Peoples Energy

mattblack000

I’m being transferred from Peoples Engery to British Gas. Fortunately I had the foresight to take a screenshot of my account credit. 1 month later, another direct debit has been taken from my account (British Gas advised not to cancel!) and every week, the balance seems to shrink slightly, by £30 or so. No idea what is going on, British Gas instruct me to hang in as it can take months for the credit to be transferred, by which time there’ll be nothing left. Peoples Energy are now totally in contactable. 

I’m now getting billed by British Gas just for good measure!

 any ideas?? Anyone having similar issues??

peter_the_piper

I think the problem was that PE stopped late September and BG did not transfer until early November so I think the credit was used to pay for the energy in between. I've just got my first bill which is from 4/11 to 9/12.Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong

MWT

peter_the_piper said:

I think the problem was that PE stopped late September and BG did not transfer until early November so I think the credit was used to pay for the energy in between. I've just got my first bill which is from 4/11 to 9/12.Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong

That shouldn't be the case as legally, PE could not continue to supply once they lost their licence at the point that BG was appointed as SoLR.

The truth will be in the final bills when they arrive from PE, it is possible that they are paying BG directly for that period between September and the actual change in Supplier ID in November, but that would be unusual...

mattblack000

Well I’ve cancelled their direct debit as unsure as to what, if any protection former customers will have. 

peter_the_piper

It'll be interesting to see what happened to the gas and electric between September and November.

Spanglekat

PE are still taking their DD's (6-Dec) and now owe me £450 up from £150 when they ceased trading! British Gas say not to stop the DD; How can this be allowed to happen, and more importantly, how and when will I get my money back???!

mattblack000

I’ve set up a direct debit with British Gas directly and cancelled the peoples energy one. There are rumours that some of these small time energy companies were out to make a quick buck, by hook or by crook, so to speak.

MWT

Anything taken by DD will be added to your account balance with PE and when the final bill is produced any residual credit will be transferred to BG.

If that concerns you then cancel the PE DD and set up a new one with BG, worst case is if you owe money to PE when the final bill is produced you will have to pay that to them directly.

The only other disadvantage in doing this is you will move to a monthly DD account with BG before your residual credit arrives from PE which means you may be paying more in the short-term that you would otherwise have done by remaining on quarterly billing with BG.

sanuk

I've had the same issue with my Peoples Energy account MattBlack. On BG's takeover I had almost £200 in credit (shown as a live balance on my a/c on the PE website). I took screenshots of this, and of all of my bills. I have since watched my live credit balance reduce by £15 - £25 over several successive weeks, down to £143, without any explanation. I haven't had a bill since 9 September, so I can't see that it's ongoing energy charges. I have emailed PE several times - they no longer reply, not even to refer the query to BG (who don't want to discuss anything prior to their takeover). I am awaiting the final statement, in hope that I'll be able to fathom out why PE felt justified in helping themselves to my credit. Last direct debit was taken 15 September, and an email from PE confirmed that they won't collect any more. I am surprised that it's taking so long to produce final statements though, as it sort of feels as if I'm hostage to BG until it's all untangled.

mattblack000

Executives will pocket their bonuses, while its customers get kicked in a painful place. 

If PE had 10,000 customers and removes £20 a month for 4 months then someone is pocketing £800,000. Nice Xmas bonus. The fact that British Gas can’t account for any money missing from my PE account, nor has it come off my new BG account. 

I really hope I’m wrong and only time will tell but I’m getting the feeling a lot of people are going to be out of pocket and we won’t be protected. 

wild666

Spanglekat said:

PE are still taking their DD's (6-Dec) and now owe me £450 up from £150 when they ceased trading! British Gas say not to stop the DD; How can this be allowed to happen, and more importantly, how and when will I get my money back???!

The first thing I would do when you hear that an SoLR has being chosen for the failed company should be to cancel the DD with the failed company and set up a new one with the SoLR when they allow it to be created.