Green or Avro Energy

JintyA

Hi, I was in the process of switching energy suppliers from Green to Avro. Avro were due to take over from 1 Oct and took their first month's payment from me yesterday. As they both ceased trading yesterday (22 September), am I considered to be a Green customer or an Avro customer?

Inigo_Montoya

I suggest you check the supplier database on October 1st to see if the transfer has gone through
https://www.findmysupplier.energy/webapp/index.html

If the transfer has gone through you will have two SoLR companies to deal with - one to get your Green refund & another to sort out your new supply arrangement & get your Avro DD refunded

All these suppliers going bust at the same time is creating some novel situations such as yours

JintyA

Thanks, I will do that.

In terms of refunds, I'm not sure if I am due any refund from Green. I only moved to them in August and have not received any bills from that as yet, so it's difficult to tell. For Avro I have already been in touch with my bank to get the Direct Debit refunded as they took it out of my account yesterday (the day they ceased trading). 

Overseer

Hi Jinty,
I'm in a similar situation, I moved from Green and have a credit balance which I expect to be refunded under Ofgem rules.
I moved to Avro and they increased my pre payment direct debit by 50% more than Green, they probably knew they were going bust because 2 days later, they did.
Ofgem then moved me to Octopus . 
I know that I will be refunded, the question is, when ?

dbks

Overseer said:

Hi Jinty,
I'm in a similar situation, I moved from Green and have a credit balance which I expect to be refunded under Ofgem rules.
I moved to Avro and they increased my pre payment direct debit by 50% more than Green, they probably knew they were going bust because 2 days later, they did.
Ofgem then moved me to Octopus . 
I know that I will be refunded, the question is, when ?

Octopus Energy should have been in contact with you regarding your switch to them from Avro.
https://octopus.energy/avro/

In regards to any credit left on your Green account, that is being catered for by Shell Energy, who should be in contact with you shortly if they have not done so already. SoLR's tend to prioritise existing customers of the failed supplier over former customers.
https://www.shellenergy.co.uk/blog/post/welcome-green-customers

Overseer

Copy of my email to OFGEM 30/11/21:

Subject :Duplication of new energy supplier. Octopus and Shell

Having chosen to change my energy supply from Green to Avro on 20/09/21 and subsequently being moved by Ofgem to Octopus on 26/09/21, I now find that Ofgem also gave instruction to Green to transfer my supply to Shell from the following day 27/09/21. As a result Green have been holding my credit balance of £177.90 since the account xxxxx was closed in September, and they intend to transfer it to Shell as directed by Ofgem.

Octopus are my default supplier and my Avro account xxxxxxx credit balance of £339 has not yet been transferred by the administrator to Octopus.

 

My main concern is to get the credit balance of £177.90 repaid to me from Green and not to open an account with Shell.

 

Please rectify this by instructing Green to refund me and not to pass my details to Shell.

____________________________________________________________________________________

I am waiting for a reply from Ofgem and will update this post when received.

 

QrizB

Overseer said:

I am waiting for a reply from Ofgem and will update this post when received.

Good luck; Ofgem don't normally deal with individual consumer complaints.

Overseer

QrizB said:

Overseer said:

I am waiting for a reply from Ofgem and will update this post when received.

Good luck; Ofgem don't normally deal with individual consumer complaints.

Thank you for your negative input QrizB. Here is Ofgem's reply.
Bear in mind that my complaint is about Ofgem's mishandling by nominating two suppliers as SoLR, which is clearly wrong.


Dear...........,

Thank you for your email on 30 November.

We have forwarded your email to our Consumer Affairs team at consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk. A member of this team will be in contact with yourself to discuss the points raised within your email. They will aim to issue a response within the next 10 working days.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan

Complaints Team

Overseer

Overseer said:

QrizB said:

Overseer said:

I am waiting for a reply from Ofgem and will update this post when received.

Good luck; Ofgem don't normally deal with individual consumer complaints.

Thank you for your negative input QrizB. Here is Ofgem's reply.
Bear in mind that my complaint is about Ofgem's mishandling by nominating two suppliers as SoLR, which is clearly wrong.


Dear...........,

Thank you for your email on 30 November.

We have forwarded your email to our Consumer Affairs team at consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk. A member of this team will be in contact with yourself to discuss the points raised within your email. They will aim to issue a response within the next 10 working days.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan

Complaints Team

Further to my previous post.

As a result of the following communication, I am not setting up any direct debit until my energy supplier, Octopus, credits my account with a balance transfer from Avro.

Incidentally, when Octopus opened a new account for me, it indicated that a credit balance remained unpaid to me from my closed previous account with them. This indicates administration failure. They have now refunded at my request.

My email to Ofgem:

Thank you for replying to my email. I may not have worded my original email to explain fully my situation regarding two suppliers being nominated by Ofgem to supply energy to me.  Both Octopus and Shell claim to be nominated by Ofgem to supply energy to me. This is clearly incorrect, as only one supplier can be nominated to supply both gas and electricity to one customer.

Could you please explain to me how this has happened.

(This has resulted in my account credit balance with Green being transferred to Shell and my account credit balance with Avro being transferred to Octopus.)

Reply from Ofgem Consumer Affairs:

To explain, we suspect the following has happened, but your energy supplier will be able to confirm this to you:

• Green Supplier account moved to Shell because there was not enough time to settle the Green final bill before they ceased trading – Shell will refund any existing credit left on the Green account.
• Avro account moved to Octopus – If the switch between Green and Avro completed before Avro ceased trading then Octopus will have the supply and will set up a supply account and bill for any energy used going forward. If this is the case, then Shell is still responsible to refund any credit transfer due to you from your Green final billing and close any account they have set up.
• Shell/Avro can only discuss account details once they receive the information from the appointed administrators so it may be a case of waiting for them to contact. Any further queries about SoLR you should contact Shell/Octopus about your SoLR credit balance refunds and energy supply.

 

To confirm, Shell Energy will honour domestic credit balances for both current and past customers of Green who are owed money, and will produce a Final Statement to detail charges, debts and credits associated with the account for that supply. 

MWT

Overseer said:

Further to my previous post.

As a result of the following communication, I am not setting up any direct debit until my energy supplier, Octopus, credits my account with a balance transfer from Avro.

Just to be clear though, that will not include your balance from Green, just whatever you may be owed from payments made to Avro...

QrizB

Overseer said:

Copy of my email to OFGEM 30/11/21:
...
Please rectify this by instructing Green to refund me and not to pass my details to Shell.

Then:

Overseer said:

Reply from Ofgem Consumer Affairs:

Green Supplier account moved to Shell because there was not enough time to settle the Green final bill before they ceased trading – Shell will refund any existing credit left on the Green account.

So three weeks of back-and-forth to confirm the outcome everyone predicted?

dbks said:

In regards to any credit left on your Green account, that is being catered for by Shell Energy, who should be in contact with you shortly if they have not done so already.