Breeze gone.

Chocmonster7

I've had the two emails and they've wildly over estimated how much I use (over double!), just want to get away from BG as quickly as possible!

SnowTiger

Tabatha_Kitten wrote: »

Ive had a email but it only mentions my electricity supply.
I had my gas with Breeze too.

You should receive two emails. One about electricity and one about gas.

katies_mum

Scary isn`t it the amount BG are going to be charging us until we can escape! (when Iresa folded I thought the prices from Octopus wern`t too bad). I`m supposing that if we don`t set up a DD with them then our rates could be slightly higher? (I`m hoping I might be wrong in saying this).

I did cancel my DD with Breeze and am paid up to 21st December when I submitted meter readings. There is a credit of £50 on the account but this won`t go far with BG prices, I will pay what is needed in a one off payment but am not going to set up a DD with them.

Please could anyone clarify that before we can move from BG to a company of our choice we will have to fully pay their account first or will we just pay on leaving when the transfer has gone through.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year.

Terresa

Gerry1 wrote: »

The founder of MoneySupermarket might disagree with you !

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/energy-companies-owe-us-millions-dsdkf79rd

fanlight wrote: »

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion., and I respect that ... If he was the founder, does that mean he nopw ownbs this site? If so, he can definitely have his own account if he wants it....

So, the off topic link appears to refer to a person known as Richard Mason.

Whilst it is true he was one of the co-founders of moneysupermarket.com, the company that MSE Martin sold this site to back in 2012 I believe, [STRIKE]Mr Mason left supermarket.com way back in the last century![/STRIKE] Actually he may have left about 10 years ago, but fact remains he appears to have left them more years ago than he worked there
Apparently he was formerly the controller of commercial lending at the Britannia Building Society - anyone remember them before their demise?

How long can someone clutch at their past for? There's lot's more recent juicy stuff on line about him

e.g. his son is rather scathing of him, referring to him as manipulative and not someone you would want to spend your time with (remind you of anyone here? ), and his response was to say to him to tell his mother (Mr Mason's ex-wife) not to be so daft. :cool:

Anyway, I digress again.

It would seem that Mr Mason bought his electricity from former energy supplier, solarplicity.

Solarplicity indicated it was ceasing to trade last August; it was announced by Ofgem on the 13th to be precise, with Ofgem then appointing EDF as the SoLR on the 16th, effective from 17th August 2019.

Not quite sure what this has to do with British Gas having recently been appointed as SoLR for Breeze Energy, but not to worry.

It seems the link is to a newspaper article dated 26th October 2019, barely 8 weeks following the collapse of Solarplicity. In that article, it is alleged that Mr Mason was moaning that he was owed £1500 or thereabouts from Solarplicity.
Remember, even if you switch supplier volunatarily, the supplier is generally allowed 6 weeks to prepare a final bill and 2 weeks thereafter to settle the final bill.

Why anyone would allow £1500 credit to have amassed on their electricity account, and then suddenly become so precious and impatient about it, beats me, but there you go. That how some people are I suppose. I'm sure you know the type

Where an SoLR is appointed by the regulator, things are often quite messy to sort out behind the scenes, and whilst this does not impact the customer directly, it can mean the whole process does take longer for the customer.

But not too much it would seem, because on 17th November 2019, EDF proudly announced:

Update 14 November 2019

We have now contacted all customers that are due a credit balance refund to let them know the amount and how they will get this back. If you believe you are due a credit balance refund and have not heard from us, or you do not agree with the amount of the credit balance we have written to you about, you can contact us on the number below.

https://www.edfenergy.com/solarplicity-customers

In fact. you can see EDF were quite open about the whole progess, and regularly updating that site to keep customers fully informed.

I've tried to give Mr Mason the benefit of the doubt here, because actually 134000 solarplicity customers were actually transferred to Toto under a pre-arranged agreement, shortly before Solarplicity ceased to trade.

By giving Mr Mason the benefit of the doubt, I need to assume he was one of the 8000 remaining solarplicity customers that were not transferred.

If I am wrong in that assumption, then it gets even worse for Mr Mason. You see, under the pre-arranged transfer agreement, Toto simply took control of the existing account.

Unfortunately, Toto also later indicated as recently as 23rd October it would cease to trade, and Ofgem announced on 26th October it had appointed EDF again as SoLR, effective 27th October. So smack in the period this news article was published.

Anyway, EDF are almost as efficient at keeping ex Toto customers informed as they were with ex-Solarplicity customers.

https://www.edfenergy.com/content/toto-energy

As you can see, they are a little further behind with Toto, presumably not least because they were not appointed SoLR until over 2 months later.

But the latest update there indicates as follows:

Update 20 December 2019
We’ve almost completed the process of transferring customers from the former TOTO Energy billing system to EDF Energy’s system. There are just a small number left to go where we needed to take extra care to ensure customers experience a smooth transfer – if you haven’t received your welcome pack yet, don’t worry, you will do soon. Rest assured your supply will continue uninterrupted.


Working with the former TOTO Energy business, we’ve started the process of sending final bills to customers covering their time with TOTO. The majority of bills will be sent in January, so if you haven’t received yours yet, don’t worry, it’ll reach you early next year.
...

But then I suppose you can't expect a founder of a what is now proclaimed to be "the UK's biggest consumer finance website, dedicated to cutting your bills with the help of journalistic research" to bother doing a little research of his own, entailing nothing more than reading the website of his new energy supplier.

Maybe, we can all now get back to discussing the subject matter of this thread. i.e the collapse of Breeze Energy?
(which I think is fair to include that British Gas have now been appointed the SoLR for)

Terresa

katies_mum wrote: »

Scary isn`t it the amount BG are going to be charging us until we can escape!... .

Yeah, someone earlier was talking in terms of pennies, but I think it could set you back as much as a fiver per month extra! :eek:

Scary times indeed, or you could just put on an extra jumper instead, as one of the former BG bosses once infamously suggested. :cool:

Chocmonster7

With Breeze I was paying 10.5p per day each for Gas & Electric standing charge so a total of 21p. BG wants to charge me 30.6p per day for Gas & 28.5p per day for Electric before I even turn anything on! :eek:

NINJA59

For those willing to do DD then the lower tariff will be backdated to the 22nd December having had a conversation with BG on chat.

I obviously decided to download said chat just in case. As over timescales of the account being setup I received 3 different answers.

Fun times ahead. Happy new year everyone whilst we pay over the odds for standing charges and unit prices .

Zanzib

My bank confirmed today that the December direct debit was requested by Breeze (even though they were no longer trading). Assume no one has turned off the automatic systems.

I've cancelled the DD, so no more money can be taken.

Bank told me they could not do anything, and I had to take it up with the company- or in this case whoever takes it over.

I've identified a new provider, but stuck until the new British Gas account is set up, plus having to pay more due to the horrible high standing charge.

katies_mum

Unfortunately, there is nothing us mere mortals can do about it..lets hope the transfers go through relatively quickly. The credit built up for the winter with Breeze will no doubt just about cover one month to BG :mad::mad:

Gerry1

Zanzib wrote: »

My bank confirmed today that the December direct debit was requested by Breeze (even though they were no longer trading). Assume no one has turned off the automatic systems.

I've cancelled the DD, so no more money can be taken.

Bank told me they could not do anything, and I had to take it up with the company- or in this case whoever takes it over.

Sounds like you need to remind your bank about the Direct Debit Guarantee, which states "If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society.".

Just ask the bank for a deadlock letter so that you can go to the ombudsman. They may well change their mind PDQ !