Octopus -Backbill Jan2020 or legitimate?

LucasWAG

Hi – I will first put that Octopus Energy have emailed me (*on behalf of a family member who I set up the account with as they did not have access to internet) saying that there is a statement from January 2020 that is unpaid  and they’re now threatening all sorts of actions due to it.

The fact this is 5 years ago means this is incredibly vague as to how I recollect any of the series of events to this.

Anyway, this Octopus Energy account was setup – I can see statements from July 2018 – January 2020, these statements are actually Engie who my family member was with, prior to the acquisition by Octopus.

From January 2020, we then had further statements until November 2020, when the family member may have left their services (*again, 5 years ago). This account was considered closed then – Conveniently a new statement is showing up “1st December 2020 – September 2024”.

 Anyway... The family member looks to have gone over to Shell Energy from January 2020 as a brand new customer, this account is still active... Bu.t was once again taken over by Octopus as an acquisition. This looks to have being acquired January 2024.

 Since I’ve written this post, I’ve just realised the potential duplication in energy statements between the two accounts acquired by Octopus?

 Now for the reason for this post... Out of the blue, an email – My family member has not mentioned any phone calls nor letters, just this email:

“This is for a charge of electric for 22nd Jan 2020 – 24th Feb 2020 but it was billed in 2020 and has been on your account since this date. As this was an Acquisition account from Engine it took a little longer to process.

We would not write off any charges as it was all done in the correct timeframe.”

I challenged this, citing it was unacceptable chasing a payment from 5 years ago, they refused to waiver – Soi escalated it up the channel within Octopus, same outcome:

“Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concerns. I completely understand your frustration regarding the outstanding balance on your account, and I sincerely apologise for any distress this has caused you.

The charge you mentioned is for electricity usage from 22nd Jan 2020 to 24th Feb 2020, which was billed on 2020. I understand that this has been on your account since that date. As this was an Acquisition account from Engine, it did take a little longer to process, which may have contributed to the delay in communication.

I appreciate your feedback regarding the handling of discrepancies, and I want to assure you that we take this matter seriously. However, we would not be able to write off any charges as they were all processed within the correct timeframe.

Thank you for your patience, and if there’s anything else I can assist you with in the meantime, please let me know.

Kind regards”

I’ve not yet brought it up with the family member – They’re in their late 80s, but this does not seem right at all.

If anyone feels this is legitimate I might have to bite the bullet and say it needs paying, but they’ve waited 5 years to bring this up, it does not in the slightest feel right

MWT

LucasWAG said:

If anyone feels this is legitimate I might have to bite the bullet and say it needs paying, but they’ve waited 5 years to bring this up, it does not in the slightest feel right

From the statements you have made, this is not 'back-billing' it is simply debt collection and as such there is no obvious reason why they should not chase an unpaid bill from 5 years ago...

Obviously it would have been better if your family member had paid the bill at the time, and it would also have been better if it had been chased earlier, but unless you can show the bill is incorrect I can't see any obvious reason why it should not be paid now...