Tonik Energy transferred to Scottish Power but at what cost?

worrywart_3

Thought that might be the case as it’s a lot more complicated although scottish power seemed  to think it was two weeks but my two weeks was yesterday, hopefully be with us all soon.

Gerry1

Malchester said:

Exactly. If you switch yourself it is 10 days but for a firm that goes out of business with a SOLR it is 4 weeks. But it's not worth arguing with a know all!!!!

No need to be so rude and to use expletives: that's hardly in keeping with the spirit of the forum.  I've never claimed to be a know all.

It was obviously a genuine question because the Ofgem link I provided seemed quite clear, at least to me, that it was 10 days.

I'm quite happy to be told otherwise. Out of interest, do you have a link that says it's four weeks for a SoLR?

Malchester

For me SP are working at 4 weeks. As much as I have criticised SP they can only work on the info they have from Tonik administrators so 4 weeks includes time from final bill being prepared by Tonik before info being rand ferried to SP. I gave no problem with this

UnclaimedEnergy

I tend to avoid the threads for suppliers after they've gone bust as they normally get a bit more hectic and more focused on issues that I don't have any knowledge of or aren't interested in - hence why I hadn't commented about it in my initial response. 

Tonik have had issues since late 2018/early 2019 with their data and were only billing like 70% of customers on time. It's likely that the migration for SP has been extremely difficult and lengthy because of this.

However, I do agree that even if this is the case - if they've been able to send you an email welcoming you to Scottish Power then they should also be able to send you some follow up emails with updates without needing to know the final picture.

For those who have been through other SoLR - how has this one compared in terms of the customer service/contact received?

Malchester

Gerry1 said:

Malchester said:

Exactly. If you switch yourself it is 10 days but for a firm that goes out of business with a SOLR it is 4 weeks. But it's not worth arguing with a know all!!!!

No need to be so rude and to use expletives: that's hardly in keeping with the spirit of the forum.  I've never claimed to be a know all.

It was obviously a genuine question because the Ofgem link I provided seemed quite clear, at least to me, that it was 10 days.

I'm quite happy to be told otherwise. Out of interest, do you have a link that says it's four weeks for a SoLR?

Not sure where I used expletives, there are none in the post. Apologies if I came across as rude. Tonik, SP are both using 4 weeks for payment of credit balances. Ofgem say several weeks - https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/tonik-energy-customers-your-questions-new-supplier-scottish-power

Gerry1

You're forgiven !  I assumed that the four exclamation marks meant that MSE's software had censored a rude word.

Streaky_Bacon

UnclaimedEnergy said:

The supplier which takes on the customers puts in a bid to Ofgem and lets Ofgem know what tariff they're going to put customers on. Sometimes you might get lucky and the supplier might honor your tariff, however most often than not they will put on you on a deemed contract.

In the case of Tonik to Scottish Power, this is what happened and... looking back at what Ofgem stated - they made it very clear that the customers would be put on a deemed contract. (A bit of advanced googling and knowing your region could find the rates for you). 

The reasoning behind this is that the tariff you were on with Tonik was likely a loss-making tariff (hence why they went bust) - The price rise to deemed would be to make sure that they're charging you enough to make sure they can recover the costs that are involved with supplying elec and gas without actually going bust themselves.

Scottish Power etc. aren't trying to increase what profit they can make of these customers - they're just making sure that they don't leave them on loss making tariffs.

Is the tariff they are using higher than their standard variable tariff?

While there can't be an expectation that SP would honour a loss making tariff, it also doesn't seem right that a supplier should put you on their most expensive tariff. They could quite easily put customers on their cheapest variable tariff or their standard variable.

There is an argument that the price should be a bit higher, because the SOLR has to buy more energy at short notice, and so pay higher rate, but even that wouldn't seem to justify going on the most expensive tariff.

I can't help but think that the deemed tariff (if it is more than the standard variable) would be a bit of short term profiteering, no doubt with fingers crossed that lots of customers won't be on the ball enough to switch away, or to a cheaper tariff, as soon as possible.

2020Craig

I had my final bill from tonik on 5th October, over six weeks ago, and still haven’t received my credit back. All Scottish Power said was that they’d be in touch “in due course”. Whenever that is.

Malchester

I got my final bill 6 Nov so have a while to wait. I switch from Scottish on 27 Nov so will still be waiting for it after switched. But at least they are cancelling all my energy costs between 10 Oct and date of switch in compensation for their incompetence

fobskid1

Tonik customers moved to Scottish Power
Rip off Scottish Power bill just issued to me today . More than DOUBLE the previous Tonik monthly bills ...
Called SP and complained  ... but they are just NOT interested ... so ... i am off to Octopus Energy through Martians web site ... nuf said ...
Your energy costs this month from Scottish Power = £135.48  [ gas £66.52 and £62.50 electricity ]
My Tonik bills for Gas AND electricity for the last 5 months below ..

09/10/2020 Final Bill £32.06

03/10/2020 Bill £59.30

03/09/2020 Bill £51.15

03/08/2020 Bill £52.22

03/07/2020 Bill £57.39