Refunded by energy provider... now they want it back!

finolawalsh

We left our rented property in April 2022 to move back home with parents, to save to buy our first home. At the time of cancelling our accounts with our energy providers, we were told we would be refunded around £400 from our then electric and energy provider, SSE. We paid them via Direct Debit for the time we were with them so this was easily put back into our account.  

Now, a whole 9 months later (January 2023), they have written to say there was a mistake when they originally issued the refund, and we in fact owed them this amount at the time. They now want this money owed paid, and the payment they sent returning, equalling to more than £900 in total to be sent to SSE.

We do not have £900 to be sending to already profiting energy companies. 

Does anyone have any advice for us? Thank you. 

powerful_Rogue

finolawalsh said:

We left our rented property in April 2022 to move back home with parents, to save to buy our first home. At the time of cancelling our accounts with our energy providers, we were told we would be refunded around £400 from our then electric and energy provider, SSE. We paid them via Direct Debit for the time we were with them so this was easily put back into our account.  

Now, a whole 9 months later (January 2023), they have written to say there was a mistake when they originally issued the refund, and we in fact owed them this amount at the time. They now want this money owed paid, and the payment they sent returning, equalling to more than £900 in total to be sent to SSE.

We do not have £900 to be sending to already profiting energy companies. 

Does anyone have any advice for us? Thank you. 

Phone them up and arrange a payment plan.

TripleH

Ask them for a full breakdown of your account.

Do you have your bills at all?

I'd you have to repay, you have to repay bit if you can evidence the error was due to them, you should argue a sensible repayment plan on your terms.

Energy companies DO make mistakes with billing so might be worth checking any figures they give you.

The_Unready

Do you accept that SSE's figures/claim is correct?

If so, do as suggested above. If not, ask them to justify the bill and match that up against your own bills and meter readings.

You'll then know whether or not you'll need to pay.

MorningcoffeeIV

finolawalsh said:

We do not have £900 to be sending to already profiting energy companies. 

Does anyone have any advice for us? 

Yes.

You can't only choose to pay bills from loss-making companies.

finolawalsh

MorningcoffeeIV said:

finolawalsh said:

We do not have £900 to be sending to already profiting energy companies. 

Does anyone have any advice for us? 

Yes.

You can't only choose to pay bills from loss-making companies.

That's clearly not what I meant? I've never been a customer of any other energy provider, and I've never been through anything like this before. I only want helpful advice as I don't want to be taken for a ride by these companies who do so little to help. 

finolawalsh

The_Unready said:

Do you accept that SSE's figures/claim is correct?

If so, do as suggested above. If not, ask them to justify the bill and match that up against your own bills and meter readings.

You'll then know whether or not you'll need to pay.

Thank you I will do this today, thanks again 

finolawalsh

TripleH said:

Ask them for a full breakdown of your account.

Do you have your bills at all?

I'd you have to repay, you have to repay bit if you can evidence the error was due to them, you should argue a sensible repayment plan on your terms.

Energy companies DO make mistakes with billing so might be worth checking any figures they give you.

Brill thank you, I will do this today, you've been a great help thanks again 😊 

TripleH

Sadly if they make a mistake causing you to underpay, you still have to pay the money but that doesn't mean you have to pay a lump sum on demand.

Check the payments they have that you made match what went out your bank as well.

finolawalsh

TripleH said:

Sadly if they make a mistake causing you to underpay, you still have to pay the money but that doesn't mean you have to pay a lump sum on demand.

Check the payments they have that you made match what went out your bank as well.

Thank you, I really appreciate your help. If all is correct then we absolutely want to will pay it all back, we don't want to owe money to anyone, so a payment plan sounds like the way to go! We will request this information from SSE today 😊 

Devongardener

I had something similar with SSE some years ago, but as others have said above you do need to get the full calculation from them to check. Once all your bills have been gathered and checked against meter readings you will know for sure.    In the end I won and didn’t owe anything but it took a lot of calls and emails.  Then out of the blue SSE sent me a compensation cheque for £200.