Bulb energy ignoring Ombudsman

[Deleted User]

Galileo_Figaro said:

barbellchart said:

I've had exactly the same problem with Bulb/Octopus. Bulb conflated R1 (peak rate) and full usage readings and overcharged me by over 3,300KwH (approx £1,000). The Ombudsman Service found in my favour but it's now 5 days past the deadline and Octopus have not issued a new bill. Neither Octopus nor Bulb are responding to emails from me or from the Ombudsman.

It astonishes me that this is possible... it's completely legal for an energy company to steal money from you and just hold onto it. It's taken months to get to this stage. Months of high inflation during which the value of that money is rapidly diminishing. 

Reading around, it's obvious that Bulb were habitually overcharging customers, both by overestimating usage and by conflating R1 and full usage readings. They were totally adamant that they hadn't overcharged me... I wonder how many people have swallowed that lie and have simply paid up and not complained? They were so convincing, it was only when I plotted out all the meter readings in a chart that it became absolutely obvious that they'd conflated the two sets of readings. I can't help thinking there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people out there who've been overcharged by significant sums of money.

I've tried an FOI request but the Ombudsman apparently isn't subject to the FOI Act... how on earth do you get Ofgem to look into something like this? People died of hypothermia last winter because of energy costs... this could literally be killing people.

Anyone have any idea how you get MSE or Citizens Advice to look into something like this? I can't help thinking this is affecting at least hundreds of people. 

Sorry you're dealing with that too. Nine months later Bulb are still ignoring this - I guess they have no incentive as the Ombudsman have no power and it loses them money. Looks like court is the only option. 

Bulb Energy exists no more as the company was transferred to Bulb Operations UK last year. You would need to check that that this entity still holds a Supply Licence given the sale of the Bulb Operations customer base to Octopus Energy.

 Going to Court might also be tricky: which entity do you take to Court?  I am not sure that a company that buys out another (ie; Octopus) can be held legally responsible for the sins of the supplier that it bought out.

In truth, the ‘company’ that you are complaining about is the UK Government given that the SofS appointed The Special Administrator.