Prepayment meters - large final bill.

Yewtree22

Hi,

Reaching out in hope that someone can offer advice for my situation. 

I have changed energy supplier from EON to Octopus. I never had any debt on my meters and regularly topped up, upon the receipt of my final bill I have been informed I owe £400. 

I have raised a complaint regarding this, at first I was told I had requested “discretionary credit” which I hadn’t, and when challenged they couldn’t provide any evidence. I have since been informed my gas meter went into “free vend” mode from March - May 2023, and this is where the balance has come from apparently. 

The points I’ve raised in my complaint are:
- this was their issue and not something I had done or requested
- I have been issued an annual statement since, with no mention of this debt
- it’s a prepayment meter, and i managed the balance appropriately and topped up when required. 

I have mentioned about the ofgem regulation on back billing, and not being able to bill for instances more than 12 months ago, but I was told that doesn’t apply to prepayment meters…

Any advice, or different points of view on if my view on this is correct would be fantastic. I’ve got another 2 weeks before I can report them to the ombudsman, unless it stale mates before then. 

Thanks.