When to change energy providers

PaulDesmond

Hi.  am discusted with Utility point they are cheep in more ways than one. The made up my start readings which overlaped british gas and the onbudsman failed to agree.  have bee charged twice for the same gas and electricity. They claim a third party decided the redings when their is no third party.

HOWEVER . . . My contract is going to run out on 14th October.  have seen a beter provider already. When can I ask to switch? It takes up to 3 weeks so do I contact them on 23rd September or can I contact them before informing them of the final date of the contract? How soon can I do this without incurring a £60 fee? If it is more than 3 weeks then I can start then.

P.S. There is no proper forum for this issue.

JJ_Egan

This is oil and LPG section .

49 days from end of contract to avoid penalty .

ENERGY

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/post/discussion/energy

PaulDesmond

Thanks for that but as I said their is no link to this page anywhere on the main forum page. I have looked into the page source code as well now.

[Deleted User]

PaulDesmond said:

Hi.  am discusted with Utility point they are cheep in more ways than one. The made up my start readings which overlaped british gas and the onbudsman failed to agree.  have bee charged twice for the same gas and electricity. They claim a third party decided the redings when their is no third party.

HOWEVER . . . My contract is going to run out on 14th October.  have seen a beter provider already. When can I ask to switch? It takes up to 3 weeks so do I contact them on 23rd September or can I contact them before informing them of the final date of the contract? How soon can I do this without incurring a £60 fee? If it is more than 3 weeks then I can start then.

P.S. There is no proper forum for this issue.

Whenever we switch to a new supplier, the meter readings provided to the new supplier are validated by an industry-accredited data collector. Why? Some consumers do not bother to provide any readings; many misread their meters and some lie to save a few pence. Both suppliers are required to use the validated readings to open and close accounts. (See below - metering agents/data collectors).

You are in a fixed term contract with exit fees. Many suppliers are now signed up to 17 day switching and part of the switching process is to notify the old supplier that they are losing a customer. This normally happens within 5 days after the application to switch is made. Playing the 49 day plus 21 days card is a risky undertaking. The losing supplier may apply exit fees and you have no legal redress against them. What would you think if the supplier notified you that it was ending your fixed term contract three weeks early?

https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

QrizB

PaulDesmond said:

Thanks for that but as I said their is no link to this page anywhere on the main forum page. I have looked into the page source code as well now.

Yes, there really is.

From https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/ choose "Mortgages and Homes" then "Energy" is the 6th top-level in bold. hat you might have overlooked is that it's clickable.

yelias

PaulDesmond said:

Hi.  am discusted with Utility point they are cheep in more ways than one. The made up my start readings which overlaped british gas and the onbudsman failed to agree.  have bee charged twice for the same gas and electricity. They claim a third party decided the redings when their is no third party. ...

This appears to be a duplication of your complaint about Utility Point that you posted about 8 weeks ago here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6265914/how-to-get-a-cheeper-deal

Your complaint then that you have been double charged made as little sense then as it dioes now. And you now say even the ombudsman doesn't support your allegation.

There should be no possibilty of being double charged as the system should be that the gaining supplier inputs the opening reads and these are verified by the third party you don't think exists.

If verified, then the losing supplier uses thes same readings to close your account.
If the opening readings are not verified, they may be changed, but both the gaining and losing supplier use the same readings, even if they are not the ones you hoped they would. They are taken from the same system.

It's a little more complicated if you fail to provide an opening reading to the new supplier, but otherwise a similar type of process.
Where no opening reading is provided (or entered by the new supplier) it's the third party you deny exists that will estimate the closing/opening reading to be used by the respective suppliers.

More explanation can be found in this blog by Octopus. A different supplier, but it's a common system used by the industry.
https://octopus.energy/blog/handover-meter-readings/

Hence it really should be impossible to be double charged for the same energy.
But I guess someone will always find a 'work-around' perhaps attempting to fix another issue and not realising the trail of destruction they then leave behind.

But it really should be easy to prove any allegation of double charging. If the gaining supplier does not sort it out (as they ought to), then the ombudsman will.
Surely all you need to provide is the closing account statement of the losing supplier and the opening account statement of the new supplier to demonstrate that they have used a different reading? Did you provide that?
If not, why not? If you don't have that evidence, how can you be certain the you have been double charged?

As I say, it may not be the reading you wanted them both to use, but whatever one is used, it must be one - the same one.

What exactly does the explanation provided by the ombudsman say as to why they have not agreed with your complaint?


P.S. You seem to have found the proper forum for this issue 8 weeks ago.