So Energy - warning - their bad billing systems could cause massive problems!

SquirrelA

My experience of SO Energy is that their billing and customer service has been a disgrace. Because of their negligence they claim to have a debt balance of over £100) after they kept telling us incorrect assessments of costs and usage after readings were provided.  And despite it being their problem, they have refused to allow us to move to a competent energy provider, even thought the only balance on the account is 100% subject of a pending dispute. We cannot trust anything they say, they do or the bills they send any more.

1. They sent us a bill after a reading that failed to take into account the reading, and did not update the billing for a year afterwards. 
2. They sent us a quote for a new contract 6 months later based on the old rate not the actual usage. So we thought our bills and costs would be at the level of the quote since they had a reading to base it on and had said these estimates were based on readings and usage.
3. This led to a big build up of debt and I did know my bill balance was being increased by over £100 per month and we had been led to believe our normal usage would be a much lower bill.  We also did not know there was a debt building up because we were used to there being a large credit balance on the bill.
4. When we became aware of the problem, So Energy tried to blame us for not noticing their repeated errors. In fact it was only in the course of complaining to them that we pointed out to them the error in 2, they did not point that out to us, although they must have know.
5. They agreed to defer the balance payment pending a dispute and then days later revised the monthly debits to recoup the whole amount over the next accounting period. We had to contact them to stop the increase charges.  
6. Having had so much time wasted, and despite the dispute progressing to the Ombudsman stage, So stopped us transferring our household account to another supplier because of the dispute.  We even pointed out that under the standard supply conditions So could not bar the transfer and they did it anyway.
7. When we called "customer services" about the blocked transfer, we held for a long time and then was told customer services could not explain the reason for the block and they would contact us "later".
8. Despite all their errors, So never even offered 1p off our bill and they have left us with a surprise bill well over £1000.

Lesson - stay away from So Energy, their billing is incompetent, they do not update bills after readings, they get you to contract with them on misleading and wrong information and then they stop you leaving until you pay up for the consequences of their errors.

UnclaimedEnergy

Before jumping on this bandwagon, I want to check a few things to see if all of the issues was because of So Energy or not.

How long did you wait before sending them any other meter readings?
Did you just give them a one off reading and leave it for a year? (based on point 1 and 2)

When you sent in a reading, did you let them know that your EAC was expected to change? If you aren't providing regular readings or advising your supplier of a change in expected EAC then it will likely they'd just take the readings as a one off and go back to using estimated.

Another question, after submitting the reading at stage 1, did you receive confirmation it had been accepted? If the reading was much higher than before then it may have failed verification and not added to the account, hence why it wasn't taken into account.

SquirrelA

Unclaimed, thanks.  SO were sent a reading and then they never conducted a single review using that data over the next 14 months and we were not asked for a reading in the six months after their first erroneous review.  We sent a reading ahead of the next annual review and that was when the horrors of their errors over the previous year came to light.  They were under a contractual obligation to review the account twice a year and admitted in correspondence that the reading was wrongly not taken into account in the first review because of administrative errors on their part and then they never conducted any further review after that. We are consumers, we trust them to do what they say in their contract and for their documents to reflect the information we gave them.
We can forgive errors.  The worst problem was that the company did not come clean at the beginning with the problems and were very much of the attitude "we messed up but it is now your problem not ours" - never once did they say "sorry" and they made no good faith effort to resolve the problems they caused. The only balance in the account is a fully disputed amount, we even cleared the additional balance run up when they started to undercharge us once again after a further reading, and they are still refusing to let us move to a competent supplier.
After my family's experience, I'd have to say that SO just seems to big a risk for the ordinary consumer unless they want to take on the risk of being left with a very nasty bill form an company that has a track record of messing up on it billings and representations.

Hasbeen

A reading sent once per year?

With your new provider would suggest every month as you may end up in the same predicament. 

LinW13

Hiya,

Just a thought. Have you had a new meter fitted?

In my experience, the energy supplier is rarely told of a meter change. Hence, they ignore my readings from the new meter as they don't make sense. Good news, the fitters usually leave a card with the meter. I then give this info to my supplier and all is sweetness and light.

I also work out what my bill should actually be. I then stick everything in a letter along with a photocopy of the fitters card. This usually gets the right result from them - eventually.

Best of luck, and stay safe and well.

UnclaimedEnergy

I think the issue can't fully be put on So energy in this case.

With energy suppliers, if you're aware that something isn't quite right then you need to make sure you contact them instead of waiting for them to spot the error. If you're also only providing a meter reading once a year then I think it's unfair to expect your energy supplier to be accurate with their billing, especially if your usage has changed.

In your position, if I knew my usage had definitely changed then I would have made sure the bills and EAC was up to date to reflect that. If you know that the bills are wrong then you need to get in contact with them sooner instead of waiting for them to spot 'their' mistakes.

It seems like So Energy could have been better at getting in contact with you to request a reading and there is still the question of the lost reading you had submitted, apart from that I think it's just gonna have to be a lesson learnt on this one unfortunately.