK, so I ignored this part and rang him to explain the first part. He was busy so was meant to ring me back. The phone did ring the next day but when answered the line was dead.

He again said they would not be replying to any emails or call back requests.

Again, I ignored this!

I then called the Ombudsman but, as our new investigating officer was busy, spoke to someone else. I asked what bills had actually been supplied by Scottish Power, in particular from February 2018. She started going through all the bills starting from the start so I politely (and I can't over-emphasise the word politely) interrupted her to save her time as I was only interested in the February 2018 bill. She went right off on one!! "Don't you interrupt me...". I can only guess from this reaction that there is was either something in my case notes about me or she had had a really bad day (or it was just her!).

Anyway it transpired that Scottish Power had again lied and had never sent over this bill although I had repeatedly referred to it with our original investigating officer as this was the whole point of the case in the first place. I scanned it in, along with the "rebill" and sent them over to our investigating officer.

He replied (Friday) saying he was reviewing them.

He then replied the following Friday again stating that the Sept 2018 decision was final and that as Scottish Power had "actually" billed us £13,614.94 less than they should have (i.e. when using the hugely over-inflated single rate tariff), no credit was due and it would be inappropriate for them to respond to any further correspondence.

I replied once more asking if he could at least explain why he felt Scottish Power should not apply their own back-billing rules. I also stated that, although he stated that this was fully investigated with their decision in September 2018, Scottish Power had not supplied them with any of the bills from 2017 or 2018 despite being told they had been supplied with everything. This was the reason I had not sent him a copy of the February 2018 bill earlier.

This was the last correspondence between us as he never replied.

Since then we have had some red bills from Scottish Power and also letters and calls, to my home number as this is the number Scottish Power have for the account, from a debt collection agency. These actually stated whilst this was still with the Ombudsman and I explained this to them. I have now blocked their number so I'm not sure if they are still calling or not. We hadn't heard anything for a few weeks but received a debt collection from someone new last week. I did try to call them but the number is only for paying the bill! Any correspondence has to be made via their website and I guess email and as I really don't want them having my email address, they can whistle!

Sorry for the waffle!

basil3legs

OK, Data request sent. I'm not sure what will come back as it is a business account but I have asked for everything related to our account to include all correspondence between us, anything relating to any of our complaints raised with both them and the Ombudsman and details of any engineer / meter reading visits whether successful or not.

The last bit might be very relevant as the site is normally locked during the day so any engineer visits have to be scheduled although Scottish Power do have my number to let anyone in as I only live about half a mile away. Whenever an engineer was scheduled to look at the meter, I sat in the club house all morning or afternoon waiting for them not to show up! We have never received anything, either a letter or a card, saying they had tried to read the meter but were unable to get in. The only letters regarding this were requesting us to take the readings ourselves.

basil3legs

First decision from the Ombudsman (July 2018) - totally inaccurate in pretty much everything they say:

I have considered the information provided by both parties. This includes your correspondence and Scottish Power has provided a casefile that includes copies of your account notes.

You explain that Scottish Power failed to set up your account correctly when it obtained your supply in July 2011 and the company estimated your usage.

Scottish Power confirms your supply started on 27 July 2011; however, due to a technical error, it did not update your meter information until 13 October 2011. The company confirms it estimated your usage and that it held information stating that the meter on site is a three-rate meter. Within your complaint you comment that the meter should be a two-rate and that the company billed you as a single rate.

You explain that Scottish Power sent you a bill in 2014 showing a credit balance but you considered the account should hold a higher credit. Your complaint states that you reduced your monthly payment because of this. As the account balance is based upon estimated usage and estimated readings, the credit balance is ultimately inaccurate and therefore, I am unable to conclude that the balance was accurate at that time or that you should have reduced your payments.

On 9 May 2018 you received a bill for backdated charges. You complained to Scottish Power about the size of the bill and it advised you that it would send an engineer to your property; however it failed to do so, instead provided a payment of £30. Under the industry regulator OFGEM’s Guaranteed Standards of Service (GSS), if a supplier fails to attend a scheduled appointment, the company must provide a £30 payment. I am satisfied that the company provided this payment.

From the information I have received, I can see that you contacted Scottish Power to have the meter reprogrammed; however, I have seen no evidence of you following this up. I consider it a shortfall in customer service that the company also did not follow this up. The company confirms that only one reading progressed on the meter and that following your complaint in 2016, it made multiple attempts to contact you and between September 2016 and November 2016, however, it received no response to the message left for you. Without successful contact with you, I am unable to criticise the company for being unable to schedule a meter appointment sooner than it did. Only following contact from a new treasurer on 24 November 2016 could the company schedule the meter appointment to reprogram it. Further attempts were made by the company to contact you between 30 November 2016 and January 2017 without success.

I can see that following the reprogramming of the meter, Scottish Power has billed you for usage across all three rates based upon your average usage since the reprogramming in July 2017. Due to the usage at the property, you do not qualify for any reduction under Energy UK’s Code of Practice for Accurate Billing as it exceeds the limit of 100,000 kWh per annum for a Micro Business. I recognise the disappointment this may cause; however, you must remain responsible to pay for the energy consumed and Scottish Power is entitled to receive payment for energy it has supplied.


It is also apparent that as the company estimated the usage, in the absence of actual readings that the Direct Debit appeared insufficient to cover your actual consumption. I consider this a shortfall in customer service. To remedy this, my decision will require Scottish Power to complete a Direct Debit payment review. The company should also offer you a payment plan to assist you in clearing the outstanding balance, a balance which our service considers valid. We are unable to dictate the terms of a payment plan; however, the company should take into consideration your ability to pay.

In recognition of the shortfalls in service identified, my decision will require Scottish Power to provide a goodwill credit to your account of £75 for the shortfalls in service identified. The company should also send you an apology in writing.

Following my investigation of your complaint, my decision requires Scottish Power to:

• complete a Direct Debit payment review;
• send you an apology in writing;
• apply a £75 goodwill credit to your account;
• offer a payment plan, the precise terms of which is at the discretion of the company.

basil3legs

Second decision (September 2018):

Thank you for your time whilst we continued to investigate your complaint with Scottish Power.

Scottish Power has confirmed to us that it reprogrammed your meter in 2017 (this can be done remotely) to show as a three-rate meter. There has been no physical meter exchange; however, the readings required from you are a day reading, a night reading and an evening/weekend reading. Prior to the reprogramming, Scottish Power must bill you as a single rate with no split across time bands. From the information provided to us by Scottish Power, we see no issue with the three rate readings Scottish Power hold from 2017 to date. We have provided the company with your readings of 13 May 2018 and 31 August 2018 that you sent to us. The company will apply these readings to your account.

Within your representations, you comment upon the lower usage at the premises for a period between 8 May 2013 and 17 March 2017. I have obtained actual readings from Scottish Power for the period of 14 February 2012 (reading 64952), 9 April 2013 (reading 161811), 2 April 2014 (reading 211576) and 11 April 2014 (reading 212811) which confirms your comment that your usage almost halved after April 2013 readings.

We are aware that the meter previously only held one reading, which was a total of what the three readings would now show. The company confirms it rebilled the account back to 2014 on the three-rates, but recognises its actions were incorrect and that there now shows a duplication of charges within your bills. The reason the company billed your account back to 2014 is because that is when your account migrated onto its new billing system; however, due to this, the company did not notice, as you did, the overlap of charges. Ultimately, the company should not have rebilled your account as it did, without considering the migration of its systems, the reprogrammed meter information and the reduced charges between May 2013 and March 2017. I find this a shortfall in customer service.

Scottish Power cannot fully re-bill an account back to the start of the supply in July 2011 due to a change in its billing platform. To remedy this, Scottish Power should produce a manual bill, using the readings held on record that you provided to calculate / confirm the start meter reading from July 2011 and the closing reading from the time of the reprogramming of the meter in 2017 from a single rate to a three-rate. The company should consider your lower consumption using your readings of April 2013 (161811) to March 2017 (323288) and compare the consumption costs against what it has actually charged for the same period. Any difference in cost should be applied to the account as an account credit.

We will amend our decision to include the above as well as a requirement for Scottish Power to increasing the goodwill award to £120 for the further shortfalls identified.

• produce a manual bill, using the readings held on record that you provided to calculate / confirm the start meter reading from July 2011 and the closing reading from the time of the reprogramming of the meter in 2017 from a single rate to a three-rate. The company should consider your lower consumption using your readings of April 2013 (161811) to March 2017 (323288) and compare the consumption costs against what it has actually charged for the full period. Any difference in cost should be applied to the account as an account credit;

• complete a Direct Debit payment review;

• send you an apology in writing;

• apply a £120 goodwill credit to your account; and

• offer a payment plan, the precise terms of which is at the discretion of the company.

Streaky_Bacon

Due to the usage at the property, you do not qualify for any reduction under Energy UK’s Code of Practice for Accurate Billing as it exceeds the limit of 100,000 kWh per annum for a Micro Business. I recognise the disappointment this may cause; however, you must remain responsible to pay for the energy consumed and Scottish Power is entitled to receive payment for energy it has supplied.

This appears to be a significant flaw in the Ombudsman's first decision. The criteria for a micro-business are as follows:

From 31 March 2014, a non-domestic consumer is defined as a micro business if they meet one of the following criteria:

Employs fewer than 10 employees (or their full time equivalent) and has an annual turnover or balance sheet no greater than €2 million, or
Consumes not more than 100,000 kWh of electricity per year, or
Consumer not more than 293,000 kWh of gas per year

The Ombudsman states that you are not a micro business due to your usage. It seems that they have done so because they believe that your electricity usage is above 100,000kWh (you say that it is 65,000kWh).

Even if your electricity usage was above 100,000kWh you would still be a micro business if any of the other criteria apply to you (you say that you have no employees and you gas usage is well below the criteria), the Ombudsman appears to believe that just meeting one criteria is enough to mean that you are not a micro-business. That is completely wrong.

The fact that the Ombudsman mentions back billing rules, but then states that they don't apply because you are not a micro business, strongly suggests that they believe the rules might apply if you are a micro business (which you are, at least from March 2014).

As the issue of back billing has not properly been considered by the Ombudsman, the decision would seem to be fatally flawed. There is no correction, or even mention of this in the second decision.

Have you specifically pointed out the error to the Ombudsman?

EDIT:

In the earliest version of the voluntary code that I can find (2012), the definition of micro business is

A microbusiness is defined as a business which:
1. consumes less than 200,000 kWh of gas a year, or
2. consumes less than 55,000 kWh of electricity a year, or
3. has fewer than ten employees (or their full-time equivalent) and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total not exceeding €2m

I found it here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120601000000*/http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication/finish/43-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/467-voluntary-standards-for-back-billing-microbusiness-energy-customers.html

basil3legs

Streaky Bacon, I had repeatedly pointed this out and they continued to say that Back Billing did not apply.

The only reason I can see for this is that they had never been supplied with the Original bill from February 2018 before the "rebill" despite repeatedly being told Scottish Power had supplied them with everything.

I didn't discover this until July 2019, well after the "final" decision.

To be fair, the wording doesn't really make sense with it being only one of the 3 required. I'm sure there are loads of huge businesses that don't have a gas supply at all. The Voluntary Standards for backbilling for May 2016 states:

These Standards:
1. Will apply to microbusinesses. A microbusiness is defined as a business which:
a) Consumes no more than 293,000kWh of gas or 100,000kWh of electricity each year; or
b) Has fewer than ten employees and an annual turnover not exceeding €2m

This isn't clear whether you have to comply with just one or both of the 2 conditions but we are fine on all counts.

Aha! found out how to "quote".

Streaky_Bacon

I would agree that the criteria might give some strange results in certain cases, but they are unambiguous.

The OR at the end of clause a) is the key. If it was AND, then you'd have to meet both criteria, but it's an OR so you only have to meet one.

As long as you can prove that you meet criteria b) then Scottish Power and the Ombudsman should have taken the back billing code of practice into account.

From the wording of the Ombudsman's decision it seems that it is broadly accepted that Scottish Power are at fault for incorrectly billing you, with the causes being somewhat complicated.

With regards to the reprogramming, it is stated that you arranged this with SP, but then they didn't turn up, and then they tried to rearrange, but you didn't respond. However, it is then stated that the reprogramming was done remotely, so I am not sure how relevant this is.

The fact that the Ombudsman says that you don't qualify for a back billing reduction, only because you are not a micro business, strongly suggests that they believe that you may if you were a micro business.

If you do take further advice on this matter, I would strongly suggest that you raise the two key points

1) That the Ombudsman agreed that the supplier was at fault for incorrect billing, and this does not seem to be disputed by the supplier
2) That the Ombudsman incorrectly stated that you did not have back billing protection because of a misinterpretation of the micro business definition of the back billing code