Yorkshire energy ?

bagand96

Chris_Cross said:

Being an SoLR virgin I (probably naively) thought that I would be able to ring SP today, get my account details and tariff they have forced us all onto,  get onto the comparison sites and make my switch if deemed necessary.  Well, I at least managed to get through, but was told that no tariff costs or account details are available and they would be sent out via post/email in the near future with no commitment of time..

The legalities of this that I find hard to get my head round is that they can be charging me for a few weeks of energy in the months I am using the most energy without me having any rights to know how much I am being charged, wow...    

Frustrating as it is, there are 74,000 domestic accounts to transfer.  This was never going to happen by today.  There's things involved like GDPR Regulations that mean YE are unlikely to just be able to "hand the keys" of their customer database to SP.  Unless the two companies used the same billing platform it's also unlikely migration can be done at the press of a button.  It's not like "Copy & Paste"

Streaky_Bacon

This is from the Ofgem site.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/yorkshire-energy-customers-your-questions-new-supplier-scottish-power

Our advice is not to switch immediately, but wait until Scottish Power has been in touch with you. They will contact you with personalised information about your tariff.

Your account will be fully set up with them in the coming weeks. Scottish Power will contact you at this point to confirm once this has happened.

If customers wish to change their tariff or switch supplier, they should ask to be switched to another Scottish Power tariff, or shop around. You won’t be charged any exit fees. Waiting for them to contact you will be the smoothest way for any credit balances domestic customers had with Yorkshire Energy honoured by Scottish Power.

It repeats the usual advice about not switching until the new supplier contacts you. I have previously seen it said that doing so might risk your credit balance. I don't see how that could be (the SOLR is responsible for all credit balances of past and current customers), and more recently it is simply said that it might delay credit balance refunds, which is much more understandable.

When we have these SOLR situations, there is always much gnashing of teeth about what tariff people are put on, and potentially not knowing for many weeks.

I would suggest that whatever tariff SP have put people on, there will almost certainly be better tariff available by switching to another supplier.

I would personally be inclined to commence a switch now to a more competitive supplier, and just deal with any delay to a credit refund unless, of course, there was a lot of credit at stake and a delay to getting it back would make a significant difference to you.

I can't see a particularly strong reason for staying on a deemed tariff for an extended period of time.

BedrockFred

Streaky_Bacon said:

It repeats the usual advice about not switching until the new supplier contacts you. I have previously seen it said that doing so might risk your credit balance. I don't see how that could be (the SOLR is responsible for all credit balances of past and current customers), and more recently it is simply said that it might delay credit balance refunds, which is much more understandable.

When we have these SOLR situations, there is always much gnashing of teeth about what tariff people are put on, and potentially not knowing for many weeks.

I would suggest that whatever tariff SP have put people on, there will almost certainly be better tariff available by switching to another supplier.

I would personally be inclined to commence a switch now to a more competitive supplier, and just deal with any delay to a credit refund unless, of course, there was a lot of credit at stake and a delay to getting it back would make a significant difference to you.

I can't see a particularly strong reason for staying on a deemed tariff for an extended period of time.

So I start a switch now and put in SP as my current supplier and they have not migrated YE customers over what happens then

Streaky_Bacon

BedrockFred said:

So I start a switch now and put in SP as my current supplier and they have not migrated YE customers over what happens then

If memory serves, you do not say who your supplier is, you just give your details and the new supplier deals with that.

The worst that would happen is that the switch would be rejected and you would just have to sit and wait on the deemed tariff for a few weeks (perhaps a couple of months), but that is what you are doing already.

brewerdave

Streaky_Bacon said:

This is from the Ofgem site.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/yorkshire-energy-customers-your-questions-new-supplier-scottish-power

Our advice is not to switch immediately, but wait until Scottish Power has been in touch with you. They will contact you with personalised information about your tariff.

Your account will be fully set up with them in the coming weeks. Scottish Power will contact you at this point to confirm once this has happened.

If customers wish to change their tariff or switch supplier, they should ask to be switched to another Scottish Power tariff, or shop around. You won’t be charged any exit fees. Waiting for them to contact you will be the smoothest way for any credit balances domestic customers had with Yorkshire Energy honoured by Scottish Power.

It repeats the usual advice about not switching until the new supplier contacts you. I have previously seen it said that doing so might risk your credit balance. I don't see how that could be (the SOLR is responsible for all credit balances of past and current customers), and more recently it is simply said that it might delay credit balance refunds, which is much more understandable.

When we have these SOLR situations, there is always much gnashing of teeth about what tariff people are put on, and potentially not knowing for many weeks.

I would suggest that whatever tariff SP have put people on, there will almost certainly be better tariff available by switching to another supplier.

I would personally be inclined to commence a switch now to a more competitive supplier, and just deal with any delay to a credit refund unless, of course, there was a lot of credit at stake and a delay to getting it back would make a significant difference to you.

I can't see a particularly strong reason for staying on a deemed tariff for an extended period of time.

A new switch will fail as the proposed new supplier will find that a switch is already in progress from Y.E to S.P. You cannot actually switch until the change to S.P is complete as shown on the national databases.
In my (limited) experience of SOLR processes, whether/when you get any refund is in the hands of the Gods (otherwise known as the Administrators) and could be months down the line . In the case of the failure of Iresa it took 7+ months for my credit with Iresa to finally be credited against the Octopus charges!

Streaky_Bacon

brewerdave said:

A new switch will fail as the proposed new supplier will find that a switch is already in progress from Y.E to S.P. You cannot actually switch until the change to S.P is complete as shown on the national databases.
In my (limited) experience of SOLR processes, whether/when you get any refund is in the hands of the Gods (otherwise known as the Administrators) and could be months down the line . In the case of the failure of Iresa it took 7+ months for my credit with Iresa to finally be credited against the Octopus charges!

I've not sure that is right brewerdave, and is certainly at odds with Ofgem's advice, in the sense that they advise you not to switch (rather than pointing out that a switch is impossible, which they would surely do if it was).

Perhaps there is a short period of time when the database is locked during the move from YE to SP, but as it is not a normal switch I would suspect that period is very short once the switch starts.

Either way, customers should probably be looking for cheaper tariffs now, and if they find one at least trying to initiate a switch takes almost no time. If it fails they are no worse off than they are now.

With regards to a credit refund, you will always get it from the SOLR in the end but, yes, it seems that it can be a very extended process.

Talldave

Isn't the risk that you immediately initiate a switch to Whizzo Energy and then, at a later point in time, SP action your switch to them (they think from YE). Thus you end up with SP whilst expecting to be with Whizzo?

BedrockFred

Not Sure your right re refunds and Administrators 

Philippa Pickford, Director of Retail at Ofgem, said:

“Yorkshire Energy customers do not need to worry, as under our safety net we’ll make sure your energy supplies are secure and domestic customers’ credit balances are protected.

Scottish Power

"We're taking responsibility for your energy from 6th December 2020 and want to reassure you that your energy supply will continue without interruption. You don’t need to worry if you are owed money because your Yorkshire Energy account was in credit. ScottishPower will honour any outstanding credit balance you may have with them and this will be transferred to your new ScottishPower account in due course. For those customers who left Yorkshire Energy prior to the 6th December, we’ll also honour any outstanding credit balance that is due and issue this to you by cheque.

So not the Administrators they only thing they will be doing is issuing bills to YE customers who are in debt

matelodave

I've been in the SoLR process three times, with GB to the Co-op, Iresa to Octopus and Eversmart to Utilita.

By far the smoothest was GB to the Co-op, they even maintained GB's tariff  and I managed to transfer away within a couple of weeks, although TBH I didn't really need to as the Co-op rates didn't change. I got about £25 credit refunded after a few weeks 

Iresa to Octopus was a pretty smooth because I kept on top of all my readings both before, during and after the transfer so instead of them spending ages trying sort out the bones of the IRESA shamble I had all the info., The transfer took about 5 weeks, from Iresa-Octopus-Eversmart however just five weeks with Octopus cost me around £35 extra.  I got my Eversmart credit back after about six weeks.

The transition from Eversmart to Utilita was a bit different as I'd already initiated a switch to Symbio about 4 days before Eversmart folded so the transfer was painless however I had to send Utilita a couple of stiff e-mails (and a snail-mail) to get my £30 credit back which took nigh on four months even though I had all the info at my fingertips.

So, as Brewerdave says, its a bit in the lap of the gods and depends on lots of factors,how well you've been managing your account, how well the failed company has been managing it and how good the SoLR is.
I have to say that Octopus were pretty good at keeping the info flowing but it seems that Iresa's accounts were a shambles and having my own up to date info helped Octopus sort out my account very quickly although I understand that others weren't so fortunate and it took a lot longer to unravel their accounts.

Utilita was just a big black hole and there was no info at all, although that might have been different for those who actually got transferred to them. They seemed to hide behind the administrator when it came to giving refunds and needed quote a lot of poking to get it sorted out.

Fortunately, because I keep on top of my accounts, I am very seldom more than about £30 in credit but my debits can get a bit higher than some suppliers are happy with but my accounts balance at the end of the year providing the supplier doesn't faff around with my DD

Shedman

Just got an email from SP asking for DD details, meter readings etc.

No tariff details though