Contacted by two companies taking over energy supply

NAS1976

I'm posting this on behalf of my elderly parents.  

In August, after many years of having been a Green customer, my father switched to Avro.  Obviously these things aren't instantaneous and the switch over was completed a couple of days before both Green and Avro went bust.  In that time he did receive a welcome email from Avro and a "sorry you're leaving us" email from Green.

Over the last couple of weeks he has received email from both Octopus (who are taking over Avro accounts) and Shell (taking Green).  As he was officially an Avro customer at the time he believes that he is forced to got to Octopus but is deeply concerned about Shell's contact.  I have tried to calm him down as he thinks that eventually he'll end up getting cut off or a CCJ.

He has tried to call customer services of both companies and neither are able to help, I assume because both companies have a huge backlog to process.  I put the question in Shell's website's Chatbox, which was less than useless.  

I have suggested that all communications by email leave an electronic paper trail, and until Shell ask for money that there is little he can do, however up to this point Shell haven't given him an account number as far as I know.  The OFGEM website doesn't seem to be able to give any guidance here either.

I have advised him that while these firm are busy with this, they may not be able to offer much help and he should sit it out for another couple of weeks (or certainly until they ask for DD details) but is there anything else someone could suggest?

spot1034

Shell probably just used a database of email addresses of customers that hadn't been updated as promptly as it perhaps should have been. He might not hear any more about it. I'd just leave it unless and until he hears from them again. 

NAS1976

I guessed that OFGEM provided both Octopus and Shell with a database that was not up to date, he first had notifications from both shortly after OFGEM announced which companies were getting which customers.  He did try to contact both of them but 
yesterday Shell contacted him via non-replyable email that they will be setting his account up soon.  That's what has got him worried.

QrizB

This is easy for me to write, but tell him not to panic.

There will be lots of people in similar (or worse) situations and both Shell and Octopus will have anticipated this.

He won't get cut off. He will only have one supplier and it's likely to be Octopus, but if for some reason he ends up with Shell it won't make any appreciable difference for the next six months.

His bills will rise but only to the capped tariff.