How long do refunds take for switchers?

kuepper

My switch (Tonik>E.on)completed 24 days ago and I had £57 credit with Tonik.


I asked Tonik when I'd be refunded and they said when they received confirmed final readings from E.on. (this was a mystery to me anyway, I have a smart meter so surely they know what my readings were at any time) .



Contacted E.on who said they sent the readings to Tonik 24 days ago. I told them Tonik had said they were waiting to receive them from E.on so I asked E.on to re-send them. The answer was 'no', Tonik would have to put in a 'lost reading request' to E.on for the.


Contacted Tonik again and repeated what E.on had told me. Tonik said they have to wait 30 days to receive the final reading before they can ask for it again,


What an industry. Is this the normal protocol?

Cardew

There is no protocol that is obeyed.


Many posts on this subject over the years. I got a full accurate refund in my bank from OVO in days.



Others have reported many months and even after a' battle royal' still not had a result. One company blames the other and vice versa.

cranford

New rules came in in May 2019.
Customers will be entitled to a £30 payment if their previous supplier is late in refunding them their credit balance after they have switched.
By late it means 10 working days after the Final bill and I think its another £30 if it another 10 working days.
The rub is that the Final bill can be 6 weeks after the switch, so in your case you can wait another 28 days before penalties kick in.

Essmum

Final bill can take up to 6 weeks and then 10 working days for the refund to be paid.
It shouldn't take that long but if they havent received the closing reads than it can take a while.

Gerry1

Haven't Ofgem just kicked it into the long grass yet again, until Spring 2020?

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/supplier-guaranteed-standards-performance-switching-consultation-introduction-further-guaranteed-standards-and-automatic-compensation

AFAIK you get compo if repayment is late after the final bill is issued, but there's still no sanction if the final bill itself is late.

Truly Catch-22.

kuepper

I can imagine if I'd been in arrears a final bill would have been prepared pretty quickly

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

kuepper wrote: »

My switch (Tonik>E.on)completed 24 days ago and I had £57 credit with Tonik.


I asked Tonik when I'd be refunded and they said when they received confirmed final readings from E.on. (this was a mystery to me anyway, I have a smart meter so surely they know what my readings were at any time) .



Contacted E.on who said they sent the readings to Tonik 24 days ago. I told them Tonik had said they were waiting to receive them from E.on so I asked E.on to re-send them. The answer was 'no', Tonik would have to put in a 'lost reading request' to E.on for the.


Contacted Tonik again and repeated what E.on had told me. Tonik said they have to wait 30 days to receive the final reading before they can ask for it again,


What an industry. Is this the normal protocol?

Hello kuepper and many thanks for joining us.

As the gaining supplier, it's our responsibility to send the readings we use to open our account to your former supplier. They use the same readings to close their account and issue a final bill. This stops the same energy from being charged twice.

These readings are sent by electronic messaging and go via a third party within the industry (Data Collector) who checks they're in line with past readings held for the property. Sometimes the Data Collector makes a change and both suppliers need to use the amended readings to open/close their respective accounts.

Switches complete in about two and half weeks. This will be the Supply Start Date (SSD). After this, information continues to be passed between us, your old supplier and industry third parties including the Data Collector. All this usually goes through within 42 calendar days of the SSD, often earlier. Neither supplier can start chasing until after this time.

Thanks again for switching to us kuepper and sorry I can't give you more positive information.

Malc