Yet Another Avro DD Nightmare

zolarolla

Hello all - wondering if I can get some advice.

In September last year my elderly Mum switched from Shell to Avro, just before it went bust.   She got confirmation of new supply from Avro and the direct debit was set up. When she heard that it was going down, and without knowing about the OFGEM guidelines, she switched again in October to Utility Warehouse.  The switch went through (instead of reverting to the Ofgem supplier Octopus) and UW started supplying her gas.  I've just been going through her accounts and noticed that Avro took out 2 direct debits of £153 in September & October without ever supplying a bill or supplying gas. As far as I can see UW have started with the original end meter reading of the Shell account.  How does she get the Avro DD's back?  UW say that the DD's have nothing to do with them and Nationwide have initially refused to do a DD reclaim as they say that her new gas supplier should be paying them back (even though UW were not the SoLR)!  Any advice gratefully received.  Many thanks.

QrizB

Avro's Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) is/was Octopus.

https://octopus.energy/avro/

It is Octopus who are responsible for refunding your mom's £306. She should contact them with her details.

zolarolla

Thanks for the advice, QrizB.  Just wanted to check if this still applies even if Octopus never supplied my Mum’s gas at any time?

MWT

zolarolla said:

Thanks for the advice, QrizB.  Just wanted to check if this still applies even if Octopus never supplied my Mum’s gas at any time?

I would certainly ask Octopus about it, I know they were asking Ofgem to give them guidance on customers like your Mother.

They are in a technical black-hole as they were never on supply with Avro and so not specifically covered by the guarantee rules...

ariarnia

they might not be covered by the ofgem guarentee but if they arent then wouldn't they be covered by the dd guarentee? avro took two dd payments from someone they never supplied gas to. 

zolarolla

I will certainly try and contact Octopus and get their response as advised, but at present I’m inclined to agree with ariarnia that my Mum should surely be covered by the DD guarantee.  Will update when I’ve had responses from Octopus and Nationwide.  Thanks for everyone’s help.

brewerdave

zolarolla said:

I will certainly try and contact Octopus and get their response as advised, but at present I’m inclined to agree with ariarnia that my Mum should surely be covered by the DD guarantee.  Will update when I’ve had responses from Octopus and Nationwide.  Thanks for everyone’s help.

Don't think that Nationwide can get the money back as Avro are in administration, particularly as it happened a year ago - however ,the OFGEM SOLR rules support the view that Octopus should repay the overpaid DDs and reclaim their costs from the general SOLR funds.
Unfortunately the early switch to Utility Warehouse will mean that your mother's case will be a low priority with Octopus as she was never a customer.

pochase

If I remember correctly Ofgem decided that no refund by Octopus is required in the above case, but Octopus decided to honour the credit nevertheless even so they will not be refunded by Ofgem.

The user would have not been a customer of the failed supplier so the direct debit protection did not kick in.

From the Octopus site

There are a few more customers whose switch is stuck because of something totally out of our control…

• If you were midway through your switch to Avro when they went into administration (before they started supplying you power but after you’d already had a payment taken). Please don't worry, your credit balance is safe.