Neo Energy and Octopus

MWT

baser999 said:

...As I said in my OP Neo would be sent regular readings and I’d been paying £110pm by way of DD, never advised that my payments were likely to be too little so never thought anything untoward

Not telling you that you are not paying enough, is not the same as paying enough unfortunately.

This really shouldn't be hard to sort out though and as a starter, Neo cannot bill you for any use from 9th July onwards, and you said you had a meter reading for that.

So go back to your first Neo bill and note the opening meter reading, the difference between that and the 9th July meter reading is the energy that Neo are entitled to be paid for.

How does that compare to the use that they are trying to bill you for?

Next step is to work out what you should have paid for that amount of energy vs what you actually paid, the difference will be what you still owe to Neo or if you've already paid more than that, what Neo owe to you...

pochase

baser999 said:

Well spotted QrizB - have been told by Octopus that I should not pay anything to Neo.
MWT - the only account I’ve received from Neo was the one sent with yesterdays email, claiming I’d generated combined energy usage of some £4700. In essence this bill runs from when I initially signed up to yesterdays date. This compares with my usual usage of around £1100pa. As I said in my OP Neo would be sent regular readings and I’d been paying £110pm by way of DD, never advised that my payments were likely to be too little so never thought anything untoward. If that invoice is genuine, and I fail to see how it can be, I fail to see how it. Oils possibly have jumped that much.  

I have a meter reading from when Octopus took over. 

So what were your opening readings and the reading on 9/7/2022 when Octopus has taken over.

Ideally you also will have readings for 30/9/21 and 31/3/22 if you were on SVT. Otherwise can you please also give us the unit rates and standing charges?

baser999

The bill runs to several pages and the rates seem to fluctuate regularly so will have to sit down and go through it all. 

My initial query really was about the Neo/Octopus set up in general - everything I’d read suggested  Neo were no more, having been replaced by Octopus and then out of the blue an email and invoice turn up from Neo suggesting this not to be the case.

MWT

baser999 said:

...everything I’d read suggested  Neo were no more, having been replaced by Octopus and then out of the blue an email and invoice turn up from Neo suggesting this not to be the case.

Just to be clear on that point, the corporate entity that was trading as Neo Energy is very much still in existence and is currently in the Administration process, which means that the team appointed to handle the administration are going to be aggressively chasing down any money that they are owed as it is their primary duty to ensure that creditors receive as much of what they are owed as possible by recovering as much as possible of what is owed to the company by the debtors.

The customers have been transferred to Octopus and Neo have had their energy supply license revoked.

Octopus have not taken over Neo nor have they acquired any assets or debts from Neo other than the customer base, but Octopus are now responsible for supplying energy to those customers (from 9/7/22) and they also have assumed responsibility for any credit balances belonging to those customers which had accumulated while they were with Neo.

The debts still belong to Neo and will be rightfully owed to Neo, unless the administrators sell those debts to other collection agencies of course...

70sbudgie

MWT said:

baser999 said:

...everything I’d read suggested  Neo were no more, having been replaced by Octopus and then out of the blue an email and invoice turn up from Neo suggesting this not to be the case.

Just to be clear on that point, the corporate entity that was trading as Neo Energy is very much still in existence and is currently in the Administration process, which means that the team appointed to handle the administration are going to be aggressively chasing down any money that they are owed as it is their primary duty to ensure that creditors receive as much of what they are owed as possible by recovering as much as possible of what is owed to the company by the debtors.

It won't be Neo that are chasing the debts, it will be the appointed administrator. 

You can check who that is by looking up Neo on Companies House (if you are so inclined). 

The email sounds a lot like a scam to me. I find it is always better to treat something as a scam. If it isn't and they are genuine, they will understand your caution. In my experience it is only scammers who get upset when you treat something as a scam.

MWT

70sbudgie said:

MWT said:

baser999 said:

...everything I’d read suggested  Neo were no more, having been replaced by Octopus and then out of the blue an email and invoice turn up from Neo suggesting this not to be the case.

Just to be clear on that point, the corporate entity that was trading as Neo Energy is very much still in existence and is currently in the Administration process, which means that the team appointed to handle the administration are going to be aggressively chasing down any money that they are owed as it is their primary duty to ensure that creditors receive as much of what they are owed as possible by recovering as much as possible of what is owed to the company by the debtors.

It won't be Neo that are chasing the debts, it will be the appointed administrator. 

You can check who that is by looking up Neo on Companies House (if you are so inclined). 

The administrators do not chase the debts in their own name, the company is still in existence, just operating under their direction, and often at this stage, with most larger operations, still with some of the same admin staff in place if the administrators determine that is the most cost effective way to collect on the debts. However in this case, with only one employee declared in the last accounts, it is more likely to be the administrator's team or possible a 3rd party agency doing the chasing in Neo's name...

The administrator appointed for 'UK Energy Incubator Hub Ltd.' (the entity behind the Neo Energy trading name) is Howard Smith (Interpath Ltd.).

This may or may not be a scam, and even if it is not a scam it may or may not be correct, so certainly no payment of any kind to anyone should be made in respect of the period of supply by Neo, without first verifying what if anything is owed...

baser999

Following on from my original post I’ve received a further email, supposedly from Neo, reminding me that I’d not settled their invoice. I’d never received any reply to their initial demands, save for one telling me that Octopus are now my supplier. 

Unfortunately I’ve lost a couple of the interim readings I sent Neo so it’s difficult to work out what my bill should have been. However it’s only ever been around £1250pa and their figure was over £4000 for two years!

So what to do? Refer it to Octopus, who are at least responsive to emails

MWT

baser999 said:

Following on from my original post I’ve received a further email, supposedly from Neo, reminding me that I’d not settled their invoice. I’d never received any reply to their initial demands, save for one telling me that Octopus are now my supplier. 

Unfortunately I’ve lost a couple of the interim readings I sent Neo so it’s difficult to work out what my bill should have been. However it’s only ever been around £1250pa and their figure was over £4000 for two years!

So what to do? Refer it to Octopus, who are at least responsive to emails

You can try Octopus, but as far as I know they are not responsible for collecting debts on behalf of Neo so they will probably know nothing about this...

Does the final meter reading on the Neo bill agree with the opening reading that Octopus have?

daveyjp

See my earlier post.  Neo was such a basket case I doubt they have accurate records of any readings and payments for any adminstrator to rely on.

Simply respond to whoever sent the reminder saying you don't pay any bill based on inaccurate information. 

No need to involve Octopus.

MWT

daveyjp said:

See my earlier post.  Neo was such a basket case I doubt they have accurate records of any readings and payments for any adminstrator to rely on.

... they are not in administration it seems...

Only the entity with the supply licence failed.

Their records may still be worthless, but they are not insolvent at this time.