Fucking fuming - energy bills

[ThePastafarian]

I cannot go into the entirety of my beef with Avro energy as I will lose the will to live. I've explained it so many times just thinking about it makes me want to scream.

In a nutshell, there was a fuck up with them billing us properly, and we got stuck with a massive backdated bill. I complained to Ofgem - and Avro went bust. Me and my massive debit balance got passed to Octopus.

The thing that has me raging is that, after fucking months, Octopus have basically come back and said "Avro's administrators have told us this is correct so you have to pay it". Ofgem closed my complaint about Avro because they went bust, I can't complain about Octopus because none of it anything to do with them, and I'm supposed to suck up this massive debt that is the result of Avro not billing us properly - with no recourse to complain to anyone!

🤬🤬🤬

Ofgem doesn't really deal with consumer complaints. The Ombudsman is a separate entity.

Citizens Advice might be helpful too.

Sorry - I keep saying "Ofgem" when I mean "the ombudsman". I already complained to the ombudsman and they will now not do a thing because Avro has gone bust, so there's nobody left to investigate!

Contact your local MP's office and give them a summary of what has happened. Ask the MP to write to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on your behalf. They oversee OFGEM

Ofgem are the energy ombudsman. Do you have back copies of all of your bills with the previous supplier. As they've gone bust it's the only way to establish if there was longer than 12 months on estimated readings to establish if there are grounds on that basis.

You are almost certainly covered by the Energy Switch Guarantee that Octopus are signed up to.

Why not contact Energy UK who apparently uphold this guarantee?

www.energy-uk.org.uk/our-work/energy-switch-guarantee/7754-about-energy-switch-guarantee.html

Here’s another idea: email [email protected]

He is the founder and CEO, and I hear on various forums devoted to Octopus’s smart tariffs that ALL his emails are read (not initially by him), but problems such as yours do get brought to his attention, and he does things to resolve them.

Octopus’ publicity says they work hard to support customers who are struggling to pay. You might like to remind him of that in your email.

Long shot but maybe the failing is with the administrator then? Perhaps the Ombudsman reasons that Avro doesn't exist anymore and Octopus is within it's rights to accept the figures from the administrator at face value and if the administrator gave Octopus duff information then that's not their jurisdiction.

I would try citizen's advice as next port of call for guidance.

If you can, try to switch to another supplier so that you can have a fresh start and at least you will not be in danger of being cut off?

I had an issue with Octopus in a property in which initially I only stayed in at weekends. They were estimating my usage at £300 per month and kept on saying that I owed a four figure amount. I had an old meter on economy 7 but they seemed quite incapable of transferring the meter readings from the photographs I supplied onto the actual bill. I sent about half a dozen emails but I never could discover what the problem was.

I switched to another supplier, asked for a smart meter to be installed. I now stay there 7 days a week and now my bills are £30-40 per month.

Could you lodge a formal complaint with Octopus on the grounds that they should not have taken Avro's word about what you owe? That seems like a legitimate grievance and as the grievance is with Octopus themselves you would be able to escalate to the ombudsman if the complaint is not resolved. Octopus seem to be shrugging this off but it was their decision to accept Avro's figures.

And yes emailing the CEO and doing the GDPR request seem like good ideas.

That's something different, it's not a switch. This is because a company went out of business and a Supplier of Last Resort in Octopus were appointed. It's a different thing.