Co-operative Energy reviews: Give your feedback

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  • tracy6697
    tracy6697 Posts: 189 Forumite
    Applied to switch away from Co-op on Sat 1st and got a letter trying to stop me on Thurs 6th. It's amazing how quickly this has happened when everything else from them is done slowly, if at all.

    The letter also mentioned that there would be an exit penalty as I am moving early. I find this disgusting when they haven't provided the service I was promised such as quarterly billing as I haven't been billed at all. Has anyone managed to successfully get the fee waived?
    SPC #229= £103.76(2014)
    VSP #11 = £74.11(2014) £85.55 (2015)
    Crazy Clothes Challenge 2014 £33/£100, 2015 £44 / £100
    DFBXmas2015 #10 £3000 / £3,000 (100%) :j
    LBM - December 2013 :idea:
  • CooperativeEnergy
    CooperativeEnergy Posts: 28 Organisation Representative
    Catriona_P wrote: »
    I sold my house in May and on providing final meter readings to Co-op was told a final bill would be sent shortly. It wasn't and when I logged into the (stupid, slow, poorly thought out) online system I was in credit by a few hundred pounds. Havn't heard anything from Co-op for ages so logged in again recently to find I'm apparently owe them several hundred pounds (with no way of checking current or previous bills) and they still havn't been in touch. My emails to them have gone un-answered. Total shambles.


    Good afternoon,

    We are 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 onlineenquiries@cooperativeenergy.coop, 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
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of Cooperative Energy. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • CooperativeEnergy
    CooperativeEnergy Posts: 28 Organisation Representative
    tracy6697 wrote: »
    Applied to switch away from Co-op on Sat 1st and got a letter trying to stop me on Thurs 6th. It's amazing how quickly this has happened when everything else from them is done slowly, if at all.

    The letter also mentioned that there would be an exit penalty as I am moving early. I find this disgusting when they haven't provided the service I was promised such as quarterly billing as I haven't been billed at all. Has anyone managed to successfully get the fee waived?




    Hi Tracy,

    We are 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


    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of Cooperative Energy. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • Mojisola wrote: »
    I've had three emails ignored - does that count? :(
    I've had a refund today. I found that the best way to communicate with them is via their Twitter account.
  • Joanthebone
    Joanthebone Posts: 283
    First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    edited 10 August 2015 at 7:16AM
    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?
  • cadguy
    cadguy Posts: 9 Forumite
    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.
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,551
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
    Forumite
    I've had a refund today. I found that the best way to communicate with them is via their Twitter account.

    Finally got a bill for May from them today. Loads in credit so will try again to get a reduction in DD and some money back.
  • simont_2
    simont_2 Posts: 14
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    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.
  • simont wrote: »
    .

    First of all, and most seriously, they will email your password to you in plain text.

    Simon, I also had my password sent to me in plain text, but have now changed it. I am in IT and could not quite believe it.

    I am waiting for everything to stabilise, and then I too will be off.
  • boobbby
    boobbby Posts: 769 Forumite
    Simon, I also had my password sent to me in plain text, but have now changed it. I am in IT and could not quite believe it.

    I am waiting for everything to stabilise, and then I too will be off.

    I don't think you will be the only one !
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