Avro Corona Forbearance

elgarsrondo

Have been speaking to Avro over the last few days requesting forbearance due to coronavirus as my income has hit almost nill and waiting for Universal Credit to come through (although this barely pays rent and food).
They have been terrible. 
1) There first response was 
"Following regulator guidelines we are unable to reduce your payments knowingly putting you further into debit.
As you can appreciate everyone is impacted by the current global situation however we still need to ensure you are paying for energy used each month."
They suggested going to the Citz Advice.
When I came back and quoted the advice on the Ofgem site was different they said that they had had specific advise from the regulator and couldn't allow customers to go into debt.
I've been going too and fro with them to ask for the advice.  Had calls with their finance dept and head of compaints.  They sound like a very small outfit and not really customer service oriented.  I was told that that 'All you want is to not pay your bills for a few months and we can't do that' and that when I suggested I understood that it must be a tough time for them and all businesses and they have to protect themselves - "actually we're doing really well right now".
Urgh.
Anybody got any advice on how to approach them for more help, is there anything that the regulator has suggested they should be doing? Should I complain to the regulator.
Cheers.
PHIL

pearl123

I'm not working and joined Avro in the last two months. I'm already over £66. in credit with them. I have requested a reduction of my direct debit by £7.00 per month, which would still have me overpaying their estimate of my usage by £5.00. I stated my reasons for reducing my direct debit, including the present ecomonic climate. It's a big zero from Avro, except to say they will review after 3 months. 
I am so fed up with energy companys building up large amouts of their customers money. I will, if need be move to another supplier. I'm pretty angry that there is no reduction. 
The government and engery companies document. 
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/873960/Supplier_Agreement_19.3.2020.pdf
"We will support customers who are impacted financially as a direct or indirect result of COVID-19. Based on individual circumstances, this could include: • Considering reassessing, reducing or pausing debt repayment and bill payments for domestic customers in financial distress." 

Chocmonster7

I too recently joined Avro after the Breeze collapse and as I'm self employed currently have no income but had the same response when I asked to reduce my direct debit down from £41 to £20 for the next few months.

I qualify for the Warm Home Discount and with the two months payment they'd already had I am over £170 in credit. Eventually after tweeting about it and mentioning this site they said they would suspend my April payment, by then I didn't trust them so I cancelled the Direct Debit.

Unsurprisingly within 2 days they were on my back to reinstate it, threatening me with being changed to a worse tarrif, as I don't need the added pressure I did fill in the form but have lost all respect for them as a company.

Jeremy535897

Chocmonster7 said:

I too recently joined Avro after the Breeze collapse and as I'm self employed currently have no income but had the same response when I asked to reduce my direct debit down from £41 to £20 for the next few months.

I qualify for the Warm Home Discount and with the two months payment they'd already had I am over £170 in credit. Eventually after tweeting about it and mentioning this site they said they would suspend my April payment, by then I didn't trust them so I cancelled the Direct Debit.

Unsurprisingly within 2 days they were on my back to reinstate it, threatening me with being changed to a worse tarrif, as I don't need the added pressure I did fill in the form but have lost all respect for them as a company.

It will be a condition of your tariff that you pay by direct debit. That doesn't excuse them for sitting on your cash, but explains why they made the tariff comment.

7Phil

Yeah you can't cancel your DD, it'll likely be a breach of your agreement if you are on the cheapest tariff.
Best tip is to try and agree to get it set to an absolute minimum like £5 DD. Then you can adjust your DD to £5 if you don't trust them to.

A lot of these energy companies seem to make their money by hoarding piles of customer cash and making it hard to get back. I learnt that lesson last year.
If you are in credit and you don't trust Avro then it's worth switching out to someone that you can trust your money with. Although, that can be a bit of a crapshoot anyway.

Have you checked and/or posted your queries on the energy forum on this site?

Chocmonster7

They were refusing to lower my Direct Debit at all even after explaining to them that it probably wouldn't go through. It was my last resort to try to get them to discuss it reasonably but then I lost the will to live banging my head against their brick wall. I will look to moving from them but can't face it at the moment having gone through the Breeze/British Gas mess as well in the past 4 months.