Back Billing query

webuserisme

MWT said:

webuserisme said:

Many thanks to you both. I absolutely see the point but my annoyance is their incompetence has basically meant 2 elderly people have been overcharged by a considerable amount of money (and i MEAN considerable, certainly more than what the average household will be paying per annum come the new prices on 1/4). Surely there's a case for adding interest to this amount? 

Sadly no, interest isn't an option, these are payments they freely made to the supplier.

Unless anyone tells them otherwise they are entitled to assume that their customers can read and understand the bills they receive and can request a refund any time they feel the balance is getting too high.

Some choose to let the balance go high so they feel comfortable that they will always be able to pay the bill.

I would suggest making sure your relative is on the supplier's priority services register and ask them to add you as an approved contact so you can deal with the account directly if needed in future.

Already done, i get all the bills/contact here now and have authority to speak with the supplier on her behalf. My relative is in her 80s and would in no way be able to deal with situations like this. She is now on their priority customer list also. 

The thing is regarding requesting the refund anytime, they were never in credit until all the charges were cancelled (in fact they were in considerable debt and paying DDs that must have left them with very little income for other things!) then rebilled so this is a brand new credit that seemingly has shown only because the supplier now realised they were billing incorrectly and so cancelled all bills/charges then re-issued new bills for the same period (many years).

MWT

webuserisme said:

The thing is regarding requesting the refund anytime, they were never in credit until all the charges were cancelled (in fact they were in considerable debt and paying DDs that must have left them with very little income for other things!) then rebilled so this is a brand new credit that seemingly has shown only because the supplier now realised they were billing incorrectly and so cancelled all bills/charges then re-issued new bills for the same period (many years).

You can try a complaint and you'll probably get a token customer service gesture (£30 or so) but from the what you've written, the energy company does not seem to have behaved badly and promptly corrected the error as soon as it was brought to their attention.

They are not allowed to assume that a bill payer lack competence or agency simply through age, and sadly many who should seek help from relatives with matters like this will feel that they do not want to admit that they need help.

webuserisme

MWT said:

webuserisme said:

The thing is regarding requesting the refund anytime, they were never in credit until all the charges were cancelled (in fact they were in considerable debt and paying DDs that must have left them with very little income for other things!) then rebilled so this is a brand new credit that seemingly has shown only because the supplier now realised they were billing incorrectly and so cancelled all bills/charges then re-issued new bills for the same period (many years).

You can try a complaint and you'll probably get a token customer service gesture (£30 or so) but from the what you've written, the energy company does not seem to have behaved badly and promptly corrected the error as soon as it was brought to their attention.

They are not allowed to assume that a bill payer lack competence or agency simply through age, and sadly many who should seek help from relatives with matters like this will feel that they do not want to admit that they need help.

Yes, many thanks for all your help in this matter, much appreciated! I will probably just leave it now, my relative is happy enough with the (large!) refund and obviously doesn't really understood how it occurred and I don't think me trying to explain it all to her will do me or her any good 

Thanks again.