Energy Switch Error - Resulting in Debt

Qyburn

ArbitraryRandom said:

One possible ray of hope is the direct debit guarantee... if your payments were transferred to Green Energy while responsibility for your supply remained with Octopus then it's possible you may be able to get an indemnity payment under the direct debit guarantee (AFAIK there's no time limit for making a claim).

I'm not sure it would be covered by the DD guarantee. That's supposed to cover errors with the payment method, if you didn't authorise the DD mandate in the first place, or if they didn't give prior notice before taking payment, or took a different amount or on a different day.

Unfortunately the DD guarantee has been abused as a result of people promoting it as a way of fraudulently claiming back perfectly valid payments. Mostly the suckers get their fingers burned, but a side effect is that claims come in for a lot more scrutiny nowadays.  

ArbitraryRandom

Qyburn said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

One possible ray of hope is the direct debit guarantee... if your payments were transferred to Green Energy while responsibility for your supply remained with Octopus then it's possible you may be able to get an indemnity payment under the direct debit guarantee (AFAIK there's no time limit for making a claim).

I'm not sure it would be covered by the DD guarantee. That's supposed to cover errors with the payment method, if you didn't authorise the DD mandate in the first place, or if they didn't give prior notice before taking payment, or took a different amount or on a different day.

Unfortunately the DD guarantee has been abused as a result of people promoting it as a way of fraudulently claiming back perfectly valid payments. Mostly the suckers get their fingers burned, but a side effect is that claims come in for a lot more scrutiny nowadays.  

I'm not suggesting it's a silver bullet, but it's worth exploring. 

My logic - for what it's worth - it that if the supply never transferred/the transfer failed then the payments were incorrect as the DD transfer should have failed at the same time...

Either Green energy were providing the supply (at which point Octopus should not be charging the OP) or they weren't (at which point they shouldn't have been taking the money for it). 

QrizB

ArbitraryRandom said:

Either Green energy were providing the supply (at which point Octopus should not be charging the OP) or they weren't (at which point they shouldn't have been taking the money for it). 

But we don't yet know if Green were taking money for gas (in which case the OP will have received a large refund) or not.

ArbitraryRandom

QrizB said:

ArbitraryRandom said:

Either Green energy were providing the supply (at which point Octopus should not be charging the OP) or they weren't (at which point they shouldn't have been taking the money for it). 

But we don't yet know if Green were taking money for gas (in which case the OP will have received a large refund) or not.

Yes. Whatever the eventual outcome, for all options, the OP needs to get the paperwork together to establish exactly what happened. 

BellaBlondykeTheThird

Will @benjafields return to let us know?

RBam

benjafields said:

This is one of those issues in life where you have to devote the right amount of energy and time on it as you know it's a heavy piece of investigating that needs to be done and sadly I just haven't been in the right mental space to tackle what I expect may be tricky to unpick, but I'm really grateful to anyone who has any advice that can help me.

Ill start with enough of the detail that I know of.

We had been with Octopus for many years, even with our old property.  However, after signing up to Look After Your Bills, they automatically switched us to Green Energy.  When the switch is taken care of without any of your input, you just expect it to be handled. However, once the majority of energy companies started to collapse, Green Energy moved us to Shell Energy.  It wasn't until then did I notice something wasn't quite right.  After then speaking with Octopus, it looked like the switch hadn't fully happened and either the gas or electricity stayed with Octopus, except we had no idea this had happened!  Our direct debit was ported over to Green Energy and we were paying them, which then we clearly fell into debit with Octopus because, as far as we assumed, we were with Green Energy and paying them for both gas and electricity - even giving them meter reading when we were switched over to them.

 

When I discovered this, I tried to seek help but Green Energy had collapsed, no one could help me.  We Look After Your Bills stopped trading back then so they couldn't help.  I was completely stuck.

 

I didn't want to stay with Shell once Green Energy collapsed and moved me, so I decided to move back to Octopus, which was when all this happened and we re-opened our account with a huge debit, because as far as Octopus were concerned, we still had our gas or electricity with them and hadn't been paying.  Since then we have extremely struggled to resolve this, find anyone who can help, pay the debt, and I really think there has been such a monumental admin mess that I'm sure someone has to hold their hands up, take the hit and admit that they need to help us.

 

With all the above, I've really struggled to get to grips with this, articulate it, try and find someone who can help us.  I've sent a message to Octopus today, more or less with the same details as above, but I'd really appreciate some advice. Should I seek help from the ombudsmen?  I'm really hoping that someone has advice as I am in complete panic about this debt that I feel is of no fault of mine, but as a result of this poorly managed switch.

 

Please help!

I also switched to Eon it has been a complete disaster. I have been charged circa £310 for 8 days instead of £17.50. Customer service is non existent and they just ignore all my messages on their WhatsApp service. I have a claims reference number, so I am now waiting until I can contact Ofgem. 

Gerry1

RBam said:

I have a claims reference number, so I am now waiting until I can contact Ofgem.

Welcome to the forum.

Ofgem does not deal with individual complaints.

You will need to contact the Energy Ombudsman.

benjafields

Thank you all for my replies - I really do appreciate it. I have been making notes and actively trying to piece together what happened.  Although I don't have an update with a happy ending yet, I am piecing together everything in a document, a timeline of what happened, with dates, to see what steps to take.

I have dates from the switch happened [thanks to the National Grid Group - I think that's who they were!] who were able to give me the dates I was with certain energy providers for my electricity, but it appears I am unable to get those exact dates/timeline for my gas supply. Xoserve has said they cannot give me this data as they cannot confirm I was the occupier of my home when I asked, instead saying only the financial ombudsman can seek this.  Fair enough.

I have since contacted:

Look After My Bills - this is the company the managed the switch from Octopus Energy to Green Energy in 2021.  I have asked for a data request, which they said they do not hold any data on me.  A total surprise as they absolutely managed this switch. I even emailed them in late 2021, early 2022, to seek help in what happened.  Frustratingly, I cannot find the email and I am gutted. I have since gone back to them to submit a Subject Access Request and said I refute their claim. 

Octopus - I have been openly honest about what happened, and two things have emerged;
* one member of staff via email said I was only made aware of what happened in April 2022.  I have asked if during that time they tried to contact me or bill me for my gas supply which I presumed was ported over to Green Energy during the switch.  I awaiting their reply.
* they have said I need to pay for the gas I used [which of course, I am not disputing that, but they haven't said they tried to bill me.  Annoyingly, and as some of you have asked, I do not have any memory of Octopus contacting me or billing me for my gas supply after I thought I'd moved from them.  I'm contacting my bank for statements during 2021 to see if any money was taken.  Please appreciate this is nearly two years ago so my memory isn't 100%, and due to the messy situation I have been so scared about the debt that it has been to daunting to tackle.  I am only now, with the help of your comments, beginning to tackle it.

As suggested by a member on here, I have raised a formal complaint with Octopus for this to be investigated and so far they have offered me £50 as a gesture of goodwill.  My only confusion is that I am not sure who should be taking the blame.  I feel Look After My Bills hold a great responsibility with this, which frustrates me that they are saying the hold no data on me/the switch.

Re the DD Guarantee, I think above someone has mentioned this wont help me?  I will mention this and back billing in my open complaint with Octopus to see what they suggest.  It's difficult to sound confident when I don't fully understand these things, but I do appreciate everyone here helping me.

Octopus are still suggesting I up my direct debit to pay the debt, which in an ideal world I could afford, but sadly like a lot of us we can only pay what we can afford.

I intend to submit a Subject Access Request to Shell Energy [who I was automatically switched to when Green Energy collapsed] but I don't think this will really help as when this happened the damage had already been done, but there's no harm.  

I'm gathering everything I can in case I submit this claim to the Financial Ombudsman but if anyone has any further tips or advice I would love to hear it.

Thank you all again.
James