Green Star Energy and the Ombudsman

maxcy

Streaky_Bacon wrote: »

OK, so 66% of 4419 is 2,916 so you Mum should be refunded

(the standard unit price - the night unit price) x 2,916

Do you know what the standard and night unit prices were under their cheapest Economy 7 tariff?

EDIT: Just had a quick look at their current tariffs and the difference appears to be roughly 6.5p, so that would be approximately £190

Fergie76 wrote: »

No, I don't. ...

The details of the tariff that was applied for was presumably included on the welcome letter sent to your mother. Hopefully she still has a copy of that, or else I'm sure the supplier can provide a duplicate if necessary.
That presumably is the E7 tariff if that is what your mother applied for.

Presumably your mother now knows what rate she was actually being charged at? If not, then hopefully the Housing Officer or the worker that identified the root cause of the complaint will know. Else, I;m sure the supplier can advise details

maxcy

Fergie76 wrote: »

Of course there is still the opportunity to resort to the court. Using an ADR does not take away your legal rights.

The court will dismiss the claim as soon as they are told that a full and final resolution has already been reached and agreed in the matter.

Streaky_Bacon

Fergie76 wrote: »

Of course there is still the opportunity to resort to the court. Using an ADR does not take away your legal rights.

You're correct that you can go the small claims route. The ombudsman has made the decision and the supplier, who are bound by that decision, have failed to follow it. The ombudsman just do not enforce further than telling the supplier what to do.

You are perfectly entitled to go the court route and it seems that is the correct route. Do your best to figure out an estimate and then send the letter of claim (provide your estimate and invite them to make payment, or provide a final bill, within 14 days). If you don't get a response then begin a claim.

With regards to the heating, I think you are saying that:

1) The system is supposed to recharge when the night rate is active
2) Because there was no night rate, it just recharged constantly

What I don't understand is why that changed the total amount of energy used for recharging. Does the standard/night rate affect when the heat is supplied, or just when it is recharged?

Fergie76

Streaky_Bacon wrote: »

You're correct that you can go the small claims route. The ombudsman has made the decision and the supplier, who are bound by that decision, have failed to follow it. The ombudsman just do not enforce further than telling the supplier what to do.

You are perfectly entitled to go the court route and it seems that is the correct route. Do your best to figure out an estimate and then send the letter of claim.

With regards to the heating, I think you are saying that:

1) The system is supposed to recharge when the night rate is active
2) Because there was no night rate, it just recharged constantly

What I don't understand is why that changed the total amount of energy used for recharging. Does the standard/night rate affect when the heat is supplied, or just when it is recharged?

Yes, sorry for not making myself clear. The heating should only be have been recharged during the night rate period and then it slowly releases the heat throughout the day. So heating should only be charged for 7/24, however has there was no night rate, it was being charged 24/24 and storage heaters use an exceptional rate of electricity.

"Every storage heater has a set of simple controls. ... Most storage heaters will only charge up at night, so there is no danger of using expensive day-rate electricity. The controls also have an output setting that allows you to regulate the amount of heat that the storage heater gives off."

"Storage heater running costs

Assuming that you only use it charging on your lower rate tariff, a 2kw high performance storage heater would have a running cost of around 13p per hour."

So instead of only 7 hours of 13p per hour per heater, my mum had 24 hours.

Hope this makes more sense?

maxcy

Streaky_Bacon wrote: »

You're correct that you can go the small claims route. The ombudsman has made the decision and the supplier, who are bound by that decision, have failed to follow it. The ombudsman just do not enforce further than telling the supplier what to do.

You are perfectly entitled to go the court route and it seems that is the correct route. Do your best to figure out an estimate and then send the letter of claim (provide your estimate and invite them to make payment, or provide a final bill, within 14 days). If you don't get a response then begin a claim.

With regards to the heating, I think you are saying that:

1) The system is supposed to recharge when the night rate is active
2) Because there was no night rate, it just recharged constantly

What I don't understand is why that changed the total amount of energy used for recharging. Does the standard/night rate affect when the heat is supplied, or just when it is recharged?

The court will dismiss the claim as soon as they are told that a full and final resolution has already been reached and agreed in the matter.

There is nothing left for the court to decide
... and you will lose the court fees paid.

Fergie76

maxcy wrote: »

The court will dismiss the claim as soon as they are told that a full and final resolution has already been reached and agreed in the matter.

Blethers, it is the company, that has failed to comply with the ADR resoluton, not my mum.

If anything, the ADR decision will enhance my mum's chance, as it will show the court that my mum has been financially disadvantaged and they have failed to resolve the matter.

maxcy

Fergie76 wrote: »

Blethers, it is the company, that has failed to comply with the ADR resoluton, not my mum.

If anything, the ADR decision will enhance my mum's chance, as it will show the court that my mum has been financially disadvantaged and they have failed to resolve the matter.

I have already provided you with my advice on how best to proceed, based on what you have said.
As I also said, "There are so many concerning matters about this post, it's difficult to know where to start."

I accept that the advice I have provided you may not be the advice you were hoping to receive, but that does not make it incorrect.

Ultimately this is a case of :Your money, Your choice. Entirely up to you how you decide to proceed.

Fergie76

maxcy wrote: »

I have already provided you with my advice on how best to proceed, based on what you have said.
As I also said, "There are so many concerning matters about this post, it's difficult to know where to start."

I accept that the advice I have provided you may not be the advice you were hoping to receive, but that does not make it incorrect.

Ultimately this is a case of :Your money, Your choice. Entirely up to you how you decide to proceed.

You're right, it doesn't make it incorrect, however, what makes it incorrect is that it's wrong. You obviously don't know the way the Small Claims Court works, in fact the encourage you to use an ADR, before proceeding down the court route.

Streaky_Bacon

maxcy wrote: »

The court will dismiss the claim as soon as they are told that a full and final resolution has already been reached and agreed in the matter.

There is nothing left for the court to decide
... and you will lose the court fees paid.

This is quite simply wrong. The supplier owes the OP's Mum money and have failed to pay it. The court will make a decision on whether a judgement should be entered against the defendant. The fact that the ombudsman have already decided what the supplier should do, doesn't change that. If the supplier had followed the judgment of the ombudsman, that would be a different matter.

From an article in The Guardian, which includes input from Martin Lewis

Those, like the Energy Ombudsman, are underpinned by statute. Its compulsory for companies within that sector to be members of a scheme but it doesn’t actually give them any more legal powers. If a company ignores their remedies, all they can do is suggest the customer takes court action or, in serious breaches, report it to the relevant regulator.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/oct/28/ombudsman-regulate-parliament-review-martin-lewis

Fergie76

How do you find out how much you have actually paid on a pre-payment meter?

The reason being, there is a massive discrepancy between the amount Green Star says my mum topped against what she believes she actually topped up.

Unfortunately, my mum always paid cash, so no way of being sure of the actual amount.

In breakdown of payments received by Green Star, Green Star have said that my mum has paid £X amount, but with periods of up to 6 weeks with no top-ups.

My mum was topping up at least weekly and there is no way that £20 would have lasted her 6 weeks from 20 Mar - 8 May 18, bearing in mind it is storage heaters my mum has and we had bad snow during that period.