Overpayment of utlity bills being withheld

wild666

Stevolution said:

I have been with Spark Energy for about 10 years until I switched suppliers in Sep 20.  Due partly to my lack of diligence (not checking monthly statemets etc, because life...) I had been overpaying month after month. My final bill showed I was in credit around £1600.  Since then I have been phoning /webchatting and asking for a refund, but was continually being stalled while they "check with the accounts team".  By early Dec I had realised that they had no intention of just paying the money to me without further escalation, so I started to threaten them with the Ombudsman.  Then the next time I called about 2  weeks ago, they said there had been an "irregularity" found  and that they didnt owe me anything!  When I asked when this irrgeularity was supposed to have occurred, the agent told me "2013"!   When I asked for full details and a breakdown of how the irregularity had arisen & for how this would adjust all subsequent bills, the agent said they wouldnt do that; they would just send an amended final statement, showing the new position [which was that I owe them £100]. 

Clearly my next course of action should be to write to demand more transparency in how they arrived at this new bill and to contact the Ombudsman; but I was also wondering if anyone else had had any similar experiences with a utility company withholding overpaid funds?  Also, isnt there some sort of statute of limitations for "correcting errors" like this. For example I know that with HMRC, any error they make which is not corrected within 2 years, can no longer be pursued. Surely they cant be allowed to bring into play an error they may have made 7, nearly 8 years ago - that's assuming such an error even exists as I have no proof of it.  Any advice is welcome

They cannot back date errors more than 12 months old, I think if they found it up to 8 years later they cannot demand payment as 12 months since the error has passed. 
I read my meter every week and put them in a spreadsheet, I also put in dates of price increases so that I know if they overcharge me then I am on to them quickly as even an increase of a few pence is better in my pocket than theirs. 

but suddenly the facility to download those bills (other than the new/current one) has been withdrawn! 

Download the ones you can then for those you cannot if you can read it online just click prtscr and save the relevant parts like the meter readings with the prices for the daily charge and kWh. The hardest thing is going back through years of payments to them and adding them up then subtracting the payments, that's time consuming. What you really need is the opening and closing read from your time with the supplier plus all price increases and decreases then you can get that has your total usage. then subtract the monthly bills from your total payments to them. What you are left with is what they owe you, or you owe them.  

Make a commitment to download ALL online bills when they are produced online and only delete them after you have left the supplier more than 12 months later, that way they cannot claim any errors made by them be paid. 

BikingBud

Stevolution said:

Thanks for the replies.  Unfortunately I have no paper records of any bills.  When I joined I signed up for online billing (thought I was helping the planet!)  This wasnt a problem - so I thought - because on their website you could view each monthly bill.....but suddenly the facility to download those bills (other than the new/current one) has been withdrawn!  I'm very concerned about this and I think you are right that I need to take it to the Ombudsman, especially if they are potentially "changing" the bills offline!

Apply for SAR: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/your-right-to-get-copies-of-your-data/
 or here for more info: https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/50313/gdpr-and-right-to-provide-meter-readings

Worth a try!

PennyForThem_2

Information Commissioner does have the power to fine if the company doesnot comply to your request.  However if you have left it is possible the company has deleted all your bills, correspondence etc.