Enstroga Emails, Disputed Debt

sflemin

Hi everyone, I've posted about this on another section of the forum but have been told this is the best place to raise it.

Basically, Enstroga have been chasing me repeatedly via email saying I owe them £1,017.68 from the time when I lived in my old flat, August 2018 to September 2020. There are several issues with this. One, I changed the supplier to E-on in March 2019, and paid bills to them right up until I left. Two, when I discussed this with Ovo they sent me a screengrab from the National Electricity Database showing that Enstroga stopped supplying that property in August 2017! I don't dispute that I may owe some money for that initial period of confusion (Enstroga never told me they were the supplier when I moved in, didn't reply to phonecalls + emails, but when I tried to initially make that switch to E-on - in November 2018 - they blocked it), but it seems clear to me that it's not as high as £1,017 and quite possibly owed to someone else, not Enstroga. 

Any advice appreciated, I have tried to explain this in detail to them over phone/email but they always just back off for a while and then start hitting me with more demanding emails. They're now saying they will commence legal action in five days if I don't pay it. thanks a lot

EssexHebridean

Can you post that screenshot as well @sfleminas it seems to me - unless I am missing something, that it is extremely relevant, as it confirms that the period of time that Enstroga were supplying the property was not during the time you were living there? If you moved in during August 2018, but they stopped supplying in August 2017...? If that screenshot is correct then it would be Scottish power you owed money to, not their predecessor supplier. 

sflemin

no problem, here it is. For some reason it's saying there aren't characters in the body for me to post it so I'm just going to keep typing and typing and typing gibberish until.... Ah, there we go

 

sourcrates

Firstly, you must put your concerns in writing, marking your letter "COMPLAINT" .

Send it to there complaints department, they then have 8 weeks to issue you with a final response.

If you remain unhappy, refer the matter to the energy ombudsman -

Making a complaint about your energy supplier or network operator | Ofgem

EssexHebridean

if I were you, I would also make that complaint purely focused on the fact that they appear to be trying to pursue you for a debt that arose prior to your occupation of the property. At this stage, don't muddy the waters about the amount being too high - initially at least, the relevant thing needs to be that you were not even living there at the time they are chasing for, IMO. 

fatbelly

And add 'if you wish to start a claim against me as indicated in your letter, this will be defended and I will request costs from you'

EssexHebridean

@fatbelly as I understand from the OP's thread on the Energy board there has been no letter as yet - the correspondence that has been received is entirely via email. 

sflemin

Sorry folks, was offline all day yesterday, thanks a lot for all the advice. I sent them a letter yesterday morning outlining my position, although from what I can gather they only have some people in a call centre handling things like this now and it isn't clear if anyone's actually going to be there at their Nottingham head office to read the letter and do something about it. Not ideal. I also spoke to them over the phone briefly and the guy 'reassured' me not to worry about the talk of legal action, but how much stock I can put in that I don't know. He asked me to pile all my evidence (the database screenshot, E-on bills etc) into an email and send it to them, which I did, but I've done similar before without any response, so it could well be a waste of time again.   

EssexHebridean

Careful you don't confuse things by bringing Eon into it - as it appears that Eon did not take over the supply from Enstroga.

If there is nobody in their offices who can physically send a letter by the way, then the reassurance about legal action seems pretty solid! 

sflemin

EssexHebridean said:

Careful you don't confuse things by bringing Eon into it - as it appears that Eon did not take over the supply from Enstroga.

If there is nobody in their offices who can physically send a letter by the way, then the reassurance about legal action seems pretty solid! 

Yeah, fair point, I'm probably best just focusing on them losing the supply in August 2017. Anyway, I doubt a swift resolution is at hand but I'll try and update this thread with any major developments! 

TripleH

Did you send the letter and get proof of postage? (If not  better to do so in future)

If they do try to take you to court, the fact that you have written to them to try and resolve this beforehand will help. As long as you sent them to the correct address, it will look bad on them that the letters were ignored.