Haunted by bills after energy switch
APOWER firm’s chaotic billing system stalked a former customer with a huge demand some two years after she had switched to another supplier. Anne Crawford was beyond baffled by the calculations, followed by worrying debt threats she received in summer from Extra Energy, a company she had left back in December 2015 because of poor service.
Despite her best efforts to procure a final bill, Anne had never received one and, like many others, she was very unhappy with the way she had been treated.
The company has been increasingly criticised by customers and consumer groups for charging mistakes, being hard to reach and inadequate complaints handling.
And regulator Ofgem is now investigating potential rule and conduct breaches.
Anne says she didn’t hear from Extra Energy again until she saw a surprising £344 credit from it pop up in her current account in August. “There was no explanation and it seemed to relate to a period from 2014 until I switched,” she told Crusader.
But hot on the heels of the credit came a demand for almost £600 which horrified Anne, who was unable to fathom figures which showed a debit of £420 and charges of £89. “I called them to try to find out but didn’t get a proper answer,” says the retired accountant.
Matters took a turn for the worse a few weeks later when she received a debt collector’s demand for £640.
Deeply worried but unwilling to pay until she’d received a coherent explanation of what was going on, Anne asked Crusader for help in making sure the sums were correct.
The best thing we can say about this business is once we asked Extra Energy to halt the debt action and get to the bottom of what had gone on, it did so promptly.
Because of the problems Anne had encountered before switching and the time that had elapsed since, it emerged Anne had forgotten she had been repaid £420 in May 2015.
“But when they sent the most recent demand they put this debit down to the wrong period, so it’s no wonder I couldn’t understand,” she explains. “Then I got this surprise payment in August, so they had paid me twice. But consumers don’t keep all their past payments in their heads, therefore I didn’t make the connection. I have agreed to repay this, I’ve never wanted something I wasn’t entitled to.”
Both Crusader and Anne made it clear there should be recognition of the poor way the matter had been dealt with. Extra Energy has now cancelled other outstanding charges it thought she owed.
Its customer services director David Neale said: “Anne initially experienced problems when she transferred from her old supplier.
“We should have taken more steps to better communicate with her. We express our sincere apologies and have provided compensation.”
The industry’s back-billing scheme, whereby a supplier will not seek additional payment for unbilled energy used more than a year prior to the error being detected and a corrected bill being issued, might well have come to Anne’s aid too.
But suppliers can choose to be part of it and Anne says when she raised this with Extra Energy it told her it wouldn’t have helped her.
The regulator told Crusader this week it is now looking into the code’s voluntary aspect. Anne said: “The whole period I was involved with Extra Energy was a mess. But I want to thank Crusader for making them listen and getting this sorted.”