Spark energy added £280 worth of charges in 1 day?!

nikiburd

I am with Spark energy. I have just had a bill of £662 this includes charges of £280 that i have never seen or been told about ever before. The charges all appear on the same day. 
The charges only appeared after i told them i want to leave and that i wanted to raise a complaint. 
I have been threatened with debt collectors even though i am continually paying the agreed amount set by spark. 
Their customer service is beyond awful and they say they can only remove the charges if i pay the entire amount today. I have asked for a complaint reference and to start a subject access request neither have been forthcoming. 
I dont earn alot of money so to pay £100 is already alot for me. 

Neil_Jones

nikiburd said:

I am with Spark energy. I have just had a bill of £662 this includes charges of £280 that i have never seen or been told about ever before. The charges all appear on the same day. 
The charges only appeared after i told them i want to leave and that i wanted to raise a complaint. 
I have been threatened with debt collectors even though i am continually paying the agreed amount set by spark. 
Their customer service is beyond awful and they say they can only remove the charges if i pay the entire amount today. I have asked for a complaint reference and to start a subject access request neither have been forthcoming. 
I dont earn alot of money so to pay £100 is already alot for me. 

Assuming monthly direct debit, what you pay per month is not equal to what energy you use, and it is not an all-you-can-eat thing either, so your paying £50 a month doesn't mean you can leave the heating on 24/7.

Have you been providing meter readings?

Robin9

More details please,   Can we have some meter readings - Actual ones shown with a letter A .  Read your meter today and post a copy of your bill please with the personal info blanked out.

What is your heating ?

nikiburd

My heating is storage heaters. I only ever have 2 on (1in lounge 1 in my room. Have not been on for months. Its me my boy and my dog. Up until corona we were out from 8-3.30. 
Will go to garage and get todays reads. The charges that came out of nowhere remain a mystery. No charges on any bills before this last bill. 
Thanks in advance. 

Gerry1

Sadly you seem to have done everything wrong.  Presumably the landlord, estate agent or letting agent took a bung to hook you as a punter?

• Spark are an extremely expensive supplier.  The kWh rates and the daily charge are astronomical.

• You don't seem to be paying the bills on time - look at all those £35 Late Payment charges.

• You don't seem to be reading the meters - look at all those estimated readings which have (e) next to them.

Unfortunately this is what happens when you let others mess around with your utilities and you don't keep an eye on the ball.

macman

Why have they levied all those late payment fees on the same date? All 30 or 31/7/20?
Those estimates are insane. 2350kWh on E7 night rate, in August!

macman

How do you pay your bills? The late payment charge is levied 45 days after the bill is due. Are you on DD or pay on receipt of bill?

nikiburd

I was always on dd until august when they told me they were going to increase my dd to 176 which i couldnt afford. So i called them up and told them that. As agreed on that call i still pay 100 a month. 

I get that i am stupid for not changing there were outside circumstances higher priority at the time of moving in. Hence the asking for help and advice now. 
And obviously they are making it impossible to get my balance low enough to leave. 
I am a single mum on a low income so any help (not judgement) would be greatly appreciated 

nikiburd

Meter reads
41368 on fri 41402 today
19424 on fri 19581 today 
In regards to the charges i have no idea when they are from or why they show in july ... spark rep Gary didnt know either or why they are all added in july. I have spoken to Spark and been in contact before and after the 30th July and no mentoon of any charges  My bill at that point was 313. 

SimonStevens1

yea Ive got random different bills depending on who I talk to, how am I supposed to pay my bill when they do not even know what it is, how can I trust that im paying the right amount its disgusting 

Robin9

@nikiburd You can't judge your annual consumption from meter read only 4 days apart - have you ACTUAL meter reads from this time last year ? And which is day time/night time ?