I had an outstanding energy bill cancelled. This is what happened.

[WhenImTwitchingCurtains]

I just had an energy bill cancelled yesterday (after months of them chasing me), so I thought I'd share what happened:

When I moved into a new property last year I picked up the card that the previous energy supplier had posted through the door, so I got in touch and gave them gas/electricity readings. I am a loyal customer of a specific energy provider so I knew I wanted to switch which I went on to do. I then was billed by the previous provider which came to around £8, so I paid it immediately and then switched to the new provider. Several weeks later, the previous energy provider sent me a bill for 3 days' use which came to £100+! The property I am in does not have a smart meter so it was their estimated reading.

Obviously, I was furious. Since that time, the previous energy provider was chasing for payment and I wrote to them about 6 weeks ago to say that I didn't agree with their estimated £100+ bill for those 3 days. It was very hot when I moved here (there was a heat wave at the time), so the heating wasn't on, and I wasn't in much as I was eating out a lot at the time. The dryer also wasn't working and I didn't have a TV at the time so there was nothing that pointed to high energy use.

I contested the bill, raised a complaint and then the previous provider wrote back a few weeks later to say that they looked into the complaint and still believed that their final bill for me was correct and so they weren't going to budge on the £100+.

This escalated to the previous provider calling me every day (once in the morning and once in the evening!) chasing me for months. I didn't answer the phone for a while. Last week, I got very fed up and I wrote to them to explain that I don't believe their bill was correct, wasn't reflective of my use over those 3 days, and informed them that I would be making a complaint about them to the Energy Ombudsman.

This is the response I received from one of their managers yesterday:

'Although we do feel the final statement we sent to you was correct I am happy to resolve your complaint by crediting you with £xxx.xx which will close the account and take you to a £0 balance. If you would still like to take this to the ombudsman and are unhappy with my resolution please do let me know.'

So if you feel that your bill is incorrect/unfair, it is worth a try if you didn't know about this or haven't done so already.

So essentially they uphold the billing amount, felt it was still owing at the original amount stated, believe you are mistaken and as such won't be retracting the bill or apologising. They're effectively making as a 'gesture of goodwill' in crediting the bill to close the account rather than presumably continue to incur costs recovering their £100.

That isn't something that will 'work' for everyone, neither is threatening to refer to the ombudsman.

Il

1. They are incurring a lot of costs chasing a lot of people.
2. They are overcharging many people which will cover their costs.
3. You make it sound as though they're not fazed at all by my complaint to the Energy Ombudsman
4. You're right, it won't 'work for everyone as suggested in my post.
5. It worked for me.

It is definitely worth persevering. There’s no way you could have used £100 of leccy in 3 days in the summer. Probably they had the wrong reading from the previous occupier and most of the cost should have been theirs.

OP didn’t say it would ‘work’ for everyone @dontgobaconmyheart but if you’re charged something you don’t owe, why the heck should you pay it?

This is interesting.

My daughter has recently bought a flat which was previously let to a tenant. The tenant moved out at the end of October and the flat was unoccupied until my daughter moved in last month.

When she moved in she found several letters from the electricity supplier addressed to "the occupier" asking for over £800!

Obviously she explained that she had just moved in and sent readings, then moved to another supplier. She was told when the changeover would happen and sent in new readings on that date. She has now had a new bill for the 5 days from when she moved in until the date of changeover to the new supplier. It was over £230. Given that she is out all day and it's a one bedroom flat that had to be wrong (especially as the bulk of it was for electricity - the gas element looks fine).

It turns out that they have based the bill on estimated electric meter readings that bear no resemblance to the ones she sent.

I will tell her that if she can't resolve it with them quickly she should call the Energy Ombudsman!

Your daughter's situation sounds identical to mine. Advise her to make a complaint to the energy provider first and if that doesn't change anything (it's unlikely to) she should write back, acknowledge the deadlock they're in and state how she still doesn't believe the final bill is correct, so she's making a formal complaint to the energy ombudsman. Good luck.