Credit balance not refunded

Ricco

I was with People's Energy then transferred to British Gas on the demise of the former. I was paying by DD, I'd built up a credit balance of £330, up to early September. I didn't receive a final bill from People's Energy. The credit balance due to me is likely to be £280-300. I've been chasing British Gas for this since December. They said they could do nothing until they received details from the administrator. I couldn't find the details of the administrator. After losing patience I attempted to go to the ombudsman who direct me to Citizen's Advice. A helpful person there gave me the administrator details, a firm called Alvares & Marshall. I contact them. They tell me they have sent the details to British Gas, it's up to them to issue me with a refund. Contacted British Gas again, they again say they have no details.

I've registered two separate complaints to British gas, no response. I've now refused to pay my latest bill (£100) until this is resolved. To be fair to them they have accepted this, and state they will take no action for now.

So I've contacted both parties who both deny responsibility. The ombudsman won't take calls and Citizen's advice are limited to giving me the administrator details. 

What can I do?   

Gerry1

If it's any consolation, this seems to be a very common problem after an SoLR steps in.  For example, I'm still waiting for a refund of my Zog credit from EDF even though Zog seem to have been a well run company and the final bill was generated on 22 December soon after they ceased trading.  EDF admit that all Zog customers have received their final bills (I suspect this happened quite a while ago) but there's still no mention of a refund date by EDF, even though Zog had only 11,000 customers.

Sadly, it just seems that you're in the same boat as umpteen thousand others and will just have to wait.  If Ofgem were any good they'd have made sure that SoLRs agreed to a sensible timescale for refunds after the final bill had been generated.  There may be some excuse if a shonky energy company's accounts were in a mess, but clearly that wasn't the case with Zog who were well regarded.

BTW it may not be a good idea to stop payments.  You may find you're moved to a more expensive tariff and / or have a black mark placed on your credit rating.

Ricco

Thanks for the reply. People's Energy went out of business. I responded to online requests for meter readings but I'm yet to receive a bill. Close to 6 months on now. I suspect, this being the case, I've somehow slipped through the net and there's little I can do about it. Perhaps a small claims court claim against British Gas might focus minds a little.

bagand96

+1 to unfortunately say there's not much you can do other than wait.  You will get the credit, but it does take an ages not helped by the fact so many companies failed in a short space of time.  British Gas were he SoLR for a number of failed suppliers.  The front-line customer service agents are unlikely to fully understand the SoLR processes or have access to specific details.  The administrators probably just want to close customer enquiries ASAP so getting to the bottom of who has and hasn't does what isn't easy.

I'd also advise caution against not paying bills.  BG are a huge company and at times not very efficient or joined up - just because one customer service agent might tell you no more action will be taken it doesn't mean an automated process in another part of the business might not kick in.

molerat

Maybe SoLR refunds of credit should be something ML brings up with OFGEM along with 3 monthly / 6 monthly billing not being acceptable as it allows unwary customers to build up large debit balances.

Gerry1

And / or perhaps a complaint to the Ombudsman against British Gas, copied to the CEO (info at ceoemail dot com), assuming that you submitted a formal complaint more than eight weeks ago.

Fidden

Our credit from People's Energy only showed up on the British Gas portal in the last few days, if that helps. I received an email on 17th February stating that our final statement was ready and that gave details.  Perhaps try contacting People's Energy and ask them for your final statement?

Not sure how to go about claiming back the credit, but I expect it to be taken off the next bill we're due, so won't be claiming ours - extra admin for the same effect in the longer term.

[Deleted User]

Ricco said:

 Perhaps a small claims court claim against British Gas might focus minds a little.

I suspect that you might lose as, technically BG, owes you nothing: you are just an unsecured creditor of a failed company. The money that is used to fund consumer credits is covered by a policy introduced by Ofgem - known as the Consumer Levy. The levy is funded by a charge on all consumer energy bills. 

I am not defending the system as it is clearly not fit for purpose: that said, the SoLR process et al was brought in to cover the failure of the odd supplier - not a run of lemmings going off the edge of a cliff.