UtilityPoint and Barratt Smith Brown

kst181

Hi everyone,

This is a bit of a long story so please bear with me on this and due to the time frames dates might be a bit off.

I was with UtilityPoint up to August 2021 when I moved home. I submitted my final meter readings for both the Gas and Electric. A short while later, I get my final bill from UtilityPoint and I was in credit by almost £400, which was great when we just moved homes. 

Skip ahead almost a year and I get an unexpected email from Barratt Smith Brown, which I later find out is a debt collector acting on behalf of UtilityPoint. They are trying to collect a debt of the same amount that UtilityPoint has refunded me. I have emailed this company and explained the situation but got no reply. They instead sent another collection email. 

I followed a guide on this website at that time and sent an official complaint email asking for evidence of this debt. By this point UtilityPoint had gone into liquidation. I heard nothing from this company after this until 2 weeks ago (May 2024). 

In May, I received another unexpected email asking for payment on this account. This time I called the company and explained the situation again only to find out that there have been " payments made" on the account through a payment plan. I have requested further information on this as I have always been in dispute of the debt to start with and have never made a payment to this organisation. I was told this would be sent to me in the next couple of days. 

A week has passed and no information has been sent to me. Instead, I have received a discounted offer of settlement. I've followed this up with another call asking for the information but another week has passed and still no information.

I'm going to submit yet another official complaint but since I've not had any response to the last one, I'm not hopeful. I'll probably have to take this to FSC but unsure if it will be them or OFGEM

I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience to this and can give some advice? 

FreeBear

If there have been payments made to *this account through a repayment plan (one that you know nothing of), it sound like one of two problems their end. One - It is not your account and they have screwed up in trying to get you to settle. Two - Their database is in such a mess that they don't know their backside from their elbow. Either way, not your problem. For the record, BSB suffered a data breach a few years back which resulted in a number of people being scammed out of alleged debts. Quite possible that the BSB database got corrupted as part of the hack, and certainly their data security is something that can be called in to question.

As long as you are confident that the account was settled when you left UP (even better if you have documentary evidence), ignore these clowns. Should they be daft enough to file an MCOL claim, you can put them to strict proof that a debt is owed contrary to the final UP bill.