Outfox The Market

FreeBear

Nick_C said: Sent an email complaint on 16 November asking for my statutory compensation (£30).

Reply received yesterday morning 24 November saying it had been referred to the billing team, and I would get a bill shortly.

I emailed a formal complaint the same time. All I have had is an automated reply, and not a dickie bird since.... How long before I can up the compensation claim to £60 ?

dbks

FreeBear said:

Nick_C said: Sent an email complaint on 16 November asking for my statutory compensation (£30).

Reply received yesterday morning 24 November saying it had been referred to the billing team, and I would get a bill shortly.

I emailed a formal complaint the same time. All I have had is an automated reply, and not a dickie bird since.... How long before I can up the compensation claim to £60 ?

They have 10 working days from the day it first fell due to pay you. If not they should pay you another £30

But they won't.
What they will do is claim they added the initial £30 to your account within the 10 working days, even if they don't pay it to you for another 4-6 weeks (if you are lucky)

I wonder what the Energy Ombudsman will have to say about this misinterpretation of the GSoP?

You need to make a formal complaint, and wait 8 weeks for the supplier to fail to resolve it before you can go to the Ombudsman. Expect the Ombudsman service to take at least 3 months from receipt of your complaint to issue a decision. (and then the supplier has another 28 days to implement the decision or challenge it)

FreeBear

dbks said:

FreeBear said:

Nick_C said: Sent an email complaint on 16 November asking for my statutory compensation (£30).

Reply received yesterday morning 24 November saying it had been referred to the billing team, and I would get a bill shortly.

I emailed a formal complaint the same time. All I have had is an automated reply, and not a dickie bird since.... How long before I can up the compensation claim to £60 ?

They have 10 working days from the day it first fell due to pay you. If not they should pay you another £30

But they won't.
What they will do is claim they added the initial £30 to your account within the 10 working days, even if they don't pay it to you for another 4-6 weeks (if you are lucky)

I wonder what the Energy Ombudsman will have to say about this misinterpretation of the GSoP?

You need to make a formal complaint, and wait 8 weeks for the supplier to fail to resolve it before you can go to the Ombudsman. Expect the Ombudsman service to take at least 3 months from receipt of your complaint to issue a decision. (and then the supplier has another 28 days to implement the decision or challenge it)

Regular(ish) screenshot of my account page stored, so they can't make a retrospective claim that compo was paid or a bill was generated within the allotted time.

Aware of the timings for opening an EO claim (done it before)...

RDZ

OTM are absolute cowboys. I switched from them to Sainsburys Energy on September, 30. I have tried to contact them innumerable times by phone and live chat: every time I get to the top of the Q the call/chat disconnects. Tried FB, Twitter and email: got a couple of non committal answers by email. They took another DD before telling me I should have cancelled it (never happened with any other reputable company).  OTM issued an invoice (Incorrect) at the 6wks mark, but now they owe me £540 and at the deadline today no trace of the money. Now I’ll have to go through all the rigmarole of the complaint procedure. They are just dishonest and I wish I never used them. Best Customer Service provider of 2020, yeah right!

RDZ

As I wrote this my credit balance, to the penny, appeared in my bank account. Right at the 11hr and I am yet to receive any communication from OTM. 

I guess that they are not dishonest, just sly as a forumite commented previously. 

I am glad I got my money back eventually and that I didn’t have to complain any longer. All the same I’ll be sure to stay well clear of OTM in the future.  

dbks

FreeBear said:

dbks said:

FreeBear said:

Nick_C said: Sent an email complaint on 16 November asking for my statutory compensation (£30).

Reply received yesterday morning 24 November saying it had been referred to the billing team, and I would get a bill shortly.

I emailed a formal complaint the same time. All I have had is an automated reply, and not a dickie bird since.... How long before I can up the compensation claim to £60 ?

They have 10 working days from the day it first fell due to pay you. If not they should pay you another £30

But they won't.
What they will do is claim they added the initial £30 to your account within the 10 working days, even if they don't pay it to you for another 4-6 weeks (if you are lucky)

I wonder what the Energy Ombudsman will have to say about this misinterpretation of the GSoP?

You need to make a formal complaint, and wait 8 weeks for the supplier to fail to resolve it before you can go to the Ombudsman. Expect the Ombudsman service to take at least 3 months from receipt of your complaint to issue a decision. (and then the supplier has another 28 days to implement the decision or challenge it)

Regular(ish) screenshot of my account page stored, so they can't make a retrospective claim that compo was paid or a bill was generated within the allotted time.

...

Oh, they will try. They will probably simply say the online account the customer sees takes time to update.

Point is, the GSoP requires payment to be made to the consumer, as Nick_C said, not account credited.
What is the point in crediting an account? It's a compenastion for failing to produce your final bill within the stipulated time.
If they simply credit your closed account, how long can they hold your money until they actually pay you???
In the case of Nick_C, the supplier has 10 working days from the production of the final bill to refund the credit shown on it. As Nick_C says the compo is shown on his final bill, then that needs to be paid.

Failure to refund the credit shown within 10 working days is another cause for £30 compo, and if that is not PAID (as opposed to credited to your then closed accouint), you get another £30 compo.

dbks

RDZ said:

As I wrote this my credit balance, to the penny, appeared in my bank account. Right at the 11hr and I am yet to receive any communication from OTM. 

I guess that they are not dishonest, just sly as a forumite commented previously. 

I am glad I got my money back eventually and that I didn’t have to complain any longer. All the same I’ll be sure to stay well clear of OTM in the future.  

I beg to differ.
Although they didn't used to be unless you go back several years, and they since apologised for that major c0ok up.
They had really improved since then, and won accolades for their service

Now, I fear their time may be nigh

dbks

RDZ said:

OTM are absolute cowboys. I switched from them to Sainsburys Energy on September, 30. I have tried to contact them innumerable times by phone and live chat: every time I get to the top of the Q the call/chat disconnects. Tried FB, Twitter and email: got a couple of non committal answers by email. They took another DD before telling me I should have cancelled it (never happened with any other reputable company).  OTM issued an invoice (Incorrect) at the 6wks mark, but now they owe me £540 and at the deadline today no trace of the money. Now I’ll have to go through all the rigmarole of the complaint procedure. They are just dishonest and I wish I never used them. Best Customer Service provider of 2020, yeah right!

Email them!
They will reply, but it may take a week or so before they do

As regards your DD, you should have received an email telling you to cancel your DDI to avoid having further payments deducted. If you don't, they will take monthly payments ad-infinitem I believe.
(what you can do is attempt to recall the payment via your bank; most will allow it on the basis the supplier no longer supplies you)

I agree, this is the only supplier (I am aware of) that actively suggests you cancel your DDI before they produce a final bill and refund you. Most simply take an additioanl payment (after which you should have a final bill), some suppliers stop taking additional payments and I think the odd one actually cancels the DDI for you.

In regards an incorrect final bill, I have seen the Energy Ombudsman take a view that the supplier should produce an accurate final full within 6 weeks. Sorry, I don't have a public source for this, keep an eye on the OS website, and the ombudsman does take a pragmatic view. e.g. When was the error first notified to the supplier, how much longer did the supplier take to rectify that final bill, was there a dispute as to whether or not the initial final bill was inaccurate, etc.

I must ask though, how on earth did you allow the credit level reach £540?
Were you providing monthly meter readings?
Were you carefully examining the monthly statements issued to you?

If my fears for the future of this supplier are true, then it may now be many, many months before you see your money again.

Nick_C

I suspect OTM have been overwhelmed by customers switching away in September when they raised their prices and were no longer the cheapest supplier.

Since then, I've found it impossible to reach them by phone, and it's taking them 7 to 10 days to reply to emails. 

For the last two years their customer service had been excellent (in my experience).

I'm genuinely sorry to be leaving them. I hope they survive, but I doubt they will. 

QrizB

Nick_C said:

I suspect OTM have been overwhelmed by customers switching away in September when they raised their prices and were no longer the cheapest supplier.
...
I'm genuinely sorry to be leaving them. I hope they survive, but I doubt they will. 

I was with them for almost three years and never had any problems.

Unless they're very well hedged (and that seem unlikely) every customer on the SVT will be losing them money. If enough customers switch away they might survive the winter.