So Energy - won't give me my money back and won't review my DD

KenDFish

I'm with So Energy for Gas only - a bodged switch years ago left my Electricity with another provider (SSE), and despite trying at the time I never could get it sorted; to be fair, I've been happy with both providers so had no reason to change.

Like everyone my DD has gone up - coming off a switch and the cost of living has seen me go from ~£60 to £195 a month. However, with one child safely away to Uni, another given a strict 5-minute timer on the shower, and a warm summer has seen my gas usage drop resulting in me being in credit - almost £600. Over the summer my total statement was for around £50 of energy/standing charge, last month it was around £120 and, of course, that'll go up over the winter. However, the days of us using 12 x £195 of Gas per year are hopefully behind me.

I'd therefore like some of that balance back from So Energy - I'd take £400 back and still keep ~£200 in credit, just in case the £195 DD isn't enough for the depths of winter. However, despite politely asking, then politely insisting, and then politely complaining, they refuse to give me more than £100 back. They point me to their T&C's, which do state that won't refund more than 2 months of Winter bills - so keeping a credit of £390.

I've explained that (A) it's my money, (B) my usage has clearly dropped and (C) I'm willing to take the risk that my DD will go up if they think I'm not paying enough (which is unlikely, at least until next April!).

Furthermore, I asked them to review my DD. My last DD review was apparently last December (11 months ago!) and isn't due to be reviewed again until next April(!). At this rate, my credit with them is going to increase until then (not as fast as it did over the summer, but I'll still be paying more than I'm using).

They won't budge on the phone; what (if anything) can I do to get them to reassess my account, my balance and my usage? Is this "keep two months of your money" a common thing, and if not would switching now be advisable?

EssexHebridean

If you used £120 of gas in the course of a warm October, when presumably the heating will barely have been on, are you really absolutely sure (and allowing that since last winter, prices for gas have more than doubled) that you're not going to be using well over the £195 of your DD amount (which the supplier seem to be seeing as your "winter bill" amount)? It sounds to me that you're likely to be over that by some way. Have you actually worked out what your costs for this winter are really likely to be - using your actual use (last years will probably be safe enough to use as that was a very mild winter indeed) but with the current day unit price? 

It seems to me that the supplier isn't being unreasonable - and certainly allowing for what the T's and C's on your contract with them say - sorry, I appreciate that this isn't what you wanted to hear.

Brie

Will they allow you to switch to a variable DD?  This should use up your credit and then after that you will be paying each month for what you use the previous month.  

And why wait for them to review your DD?  My provider did and messed it up royally so I did my own annual estimate and told exactly why they could not increase my DD to nearly 3 times the current amount.  Include in your estimate how much less your use will be to ensure you get the desired result.

As for the 2 months - they said it was "for my own peace of mind and to ensure I wouldn't run into credit problems".  Well my peace of mind says money should stay in my bank account as I'm the one that earned it.  

Keep whinging at them and hopefully they will see sense.

ariarnia

up to you. if you switch then all of your credit will be refunded once your final bill is sorted. so that might take a few weeks but would solve the immediate problem. 

the next problem you will have is that your new supplier will want to set a dd based on estimated usage. the issue is that if you dont want to use last years figures then no one really knows how much you will use this winter (its been so mild so far that lots of people havent even really had there heating on) so its a bit of a negotiation. 

if you wanted to do that then i would start by saying you are happy to over pay what you think you will spend over the next three months then aim it so you should have the £200 credit that you were happy to hold? so if you currently pay £195 a month then offer £261 to review in February (which also should be when things are warming up). it depends on who you switch to but if you go to ovo/sse (not sure if they are accepting new customers but you could try phoning them given they already have your electric) then they refund the 66 to your bank so in reality i think you would only be paying out of pocket the same amount as you pay now. 

the other option would be variable dd (where you pay for your usage each month so you need to make sure you are giving regular readings or smart readings and have enough money in an account to pay the bill when it arrives). i don't know if so offer this. i know octopus and edf do (octopus is the one that seems to get better feedback on here re customer service). but its not for everyone as you dont have the certainty of knowing whats going from your account each month to help budget. 

KenDFish

Thanks everyone. I've gone through all my historic statements back to 2018: factoring in a drop in usage (a clear 1/3rd less since Child One went off to Uni and us being a bit more relucatant to hit the button to switch the heating on), I've come out with an predicted annual cost of around £2k a year - £166 a month.

I can understand why So want to keep that "buffer" for the winter months - but find it strange that it wasn't something they asked for before when I had a very small credit balance; it's only a "thing" when my balance gets too big! Also, reviewing my DD every 18 months is bizarre - there's no way to get them to review it early, even after explaining the change in circumstances. I'll just need to ride out the winter and hopefully see the benefit of this credit after April when they get around to reviewing my DD.

Cautiouslyoptimistic

I contacted So Energy on Friday 4th November last week. We had a £1,544 credit balance before this month's government support gets added which would have took it to £1,611.  So Energy agreed to repay £1,000 of this credit balance back to us and it arrived today Monday 7th November in my bank account.   

I was concerned since So Energy has recently called in the insolvency practitioners Interpath to help them raise funds, see  ESB facing crux over So Energy cash call | Ireland | The Sunday Times (thetimes.co.uk) which can typically mean that they are on borrowed time and your credit balance might disappear in a puff of smoke. 

If they do go bust it won't be good news at all, so I would suggest than anyone with a credit balance with So Energy acts to mitigate any potential losses, since any firm taking on their customers is unlikely to honour any credit balances.    

xeny

I thought the rise in the standing charge was essentially to allow credit balances to be honoured after the various energy firm collapses to date? If so there is precedent for credit balances being honoured.

EssexHebridean

Cautiouslyoptimistic said:

I contacted So Energy on Friday 4th November last week. We had a £1,544 credit balance before this month's government support gets added which would have took it to £1,611.  So Energy agreed to repay £1,000 of this credit balance back to us and it arrived today Monday 7th November in my bank account.   

I was concerned since So Energy has recently called in the insolvency practitioners Interpath to help them raise funds, see  ESB facing crux over So Energy cash call | Ireland | The Sunday Times (thetimes.co.uk) which can typically mean that they are on borrowed time and your credit balance might disappear in a puff of smoke. 

If they do go bust it won't be good news at all, so I would suggest than anyone with a credit balance with So Energy acts to mitigate any potential losses, since any firm taking on their customers is unlikely to honour any credit balances.    

Nobody's credit balances will disappear in any way. That much has already been seen by the numerous energy companies which have failed over the last year or so. 

Any firm taking on the customers of a failed energy company will do so in the same regulated way as has happened in every single other case - and this includes the safeguarding of customer's credit balances. 

If you'd like to avail yourself of some accurate information on the subject, there are plenty of threads on here about the SoLR (Supplier of last resort) process, and you might also go direct to the most reliable source https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/news-and-views/blog/how-youre-protected-when-energy-firms-collapse - it's usually better to be armed with facts rather than to repeat misinformation that might subsequently scare others who don't realise it's untrue, though. 

Cautiouslyoptimistic

EssexHebridean said:

Cautiouslyoptimistic said:

I contacted So Energy on Friday 4th November last week. We had a £1,544 credit balance before this month's government support gets added which would have took it to £1,611.  So Energy agreed to repay £1,000 of this credit balance back to us and it arrived today Monday 7th November in my bank account.   

I was concerned since So Energy has recently called in the insolvency practitioners Interpath to help them raise funds, see  ESB facing crux over So Energy cash call | Ireland | The Sunday Times (thetimes.co.uk) which can typically mean that they are on borrowed time and your credit balance might disappear in a puff of smoke. 

If they do go bust it won't be good news at all, so I would suggest than anyone with a credit balance with So Energy acts to mitigate any potential losses, since any firm taking on their customers is unlikely to honour any credit balances.    

Nobody's credit balances will disappear in any way. That much has already been seen by the numerous energy companies which have failed over the last year or so. 

Any firm taking on the customers of a failed energy company will do so in the same regulated way as has happened in every single other case - and this includes the safeguarding of customer's credit balances. 

If you'd like to avail yourself of some accurate information on the subject, there are plenty of threads on here about the SoLR (Supplier of last resort) process, and you might also go direct to the most reliable source https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/news-and-views/blog/how-youre-protected-when-energy-firms-collapse - it's usually better to be armed with facts rather than to repeat misinformation that might subsequently scare others who don't realise it's untrue, though. 

I'm extremely pleased that you are so very confident that monies built up in credit balances with failed gas and electric suppliers will be honoured by companies taking over your new energy supply. Unfortunately, there are numerous recent cases where people have been left fighting to recover these amounts and remain out of pocket. 

My energy firm went bust but it has never repaid my credit | Energy bills | The Guardian    

Personally, I think you are best not being over exposed to large credit balances with any energy supplier since the Ofgem rhetoric may not match your expectations.    

[Deleted User]

I'm extremely pleased that you are so very confident that monies built up in credit balances with failed gas and electric suppliers will be honoured by companies taking over your new energy supply. Unfortunately, there are numerous recent cases where people have been left fighting to recover these amounts and remain out of pocket. 

The article quoted serves to demonstrate that customers who have switched away just before a supplier fails are the last in the queue to get their credit balance returned to them by the SoLR. 

You are the protector of credit consumer balances. Customers of a failed supplier are unsecured creditors owed pennies in the £. Credit balances are paid out by the SoLR and then recovered from all suppliers who, in turn, pass the cost on to you and me. The scheme is known as the Ofgem Consumer Levy.

ariarnia

[Deleted User] said:

I'm extremely pleased that you are so very confident that monies built up in credit balances with failed gas and electric suppliers will be honoured by companies taking over your new energy supply. Unfortunately, there are numerous recent cases where people have been left fighting to recover these amounts and remain out of pocket. 

The article quoted serves to demonstrate that customers who have switched away just before a supplier fails are the last in the queue to get their credit balance returned to them by the SoLR. 

You are the protector of credit consumer balances. Customers of a failed supplier are unsecured creditors owed pennies in the £. Credit balances are paid out by the SoLR and then recovered from all suppliers who, in turn, pass the cost on to you and me. The scheme is known as the Ofgem Consumer Levy.

yes we've seen similar stories on here with people complaining about the time and its normally those who tried to switch right as or just after the supplier went bust rather than waiting for the ofgem appointed supplier to take over. understandable given how quickly fixes were being taken off the market when it was all going bad earlier in the year but a foreseeable problem that the new supplier would prioritise refunding the customers that moved over to them before anyone that was more complicated.