Energy Supplier Issue
Discussion
I’m currently having a bit of a problem with a well known UK energy supplier, will try to summarise the issue briefly as I can as it’s a bit complicated but any advice welcome as to how to proceed next.
For purposes of this thread I’ll refer to them as UKP.
I moved house from my previous (mortgaged) property in December 2020 submitted final meter readings etc.
I then received a refund of £13.16 from UKP as account was in credit. 9 days later I received a second refund for the same amount. At the time I either didn’t notice or thought nothing of it and received no correspondence relating to the account. My energy is with a new supplier on the new property.
Fast forward to October 2024 and I’ve noticed my credit rating has gone to pot. I work in Financial Services am very careful financially and have never missed a payment on anything. Upon investigation into my credit report there is an open account showing with UKP with a delinquent balance of £13 and missed payments on file for April to September 2024! I also log back into my old UKP account and it’s showing as the account still open with an owed balance of £13.16.
Clearly I think WTF and on 9th October fire off an email to UKPs customer services asking what on earth is going on and raising a complaint! Their customer service team is offshore so I get a bit of a nonsense reply asking to send screen shots of the credit report which I do and also at the same time specifically asking that the missed payments are removed from my credit file.
I then get a jumbled gobbledygook email basically saying don’t worry and that they will close the account and the credit file will “surely improve gradually be rest assured”.
The online account then shows as closed.
At the end of October the UKP account is showing as closed in the credit report but still with the 6 consecutive missed payments.
This time I call them and speak to their UK call centre nice guy says a complaint was raised but closed (no correspondence received stating this) and that I need to wait until 2 months has passed if i want it re-opened if the file hasn’t fully updated. I don’t have time to argue with him so leave it but after another update on my credit file last week nothing has changed so I call them again.
I then eventually get put through to their “credit team” who say they can see some “odd things” on the system but that the account is definitely closed (send me confirmation email) and that they will specifically request their credit “reference agency team” to remove the missed payments and send me a confirmation email when done. That was a week ago tomorrow (Monday) and surprise, surprise no email received!
I’m planning on calling again tomorrow but seem to be getting stonewalled by them and in the mean time I’m going to be applying for a new mortgage rate soon and could do without this issue increasing my rates any more than necessary!
Anyone got any ideas!?
I believe after 8 weeks of engagement I can go to the Energy Ombudsman which will be the 4th December. Is that my only option as I doubt that will get a quick resolution?
Thanks and sorry for the long post!
For purposes of this thread I’ll refer to them as UKP.
I moved house from my previous (mortgaged) property in December 2020 submitted final meter readings etc.
I then received a refund of £13.16 from UKP as account was in credit. 9 days later I received a second refund for the same amount. At the time I either didn’t notice or thought nothing of it and received no correspondence relating to the account. My energy is with a new supplier on the new property.
Fast forward to October 2024 and I’ve noticed my credit rating has gone to pot. I work in Financial Services am very careful financially and have never missed a payment on anything. Upon investigation into my credit report there is an open account showing with UKP with a delinquent balance of £13 and missed payments on file for April to September 2024! I also log back into my old UKP account and it’s showing as the account still open with an owed balance of £13.16.
Clearly I think WTF and on 9th October fire off an email to UKPs customer services asking what on earth is going on and raising a complaint! Their customer service team is offshore so I get a bit of a nonsense reply asking to send screen shots of the credit report which I do and also at the same time specifically asking that the missed payments are removed from my credit file.
I then get a jumbled gobbledygook email basically saying don’t worry and that they will close the account and the credit file will “surely improve gradually be rest assured”.
The online account then shows as closed.
At the end of October the UKP account is showing as closed in the credit report but still with the 6 consecutive missed payments.
This time I call them and speak to their UK call centre nice guy says a complaint was raised but closed (no correspondence received stating this) and that I need to wait until 2 months has passed if i want it re-opened if the file hasn’t fully updated. I don’t have time to argue with him so leave it but after another update on my credit file last week nothing has changed so I call them again.
I then eventually get put through to their “credit team” who say they can see some “odd things” on the system but that the account is definitely closed (send me confirmation email) and that they will specifically request their credit “reference agency team” to remove the missed payments and send me a confirmation email when done. That was a week ago tomorrow (Monday) and surprise, surprise no email received!
I’m planning on calling again tomorrow but seem to be getting stonewalled by them and in the mean time I’m going to be applying for a new mortgage rate soon and could do without this issue increasing my rates any more than necessary!
Anyone got any ideas!?
I believe after 8 weeks of engagement I can go to the Energy Ombudsman which will be the 4th December. Is that my only option as I doubt that will get a quick resolution?
Thanks and sorry for the long post!
Edited by 9k rpm on Sunday 24th November 23:06
Edited by 9k rpm on Sunday 24th November 23:06
Work in the " energy industry"
Ring up.
Ask if the call handler is authorised to raise an official complaint.
If yes... ask to raise immediately. Go through the process.
My guess is that call centre person will not be authorised. At that point ask to speak to someone who has authority to raise official complaint.
Might be their manager, but likely another team.
Either way raise complaint. Don't fall for the old "I’ll get them to call you" fob off.
Demand to speak to them there and then.
Once the complaint has been raised and details done ask how long you have to wait before you can raise the complaint with OFGEN ( fairly sure that's the regulator in GB). We have Ureg in N.I.
You will almost certainly not need to raise the complaint with the regulator but the threat gets things moving very quickly ( certainly at the 2 energy companies I've worked at.)
If they give you any guff ask specifically what their GSS for complaints is.
GSS is guaranteed standards of service ( a giant stick that the regulator beats energy companies with).
Specifically ask if they are compliant in your case. My guess from what you've said is that they are not.
Ask what the statutory compensation is for GSS failure. Can't speak for GB but here in N.I it's £50 straight away.
If I can be of any help, ping me an email through PH.
Ring up.
Ask if the call handler is authorised to raise an official complaint.
If yes... ask to raise immediately. Go through the process.
My guess is that call centre person will not be authorised. At that point ask to speak to someone who has authority to raise official complaint.
Might be their manager, but likely another team.
Either way raise complaint. Don't fall for the old "I’ll get them to call you" fob off.
Demand to speak to them there and then.
Once the complaint has been raised and details done ask how long you have to wait before you can raise the complaint with OFGEN ( fairly sure that's the regulator in GB). We have Ureg in N.I.
You will almost certainly not need to raise the complaint with the regulator but the threat gets things moving very quickly ( certainly at the 2 energy companies I've worked at.)
If they give you any guff ask specifically what their GSS for complaints is.
GSS is guaranteed standards of service ( a giant stick that the regulator beats energy companies with).
Specifically ask if they are compliant in your case. My guess from what you've said is that they are not.
Ask what the statutory compensation is for GSS failure. Can't speak for GB but here in N.I it's £50 straight away.
If I can be of any help, ping me an email through PH.
9k rpm said:
MustangGT said:
Probably a silly question, but, have you repaid the £13 refunded to you in error?
They have put the account to a zero balance and stated I don’t need to do anything as their mistake. ArmaghMan said:
Work in the " energy industry"
Ring up.
Ask if the call handler is authorised to raise an official complaint.
If yes... ask to raise immediately. Go through the process.
My guess is that call centre person will not be authorised. At that point ask to speak to someone who has authority to raise official complaint.
Might be their manager, but likely another team.
Either way raise complaint. Don't fall for the old "I’ll get them to call you" fob off.
Demand to speak to them there and then.
Once the complaint has been raised and details done ask how long you have to wait before you can raise the complaint with OFGEN ( fairly sure that's the regulator in GB). We have Ureg in N.I.
You will almost certainly not need to raise the complaint with the regulator but the threat gets things moving very quickly ( certainly at the 2 energy companies I've worked at.)
If they give you any guff ask specifically what their GSS for complaints is.
GSS is guaranteed standards of service ( a giant stick that the regulator beats energy companies with).
Specifically ask if they are compliant in your case. My guess from what you've said is that they are not.
Ask what the statutory compensation is for GSS failure. Can't speak for GB but here in N.I it's £50 straight away.
If I can be of any help, ping me an email through PH.
Waste of time…Ofgem are not responsible for resolving energy supplier complaints and that is down to the Ombudsman (a move brought in by Two Jags Prescott during his tenure) which to be honest is a fairly tortuous process so my earlier suggestion above about shaming the CEO on LI and X gets much swifter attention.Ring up.
Ask if the call handler is authorised to raise an official complaint.
If yes... ask to raise immediately. Go through the process.
My guess is that call centre person will not be authorised. At that point ask to speak to someone who has authority to raise official complaint.
Might be their manager, but likely another team.
Either way raise complaint. Don't fall for the old "I’ll get them to call you" fob off.
Demand to speak to them there and then.
Once the complaint has been raised and details done ask how long you have to wait before you can raise the complaint with OFGEN ( fairly sure that's the regulator in GB). We have Ureg in N.I.
You will almost certainly not need to raise the complaint with the regulator but the threat gets things moving very quickly ( certainly at the 2 energy companies I've worked at.)
If they give you any guff ask specifically what their GSS for complaints is.
GSS is guaranteed standards of service ( a giant stick that the regulator beats energy companies with).
Specifically ask if they are compliant in your case. My guess from what you've said is that they are not.
Ask what the statutory compensation is for GSS failure. Can't speak for GB but here in N.I it's £50 straight away.
If I can be of any help, ping me an email through PH.
“Energy Industry bloke”…just the 42 years and still going at a senior level
Nick Forest said:
ArmaghMan said:
Work in the " energy industry"
Ring up.
Ask if the call handler is authorised to raise an official complaint.
If yes... ask to raise immediately. Go through the process.
My guess is that call centre person will not be authorised. At that point ask to speak to someone who has authority to raise official complaint.
Might be their manager, but likely another team.
Either way raise complaint. Don't fall for the old "I’ll get them to call you" fob off.
Demand to speak to them there and then.
Once the complaint has been raised and details done ask how long you have to wait before you can raise the complaint with OFGEN ( fairly sure that's the regulator in GB). We have Ureg in N.I.
You will almost certainly not need to raise the complaint with the regulator but the threat gets things moving very quickly ( certainly at the 2 energy companies I've worked at.)
If they give you any guff ask specifically what their GSS for complaints is.
GSS is guaranteed standards of service ( a giant stick that the regulator beats energy companies with).
Specifically ask if they are compliant in your case. My guess from what you've said is that they are not.
Ask what the statutory compensation is for GSS failure. Can't speak for GB but here in N.I it's £50 straight away.
If I can be of any help, ping me an email through PH.
Waste of time…Ofgem are not responsible for resolving energy supplier complaints and that is down to the Ombudsman (a move brought in by Two Jags Prescott during his tenure) which to be honest is a fairly tortuous process so my earlier suggestion above about shaming the CEO on LI and X gets much swifter attention.Ring up.
Ask if the call handler is authorised to raise an official complaint.
If yes... ask to raise immediately. Go through the process.
My guess is that call centre person will not be authorised. At that point ask to speak to someone who has authority to raise official complaint.
Might be their manager, but likely another team.
Either way raise complaint. Don't fall for the old "I’ll get them to call you" fob off.
Demand to speak to them there and then.
Once the complaint has been raised and details done ask how long you have to wait before you can raise the complaint with OFGEN ( fairly sure that's the regulator in GB). We have Ureg in N.I.
You will almost certainly not need to raise the complaint with the regulator but the threat gets things moving very quickly ( certainly at the 2 energy companies I've worked at.)
If they give you any guff ask specifically what their GSS for complaints is.
GSS is guaranteed standards of service ( a giant stick that the regulator beats energy companies with).
Specifically ask if they are compliant in your case. My guess from what you've said is that they are not.
Ask what the statutory compensation is for GSS failure. Can't speak for GB but here in N.I it's £50 straight away.
If I can be of any help, ping me an email through PH.
“Energy Industry bloke”…just the 42 years and still going at a senior level
Can't believe you have no GSS in GB.
Life would be so much easier!!
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.
I had an update from the credit agency app I use this morning and they have now removed the missed payments from the credit file and the account is now showing as fully settled/closed.
Credit score has jumped up 74 points as a result and is back to its previously healthly state.
What a palarva!
Still amazes me they have the remit to be able to mess with people’s financial lives so easily and also be such a pain to deal with/not follow their own complaints processes.
I had an update from the credit agency app I use this morning and they have now removed the missed payments from the credit file and the account is now showing as fully settled/closed.
Credit score has jumped up 74 points as a result and is back to its previously healthly state.
What a palarva!
Still amazes me they have the remit to be able to mess with people’s financial lives so easily and also be such a pain to deal with/not follow their own complaints processes.
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