Simplicity Energy - Ceasing to Trade

Shedman

burnleymik said:

I am having a complete nightmare with all this.
I was switched to BGE from Simplicity. Got the email on the 8th Feb to show my new tarriffs with BGE, which were not competitive, so I initiated a move to Peoples Energy. No problem so far. On the 15th feb I got an email from BGE to say my Direct Debit was being switched over from Simplicity to BGE. So, I contacted BGE CS and asked them not to take a direct debit, but to send me a bill as I had already initiated a move. They said they didn't have my DD information anyway. I got an email around the start of this month from peoples Energy saying I had been moved, gave meter readings and they took their first payment for my gas and electricity.

15th March my bank account shows my full Simplicity Direct Debit amount had been taken by BGE. I wasn't best pleased. I already had a +ve balance with Simplicity that I am struggling to chase up.

I got onto BGE because I have never given them permission to take a DD from my account and had explicitly asked for a bill. They were not interested and then I also find out that they allowed my switch of the Electricity supply to go to peoples energy, but objected to my Gas switch because they didn't have all the details from Simplicity. Not once throughout this whole thing did they inform me of that. I am now trying to chase up with peoples Energy to see why they are charging me for both gas and Electricity if they are not supplying me, but contact peoples energy is proving almost impossible. 

An absolute shambles from start to finish. We should never have been automatically switched and given the option to choose our own supplier. 

Whilst I agree the whole thing is a shambles there is no alternative to the SOLR process otherwise you would be without a supplier (and hence supply) for the 21 days the switch process takes.  

Given there's only around 50,000 ex Simplicity customers (so not a big number in context of BG) it's really disappointing that it's taking so long to get things sorted, that's there so much inconsistency between customers and that acknowledgement of switch away of supplies is not registered on the accounts portal.  

I managed to get my gas away quickly and easily, but suffered numerous rejections when trying to switch electric away which delayed the start date with NR by a further 3 weeks.  I have been told via chat by BGE that they ceased supplying my gas on the 4th March, although you wouldn't know it from the account info, and that my electric is on course for 25th 🤞🏻.  As far as I'm aware no DD has been set up by them (despite their latest FAQs suggesting they had info from Simplicity on 5 March and that they'd be in place within the week).  I await my final bills from BGE with interest and not a little trepidation....

ratechaser

Shedman said:

pusb said:

Had my bill for the period 15/02/21-14/03/21 today.
Got the shock of my life when I opened it. I knew BG would be more than Simplicity but it was over double what my last Simplicity charge was!  

Was the opening read the same as the Simplicity closing one then?  What happened to period from 30 Jan to 15 Feb?  Hopefully that gets missed by both of them 😅.  Can you see the opening read on the BGE account anywhere.  No bill for me yet.

So I'm a bit late to the party on this one but as another Simplicity refugee it's clear from my 'chat' with BGE today that they are being really disingenuous here. They 'say' that their new tariff only applies from the 15th Feb, but in reality it's been applied since the 30th Jan because that's the date of their starting point reading  - which in itself was an estimate for me, the last true reading I'd given to Simplicity was a couple of weeks earlier.

It's only £30-ish that I'm out of pocket over those 2 weeks due to the tariff difference, and I wish I had the time and energy to fight this sharp practise, but I've just completed a move away so good riddance to BGE and their "Simplicity promise-to-shaft-you" tariff...

Shedman

I would just be pleased to see something, anything at all, change on my BGE account. They haven't supplied my gas since 5 March...you wouldn't know it from the account. My electric is due to go on Friday...again you wouldn't know as nothing indicated on account (although they did confirm it in a chat).  No DD setup.  No opening reads. No bills. Nada, zip all, nothing.   I thought SP were bad but at least they communicated even if it was somewhat tardy.  This lot is like a black hole.

ratechaser

Shedman said:

I would just be pleased to see something, anything at all, change on my BGE account. They haven't supplied my gas since 5 March...you wouldn't know it from the account. My electric is due to go on Friday...again you wouldn't know as nothing indicated on account (although they did confirm it in a chat).  No DD setup.  No opening reads. No bills. Nada, zip all, nothing.   I thought SP were bad but at least they communicated even if it was somewhat tardy.  This lot is like a black hole.

Well I've worked out what I owe BGE based on the reads, less the credit I had from Simplicity, so whenever they deign to send me a first/final bill I can at least verify it. And my first DD has gone out to People's Energy who say they are supplying me as of yesterday, so hopefully it will sort itself out.

Not been at all smooth though.

Shedman

Hooray...national database now showing my electric as supplied by Neon Reef so that's me away completely from BGE.   Can't wait for the final bills from BGE as pretty sure they ain't going to be correct 😅.  Also be interesting to see if the Today's Balance still keeps incrementing.

Shedman

Just seen this re payments and credits on Simplicity website in case others haven't seen it:

"Simplicity Energy has ceased trading and British Gas Evolve has been nominated by Ofgem as the Supplier of Last Resort

For Amounts Owed to Simplicity Energy :-

The Joint administrators (FRP Advisory) are responsible for collecting any arrears. If you are looking to pay your final bill for energy used up to the 30th January 2021, you will be able to do this soon a new service. We expect this to be available by the 30th March 2021. You will be notified when this facility is available along with the amount due.

For Amounts Owed to You as a previous customer of Simplicity Energy :-

For any credit balances you will be notified of the amount owing by 30th April 2021.
If you have a British Gas Evolve account this will be credited to your account.
If you do not have an account with British Gas Evolve, they will try and refund the credit during May 2021.
If you have not heard from British Gas Evolve by the end of April 2021 and believe you have a credit owed, please use the following link contact British Gas Evolve"

burnleymik

It's really dragging on now. A quarter of a year to pass on customer information...

Shedman

Got my final bills from BG Evolve today.  Although they've been supplying since 31 Jan and they've used closing reads from the figures supplied to Simplicity on 30 Jan but on the invoices they show the period as starting 16 Feb!  Haven't been impressed by the BG Evolve experience so glad I'm away.  

ratechaser

Shedman said:

Got my final bills from BG Evolve today.  Although they've been supplying since 31 Jan and they've used closing reads from the figures supplied to Simplicity on 30 Jan but on the invoices they show the period as starting 16 Feb!  Haven't been impressed by the BG Evolve experience so glad I'm away.  

Yes, and I raised a formal complaint about that as it was borderline deceitful. I can understand the need for continuity, but when I'd been told multiple times that BGEs new tariff only applied from the 15th Feb, but they were actually taking reads back from the 30th Jan, that just wasn't acceptable.

Luckily I'd taken my own readings on the 15th, and so could work out the difference between the old and new tariff pricing. Within a day of complaining, BGE have agreed to reduce my final bill by that much - which is a small win... especially as it was close to £50!

They still need to reduce the bill by what Simplicity owed me, and I'm not paying anything until that's sorted out. Anyway, I'm switched out now so can at least ring fence this whole sorry mess...

Shedman

Just relooked at my final bill.  Actually looks like they've charged Elec based on the reading supplied to them on 15th Feb but Gas from final reading supplied to Simplicity on 30th Jan.  However, the final reading on Gas is actually less than the reading supplied to BGE on 15th (the final reading used was apparently supplied by industry validation service according to new supplier, who has used it as their opening read) so I don't think I want to raise that.  Electric read on final bill is correct and agrees with opening read on new supplier.  I have just noticed though that they've only charged standing charge on both from 16th Feb as well...

Reckon I'm about £50 up overall due to the poor billing so I'm leaving things alone and have paid, although you wouldn't think from the lack of info on the account that they've stopped supplying me or that my account is settled.  Absolutely useless...can't believe they are part of BG (unless BG itself has gone so far downhill since the last time I had them as utility supplier some 10 years ago).