Co-operative Energy reviews: Give your feedback

Consumerist · 10 August 2015 at 12:07PM

It is disappointing, and also very telling, that the Co-op rep, or reps, on MSE will not take ownership of any problems - no names given - but merely seeks to plough us into the demonstrably broken customer service system that is the Co-op.

As fixed-term contracts come to an end, the Co-op should find life much easier as they progressively lose their customers.

Then no-one will care whether their service is good or bad.

fat-pudding · 10 August 2015 at 6:15PM

Today I have finally escalated the complaint to the ombudsman as co-op are no longer replying to my emails.

The status for me is that they were supposed to take over both gas and electric when I switched in January, then April, then agreed to not process the switch and then initiated one in June. The details will all be in this thread somewhere.

Co-op promised that they would return the supplies as an "erroneous transfer" before the end of July but the gas is still lost somewhere in the system and has not been returned.

I have asked the ombudsman to make them expedite the return of the supply and to make them adequately compensate me for the losses I incurred (paying more for energy for 5 months with the old supplier) and to cover the amount of time I've wasted with them.

Quite honestly this has been one of the worst experiences I have had with any company ever.

CooperativeEnergy · 11 August 2015 at 2:51PM

Joanthebone wrote: »

I completed on my property on 26th September, but did not move in until about the 3rd week of October. When I bought the property it was supplied with gas and electric by Co-op... I switched to First Utility on 12th November and paid what I owed the Co-op then (£66.15) I have heard nothing more from them until today. I send First Utility my meter readings and have been paying them.

Today, I got a bill from the Co-op for £463.79, they have estimated my usage from 26th September 2014 until 3rd August 2015. I am absolutely hopping mad... I phoned them, and after waiting 12 minutes to speak to someone he told me that he would have to look into it and I would have to hold on. I told him I had a train to catch and they could call me back on my mobile.. needless to say I have not heard back from them. I really begrudge spending my phone bill and time over this, and their website is useless, there is no way to email them with this sort of problem. I have not been able to look at all the posts, as I am away on holiday now, but wonder if anyone else has had this problem and how they sorted it out?

Good afternoon,

I am sorry to read about you recent problems with your energy account. We sincerely apologise for the service you have received.

Please forward the details of your complaint to [EMAIL="onlineenquiries@cooperativeenergy.coop"]onlineenquiries@cooperativeenergy.coop[/EMAIL], along with your account number and your phone number or email address, and I will escalate this upon receipt.

Many thanks, I look forward to hearing from you and helping to resolve your issue.

Co-operative Energy

CooperativeEnergy · 11 August 2015 at 2:57PM

cadguy wrote: »

just had an horrendous interaction with cooperative.

cuting the story as short as i can....i received a letter two weeks ago saying i owed £259. After weeks trying to view my bill on the new online system and numerous phone calls I've ended up with a bill for £1200. They had not taken any payments since i moved to them last year in Sept 2014 despite me setting up a direct debit!

Should it take 11 months for them to tell me there was a problem?
Even the two reps on phone calls couldn't understand my billing history and had to keep putting me on hold to work out what had happen! (still dont understand adjustment figure on the account and why it shows 4 of my payments but the rep said none had gone through). if the reps dont understand the bills how is a customer meant to?

by far the worst experience i've had with an energy supplier.

Good afternoon,

I am sorry to read about these recent problems. I would like to extend my sincere apologies for the experience you have had with us.

Please forward the details of your complaint to [EMAIL="onlineenquiries@cooperativeenergy.coop"]onlineenquiries@cooperativeenergy.coop[/EMAIL], along with your account number and your phone number or email address, and I will escalate this upon receipt.

I look forward to hearing from you and helping to resolve your issue.

Co-operative Energy

CooperativeEnergy · 11 August 2015 at 3:02PM

simont wrote: »

So I switched to CoOp energy a few months ago and have had numerous issues with them, predominantly related to their IT systems.

First of all, and most seriously, they will email your password to you in plain text. I understand that not everyone works in software development like I do, so I'll explain why this is bad. Firstly, email is not a secure transmission method. Anyone can intercept your email, read your password and log in to your account. From here they can get all your information, change your details, disconnect your service...

Secondly, passwords for systems such as this should be hashed and salted (and optionally encrypted, which I would recommend for an application like this). This means that the system you use never actually stores your password but rather the result of running your password through an algorithm (when you try and log in it runs the password you entered through the same algorithm to see if the result is the same. Crucially it's one way, so it's trivial to get the hash from the password but near impossible to get the password from the hash). This way, if they get hacked the attackers don't simply see your password. By sending the password in plain text through email I can guarantee that they are storing their passwords in plain text in their system. This is, literally, the first thing you learn about system security. It's school level (not even college or university). I know some of you may brush this off, but I cannot overemphasise how terrible this practice is and how it points to the overall level of care put in to their systems development, or lack thereof. (or have a look at this http://i.imgur.com/1JnwySW.png for further indication of how little care they put in)

To make matters worse, I used the forgot password link. A few days(!) later I was sent a new password. Again, in plain text. This email had been forwarded by a customer services agent to me, which meant that they had access to the password, in plain text (i.e. they could read it). Again, this is so far removed from best practice it's not even funny.

I also had a billing issue. I went away for three weeks in July and returned to a letter threatening disconnection because I was £11 in debt to them. I pay by direct debit, and monthly payments had been coming out as normal. I'd not received an email informing me of this, and the letter had been sitting on my doormat for over two weeks by the time I returned, meaning I'd gone past the "Pay by this date or else" date. Trying to actually pay this was nearly impossible and involved a phone number that didn't work (the number the letter advised me to call had been disconnected), a website that wouldn't let me log on (take a look at the log-on page https://www.cooperativeenergy.coop/your-new-online-account/ and see if you can figure it out) and an age on hold. I've never missed a payment on anything in my life, so found this incredibly worrisome.

And all this is ignoring the terrible website UI once you finally log on. If you enjoy a quiet life, avoid like the plague. It's only a matter of time before you'll see them on the news for a systems and data breach based on what I've seen so far. Suffice to say, I'm leaving.

Good afternoon,

I am very sorry to hear you have had this experience with us. If you require further assistance please email [EMAIL="onlineenquiries@cooperativeenergy.coop"]onlineenquiries@cooperativeenergy.coop[/EMAIL], along with your account number and your phone number or email address, and I will escalate this upon receipt.

Many thanks, I look forward to hearing from you and helping to resolve your issue.
Co-operative Energy

pepelemoko · 12 August 2015 at 8:50AM

Don't switch to coop energy. I decided to change in February and still haven't paid my first bill despite many phonecalls and emails. I have discovered that something worse rhan bad service is being completely ignored. As i said, i switched in February. I received a wepcome to Coop email pretty soon after. So far so good. Nothing really happened after that until June when i was asked for meter reads. I supplied the reads three times and you would have thought they had never encountered a meter before. When supplying them the third time i mentioned how drawn out and frustrating this whole process was becoming. I was assured everything would be done quickly once i supplied reads. I heard absolutely nothing for over a month so phoned them. The advisor told me he was having problems setting up my payments and would have to take it up with the payments team. Two weeks on and, yet again, i have heard nothing. I called a couple of days ago and the switching team told me they couldn't help me and they would transfer me to someone who could. After some time on hold an advisor picked up. I asked if i could give her my account number. She said that she didn't have access to my account so there would be no point. She had only picked up as i had been on hold so long. I went through my many issues with them and was then asked if i would like to register a complaint. I told them that all i wanted was to know how much i was going to pay them, know the payment date and to actually give them money! I settled for a complaint. As i hae not an ounce of confidence in their staff by now i also emailed a complaint through their website. Waiting to get an answer droning on about their new operating system and how they are normally amazing. Wish i'd never bothered switching. Scottish Power don't seem so bad after all.

boobbby · 12 August 2015 at 10:22AM

The above is a pretty standard message these days about co op energy and reflects most people's opinion about the customer services on this and many other sites. By the way has anybody had any success with replying to the co op energy messages using the online enquires address or is it another red herring

Consumerist · 12 August 2015 at 10:46AM

boobbby wrote: »

The above is a pretty standard message these days about co op energy and reflects most people's opinion about the customer services on this and many other sites. By the way has anybody had any success with replying to the co op energy messages using the online enquires address or is it another red herring

I think these boiler-plate messages from anonymous Co-op reps are just another route into their chaos.

PurplePow · 12 August 2015 at 4:09PM

Consumerist wrote: »

Anyone tried recently to get a refund of a credit balance from Co-op?

Yes. Our monthly payments are too high so we built up around £200. We had to ring to request it and we were told to submit new readings before they could do this. After submitting readings we received a new bill via email and the money went into our account a couple of weeks later.

Robert_M · 14 August 2015 at 10:58AM

I too have hade problems with co-operative energy I switched to them in January 2015. They just ignored my e-mails didn't take any money from my account for 6-months ( so Iv'e run up a large bill) every time I managed to get thro on the phone they promised to do something about the situation but nothing happened. I've moved supplier now and been threatening with an exit fee even though this was not in the original contract. It's a total mess my advice is chose another supplier such as Ovo

Co-operative Energy reviews: Give your feedback

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