Yorkshire energy ?

Trev456

bagand96 said:

Trev456 said:

uptdale said:

Trev456 said:

I had SP call me this afternoon to follow up on a complaint I raised this week. This is to do with the £506 credit owed to me as registered by YE's final bill generated on the 1st April.
According to the person I spoke to today, SP are being let down by the YE administrators being slow to release the funds to repay me. 
She implied that SP are powerless to do anything about it. Is this true? She promised to call me back in two weeks. So it continues..

That sounds like rubbish to me.  The YE administrators do not have the money to pay out money owed by YE.  That is what insolvency means - YE cannot pay all the money it owes, so it (i.e. the administrators now running YE) can only pay YE's creditors according to the priorities set out in insolvency law. 

The responsibility for paying credit balances owed by YE rests with SP.  That is the arrangement which SP agreed to when it was appointed SOLR by OFGEM, as set out in OFGEM's letter of 17 December 2020.  SP might recover some of that money by making a claim in the liquidation of YE as an unsecured creditor, but that might be nothing or very little, and will take a long, long time.  SP might also seek OFGEM's consent to recover YE's credit balances through an industry levy or Last Resort Supply Payment, but according to OFGEM's letter "ScottishPower stated it would absorb costs for honouring credit balances up to a specified amount based on information availalble at the time, in addition to absorbing any costs associated witht these credit balances".  So SP might get some of the money back.  But that does not affect the liability that SP took on to pay out the credit balances owed by YE.  SP chose to be the SOLR, and that was the deal.

Thank you, that's very helpful. I went on to the OFGEM site and found the letter dated the 17th December and the text you quoted.
"ScottishPower reserved the right to make a levy claim but indicated they would be willing to cover the majority of credit balance (and other) costs and only make a levy claim for a small percentage of credit balance costs."
I will go back to them today - via email, I can't spend another hour on the phone. Thank you once again uptdale. 

I was able to find the letter by searching for SCOTTISH POWER YORKSHIRE and the letter dated the 17th December once almost top of the list.

It's correct there's no funds to be transferred from YE to SP.  However YE do need to notify SP of the closing balance so SP can credit your account.  This might explain the delay, we don't know how that process is happening, but it's unlikely that SP are notified instantly when your final bill is generated.

SP can't/won't accept a customer submitted PDF as proof.  Whilst it seems a simply enough thing to do it would clearly be open to abuse.  You're nearly there, as frustrating as it is you will get your credit.

Thanks for your comments. The only time I sent an email to anyone with an attached PDF bill was to YE to try to get them to hurry up with generating the final bill. Didn't help unfortunately as it didn't appear to speed up the process.

I haven't sent any PDF's to SP as I realise that won't help but I am surprised that SP haven't by now recognised that I'm in credit and owed money. This is just so that they can get onto the starting blocks and then take another 20 working days to repay me.

The wheels turn inexorably slowly. Yes nearly there I hope.

Lessons learned: Don't build up too much credit. If your energy supplier goes bust and SP become the SoLR then wait 30 days before going elsewhere (I waited 90). I understand 30 days is the minimum that you have to stay with the SoLR.

I think I'd put be more tolerant with their nonsense(*) over the last 4 months if I didn't have to wait a minimum of 45 minutes to talk to someone.

Have a good day, all.

* I had issues with meter readings so that took 4 phone calls to resolve.

bagand96

Trev456 said:

bagand96 said:

It's correct there's no funds to be transferred from YE to SP.  However YE do need to notify SP of the closing balance so SP can credit your account.  This might explain the delay, we don't know how that process is happening, but it's unlikely that SP are notified instantly when your final bill is generated.

SP can't/won't accept a customer submitted PDF as proof.  Whilst it seems a simply enough thing to do it would clearly be open to abuse.  You're nearly there, as frustrating as it is you will get your credit.

The wheels turn inexorably slowly. Yes nearly there I hope.

You're telling me, it's the whole industry!  Every process seems archaic.  I've worked in an industry that was former national infrastructure and thought some of what we did was slow, but Energy are in a league of their own!

I've been with my new supplier 10 weeks now and they are unable to bill me because my opening reads have not been validated and everyone seems powerless to resolve it!  Bonkers.

Lessons learned: Don't build up too much credit. If your energy supplier goes bust and SP become the SoLR then wait 30 days before going elsewhere (I waited 90). I understand 30 days is the minimum that you have to stay with the SoLR.

There's no minimum to stay with the SoLR.  You just need to wait until the switch to the SoLR is complete in the industry processes before you can start a new one.  You can check this by using the "Who is my Supplier?" tools:  https://www.findmysupplier.energy/  for gas, electricity you need to search via your area's distributor.  But as soon as those databases list your new supplier than the switch is complete and you can start your switch out.  Think that happened late December for most YE-SP customers.  (you can actually start before that but it can cause further problems, so it's easier to wait for that).

[Deleted User]

I am also awaiting ‘validation’. Your new supplier can’t bill you, but, amazingly, they CAN charge you ie take your direct debit in the interim. What a surprise! The likelihood being that you are instantly into a credit situation, and playing catch-up. The suppliers have all the cards, and stack the odds in their own favour. It is also much easier for them to cut up rough if there is a dispute or debt situation, than it is for the customer. Meanwhile, OFGEM just fiddles while Rome burns. The electricity side seems much worse than the gas side. 

goatfaced

A few of you have mentioned not letting a credit balance build up in future. How does that work when suppliers ask for a direct debit upfront? Do they always want you to stay a month ahead?

[Deleted User]

If a credit balance is consistently increasing month on month, you can request that the direct debit is re-assessed, or the credit is refunded by the supplier. The supplier will probably deploy the 'seasonal' argument, or quote some arcane terms and conditions, but you always have the option of moving supplier again to 'realise' your credit.

[Deleted User]

bagand96 said:

SP can't/won't accept a customer submitted PDF as proof.  Whilst it seems a simply enough thing to do it would clearly be open to abuse.  You're nearly there, as frustrating as it is you will get your credit.

Just to add that I got my closing bill statement below from YE on 4th Feb via a pdf on the YE website


This is what I assumed was to all intents and purposes my final statement and is the one that I have sent to SP in a couple of emails since Feb 4th but alas it probably wasn't.  The latest communication from SP today had this same bill attached slightly amended.  The bill now has the words 'Your Final Energy Statement' plus stuff relating to Scottish Power.  This 'Final Energy Statement' also appeared on my YE account when I checked it today.  From this I conclude that SP were unable to start processing my credit refund until YE generated this 'Final Energy Statement' and sent it to SP otherwise how were SP able to send me this same pdf!.  Looks like the word FINAL is the important word. 

If folk are yet to receive either the refund or this 'Your Final Energy Statement' I'd suggest badgering YE again via the email route asking for this ' Your Final Energy Statement' as it must have been YE via their admins shoving this statement out to both former customers and to SP.

brewerdave

goatfaced said:

A few of you have mentioned not letting a credit balance build up in future. How does that work when suppliers ask for a direct debit upfront? Do they always want you to stay a month ahead?

Yes, particularly common with the smaller suppliers to take a month DD in advance. HOWEVER, some of the tales of customers seeking the return of credit balances involve very large sums of money of the order of hundreds of ££ and ,on occasions ,thousands of ££s. Many multiples of the monthly usage because the DD has been set far too high.
 I'm afraid that these customers have not actively managed/reviewed their accounts and allowed the utility co. concerned to use them as a lender of finance !!

Shedman

I was a bit bored last night as there was nowt on TV so being a saddo I worked out how much I've been charged since being SOLRd from YE on 5 Dec through 5 other utility companies (having been SOLRd again subsequently) until yesterday and compared it to how much I would have been charged for the same period if I'd been on my YE fixed tariff through same period.  

I was very happy to discover that, due to the inability of utility companies to bill correctly, it's only cost me an additional £6.68 (or about 1.2%).  Somewhat surprised as I was expecting the differential to be much higher so I'd call that a bit of a result 😀.  Hope others have been as fortunate through these debacles as I appear to have been.  

brewerdave

Shedman said:

I was a bit bored last night as there was nowt on TV so being a saddo I worked out how much I've been charged since being SOLRd from YE on 5 Dec through 5 other utility companies (having been SOLRd again subsequently) until yesterday and compared it to how much I would have been charged for the same period if I'd been on my YE fixed tariff through same period.  

I was very happy to discover that, due to the inability of utility companies to bill correctly, it's only cost me an additional £6.68 (or about 1.2%).  Somewhat surprised as I was expecting the differential to be much higher so I'd call that a bit of a result 😀.  Hope others have been as fortunate through these debacles as I appear to have been.  

I did a similar exercise last year ,re the 4 SOLR processes I'd been thru' and due to the total inefficiency of the Industry as a whole ,I'm actually over £200 to the good with c**ked up readings, start dates etc and a good dose of compo.  

goatfaced

I suspect not, shedman. I can't calculate it properly until I see my neon bill, but I reckon I've broken even due to the warm home discount. We would not usually be eligible, and it only offset the difference for three months of being with SP so I can't imagine paying their prices for a whole year. I've moved my gas to zog now so will be free of SP very soon.