Keep an eye on Economy Energy
I signed up to a two year fix with Economy Energy back in June. I provided meter readings then, and when asked again in August.
Not having heard from them lately, I logged into my account, and found they took an estimated electricity reading on 13th December, which would put me in debt by £800!
I was able to enter my correct electricity readings, but the system no longer shows my gas account. I have a nasty feeling someone plans to pretend I never took gas from them, but at least I have emails acknowledging my readings in June & August.
I have emailed to ask what's going on. It's a little worrying though.
BTW, doesn't it seem rather unfair that a consumer signs up to a long energy fix, (at presumably a premium above the present variable cost) to have the firm at some point declare bankruptcy, and the fix is then cancelled?
Not having heard from them lately, I logged into my account, and found they took an estimated electricity reading on 13th December, which would put me in debt by £800!
I was able to enter my correct electricity readings, but the system no longer shows my gas account. I have a nasty feeling someone plans to pretend I never took gas from them, but at least I have emails acknowledging my readings in June & August.
I have emailed to ask what's going on. It's a little worrying though.
BTW, doesn't it seem rather unfair that a consumer signs up to a long energy fix, (at presumably a premium above the present variable cost) to have the firm at some point declare bankruptcy, and the fix is then cancelled?
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Comments
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Same problem here. Gas meter readings vanished a few weeks ago and when I spoke to their online chat they said this was a known issue they are working on.
I gave them an electricity reading on 01/12/18 of 50706. They have now billed me for electricity using an estimated reading of 54208, putting me massively in debit! They have also billed me for gas using an estimated reading rather than the actual one I gave them on 01/12/18.0 -
Same for me too. I received a cheery letter telling me that my monthly direct debit amount is being changed to £300!! This is despite trying to submit a meter reading via the website and when that didn't work, by phone a week or so prior to getting the bill. Spent 45 mins on hold yesterday to finally get hold of someone who tells me they will have it fixed in next few days. Started looking around and they are not even competitive on price any more so def not worth putting up with this level of incompetence!0
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Interestingly they have this notice on their website:
In response to the recent speculation and circulating misinformation, we would like to provide assurance that we at Economy Energy have no intention of closing our doors. We will pay our outstanding ROCs obligation in full, business will continue as usual for our customers.
We would like to thank customers for their loyalty and continued support. - Economy Energy0 -
peterrrrrrr wrote: »Same for me too. I received a cheery letter telling me that my monthly direct debit amount is being changed to £300!! This is despite trying to submit a meter reading via the website and when that didn't work, by phone a week or so prior to getting the bill. Spent 45 mins on hold yesterday to finally get hold of someone who tells me they will have it fixed in next few days. Started looking around and they are not even competitive on price any more so def not worth putting up with this level of incompetence!
Sorry, but if you chose to be on a variable tariff, then you run the risk of the prices going up (which may or may not be in line with general price movements)
If you chose a fixed tariff, like MSE have been urging MSEers to do for months & months now, then if it's not competitive today, it must have been really uncompetitiive when you chose it.
:cool:0 -
mrochester wrote: »Same problem here. Gas meter readings vanished a few weeks ago and when I spoke to their online chat they said this was a known issue they are working on.
I gave them an electricity reading on 01/12/18 of 50706. They have now billed me for electricity using an estimated reading of 54208, putting me massively in debit! They have also billed me for gas using an estimated reading rather than the actual one I gave them on 01/12/18.
Sounds like the independent meter reading agency have not validated your meter readings for some reason.
Not sure why that would be, but if you take photos of your meter and submit these to your supplier so they can see for themselves the meter reading today, they will probably re-bill you. If they still need confirmation, ask them to send out a meter reader to obtain independent confirmation.
Don't worry about your account being in debit at this time. Following the above advice should get you a revised bill (and hence a revised account status) and in the meantime you are using energy you have already been billed (but not actually paid) for.
Providing regular meter readings will improve the supplier's ability to generate a more accurate estimated read if/when they need to do so.0 -
Thanks for your reply, it is actually my aunty's gas and elec but I tend to control these things for her. My only concern would be if they decide to put up the monthly payments on the basis of inaccurate estimated readings even thought they have received actual meter readings. I'll be keeping an eye on it!0
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Check out the reviews for Economy Energy on Truspilot, they will make your hair stand on end!!0
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As always, the advice is to read your meters monthly, send in the reading monthly and carefully check your bills to make sure that they are using actual readings and the tariff you signed up for and get them corrected if not.
Do not rely on being able to recover this info from the supplier or the website website in the future
Keep your own records and download and save PDFs of your bills and statements for when the system breaksdown or the company goes bust.Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers0 -
matelodave wrote: »As always, the advice is to read your meters monthly, send in the reading monthly and carefully check your bills to make sure that they are using actual readings and the tariff you signed up for and get them corrected if not.
Do not rely on being able to recover this in supplierfo from the supplier in the future
Keep your own records and download and save PDFs of your bills and statements for when the system breaksdown or the company goes bust.
Thanks.
I just tried downloading my old bills and saving the pdf's. Strangely my computer is unable to save them. I am however able to print them, so am doing that.
I am with OFTM for my mother's energy, so just tried to do the same there. Most of the bill prints as gibberish, so have had to do a 'PrtScn' and paste into Microsoft word.
Very fishy, eh?0 -
mrochester wrote: »Interestingly they have this notice on their website:
In response to the recent speculation and circulating misinformation, we would like to provide assurance that we at Economy Energy have no intention of closing our doors. We will pay our outstanding ROCs obligation in full, business will continue as usual for our customers.
We would like to thank customers for their loyalty and continued support. - Economy Energy
From https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/dec/16/uk-householders-pick-up-bill-for-bust-energy-firmsConcerns have been raised over the future of Economy Energy, which has 250,000 customers, after it came under Ofgem investigation for not meeting renewables obligation payments, one indicator that a firm is under stress.
The company has also recently closed all its social media pages. It declined to tell the Guardian why.
“In response to the recent speculation and circulating misinformation, we would like to provide assurance that we at Economy Energy have no intention of closing our doors,” the company said on its website.0
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