Avro Energy - credit owed *after* switching away from them

siwilks

Hi,

I switched away from Avro in February and despite my final bill having a lot of credit on, they didn't refund it. I have chased them on this, and they repeatedly told me that it was being processed, but never appeared. Finally I opened a case with the Ombudsman - on the deadline last week, Avro challenged the case which means more weeks whilst the Ombudsman supposedly investigate - but the simple fact of the matter is that they haven't paid the credit their bill showed as owing.

Social media suggests my experience is far from unique, and it seems fairly clear that Avro have been stalling on paying their debts to their ex-customers - whilst hopelessly continuing to take on new customers - and now it looks like things are going to catch up with them. The indications are that Avro will go bust before the Ombudsman completes the investigation of my case - and even if they do, I can't think that they'll be imposing any sanction which is going to make Avro pay up before they close.

I've seen plenty of "reassuring" posts - including Martin's, and Ofgem's FAQs saying how customers shouldn't worry as when their supplier goes bust they will be transferred to a new supplier who will take on the credit. However, this is not the situation for me and many other ex-customers who are owed credit. Am I right in thinking that we're unlikely to have any recourse?

Poundwize

I agree in that changing companies then chasing for a refund is very stressful and naturally people do get worried. Took me months to get a refund from Scottish power after Yorkshire energy went bust and it was a very stressful period, hopefully once these cowboys have gone to the walk we may see some consistency and order to the switching process. 

You will get your money but may take a very long time. 

gt94sss2

siwilks said:

I've seen plenty of "reassuring" posts - including Martin's, and Ofgem's FAQs saying how customers shouldn't worry as when their supplier goes bust they will be transferred to a new supplier who will take on the credit. However, this is not the situation for me and many other ex-customers who are owed credit. Am I right in thinking that we're unlikely to have any recourse?

No, your balance as an ex-customer is also protected if they go bust - though it will take months for your refund to appear.

concerned4mymoney

Oh no!
I am leaving them this week and my credit balance is circa £200.
I think there is a penalty if they don't issue your final bill and refund your credit balance within a certain number of days (I had an issue with Tonik) - so if they are late repaying, the penalty might work out more than the interest I would've earned on the money with current savings rates 🤞

pearl123

I'd contact a consummer program. Watchdog, if it still exists or This is money. Energy companies should not be able to hold back money for weeks on end let alone months on end. 
If I'd know that Avro was so slow in paying back. I would have never joined them. 

siwilks

gt94sss2 said:

No, your balance as an ex-customer is also protected if they go bust - though it will take months for your refund to appear.

That's encouraging - do you know who it's protected by? Because it seems to be the new suppliers who are picking up the tab in the case of existing customers.

My case is complicated in that I switched to GNE, who went bust before the switch had completed - so was then moved to EDF. Now, the six month EDF deal having finished, I'm in the process of moving over to Sainsbury's Energy.

It certainly seems unlikely - (underdstandably) that Sainsbury's will feel any responsibility for a debt to a supplier who has gone bust when we've passed through two other suppliers since (one of whom has also gone bust several months ago).

siwilks

concerned4mymoney said:

Oh no!
I am leaving them this week and my credit balance is circa £200.
I think there is a penalty if they don't issue your final bill and refund your credit balance within a certain number of days (I had an issue with Tonik) - so if they are late repaying, the penalty might work out more than the interest I would've earned on the money with current savings rates 🤞

pearl123 said:

I'd contact a consummer program. Watchdog, if it still exists or This is money. Energy companies should not be able to hold back money for weeks on end let alone months on end. 
If I'd know that Avro was so slow in paying back. I would have never joined them. 

I don't think there's any penalty which will make any conceivable difference - the impression seems to be that Avro only have days left.

Given that there are many similar complaints about Avro - and that they've also been penalised by not providing information about their finances to the regulator - I think they've either made a long-term calculated decision that it will be to their advantage to not refund customers, or else they've made the calculated decision that given their impending closure, by stalling these complaints for long enough they can avoid their responsibilities to their ex-customers.

I had a similar issue with Ovo years back, who made a practice of requiring customers to ask for their credit back before the penalties were introduced. But maybe even now the penalties aren't high enough to prevent such practices being beneficial to the suppliers. I expect that there are many (particularly vulnerable) customers who don't think to check that the money has been returned.

[Deleted User]

concerned4mymoney said:

Oh no!
I am leaving them this week and my credit balance is circa £200.
I think there is a penalty if they don't issue your final bill and refund your credit balance within a certain number of days (I had an issue with Tonik) - so if they are late repaying, the penalty might work out more than the interest I would've earned on the money with current savings rates 🤞

I wish you well getting that. Compensation isn’t included in any levy-protected credit balance transfer.

gt94sss2

siwilks said:

gt94sss2 said:

No, your balance as an ex-customer is also protected if they go bust - though it will take months for your refund to appear.

That's encouraging - do you know who it's protected by? Because it seems to be the new suppliers who are picking up the tab in the case of existing customers.

The supplier appointed by Ofgem to take over a failed supplier's customer is responsible for refunding the credit balance - even if you had already left the failed supplier.

So if Avro fail, your balance will eventually be returned by whoever Ofgem appoint

ihatetrump

Companies such as AVRO have only survived as long as they have through using customer advances  - credit balances on accounts  - their last accounts (June 2019) show this was £47M. Without this money (yours and many others), they'd have a cash shortage of £27M - it's a ruse to think that these funds are needed to protect you in the winter months - the money's needed to keep these companies afloat so the fat cat Directors can continue milking the cow.

siwilks

Well, looks like the inevitable has happened: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58652083