Ridiculous final bill from Sparks energy

[pinkpeoniesx]

Hi I'd really appreciate some views on whether I'm being unreasonable to think Sparks energy are trying it on!

We rented our apartment for two years, it only had electricity, no gas.
When we gave our first meter reading to Sparks we were told the bill would be £45pm. Obviously this seemed low so. We questioned it, but were told it was definitely correct (put it down to the apartment being quite small, only two of us, not in very often etc.)
Well, six months later we got a bill for £2000
We chased it up straight away and were told that £2000 was wrong, but we should have been paying £70 rather than the £45 we were originally quoted. Fine. We set up a direct debit to clear the balance.
We gave regular meter readings and the direct debit stayed at £70.

However, on leaving we received our final bill which is just short of £2500!!!!!
They are saying this bill is definitely correct and that every other person we've dealt with have made a mistake and we've been grossly underpaying.
I can't pluck £2500 out of thin air! I also don't really see why I should have to when we've been paying what we've been told happily for the two years.

Am I being unreasonable to not trust this bill at all due to all the others they've sent out which have been ridiculously wrong? I truly think they're trying it on. My DP has been dealing with them and every time he asks to speak to management he's promised a call back which never happens

Any help would be appreciated so much. I have a 7 month old baby and this is just another stress I don't need, it's really worrying me now.

Thanks so much

Spark Energy have difficulty with their meter readings software, which is why they cannot produce accurate billing information. It's been an ongoing problem for them since startup. They have legions of staff employed to run differing reports every day, trying to understand the billings issues and empire building managers who don't want the software fixed because that would ultimately cost them their jobs. Go to Ofgem - the threat of it will get action. No decent landlord would sign their tenants up to Spark, it's more likely to be the lettings agents who have done it as they get commission from Spark for doing so.

Spark Energy have difficulty with their meter readings software, which is why they cannot produce accurate billing information. It's been an ongoing problem for them since startup. They have legions of staff employed to run differing reports every day, trying to understand the billings issues and empire building managers who don't want the software fixed because that would ultimately cost them their jobs. Go to Ofgem - the threat of it will get action. No decent landlord would sign their tenants up to Spark, it's more likely to be the lettings agents who have done it as they get commission from Spark for doing so.

Spark Energy have difficulty with their meter readings software, which is why they cannot produce accurate billing information. It's been an ongoing problem for them since startup. They have legions of staff employed to run differing reports every day, trying to understand the billings issues and empire building managers who don't want the software fixed because that would ultimately cost them their jobs. Go to Ofgem - the threat of it will get action. No decent landlord would sign their tenants up to Spark, it's more likely to be the lettings agents who have done it as they get commission from Spark for doing so.

Spark Energy have difficulty with their meter readings software, which is why they cannot produce accurate billing information. It's been an ongoing problem for them since startup. They have legions of staff employed to run differing reports every day, trying to understand the billings issues and empire building managers who don't want the software fixed because that would ultimately cost them their jobs. Go to Ofgem - the threat of it will get action. No decent landlord would sign their tenants up to Spark, it's more likely to be the lettings agents who have done it as they get commission from Spark for doing so.

Spark Energy have difficulty with their meter readings software, which is why they cannot produce accurate billing information. It's been an ongoing problem for them since startup. They have legions of staff employed to run differing reports every day, trying to understand the billings issues and empire building managers who don't want the software fixed because that would ultimately cost them their jobs. Go to Ofgem - the threat of it will get action. No decent landlord would sign their tenants up to Spark, it's more likely to be the lettings agents who have done it as they get commission from Spark for doing so.

Spark Energy have difficulty with their meter readings software, which is why they cannot produce accurate billing information. It's been an ongoing problem for them since startup. They have legions of staff employed to run differing reports every day, trying to understand the billings issues and empire building managers who don't want the software fixed because that would ultimately cost them their jobs. Go to Ofgem - the threat of it will get action. No decent landlord would sign their tenants up to Spark, it's more likely to be the lettings agents who have done it as they get commission from Spark for doing so.

Sorry - computer glitch

I pay £40 a month on PAYG meters in a 3 bed house with 3 kids and use shit loads of electric with lights being left on. I'm with Ebico

That sounds a huge amount for a 2 bedroom flat. The letting agent/landlord can't sign you up. When a tenant moves out I take a final reading to phone in to the electricity company to make sure the tenant asks for a final bill. The account is then signed up for by me in the period when I'm trying to relet and is closed off when it's relet. The incoming tenant has to sign up for their own account. They could if they wanted go elsewhere although none ever had. (I'm with Scottish Power)

Caitlin17 - Spark's business model is based on letting agents inserting a clause into the tenancy contract, for which Spark pays the agent a commission. Most tenants are not sure of their rights and so accept the clause. Spark then make it very difficult for the tenant to leave, they create endless delays by their billing period rules - it's not unusual for a customer to pay their bill entirely by card over the phone only to be told that they still owe money because they are charged for a portion of their bill in advance. Spark then use this as a reason to prevent the customer switching to another provider. The whole business model is a sham and it's the most vulnerable people who are being taken advantage of.

Based on thier DD rates here, a charge of £170 a month is over 1,000 kw hours a month. Average use is 3,000 a year.
Your use is 32 kwh a day, which makes no sense

Spark absolutely tried it on with us. We wanted them to supply a dual fuel bill and they quoted us a reasonable monthly amount. BUT when it came down to it they couldn't find out who supplied the Gas to our property and said they would only do our Electricity. I decided to ditch them because they sounded so incompetent (and subsequently found out very easily that British Gas were supplying our property).

Fast forward to 1 year later and we moved, mail was redirected to our new property and we got a lovely bill from Spark for £2000+! I actually just ignored it as I had all the paperwork for our move to a new electricity supplier. Then the demands came from a debt collection agency and I had to spend hours sorting it out, photocopying correspondence and sending it through to them. This was FOUR years ago so I am aghast that they are still at it when they are obviously so completely and utterly incompetent!

Do not offer to pay anything until you get to the bottom of this! Be insistent - if you need to speak to a manager, tell them you won't hang up until they put you through.

As you have given regular meter readings throughout your time in the property, make sure you check what they say the final meter reading is, versus the last reading you took yourself. If you can still obtain access to the property, taking a photo of the meter and sending it to them might be a good idea if you need to prove there is a massive discrepancy between your meter readings and theirs!

Having worked for a power company before, my advice would also be to check that they are actually reading the correct meter. Your meter number is usually on your bill so make sure this matches your actual meter. I have dealt with cases before where properties have been billed against the wrong meter for years, and it can sometimes result in a whopping bill when the correct meter is eventually read. This is more frequent in flats where you may have several meters for different properties side by side. If there are meters nearby to yours, compare the readings to the one the company has taken.

We had terrible problems with the new build flat we rented. When the gas meters were put on the national meter register (it has a name, but I can't remember what it is called) the flat downstairs was put down as having our meter, and we had theirs. It went on for four years, and we only noticed when we were moving out when I happened to look at the pipes going from the meter cupboards that they were labelled incorrectly.

Anyway, we found out that we could only be charged for gas we had used in the last year. Any that had been supplied before that couldn't be billed to us. Of course, all the meter readings we had were not relevant - they were for the flat downstairs usage, so the energy company had to look up meter readings on the national register and estimate usage to get a settlement figure. We sent photos of the pipes, countless emails, spent ages on the phone, and we got a final bill 9 months after we moved out of £200. I kicked up a fuss, as I thought it had been done and dusted - we'd got a final bill for the property, but that had the wrong information on it. So they halved it, and we agreed to pay it off at £20 per month. I got that agreement by refusing the first offer of £10 off that was all the customer service lady could do, and asking for it to be referred to a manager. However, I can't stress enough - it was very important in our case that we'd done a huge amount of work trying to sort it out. I then could easily show how crap they'd been in comparison, and they couldn't try and blame us at all.

I'm somehow not surpised the letting agents get a commission off them, I think it was written into our initial tenancy contract too. We changed to British Gas wthin a month of moving in.

When the agents renewed the contract after six months (a practice in itself that I've never really understood), Sparks were back on the new contract, and I'm fairly sure we would have got messed about by them once again if we hadn't insisted that the clause was removed. The letting agents were a bit puzzled as to why, but then they were an equally incompetent bunch of fools.