Yorkshire energy ?

phillw

PennineAcute said:
Even with the extra SP are charging me until 22 Jan, I have been quids in with YE, as I have with the other providers I have used in the past.

I'm not convinced, SP are £100 a year more expensive than YE was but the tariff I've switched to is only £20 a year more expensive. I don't think I made enough out of YE, compared to their closest competitor when I switched, to cover the 7 weeks with SP on this rip off tariff.

SP have a better deal, they price compared against Avro (who I have started switching to) and he claimed it was only £2 a month more but they said that the system was suggesting a DD that was £3 a month less so "that would more than make up for it".

Which I considered complaining about for miss selling. He also claimed that Avro were more expensive than what they had quoted me by quite a bit.

I probably wouldn't have been in such a hurry to leave if they'd offered us their best tariff but with no exit fee, even though it's not the absolute market cheapest.

Phones4Chris

puzl said:

.............

Interestingly, they initially keep the direct debit amount the same (presumably to fool people into thinking the tariff is identical) but this will obviously change a few months into it, once meter readings are included.

No, that's not the reason! It'll be because they don't have sufficient information about your energy usage, and in any event it's probably part of the SoLR process agreed with OFGEM, so this is the fairest way of dealing with it.... as you will have to pay SP for what you've used until you switch.

What is annoying me about this is that the DD with SP is set up but they haven' taken any money yet which ultimately means I will owe them a larger sum at some point! Now whilst that doesn't bother me financially, there will be many others whose other bills and expenditures are such they are financially in a very tight position and they could end up under a false impression about their account balances and available monies and then get a lager bill from SP

Phones4Chris

phillw said:

SP offered me a fixed deal that was only £44 a year more expensive that YE, but they said they could offset that by lowering my DD!

If you think that will mean you will owe them less, you are not thinking it through, you are just deferring any debt to a later day.

phillw

[Deleted User] said:
So unless SP ignore the above, I'd say there is good reason to think that SP should maintain the Energy Exclusive Tariff until the 6 monhs are up for those that want it.  But I am more than happy to be corrected by more knowledgable folk than I

The tariff is really un-competitive for me, I'm sure they'll keep it going as long as possible.
I wonder what happens if you don't do anything for 6 months? They put you on an even worse one?

phillw

Phones4Chris said:
If you think that will mean you will owe them less, you are not thinking it through, you are just deferring any debt to a later day.

Yes exactly, I told him that on the phone. He didn't say anything.
I don't know how many people he gets away with misselling to.

phillw

Phones4Chris said:
What is annoying me about this is that the DD with SP is set up but they haven' taken any money yet which ultimately means I will owe them a larger sum at some point!

My biggest gripe with that was the lack of a direct debit this month, which means I'll be one short and have to trigger a paypal one on that account...

De_energize

De_energize said:

sallysaver said:

De_energize said:

Here is an illustration of what can go wrong if you attempt to switch too early. I initiated a switch after Yorkshire ceased trading, but before Scottish Power was appointed as the SOLR. Having only a small balance with Yorkshire, I thought I may as well give it a go. Will probably get my remaining balance eventually I thought. The switch to the new outfit, dual fuel  Gas and Electricity, successfully completed very promptly on the 23rd December with the national database for electricity updating to the new suppler from Daisy almost immediately, and gas a couple of days later. Scottish Power never showed up as my suppler on the national databases. I now wonder if this is significant? Hooray, I thought, I'm safe!

What do you think? Five days later I received a "Sorry to see you go", e-mail from the new suppler for the gas account. They had received a switch-to request from, wait for it...........Scottish Power! Another Five days later (yesterday) and Scottish Power attempted to "steal" my electricity supply in the same way. Fortunately the new supplier was easy to get in touch with and they have put a stop on both switches. I would not be pleased if these went through as, apart from anything else, it would cost me £60.00 in early termination fees

One of the problems may have been that I have been a customer of Scottish Power"s in the past. I was still able to log into my account and I am shown as switching to a new contract with them, going live on the 18th Jan. I also received the email in December that others have mentioned, asking for meter readings, which I provided, as I will owe them a small amount for the 16 days or so that they were providing me with power as the SOLR. My fear is that they may make another attempt at taking over my power and I will have to go through this whole rigmarole again, and again, and again. Has this happened to anyone else I wonder? Incidentally the chat operator from my new suppler, told me I am not the only one, and Scottish Power has been attempting to switch others  who they ever had an account with, back over to them. Am wondering whether to contact Scottish Power, or if trying to do this might just be complicated, and or, complicate matters, or to just wait and see what happens? Isn't life exciting?

Your post makes interesting reading.  I and my neighbour are in the same position almost. 

We too, were customers who moved away immediately YE ceased trading.  The only difference is purely personnel in as much as we chose to go with different suppliers ie British Gas & Neon Reef.  We became fully fledged customers of BG on 25th December and Neon Reef on 28th December.  I have to say response etc., was superb from both suppliers during the switch.

Yesterday, we received an email from Neon Reef saying they were sorry to see we were moving to SP.  I immediately responded saying that was not the case and they have written to SP informing them of the up to date position.  There has been no contact from British Gas, so I am assuming SP haven't approached them yet or even if they intend to.   Like you, I know I owe SP money for the short time I was with them, but if they want to be paid, they will have to  contact me as they don't have any bank details.  I also had a very small credit balance with YE.

Thank you too sallysaver and (also comments from masonic )Very interesting to hear from someone in a similar position. I expect this only affects a small number of people, those of Yorkshire's customers who already had a switch in progress, or those like me who decided to take a gamble and ignore Ofgem advise not to switch.

My latest news is that although having now been with another supplier since 23rd December, I yesterday received the "Your transfer from Yorkshire Energy to ScottishPower" is under way"

  e-mail from Scottish Power, thanking me for my details and informing me that I would soon be able to open an on-line account. Also asked me not to cancel my direct debit with Yorkshire Energy.  In fact, I already have a Scottish Power on-line account as I have been a customer previously and cancelled the direct debit as soon as I heard Yorkshire had gone bust. I logged into this and found that the new Scottish Power tariff marked "switching" had completely vanished without trace, so am hoping my current suppers stoping of the switch to Scottish Power has permanently done the trick. Decided to send a secure message to Scottish Power to ask them not to attempt the switch again.

Have found this interesting page on Citizens advise. "Letter to complain about your energy supply being switched without your agreement." Apologies if this has been posted about before. Apparently there is redress available, which I was not aware of. Hopefully, none of us will need this.  See Citizen Advise, Letter to complain to energy supplier about transfer without consent. [Cant post inks on this forum]   

By the way. I have been a Scottish Power customer on two separate occasions in the past at two different properties when they were one of the cheapest, if not the very cheapest, and have never had any problems with them. I know others have had a different experience. Perhaps I was just lucky? Also, I hope I don't get lynched for saying so, seeing the difficulties some are experiencing, but although the SoLR process might not be perfect, at least it is better than saying goodbye to your funds in credit when an energy company goes bankrupt.

Got a reply from Scottish Power to my secure message asking them not to attempt to switch me away from my new energy suppler( having only been with them for five days)  without my authority again. I initiated the switch from Yorkshire after they went bust but before Scottish Power was appointed as SoLR. The reply included,

"We understand that you are contacting us regarding your switch. We apologize about that due an administrative error we were trying to recreate your account with us. We are still in the transition phase hence we have no control over such issues at the moment however once the transition is completed no such issues will occur again. We are glad that you have advised your new supplier to object the switch which is reflecting in the national database. Any inconvenience is deeply regretted."

However, today I received the dreaded "Your Switch to Scottish Power is well Under Way" e-mail with details of our special tariff and my direct debit amount, which I cancelled weeks ago. When I log into my Scottish Power Account it once agan shows I am "switching" to them. When I click on the account details it says, "Sorry to see you go". Also that the switch failed and that they will be writing to me with details of why this happened. Hope they don't attempt to steal me away from my new suppler for a second time.

bagand96

De_energize said:

De_energize said:

sallysaver said:

De_energize said:

Here is an illustration of what can go wrong if you attempt to switch too early. I initiated a switch after Yorkshire ceased trading, but before Scottish Power was appointed as the SOLR. Having only a small balance with Yorkshire, I thought I may as well give it a go. Will probably get my remaining balance eventually I thought. The switch to the new outfit, dual fuel  Gas and Electricity, successfully completed very promptly on the 23rd December with the national database for electricity updating to the new suppler from Daisy almost immediately, and gas a couple of days later. Scottish Power never showed up as my suppler on the national databases. I now wonder if this is significant? Hooray, I thought, I'm safe!

What do you think? Five days later I received a "Sorry to see you go", e-mail from the new suppler for the gas account. They had received a switch-to request from, wait for it...........Scottish Power! Another Five days later (yesterday) and Scottish Power attempted to "steal" my electricity supply in the same way. Fortunately the new supplier was easy to get in touch with and they have put a stop on both switches. I would not be pleased if these went through as, apart from anything else, it would cost me £60.00 in early termination fees

One of the problems may have been that I have been a customer of Scottish Power"s in the past. I was still able to log into my account and I am shown as switching to a new contract with them, going live on the 18th Jan. I also received the email in December that others have mentioned, asking for meter readings, which I provided, as I will owe them a small amount for the 16 days or so that they were providing me with power as the SOLR. My fear is that they may make another attempt at taking over my power and I will have to go through this whole rigmarole again, and again, and again. Has this happened to anyone else I wonder? Incidentally the chat operator from my new suppler, told me I am not the only one, and Scottish Power has been attempting to switch others  who they ever had an account with, back over to them. Am wondering whether to contact Scottish Power, or if trying to do this might just be complicated, and or, complicate matters, or to just wait and see what happens? Isn't life exciting?

Your post makes interesting reading.  I and my neighbour are in the same position almost. 

We too, were customers who moved away immediately YE ceased trading.  The only difference is purely personnel in as much as we chose to go with different suppliers ie British Gas & Neon Reef.  We became fully fledged customers of BG on 25th December and Neon Reef on 28th December.  I have to say response etc., was superb from both suppliers during the switch.

Yesterday, we received an email from Neon Reef saying they were sorry to see we were moving to SP.  I immediately responded saying that was not the case and they have written to SP informing them of the up to date position.  There has been no contact from British Gas, so I am assuming SP haven't approached them yet or even if they intend to.   Like you, I know I owe SP money for the short time I was with them, but if they want to be paid, they will have to  contact me as they don't have any bank details.  I also had a very small credit balance with YE.

Thank you too sallysaver and (also comments from masonic )Very interesting to hear from someone in a similar position. I expect this only affects a small number of people, those of Yorkshire's customers who already had a switch in progress, or those like me who decided to take a gamble and ignore Ofgem advise not to switch.

My latest news is that although having now been with another supplier since 23rd December, I yesterday received the "Your transfer from Yorkshire Energy to ScottishPower" is under way"

  e-mail from Scottish Power, thanking me for my details and informing me that I would soon be able to open an on-line account. Also asked me not to cancel my direct debit with Yorkshire Energy.  In fact, I already have a Scottish Power on-line account as I have been a customer previously and cancelled the direct debit as soon as I heard Yorkshire had gone bust. I logged into this and found that the new Scottish Power tariff marked "switching" had completely vanished without trace, so am hoping my current suppers stoping of the switch to Scottish Power has permanently done the trick. Decided to send a secure message to Scottish Power to ask them not to attempt the switch again.

Have found this interesting page on Citizens advise. "Letter to complain about your energy supply being switched without your agreement." Apologies if this has been posted about before. Apparently there is redress available, which I was not aware of. Hopefully, none of us will need this.  See Citizen Advise, Letter to complain to energy supplier about transfer without consent. [Cant post inks on this forum]   

By the way. I have been a Scottish Power customer on two separate occasions in the past at two different properties when they were one of the cheapest, if not the very cheapest, and have never had any problems with them. I know others have had a different experience. Perhaps I was just lucky? Also, I hope I don't get lynched for saying so, seeing the difficulties some are experiencing, but although the SoLR process might not be perfect, at least it is better than saying goodbye to your funds in credit when an energy company goes bankrupt.

Got a reply from Scottish Power to my secure message asking them not to attempt to switch me away from my new energy suppler( having only been with them for five days)  without my authority again. I initiated the switch from Yorkshire after they went bust but before Scottish Power was appointed as SoLR. The reply included,

"We understand that you are contacting us regarding your switch. We apologize about that due an administrative error we were trying to recreate your account with us. We are still in the transition phase hence we have no control over such issues at the moment however once the transition is completed no such issues will occur again. We are glad that you have advised your new supplier to object the switch which is reflecting in the national database. Any inconvenience is deeply regretted."

However, today I received the dreaded "Your Switch to Scottish Power is well Under Way" e-mail with details of our special tariff and my direct debit amount, which I cancelled weeks ago. When I log into my Scottish Power Account it once agan shows I am "switching" to them. When I click on the account details it says, "Sorry to see you go". Also that the switch failed and that they will be writing to me with details of why this happened. Hope they don't attempt to steal me away from my new suppler for a second time.

I’m guessing this might be the reason Ofgem advise people not to start their own switch when a supplier goes bust, to prevent situations like this. 

Some of the emails and processes are likely to be automated, I.e. SP were provided with the data of active YE customers for SoLR and then start switches.  You’d have shown as an active YE customer, because even though a switch was started in that small window, nothing would have shown on the industry databases. So you have your new supplier taking over your supply, but then SP start trying to do it too under the SoLR.

Hopefully you have some joy in finding someone at SP to know enough and sort it out!

slpj

SP Energy exclusive doesn't show on the MSE energy club comparison site. So how are others comparing who to switch to?

On the MSE comaprison site it if I use the old YE tarrif I was on, Outfox the market comes up as a good option. Does anyone have good/bad experience with out fox the market?

PennineAcute

Phones4Chris said:

PennineAcute said:

phillw said:

Stuart42 said:
But my question was that if they can't take a first payment then are they likely to stick me on a higher tariff for the 7 weeks or so I was with them?

When I asked them, they said no. But I'm not sure whether it's worth taking the risk.
For obvious reasons, I'd much rather owe them money than them owe me money.

I have no direct debit set up with SP.  I did, but I cancelled it.  My switch is running smoothly and leave on 23 Jan.  I will pay off I owe them when they produce my final bill.

If you don't have a DD set up, they may charge you the non-DD rates. It's not an ideal solution whichever way you have things!

Three years ago, last October, a close friend of mine sadly passed away from lung cancer.  When she got diagnosed, she was in a mess with her SP account and owed around £800.  She put me as a named contact and I negotiated a repayment plan.  She died intestate and did not have a penny to her name.  I received a bill not long after her death, addressed to my address and in the name of The Estate of (my late friend)
I contacted SP and told them I was not next of kin and that she was buried by the local authority due to her having no money.  All was well and I heard no more about it until got transferred over to SP and received an online bill (my name, my late friend's addresses) and the supply address of The estate of (my name and address).
When I queried this with SP, they said I had a bill outstanding for £950 - which was the amount my late friend owed when she passed away.
That is why I cancelled the direct debit, as I am worried they will try and claim this money from me.
SP are attempting to sort out his mess, but there is no way I am allowing them access to withdraw from my account whilst this is going on.  If it costs me a few extra quid, in the long run, it is better than the hassle of phoning the bank due to them taking extra money for a bill which does not belong to me.