Left Octopus and can't get my money back

brig001

Final bill number 7 arrived after speaking to someone who knew what they were doing
Looks right, accepted it and money is in the bank, so a good outcome
There was £900 difference between the highest and lowest final bill, so it was worth the effort - over four months worth

Brian

QrizB

brig001 said:

Final bill number 7 arrived after speaking to someone who knew what they were doing
Looks right, accepted it and money is in the bank, so a good outcome

Glad to know you got a satisfactory resolution in the end!

MWT

Sailbad said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

Sailbad said:

This seems to me to be grossly unfair to customers on dd who "do the right thing" and keep their account in credit.
I would like to see where this escape clause for energy providers is actually published on some official site.

I think we might have a different understanding of the meaning of 'unfair'? 

In the vast majority of cases, if you owe money for goods or services, the company has 6 years to pursue the debt - and there's not a dispute that the energy was used, so it seems fair to me that the energy companies can use existing credit on the account as opposed to the rest of us being expected to cover the loss when it's written off. 

The logic behind the rules isn't to prevent suppliers from recouping their loss, but to prevent 'bill shock' putting people into debt... hence it being deemed appropriate to use existing credit on the account to offset the debt. 

In the OP's case there was no existing credit on the account when the shock bill came.
It had been refunded some time previously.

I understand that point of view and did in fact argue the same point on here a few years ago with regard to a previous case that went to the Ombudsman, but the ruling was clear, any account balance refund can be reclaimed by the supplier to cover updated billing and does not constitute 'bill shock'.

EssexHebridean

Thanks for updating this OP, and I am glad you got the right result in the end.


For others reading in the future, this thread underlines the importance of checking your bills - and checking them every time. Are the readings correct? If they are estimates, had you provided actual readings which should have been used but weren’t? If you had not provided a reading and need to then get on and do it, and make a note to do it monthly going forwards. If you have a smart meter which has stopped sending readings then by all means report it, but deal with the readings manually yourself in the meantime if you are able to. If you are on an a E7 tariff then it’s important to know which way round your registers are as the OP did - so you know if there is an issue. And be warned - some suppliers apps assume R01 for day and R02 for night - if yours are the other way round (not unusual as Gerry said - ours were too, for 20 years and through two different meters) you will not be able to submit readings through the app! 

Sailbad

"For others reading in the future, this thread underlines the importance of checking your bills..."
And also the importance of not letting your account get into credit if it can be reclaimed in the event of under billing despite the "back billing" rules.