electric provider screwing up final bills - what are my rights?

Bexm

Hi

Firstly I apologise for the long post..

I'm looking for advice as really not sure how best to proceed.
I've mentioned this before on here but here's the situation..
We were with together energy and in November 2018 we switched to OneSelect.
In Dec 2018 OneSelect went under and TG took all the customers.

We were billed by both for a month and we never received the final bill for either.. so after multiple phone calls to get a refund which they promised about 4 times we eventually got a refund.. but they did it 4 times..! So too much.
After all the hassle and half hour wait time to get through (and we did try once to tell them but got cut off after 25 mins) we just decided to stick it in a savings account and just wait til they asked for it back.

In July this year we decided enough was enough as we'd not received any bills and no access to our online account so we left them.

Again after multiple phone calls (as we were worried we owed them a fortune) we got our final bill in September and it was very very wrong and said we owed them £1000 but the meter reads seemed to have been plucked out of thin air.
After a few panicked calls to them .. and everyone telling us it was definitely correct we finally got through to someone sensible who sorted the meter readings.

Then we were told their system had completely mixed up our accounts from before we left the first time and our new one select one.
We got new final bills, one for when we left the first time and one for leaving this time.

The first one seemed ok but the second again completely wrong. We worked out ourselves based on meter readings and the listed rates and the amounts wed already beem refunded that they probably owe us a fiver but the first bill said they owed us about 250 and the second said we owed them about 300.

We disputed it again but they refunded us the 250 automatically.
Now we have more money they possibly shouldn't be ours and they are still saying our accounts are mixed up and they'll get back to us this week/next week/never when the billing team have looked again..

We are totally skint but now have £600 sitting in a savings account thay we don't know if we can touch or not and it's getting ridiculous!!

What are our rights here?
What can we do?

boo_star

I have had the same problem with TE.

They were told (around the time they took on all the OneSelect customers) that I had moved out.

They're currently trying to bill me up until August (I moved out in December 2018 and told them this.)

They're completely incompetent and I'll be taking it to the Energy Ombudsman next. I suggest you do the same.

FreeBear

boo_star wrote: »

They're completely incompetent and I'll be taking it to the Energy Ombudsman next. I suggest you do the same.

Going this route is a good idea, but you do have to follow correct procedure.
Stop talking to them on the phone - Always write, either email or letter.
Ensure any letter/email is headed "Formal Complaint" then after 8 weeks without resolution (or a deadlock letter), you can go to the E.O.

boo_star

FreeBear wrote: »

Going this route is a good idea, but you do have to follow correct procedure.
Stop talking to them on the phone - Always write, either email or letter.
Ensure any letter/email is headed "Formal Complaint" then after 8 weeks without resolution (or a deadlock letter), you can go to the E.O.

I emailed them, don't worry. And yes, it was a formal complaint.

I'm just waiting until I think the 23rd of December when I can escalate it.

brewerdave

FreeBear wrote: »

Going this route is a good idea, but you do have to follow correct procedure.
Stop talking to them on the phone - Always write, either email or letter.
Ensure any letter/email is headed "Formal Complaint" then after 8 weeks without resolution (or a deadlock letter), you can go to the E.O.

Wrote, emailed ,phoned Together on more occasions than I can remember -never got any replies/acknowledgements to formal complaints raised.
Went to the Ombudsman - resolution offered via Ombudsman website ,that I accepted - still nothing direct from Together some 8 weeks after (altho Together told the EO that the resolutions were completed 4 weeks ago!:mad:).
I've been back to Ombudsman who have instructed that Together will reissue the apology/final bill AGAIN.
I've phoned TE Customer Services once since, they denied the existence of the reissued bill!! and still wanted the original incorrect balance.
In short ,Together Energy are a totally useless shower of ******s:mad:

Biscuit_Tin

Bexm wrote: »

Hi

Firstly I apologise for the long post..

I'm looking for advice as really not sure how best to proceed.
I've mentioned this before on here but here's the situation..
We were with together energy and in November 2018 we switched to OneSelect.
In Dec 2018 OneSelect went under and TG took all the customers.

We were billed by both for a month and we never received the final bill for either.. so after multiple phone calls to get a refund which they promised about 4 times we eventually got a refund.. but they did it 4 times..! So too much.
After all the hassle and half hour wait time to get through (and we did try once to tell them but got cut off after 25 mins) we just decided to stick it in a savings account and just wait til they asked for it back.

In July this year we decided enough was enough as we'd not received any bills and no access to our online account so we left them.

Again after multiple phone calls (as we were worried we owed them a fortune) we got our final bill in September and it was very very wrong and said we owed them £1000 but the meter reads seemed to have been plucked out of thin air.
After a few panicked calls to them .. and everyone telling us it was definitely correct we finally got through to someone sensible who sorted the meter readings.

Then we were told their system had completely mixed up our accounts from before we left the first time and our new one select one.
We got new final bills, one for when we left the first time and one for leaving this time.

The first one seemed ok but the second again completely wrong. We worked out ourselves based on meter readings and the listed rates and the amounts wed already beem refunded that they probably owe us a fiver but the first bill said they owed us about 250 and the second said we owed them about 300.

We disputed it again but they refunded us the 250 automatically.
Now we have more money they possibly shouldn't be ours and they are still saying our accounts are mixed up and they'll get back to us this week/next week/never when the billing team have looked again..

We are totally skint but now have £600 sitting in a savings account thay we don't know if we can touch or not and it's getting ridiculous!!

What are our rights here?
What can we do?

I'm sorry, but I found your long post somewhat difficult to follow.
Am I correct to sumarise the situation as follows?

• You were originally supplied by One Select.

• You were moved to Together Energy as a SoLR, following One Select ceasing to trade.

• You have since left Together Energy.

• You have received refunds you believe you were not entitled to.

• You dispute the final bill from Together Energy (and possibly that from One Select?)

• Together Energy have agreed there may be errors with the final bills you have received, and have agreed to investigate.

• You ask what you can do.

If so, my advice is as follows:

• If you have not raised this matter as a complaint, you should do so following the supplier's complaint procedure.

• Otherwise, you need to wait until the supplier gets back to you as they have promised to do.

• As you feel you were not entitled to the refunds you have received, and accepting you have advised the supplier of this and why, you should hold the money until the supplier gets back to you about the incorrect final bill that they have agreed to investigate. If the supplier agrees with you that you were correct in that you were not entitled to the refunds, the supplier will ask for it back in a revised final bill.

HTH

Biscuit_Tin

brewerdave wrote: »

Wrote, emailed ,phoned Together on more occasions than I can remember -never got any replies/acknowledgements to formal complaints raised.
Went to the Ombudsman - resolution offered via Ombudsman website ,that I accepted - still nothing direct from Together some 8 weeks after (altho Together told the EO that the resolutions were completed 4 weeks ago!:mad:).
I've been back to Ombudsman who have instructed that Together will reissue the apology/final bill AGAIN.
I've phoned TE Customer Services once since, they denied the existence of the reissued bill!! and still wanted the original incorrect balance.
In short ,Together Energy are a totally useless shower of ******s:mad:

Having elected to escalate your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman, why are you still communicating with the supplier over that complaint?
The supplier is under no obligation to discuss directly with you the complaint any further.

My advice would be to follow the advice you have received from the EO regarding remedy implementation.

Bexm

@Biscuit tin

You are almost correct.
You just missed the first bit, we were originally a TE customer, left them for one select and then got transferred back when they went out of business and have now left them again.

We are disputing the final bill from the first time we left and now this time as neither have ever been sorted correctly.
We never received a one select final Bill, but have since found out they owed us about £30.

My problem is I don't know how much we owe them or they owe us now and have been holding money since April but I'm sure some of it is actually ours.:eek: