Energy Ombudsman

HillStreetBlues

Thought instead of creating another thread would tack it on this one as I feel it might end up with the EO as well.

Octopus issued my final bill on 16th Apr 25 after leaving them on the 2nd Sep 24. The first refunds I had were on the 15th May 25 followed by final refund on the 21st May 25.
The issues I have:
As my final bill was delayed Octopus issued on the 14th Oct 24 a £30 (old rate) credit on my bill, but is this classed as "paid"? as had to wait over 7 months to actually receive the payment.
My Warm Home Discount was entered as a credit on the 30th Oct 24 this I have to wait over 6 months to receive the money into my account.
Both of the above were paid as refunds, back on Credit/ Debit cards rather than put directly into my bank account meaning I lost cashback.
As it took over 10 working days to refund my account they owe me £40, that should have been paid my the end of April. There has been no sign of this money so owe me another £40 for non-payment of the first £40.

Does all points of complaint have merit?

masonic

I think this would be a good test case. They settled with me to avoid the Ombudsman, but I think the legislation is clear about paying the customer (not withholding in an account the customer cannot access or paying to one of the customer's creditors) and not unreasonably withholding agreement to pay out to a bank account.

I got a load of waffle about "original payment method" in response to my complaint, which completely missed the point that the compensation was paid in by them, not me. My compensation was originally split between 3 different card transactions (on a settled CC account) and my bank account in what I could only describe as an act of malicious compliance.

Ofgem appear to consider it acceptable for an energy supplier to offset against the final bill (which is not covered in the legislation), but Octopus seem to want to go one further and offset against previous bills. Perhaps they believe once the compensation has been applied against previously billed energy, their obligation to pay is immediately satisfied and it doesn't matter if they take their time refunding the displaced customer payments.

HillStreetBlues

My account was in credit by £432.22 including £30 late bill & £150 WHD. I don't have an issue with them refunding me £252.22 via my original payment methods and the £180 direct into my bank account. What they did was  refund me £350, and pay £82.22 into my bank account, for me that's totally illogical.
TBH I would have left it, although does rankles with me. Not paying the last refund fee and now that delayed fee I might as well address all the issues.

HillStreetBlues

Reply from Octopus stating I not entitled to anything more.
Their reason is that with both the £30 comp and £150 that is paid to the customers account. In my reply I pointed out I was no longer a customer.
They never addressed the issue of it being paid via refunds not direct into my account
They are not paying the late refund fee due to how I made payments. I did use a few debit cards and added  £1 at a time  to get rewards from banks (both Co-op & TSB) I had to use the debit card a certain number of times) I would say about 100 £1 transactions.
My reply to this that it wasn't an issue at the time, nothing was ever said, but now they are blaming me for the delay. My reply was it should have been flagged and reversed at the time not 7 months later.
I told them I did not agree, and if the refuse to change their decision then supply me with a letter of deadlock.

masonic

I don't think they have any justification to pay your compensation via this bizarre method. The WHD I don't know about as that is a discount at least in name. But compensation can and should have been paid to you directly.

Just reviewing the final response to my complaint (received in March)...

"You are absolutely correct - the credit balance on your account originated from compensation for the late bill issue, not from your payments. I acknowledge that our handling of the refunds was incorrect by processing multiple refunds to your credit card instead of a single payment to your bank account.

...

I understand how frustrating this experience has been, and I want to assure you that we will use this as a learning opportunity to improve our processes."

HillStreetBlues

Had a reply Octopus they have offered to pay the £30 (old rate) for delayed payment of the £30 late bill fee and £50 Goodwill. I have rejected this as doesn't cover the delayed refund of credit after final bill was issued.

HillStreetBlues

Octopus still refusing to cough up the delayed refund of credit, so fired of another  e-mail

My issue is you made the refunds much more complicated than it needed to be. You processed  the late fee & my Warm Home Discount as refund which they wasn't, both of these should have been paid directly into the bank account you held on record. Also you ignored £100 paid via direct debt when refunding. Refunds should be processed in order but you decided to do it randomly.
 As the refunds were processed incorrectly and out of order, Octopus made it much more complicated then it needed to be, therefore the standard of performance falls bellow the level required.
I will need a Letter of Deadlock as what you are saying it took extra time to processed the refunds incorrect, you won't be able to claim it took extra time to get to correct, as you failed to do this. I will be informing the Ombudsman the full order of payments highlighting such issues as refunded a card payment made on 23/7/24 but not refunding a Direct Debt payment made on the 27/8/24 to show how inconsistent the refunds were, and if processed correctly there shouldn't have been a refund to that card.

HillStreetBlues

Octopus has issued a letter of deadlock, now have to draft a complaint to the EO.