Changing supplier - third party verification process

C.C. · 17 April 2019 at 8:23AM

HI
I recently switched supplier (I left Outfox The Market) - changeover took place five weeks ago)

As expected, I have been told by the old company that a final bill willing not be produced until the changeover meter reading has been gone through the third party verification processs, which "can take up to six weeks". Refund of credit will take "up to 14 days" after that.

With previous suppliers, I have had this same warning, but have normally had both the final bill and refund of credit in well under six weeks.

The thing is, I don't know of a single ex-Outfox customer who has got their final bill 'within' six weeks, let alone credit refunded - judging by posts on the discussion group set up on Facebook by disgruntled customers of theirs, it seems that even when the six weeks has passed, it has usually taken 'resolver' or threats of the ombudsman to make things happen quickly!

So, is the body responsable for the verification now so slow/overloaded that it is routinely taking the full six weeks to do its job and pass on that info to the old company?

Or is OFTM abusing the system in order to hold on to ex-customers credit for as long as they can get away with?

Raxiel · 17 April 2019 at 10:33AM

They have 6 weeks to raise a final bill (based on those readings) some of that can be taken up waiting for verification, but they are obliged to produce an estimated final bill and settle the account if the verified readings haven't arrived (with the right to produce a second, more accurate final bill when they do). The idea being that while an estimated bill might be wrong, it shouldn't be significantly so, and it's better than a supplier sitting on hundreds of pounds of a customers credit (for example).

They are almost certainly swinging the lead and holding onto credit as long as they can.

Remember the validated readings come through the gaining supplier, so you can always call them to find out what they were and when they were sent to OFTM if you want to chase them. If they've had it for a while you could get the 8 week clock started on an ombudsman complaint now, just in case it stretches on even longer.

C.C. · 17 April 2019 at 11:03AM

Thanks for replying, Raxiel.

I did get in touch with the new supplier about it a couple of weeks ago, when I saw that my account with them was fully up and running.
To be honest, I'm not sure if the person I spoke to really got what I wanted to know - I got the impression that they didn't really know about the third party verification.
They just kept telling me that the closing/opening that I had given had been "accepted" by OFTM.

On that basis, I contacted OFTM, but this was their final response:

"Although they may have agreed on a meter reading, your readings do have to go through a third party verification process in which why it can take up to 6 weeks to raise your final statement."

Based on other people's experiences, I do expect to have to use the ombudsman, if I don't want to wait forever. I can't wait to be totally free of this company!

brewerdave · 17 April 2019 at 11:23AM

My own experiences with this 3rd party verification loop, suggest that it is broken -or,at least, overwhelmed by the sheer number of switches which have taken place due to supplier failures and OFGEM's SOLR process.
As to Customer Services' knowledge of the process - almost non existent as far as I can tell thru my contacts with three separate organisations.

I've been told that as long as the closing read with supplier A is within a specified range of the opening read with supplier B, then everything is fine:eek: There was a deathly hush when I pointed out that I was being asked to pay for electrical units twice - even then ,it was an uphill battle to get a readings dispute raised!!

Biggus_Dickus · 18 April 2019 at 10:05AM

The meter reading verification companies are licensed by OFGEM;...however, the gas verification is carried out by one company and the leccy verification is performed by a different company.

During my last switch (AvroEnergy to YorkshireEnergy) the leccy meter reading was verified within a couple of days, but the gas meter reading verification took over 7 weeks!...for reasons that were never made clear.

It took a little over 9 weeks (from switch-over day) to get my credit refunded;...the delay was all down to the gas meter reading verification process,...not the losing supplier.

There is new Ofgem legislation in the pipeline;... customers will receive £30 from both losing and gaining suppliers if your final bill is not produced within 6 weeks of switch-over day. The losing supplier then has 10 working days to issue your credit refund, otherwise they’ll face further sanctions. There is no mention of the verification companies having to pay financial penalties though.

These ethereal verification companies appear to be a law unto themselves;...who the hell are they anyway‽

This new legislation was due to start on May 1st but I think (???) it will now come into force later this summer.

brewerdave · 18 April 2019 at 11:13AM

Biggus_Dickus wrote: »

There is new Ofgem legislation in the pipeline;... customers will receive £30 from both losing and gaining suppliers if your final bill is not produced within 6 weeks of switch-over day. The losing supplier then has 10 working days to issue your credit refund, otherwise they’ll face further sanctions. There is no mention of the verification companies having to pay financial penalties though.

These ethereal verification companies appear to be a law unto themselves;...who the hell are they anyway‽

This new legislation was due to start on May 1st but I think (???) it will now come into force later this summer.

...and therein lies the rub................the losing supplier will just keep repeating that they haven't received the final reading....as already happens with many switches:(

Thomas_Edison · 18 April 2019 at 12:27PM

The flow for elec is different to gas.

Gas 1 company does it for all and is generally a bit quicker/ smoother.

For elec the validation is done be the new suppliers appointed Data collector, this is a separate company.

It all starts with getting the meter details, so the new suppliers DC (Data Collector) chases the old suppliers DC who chases the old suppliers Meter operations provider (MOP) who then passes back the metering details and back through the chain it goes.

This is then repeated when a first reading is sent, new suppliers submits it, it's sent to their DC who then attempt to validate it. To do this they need to have the meters details and the meter reading history of the supply.

These should have been provided by the old suppliers DC from the old suppliers MOP.

And so you see the game of Chinese whispers continues.

Oh and then, when the read is finally validated the new suppliers DC has to send it back to the new supplier and also to the old suppliers DC who then need to send it to the old supplier so they can final bill.

Simples.

The energy industry is built on out of date systems which means companies have to rely on information being passed from one party to another instead of being able to live query one source of truth like you would expect.

This as you can imagine means there's a lot of room for error and places which it can breakdown which it often does. And is why they all end up pointing the finger at each other.

C.C. · 18 April 2019 at 6:10PM

What you say about gas taking longer fits with what people have been saying on the OFTM group. However, we are electricity only, so they can't use that one on us.

Changing supplier - third party verification process

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