Involuntary transfer of energy suppliers

kotel902

Hello forum, please try and be gentle, as this is my first contribution.

We moved in to our rented flat a couple of months back and had a mainly disagreeable experience with the letting agent. But that won't come as a surprise to many and a story for another day.

Beyond that, what left us rather surprised was the agent (part of a national chain) unilaterally changing our energy supplier before we moved in. I'm aware that it stated it had reserved the right to do so in its contract, provided at 1am on a Saturday night ahead of a Monday morning move date.

What followed was a comedy of errors of having to chase down the actual supplier - what was stated in the contract subsequently moved between two others before I was able to wrest it back and transfer to a supplier of our choice. Net impact: the agent got a kickback from selling our supply to another provider who wouldn't have been our choice, based on a combination of reputation, price and customer service. While we got stuck in standard variable tariffs for an avoidably extended perioid.

I asked the landlord if this was something he was party to. The answer was no and he was similarly baffled as to why this had been done as it delivers to tangible customer benefit to either landlord or tenant.

I'm grown up enough to accept that there are both some agents which act only with their own interests in mind - a pity, when there are many more which don't.

I got my supply back with my preferred provider but it took two months and what felt like an eternity of phone calls across multiple providers.

I'm not after compensation from the agent but I do believe this to be a practice which is both unnecessary and lacking in transparency.

Is it worth picking up as a formal complaint and if so, who with apart from the agent? My objective would merely be to try and persuade the agent to end this practice. Plus an apology for the inconvenience would be nice.

HampshireH

kotel902 said:

Hello forum, please try and be gentle, as this is my first contribution.

We moved in to our rented flat a couple of months back and had a mainly disagreeable experience with the letting agent. But that won't come as a surprise to many and a story for another day.

Beyond that, what left us rather surprised was the agent (part of a national chain) unilaterally changing our energy supplier before we moved in. I'm aware that it stated it had reserved the right to do so in its contract, provided at 1am on a Saturday night ahead of a Monday morning move date.

What followed was a comedy of errors of having to chase down the actual supplier - what was stated in the contract subsequently moved between two others before I was able to wrest it back and transfer to a supplier of our choice. Net impact: the agent got a kickback from selling our supply to another provider who wouldn't have been our choice, based on a combination of reputation, price and customer service. While we got stuck in standard variable tariffs for an avoidably extended perioid.

I asked the landlord if this was something he was party to. The answer was no and he was similarly baffled as to why this had been done as it delivers to tangible customer benefit to either landlord or tenant.

I'm grown up enough to accept that there are both some agents which act only with their own interests in mind - a pity, when there are many more which don't.

I got my supply back with my preferred provider but it took two months and what felt like an eternity of phone calls across multiple providers.

I'm not after compensation from the agent but I do believe this to be a practice which is both unnecessary and lacking in transparency.

Is it worth picking up as a formal complaint and if so, who with apart from the agent? My objective would merely be to try and persuade the agent to end this practice. Plus an apology for the inconvenience would be nice.

You aren't going to get the agent to stop doing it. And how would you know either way?

An apology maybe. But what will you do with that?

I think I'd move on now it's resolved and if the LL has an issue with the agent they employ they can deal with it

Squeaky9

Similar thing happened with the couple that took over my rented flat. Something about the letting agents changing the supplier, the problem then being that apparently you can’t change again within 28 days I think so effectively trapping them in (granted not for very long). They moved back to their preferred supplier as soon as they could but it’s the time and money wasted unnecessarily that’s the annoyance. 

princeofpounds

Yes of course you should complain about such shady behaviour.

There's nothing to be baffled by; the agents get a kickback which explains everything. It's got nothing to do with the landlord. Remember that letting agents work for themselves first, the landlord second and you third.

The letting agent legally has to be a member of an approved redress scheme. After following an internal complaints procedure, and assuming no joy, you should refer to them. You should also complain to their trade association - they will have codes of practice that will prohibit this kind of behaviour, and although there won't be any real penalty, it will cost the agency some admin.

You should also consider a complaint to OFGEM about the supplier paying kickbacks to incentivise dishonest behaviour. It may even be fraudulent, if you didn't agree to be signed up in your contract. OFGEM won't help you, but if enough complaints mount up over the years they do sometimes tackle bad actors in the industry. Spark Energy was a prime example of that (read the 'Issues' segment here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_Energy). It sounds like the agent and their supplier are trying a similar business model.

You should ask for compensation for your extra time. You don't need to be greedy, but an apology is no incentive to change behaviour. 

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-complain-about-your-letting-agent-afHgS5u8qpfD

kotel902

Thanks @princeofpounds.

What an interesting coincidence. Because the side deal is between the agent and Spark Energy. It was particularly confusing that I wasn't initially aware that the supply was transferred to companies with different trading names, though ultimately owned by Spark. Thanks also for the which? link.