Should I leave my energy company while trying to escalate a complaint?

Hyper_Been

There's a bit of backstory here, but having read some of the topics on here a lot of it can be summarised by "Together Energy owe me money and won't pay me back"

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Backstory explanation starts here

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Like many other Together Energy customers, I used to have an account with OneSelect until they closed their doors in December 2018, after which it was automatically moved over to Together Energy. I gave meter readings at this time, and provided photographs of the meters as proof. Since then I paid the monthly direct debit without any problems and continued using the estimated meter readings as a guide (admittedly my fault, but what comes next is excessive). In September I was notified that my direct debit was going to be increased to a whopping £340 a month. Looking at the latest bill and comparing it to the actual meter readings I noticed that they'd overestimated my energy usage by 11'000kW. I eventually got them to accept the new meter readings with several photos of the meters and generate a new bill, but the problems started when I tried to get the excess £900 transferred back to my account.

Since October they'd said that the transfer to my account is being processed and would be in my account within 2 weeks on at least 2 occasions, with another 2 "emergency transfers" which should have taken place within 2 days. Each one has failed without any explanation, and every promise to call me back with more information has been broken. This typically follows a pattern of the transfer failing multiple times before they generate a new inaccurate bill and I have to wait another 2+ weeks for this to be corrected. In November I eventually raised a complaint through Resolver to try and get some attention paid to this, but this was closed in late December with the reason of "agreed that a transfer will be made to my account". The transfer still hasn't happened, and every request I've made to have this reopened has been ignored. I emailed them last Monday to express my displeasure with this and request a Deadlock letter so that I can escalate it with the Energy Ombudsman.

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Backstory ends here

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So that's the situation I'm in now. My complaint is currently marked as resolved, and I'm still waiting on receiving a deadlock letter from Together Energy before I can escalate it with the Energy Ombudsman. Unfortunately I've read that others here have had similar issues, and even going through the Energy Ombudsman have been completely ignored. It feels that the only chance I stand to get my money back would be to go through the small claims court, but I'm not sure if I can do that without going through the Ombudsman and failing first. Another factor here is that they only respond to phone calls, and have ignored every request to send me an email about anything that's been discussed, so I don't have much of a paper trail on my end other than the official complaint (which is limited) and the original and updated bills.

What I'd really like to do is move to another company that isn't making so many horrible mistakes at a regular interval, but I'm worried that by doing so I'd have to start the process all over again, and would have less chance of getting my money back. Can someone please advise if this is a realistic worry, or if I can safely go ahead and drop them for another company without losing anything?

Gerry1

Hyper_Been wrote: »

In November I eventually raised a complaint through Resolver

Welcome to the forum.

It seems that you're reached eight weeks or will do so shortly, so that's when you can go to the Ombudsman.

In the meantime you could try posting a letter to their CEO headed COMPLAINT - LETTER BEFORE ACTION. You can find his info at the ceoemail website which has a dot com URL.

Essmum

I would initiate a switch as the company then has 6 weeks to final bill you then 2 weeks to process the refund..I would also escalate the complaint to the Ombudsman which should get your accounts final bill speeded up...(once the final bill has been produced then they have only 14 days to give the refund).
Make sure you carry on taking photos of your meter readings and keep a record of all correspondence.

BTW Complaints to the CEO are usually just passed to the head of the complaints dept..

UnclaimedEnergy

Essmum wrote: »

BTW Complaints to the CEO are usually just passed to the head of the complaints dept..

Although this is normally the case, it also usually results in a quicker resolution than a standard complaint would.

tk47

Hyper_Been wrote: »

There's a bit of backstory here, but having read some of the topics on here a lot of it can be summarised by "Together Energy owe me money and won't pay me back"

---

Backstory explanation starts here

---

Like many other Together Energy customers, I used to have an account with OneSelect until they closed their doors in December 2018, after which it was automatically moved over to Together Energy. I gave meter readings at this time, and provided photographs of the meters as proof. Since then I paid the monthly direct debit without any problems and continued using the estimated meter readings as a guide (admittedly my fault, but what comes next is excessive). In September I was notified that my direct debit was going to be increased to a whopping £340 a month. Looking at the latest bill and comparing it to the actual meter readings I noticed that they'd overestimated my energy usage by 11'000kW. I eventually got them to accept the new meter readings with several photos of the meters and generate a new bill, but the problems started when I tried to get the excess £900 transferred back to my account.

Since October they'd said that the transfer to my account is being processed and would be in my account within 2 weeks on at least 2 occasions, with another 2 "emergency transfers" which should have taken place within 2 days. Each one has failed without any explanation, and every promise to call me back with more information has been broken. This typically follows a pattern of the transfer failing multiple times before they generate a new inaccurate bill and I have to wait another 2+ weeks for this to be corrected. In November I eventually raised a complaint through Resolver to try and get some attention paid to this, but this was closed in late December with the reason of "agreed that a transfer will be made to my account". The transfer still hasn't happened, and every request I've made to have this reopened has been ignored. I emailed them last Monday to express my displeasure with this and request a Deadlock letter so that I can escalate it with the Energy Ombudsman.

---

Backstory ends here

---

So that's the situation I'm in now. My complaint is currently marked as resolved, and I'm still waiting on receiving a deadlock letter from Together Energy before I can escalate it with the Energy Ombudsman. Unfortunately I've read that others here have had similar issues, and even going through the Energy Ombudsman have been completely ignored. It feels that the only chance I stand to get my money back would be to go through the small claims court, but I'm not sure if I can do that without going through the Ombudsman and failing first. Another factor here is that they only respond to phone calls, and have ignored every request to send me an email about anything that's been discussed, so I don't have much of a paper trail on my end other than the official complaint (which is limited) and the original and updated bills.

What I'd really like to do is move to another company that isn't making so many horrible mistakes at a regular interval, but I'm worried that by doing so I'd have to start the process all over again, and would have less chance of getting my money back. Can someone please advise if this is a realistic worry, or if I can safely go ahead and drop them for another company without losing anything?

First of all, there should be no issue with you now applying to switch to another supplier; doing so will not affect the complaint you have with the existing supplier.

You do not necessarily need a deadlock letter if you wish to escalate the existing complaint to the ombudsman service. e.g. If the complaint was first raised over 8 weeks ago, then a deadlock letter is not required.
Even if that were not the case, the fact the supplier has opted to close your complaint without your agreement should be enough indication to the ombudsman that the supplier has given you their final word on the complaint.

I would urge you not to even consider commencing any legal proceedings in this matter unless and until you are absolutely sure you no longer wish to avail yourself of the free and independant arbitation that the ombudsman will provide you with otherwise the ombudsman service will probably withdraw that service to you.
(I'm not quite sure what you would be asking a court to decide this case either)

Hyper_Been

Thank you for the advice all, I'll be switching energy companies today, then going through the process of requesting a final bill and escalating through the ombudsman when this inevitably takes longer than it should.

The reason I mentioned small claims court was based on other posters who've had similar issues with this company, and had no luck when going through the Ombudsman. As mentioned, the Ombudsman should still be my first call.

Bark01

Hi Hyper
I was with TE (but not via one select) they didn’t bill me for 6 months. I raised a complaint and still left without any issue at the end of my Tartuffe, despite owning TE £500.

In my case TE closed down my complaint twice telling the ombudsmen they had billed me when they hadn’t. It took me 3 ombudsmen complaints to get a final bill. But I ended up having around £200 removed from my bill, so it’s worth the hassle

Copying in the CEO may get your complaint resolved sooner, but if TE don’t resolve your complaint in the ombudsmen window you’ll end up with a higher award. Usually £50-£100 and all it takes is a 10 minute call to the ombudsmen.