Erroneous Energy Transfer fun with Bulb! Not sure who my supplier is!

cretoony

Hello MSE,
I'll try to make the series of events simplified:

1. I moved into a property late September, the previous tenants were with bulb energy, I checked them out and the prices were reasonable so stuck with them. Made an account, set up a direct debit, submitted a meter reading.
2. One month later in November, I notice I can't give a meter reading online 
3. Check my account and notice that it now mentions in a tiny box "last bill before switch" or something similar on my account page.
4. I call Bulb, ask them what that is about and they said: "yes your switch is going ahead as requested". I told them i didn't ever request a switch and this is incorrect, they apologise and say the switch is cancelled and it's nothing to worry about. I asked them who initiated the switch and they said no one, There was just an issue setting up my account.
5. Satisfied they had it handled, I checked and still couldn't submit a meter reading. Instead, November 13th i email them some pictures of the meters and ask them to use those whilst they get whatever issue they're having with their system sorted. 
6. November 29th I still cannot submit a meter reading. I've had no reply from bulb. I check and no money has been withdrawn from my account other than one bill. Strange. I email again and also this time post on their community forums
7. Immediately get a response after someone on their forum comments on their useless email service. They ask for a meter reading over email which i provide (including serial numbers). 
8. Shortly after, I get a response email -  "It appears as though this property is currently being supplied by SSE and has been since 29th October. This is why you are unable to log into your Bulb account. Please can you confirm the date in which you moved into this property, as well as the move in meter readings if you have those available. Once you are able to confirm your move in date, I can ensure that the account is set up correctly for you, and get that final bill generated."
9. I also receive another response to my first email back on November 13th - "Hi Thank you for sending the readings.I have looked into the account, you moved to another supply in October, Many thanks"

I have no idea who SSE even are. I've had no correspondence from either SSE or Bulb about this during the switching process. Not a single letter or email has been exchanged other than me emailing them about not being able to give them meter readings and the first phone call. I'm amazed how somehow they have gone through the whole process of the switch without my knowledge even after me pointing out errors throughout. Today, i went on their livechat and told "Oliver" the whole situation (i wanted something i could record the logs for. After you finish a live chat it asks if you want to be emailed the logs but obviously, that function doesn't work but luckily I saved them myself) -

This is a fairly tricky case, I can't give it the time it really needs while I'm on chat. But I'd happily come back to this when I come off chat, Which is at 1pm. I have all the info I need and I'll email you between 1-2 with an update on this.

No surprise, I did not hear from Oliver at that time. Or at all, I even went back on the live chat and asked for him. They said he was probably a bit behind but if he had said that he would certainly reply before the end of today (It's now 17:00 so i doubt it!). 

So I'm pretty confused here. I had a quick google and sent them an email last night which seems to have been ignored so far (as i've received others since) about the "Erroneous Transfer Charter" and how I'm entitled to get it switched back. Currently, I have no idea who's providing my electricity. Are they allowed to just give out all my details to another company without any consent? Surely that's some kind of GDPR breach there... At the minute they're hopeless at getting back to me, would anyone recommend going the ombudsman route if that's simple enough? I'm mighty confused! They seem desperate to get rid of me as a customer. 

Ectophile

https://sse.co.uk/energy  They are one of the big energy suppliers

Gerry1

Find My Electricity Supplier

Find My Gas Supplier

BTW, Bulb are far from the cheapest. Start comparing using Citizens Advice and 'Switch with Which?', and note that separate suppliers are often cheaper.

mac.d

Bulb sound like a nightmare. Make sure you keep a note of your first meter reading that you submitted when you moved in, and as soon as you get the original account set up sorted (and it will be with Bulb if they were the previous tenants suppliers), do some comparisons and move to another supplier that aren't quite so useless.

Not necessarily their fault that there has been an erroneous transfer in the first place, but if you contacted them in early November and told them you hadn't switched and they have failed to cancel it, that's their fault and they should be the ones to fix it. I'd raise a complaint with Bulb about the failure to properly set up your account, and the erroneous transfer. That gives them 8 weeks to sort it, and if they don't, you can then get onto the ombudsman.

cretoony

mac.d said:

Bulb sound like a nightmare. Make sure you keep a note of your first meter reading that you submitted when you moved in, and as soon as you get the original account set up sorted (and it will be with Bulb if they were the previous tenants suppliers), do some comparisons and move to another supplier that aren't quite so useless.

Not necessarily their fault that there has been an erroneous transfer in the first place, but if you contacted them in early November and told them you hadn't switched and they have failed to cancel it, that's their fault and they should be the ones to fix it. I'd raise a complaint with Bulb about the failure to properly set up your account, and the erroneous transfer. That gives them 8 weeks to sort it, and if they don't, you can then get onto the ombudsman.

Thanks everyone for the replies, I'll get on this and will be sure to look into other options after this is over. I'm just worried I'm going to be slapped with some huge random bill. How do these things even happen? Seems very weird. 

cretoony

Just as an update on this, it's still going on. SSE contacted me in December telling me they apparently had a deal with my letting agent which when the house was unoccupied they take over the energy supply so it is not an erroneous transfer and so, they stopped my erroneous transfer request and switched me back to SSE!  I replied saying that's clearly an error as the house is occupied (by me) and they took over it regardless. I called my letting agent who manages the property and they said they had no clue what they were talking about and they shouldn't have taken over our supply as once we occupy the house the contract should be with us. I contacted SSE and they just parroted about "this has been rejected due to a Void Agreement between the Letting Agent and our partnership services team". 

I've called my letting agent and emailed but they're basically not available due to covid and will probably repeat what they said before. As SSE isn't replying now until they get a reply from my letting agent so I guess I'll just wait a couple of weeks and see... Bulb refunded £30 for the hassle but I see now it's SSE that are causing the problems. I opened a complaint with them but it has two more weeks until they say I can contact the ombudsman (even though this issue started last October they're not taking the blame from back then!) 

I've not paid a proper bill since October and I have no idea how much it's going to cost because of this mess. Nightmare! 

molerat

It looks like you were never with Bulb, the old tenant was then the landlord / agent switched to SSE during the void period. The only way that SSE would know about the void was if the LL or agent told them, they would have no idea otherwise. When you moved in you were in a deemed contract with SSE and should have contacted them to set up your details.  You have likely been on an expensive tariff since move in date, SSE have really done nothing wrong as you should have contacted them first as they held the right to supply the premises.  The fault would seem to be with the landlord or agent for not telling you who supplied the property and Bulb for not correctly informing you what was going on.

One quick thought - is this a house or a flat with a communal meter cupboard ?

cretoony

The previous tenant was with bulb and they were the provider when I moved in. I contacted them to set up the direct debit and paid them for a months energy before the switch started with SSE which I noticed from a bulb email saying sorry we're leaving. Never had a letter from SSE and they didn't contact the letting agent and when I asked the letting agent they said they had once discussed a trial contract with sse before but they were just as confused as me and they had no records of it or emails and shouldn't be providing the property. I still haven't had any letters from SSE even though they're apparently providing my energy, I've only had contact from my complaints. 

Bulb contacted them in October as they investigated after I immediately told them about the problem. They asked to revert the transfer and I didn't even find out it was SSE until bulb's first request got cancelled. 

The landlord lives abroad and its just a normal house, all the other bills have been fine and I've changed providers without issue (I don't even want to be with bulb, just stuck with them at first because that's the letter I got through the door when we moved in saying they were the provider and I was planning on switching from them but at the minute SSE won't let me do anything). It's such a confusing stressful mess 

[Deleted User]

This argument could go on for weeks. Two options : play in through with no certainty of outcome or switch back to Bulb.

cretoony

I'm being forced to go with option A here, SSE is not letting me switch. I started a switch back to bulb and SSE just switched me back to them again. Got a reply from bulb last night saying: 

Nontokozo (Bulb Help)
Jan 21, 2021, 1:35 GMTHi 

Thanks for getting in touch.

SSE has taken over the wrong meters and we still haven’t heard back from them yet.

We have credited your account £30 because it’s been more than 20 days since we notified SSE that they have taken over your gas supply in error.

Once this is resolved, you will receive an update.

We do apologize for the inconvenience caused.

Which is pretty much the same thing they said a couple weeks back. 

The worry here now is I will somehow end up getting the blame and be slapped with a massive bill from SSE because, if they view it like Molerat has, "I should have contacted them instead" when I moved in.

When I moved in I received a letter to the occupier saying Bulb was the supplier, I called bulb and they confirmed they were the supplier and I started paying them... I don't really understand how as a consumer I can do much else, I'd never heard of SSE until bulb mentioned them. I challenged the switch as soon as it started and here I still am. I wouldn't be posting on here asking for help if it was a simple misunderstanding and they seemed capable of sorting it out. Just going to have to wait this out till SSE finally replies but it's been 5 weeks since their last email now and they're ignoring my requests for updates. I'll update when there's an outcome If anyone reading this ends up having this rubbish problem in the future! 

Phones4Chris

As SSE are your current supplier rghtly or wrongly, make a formal complaint to them, they then have to respond properly or you'll ultimately be able to take  it to the ombudsman.