Energy Ombudsman agrees with supplier, I don't !

knight5

I was awarded EBSS for the domestic house electricity and gas supply and also for a separate garage electricity supply paid monthly from October 2022 to March 2023.
Since the garage is disused and therefore uses no electricity, it seemed pointless to have this £400 credit sitting on an inactive account. So I suggested to the supplier if they could transfer to the house account. She said yes and so made the credit to the account in March 2023.
Then in July 2023 my garage bill suddenly showed a £400 debit when I received the statement. The EBSS had been withdrawn. It took 9 months for the supplier to notice this and I received no prior contact as to why this was done when it had already been agreed and actioned.
So I referred to the Energy Ombudsman after the statutory 8 weeks! having to wait before it could be resolved.
Basically since the supplier had agreed to transfer this, then months later changed their mind awarding it, I believed it was the supplier's responsibility to check the eligibility of all the accounts EBSS was being paid to.
Once having paid it, it seems unreasonable and unfair to then take it away.
The offer by the supplier via the Energy Ombudsman is £120. This does not put me back in the position that I was in before. I challenged this but the EO has decided and agreed with the supplier's compensation figure of £120 for a lack of customer service and that the garage account was not entitled to EBSS.
I have until 10th October 2023 to challenge the EO's decision. But I don't know how he will change his decision.
Does anyone know of any similar situations where EBSS was awarded and then at a much later date taken away.
I'd appreciate any relevant responses and also from a legal perspective.
Many thanks.

ArbitraryRandom

I have to say I agree with the Ombudsman. 

If they paid £400 into the inactive account and then removed the £400 then you would have suffered no injury/been back in the position you were in.

The issue arose as the £400 was transferred to your household account (at your request) and presumably you spent it.

You are simply being required to repay this money and you are being compensated £120 for the mistake, meaning you are not in the position you were in before the mistake... you have had a net gain of £120. 

My only challenge would be relating to the payment on your garage account - I would suggest you have 12 months to bring the account back to credit (£30ish a month), with it not being reported as a 'debt' or 'payment plan' to the credit reference agencies during this period. 

EDIT: Also, if the garage uses no electricity then you may wish to look into having the meter removed - saving you over £100 in standing charges a year. 

[Deleted User]

If you reject the EOS Decision, then the complaint is kicked into the long grass. If you want to challenge it, then you need to provide additional evidence and explain why this was not submitted at the time of the original complaint. Arbitration is not a legal process. EOS is a private company engaged by Ofgem to deal with disputes between suppliers and consumers. Its only templates are the Supply Licence and Ofgem guidance to suppliers.

ecraig

So the house you use received EBSS and the garage you don’t use received also the EBSS.
Seems pointless to give the EBSS to the garage since it doesn’t actually benefit anyone.
Also agree with the Ombudsman. 

Regardless of the legal stance, the moral argument is that you don’t deserve it. 

QrizB

knight5 said:

Does anyone know of any similar situations where EBSS was awarded and then at a much later date taken away.

Wat was the reason given by your supplier for withdrawing the EBSS?

ArbitraryRandom said:

I have to say I agree with the Ombudsman.

On the face of it, so do I.

ArbitraryRandom said:

EDIT: Also, if the garage uses no electricity then you may wish to look into having the meter removed - saving you over £100 in standing charges a year. 

Or, if the garage supply is required in the future, it would have made more sense to leave the EBSS on the account and allow it to be used to pay the standing charge.

pseudodox

Perhaps whoever agreed a transfer from your garage to your house account failed to realise you were already getting £400 for said house.  I do wonder what makes you think you deserve £800 of taxpayers money?  I sincerely hope if you do challenge the Ombudsman decision it is upheld.  

knight5

pseudodox said:

Perhaps whoever agreed a transfer from your garage to your house account failed to realise you were already getting £400 for said house.  I do wonder what makes you think you deserve £800 of taxpayers money?  I sincerely hope if you do challenge the Ombudsman decision it is upheld.  

pseudodox said:

Perhaps whoever agreed a transfer from your garage to your house account failed to realise you were already getting £400 for said house.  I do wonder what makes you think you deserve £800 of taxpayers money?  I sincerely hope if you do challenge the Ombudsman decision it is upheld.  

The lady I spoke to knew the full circumstances.
What kind of training are these 'Energy Specialists' given?
I appreciate your point of raising how this will be paid back and not being in debt which I now am and to have it impact my credit rating. This does need to be addressed.

Edit. The standing charge is credited to the account each month when I request that by email after giving the meter reading. So I don't pay standing charges. This was agreed by the supplier.

pseudodox

So if you use no electric & get a credit for the standing charge then your costs for the garage would appear to be £NIL.  The £400 was to help people with the rising cost of living so what would justify someone getting a handout when they have no cost?

ArbitraryRandom

knight5 said: 

The lady I spoke to knew the full circumstances.
What kind of training are these 'Energy Specialists' given?

If you mean the front line customer service agents, assuming they work the same as any other call centre... very little - they have a script which is updated periodically (daily, weekly or hourly!). They may or may not be UK based, and by and large they type key words into a CRM which searches for/gives them the relevant lines to say/forms to fill out.

It works for the majority of customers, but obviously sometimes it doesn't - which is when mistakes are made. They have acknowledged it was a mistake and they have offered you £120 compensation. Which, given 'standard' compensation starts around £30, seems fairly generous. 

I appreciate your point of raising how this will be paid back and not being in debt which I now am and to have it impact my credit rating.

Have you checked your credit report recently? It's not common to report energy accounts in debt - I was only suggesting having it agreed now 'just in case'. 

I've been pondering this evening and legally, (AFAIK) if a shop sends you an item by mistake (as opposed to unsolicited) then you are required to return it (unless the business decides otherwise) - and if your employer accidentally overpays you  then they can claim it back/deduct it from your wages over a period. Both have a number of years (again AFAIK) to realise their mistake, and for both the only wiggle is the period of time you have to send the goods/money to them. 

I can't see any logical reason why this would not be the same. 

knight5

knight5 said:

pseudodox said:

Perhaps whoever agreed a transfer from your garage to your house account failed to realise you were already getting £400 for said house.  I do wonder what makes you think you deserve £800 of taxpayers money?  I sincerely hope if you do challenge the Ombudsman decision it is upheld.  

pseudodox said:

Perhaps whoever agreed a transfer from your garage to your house account failed to realise you were already getting £400 for said house.  I do wonder what makes you think you deserve £800 of taxpayers money?  I sincerely hope if you do challenge the Ombudsman decision it is upheld.  

The lady I spoke to knew the full circumstances.
What kind of training are these 'Energy Specialists' given?
I appreciate your point of raising how this will be paid back and not being in debt which I now am and to have it impact my credit rating. This does need to be addressed.

Edit. The standing charge is credited to the account each month when I request that by email after giving the meter reading. So I don't pay standing charges. This was agreed by the supplier.

The energy supplier did know I was receiving EBSS for the house. They had all the information on their database, so no misunderstanding on their  part.
It's not taxpayers money, but paid from a windfall tax from the oil and gas giants! And not thinking I deserve it.

ecraig

You said the garage doesn’t use any electricity so how does the garage contribute to the energy companies profits?
How does £0 profit from the garage equate to the garage deserving £400 back?