BUSINESS ENERGY CONTRACTS: POSSIBLE MALADMINISTRATION COMPLAINT

bkmla

I am treasurer of a small church that is also a registered charity.

 

Recently I received an email from Scottish Power Business regarding renewal contracts, beginning 1 August 2022, for business energy, which I reviewed.

 

On doing so, I came to the section ‘Choose your new tariff’.

 

There was a box that said, ‘I wish to sign up for Scottish Power’s Fixed Price electricity offer’.

 

In order to seek out information about the tariff (this information was in fact further down the page, but either I failed do scroll down to access it or I didn’t notice it) I clicked on this button on the assumption that was the beginning of a process and that once being taken to another page giving more information I would have to click another button to accept the quote.

 

However, this did not happen and I discovered that I had accidentally accepted the quote. I actually accepted the quote twice in error. And to make things worse, there was no cooling off period.

 

So, as soon as possible, I contacted Scottish Power and told them the circumstances of the quote being accepted in error and asked them to cancel the contracts at their discretion.   

 

The following day I was relieved to receive an email from a customer services representative at Scottish Power Small Business to the effect:

 

‘I do understand you're contacting us regarding cancelling your quote as you've accepted in error.

 

‘To let you know SME (Business) account do not accept quotes via online so the new quote which you've accepted will not be applied. Moreover, if the quote would have been accepted then you would have receive a confirmation stating that the tariff has been renewed.

 

‘However, also to let you know once the tariff is agreed or accepted then this cannot be cancelled as there's no cooling off period in business contracts.’

 

At that point I had not received a confirmation, so I felt safe in the knowledge that there would not be legally binding contracts.

 

On the basis of Scottish Power’s response I contacted EDF Business Energy and entered into a 3-year contract with them starting from 1 August 2022.

 

Then later on in the week Scottish Power emailed me letters confirming that the contracts that I thought would not come into effect had in fact been renewed.

 

In response to this I contacted Scottish Power and advised them of their email stating what they said about the new quote, that it would not be applied.

 

I sent my email to Scottish Power five days ago and to date they haven’t responded.

 

If they come back to me and insist they have valid contracts with the church, what position does this place me in with EDF Business Energy, with whom I have also entered into a contract, albeit after accidentally accepting the quotes from Scottish Power? But I do stress that this was done on the basis of Scottish Power’s email (see above).

 

I know that if Scottish Power is not cooperative I can raise a complaint for maladministration with regard to their email stating that my quote would not be applied. But my main priority would be to persuade them to cancel the contracts at their discretion.

And ultimately I can refer the case to Ofgem.

 

Can anyone offer advice on wording a possible complaint, quoting legislation or Industry regulations?

 

If so, I would be most  grateful.

Robin9

I don't think you've got anything to worry about  and that SP will cancel the contracts - probably a simple case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing.

However my understanding is  that the EDF one is the one that would apply and you also pay penalties to SP according to their contract .