Gas & Electricity - Paying the wrong supplier for 6 months & multiple failed switches....

artigwell

This is very long winded so I do apologise! I am having real trouble with my electricty and gas suppliers, Bulb and Utility Point, and I just can’t seem to find exactly what my rights are or where I need to go now with my complaint. I have written to C.A. twice but have had no response yet. I have searched this forum too but can’t find exactly what I am looking for….any help would be greatly appreciated.

To summarise: We have been paying BULB for our Gas and Electricity but are now being told UTILITY POINT are supplying our Gas and have been for the last 6 months without us being aware of this. We have received no communication from Utility Point this entire time --- and Bulb have been sending us statements showing Gas and Electricity charges.

We bought our first house on the 31st January 2020. Just before we moved in I completed an online utility comparison and chose Bulb as our supplier so requested to join via their website - this would be for Gas and Electricity each month.  

31st Jan 2020: Completed house sale and applied to Bulb

13th Feb: Email from Bulb to tell me my old supplier had stopped the switch. I didn’t know who old supplier was but managed to find out online that it was UP. Called UP and they said they had stopped switch because they didn’t have our contact details as the new owners. Gave the man all of our details over the phone, he told us to reapply for the switch, which I did immediately. 

18th Feb: Email from Bulb stating everything was going through and I was half way through the switch. First payment would be made on the 1st March 2020. 

25th February: Email from Bulb asking for my meter readings. I logged on to my online account but it wouldn’t let me input them - I waited a few days to see if it resolved but then emailed bulb on the 29th February

29th February: I emailed Bulb asking for them to confirm they were supplying my Gas and Electric as I could not input my meter readings. I also gave my meter readings in the email. 

2nd March: Bulb emailed me: Congrats, we're now your supplier for gas --- This email did not mention electricity so I immediately replied and asked them to confirm they had switched gas and electric as per my previous email. 

4th March: Email from Bulb to me stating that the old supplier had stopped the switch so they couldn’t take over my electricity and I would need to contact them. They said they sent me an email on the 13th February to explain this. 

4th March: I replied and said, yes I had received that email on 13th Feb and since that date had, rung UP and cleared it with them and had asked Bulb to restart the switch which they had confirmed - again, all after 13th Feb.

4th March: Bulb to me: [...] Because we've had to reapply for the supply following the objection it will take a little longer for us to switch your electricity supply over, but since you've let me know that your previous supplier has lifted the objection I've reapplied for the electricity supply and you'll join Bulb for your electricity on the 25th March. 

So, as far as I was concerned, this is all dealt with - at a delay of a month and two failed switches -  and I am being charged £92.02 pcm from Bulb for my Gas and Electricity. 

I didn’t hear anything from Bulb until the 29th March when I received an email reminding me to input my meter readings. From then on I just received monthly payment reminders from Bulb and a statement to show my Gas and Electricity usage. I had received no bills or communication from UP. 

I thought it was all resolved, however, I was always having trouble inputting my readings with Bulb on the online account so I decided to start a switch to Octopus, as I had been with them before, always had a great service and they were now quoting me over £20 a month less than Bulb.

I applied to switch my Gas and Electricity from Bulb to Octopus on the 14th May 2020. On the same day, I inputted my meter readings onto the Bulb website (to make sure I was all up to date) and it told me I owed Bulb over £1000, so I contacted Bulb via their website form to get this corrected and investigated. 

They told me that this issue was a meter reading error and they needed to correct my opening meter reading as it was wrong. They emailed me stating they needed to dispute this with our old supplier but it should be resolved within 3 weeks. 

On the 18th May I received an email from Octopus stating my current supplier had objected to the switch(!!!!). Rather than complicate things again, I emailed Octopus and told them to hold off the switch for now as I didn’t want to switch whilst there was obviously some problems!

The communication between myself and Bulb has now  been as follows: 

18th May: Bulb to me [...]  We've found that the issue may be with having the wrong gas meter registered to your property. Not to worry - we'll simply send the wrong gas meter back where it came from, refund you for all gas charges, and re-register to take over your correct meter.

I replied to the above email and asked to confirm if Bulb (who we have been paying) have been supplying our gas or if it was still in old supplier name. I also asked what I needed to do as I didn’t understand what was happening. 

19th May: Bulb to me [...] Not to worry, this is a very common occurrence in the metering industry called an erroneous transfer. I've sorted it out for you now. When you first signed up to us,  you had mentioned that Utility Point stopped your switch. When you reapplied again to come over to Bulb, the wrong gas meter came over to us. So yes, your gas has actually been supplied by Utility Point this whole time. [...] I've also re-registered to take over your correct gas meter from Utility Point. It will come over to us on 9th of June. There's nothing you need to do on your end, it's all taken care of. Utility Point will send you a final bill for gas charges up until the 9th of June. 

This went quiet so on 9th July I emailed asking for an update as it had been way over 3 weeks. Note I still had never received anything from UP - not even a letter in the post. Again I had not received a reply so emailed again: 

15 July: Me to Bulb -- Please can someone reply to me asap

20th July: Bulb to me -- Sorry to hear that this issue has been giving you trouble again - I've been out of office but am back and happy to help you get this resolved. Back in May when we last corresponded, I applied for your correct gas meter from Utility Point to switch over to us. It was scheduled to start with us on the 9th of June, but I can see the switch was stopped by Utility Point. So we still haven't started supplying your gas yet - it's remained with them. 

The emails go back and forth ------ Bulb basically tell me I need to get in touch with UP and sort it out that end. Which I try and do …..

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I emailed UP immediately and explained the whole scenario above as best I could. I told them that to date, I had received absolutely no communication from them whatsoever even though I gave them all our details during the telephone call on the 13th feb. They replied and said yes, they had stopped every switch as there was an outstanding balance of now over £300 (despite not ever having a meter reading from me). They said they would not allow me to switch until balance was under £40.00  --- this is the first time I had ever heard from them during this whole saga!

I have since asked UP to explain: 

What my tariffs are and how much they have been charging me 

If they can backdate my tariff to a lower tariff for the final bill 

If they will allow me to switch to a new supplier immediately before the payments have been resolved so I can start paying lower rates 

They have said no to all of the above and haven’t told me what tariff I am on - they have apologised for never contacting me though!

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So - after all that, and 6 months later,  I am now being told I owe over £300 to Utility Point when I have been paying Bulb for my Gas. Bulb have refunded me my overpayments for Gas at a total of £150 and have offered me £30 compensation. UP have offered £30 compensation but will not let me switch from them until I pay off the full balance. 

The problem I have is, I didn’t know I was their customer for 6 months and I still do not know what tariff I am on with them and have been seemingly paying a very high rate for gas for 6 months. Do I just have to accept the £30 compensation and get this all over with? If you have made it this far --- thank you! I am finding this all so complicated and we are STILL racking up a bill with UP as we speak…..

bsms1147

I’m afraid much of this is a mistake of your doing. When you move into a new property you automatically become a customer of the supplier who already supply the property, in this case Utility Point, on a deemed (expensive) contract. You must register with this supplier, and should only transfer away once your account is setup successfully. By not doing this looks like there have been multiple issues since, and you have remained a customer of UP since. Granted UP have not communicated this to you well and you have received compensation. The bottom line is that you have been and remain with UP, likely on their deemed contract, and will not be able to move until you have paid the arrears.

You have been lucky in some ways in that the electricity transferred over despite not following the correct procedure.

artigwell

Thank you for your reply -

I am just confused still as I did contact UP within the first two weeks of moving and applying for the original switch. I gave them all of my details over the telephone? They said that's all they needed and I could restart the switch with bulb....?? This was back in Feb (I have put this in beginning paragraphs of my thread but it may be worded a little confusing!) So I don't see how this is my error?

GunJack

Because you tried to switch before getting accounts set up properly with up....it screws the whole sytem up

macman

Did you receive correspondence from UP after that call confirming that your account had been set up? Did you give them opening reads?

artigwell

macman said:

Did you receive correspondence from UP after that call confirming that your account had been set up? Did you give them opening reads?

No - nothing at all. The man on the phone took all my details and told me that was all I needed to provide and I could now restart the switch to Bulb...

mac.d

Sounds like you are a customer of UP and have been all along, and you will have been on their standard tariff as you moved in automatically are on a deemed contract with them. There is nothing you can do to alter that fact, and you just need to accept it, pay the bill and get yourself switched to another supplier. 

You can raise a complaint, but you've already got £30 compensation from both so maybe that's the best you can hope for, plus raising a complaint will just take longer to deal with and you'll be stuck on that expensive standard tariff for a little longer. 

What you do need to try and do is make sure UP bill you for the correct amount. They do need to provide you with a bill showing exactly what you owe and how much they are charging you (tariff details). So ask them to provide you with an up to date bill. 

You say you have meter readings from 25th February when you were trying to change to Bulb, you could give them to UP along with current meter readings, and they may base the bill on those readings (ideally you'd have take photos of the meters when you moved in and can use them as proof?), but they may not accept them and use an estimated reading for the opening reading. 

Once all that's sorted and you're switched to another supplier, I'd go back and complain like hell. But just remember, you need to register with the current suppliers when you move, and you need to provide them with opening meter readings as soon as you have the keys. Do that and you won't be faced with these kind of problems again in future.