Throwing the switch on bad fuel deal
EVERYTHING that could go wrong did for energy customer John Pilkington when he decided to switch providers in search of a better deal. After trawling a price comparison site in November, he spotted a favourable dual fuel rate tariff with new supplier TOTO Energy and signed up.
But a month of mayhem and warnings of higher charges followed, so John switched again, ensuring he sent in accurate final meter readings.
“But hundreds of pounds has been debited from my account and I’m due almost £400 back. They either promise a date but don’t keep to it, or just delay,” he told Crusader.
“That’s why I need your help. I’ve lost count of the times I have emailed and called. During the last call they said I needed to speak to accounts, put me through, promised to call back but didn’t.”
His experience shows how carefully consumers must tread when they agree a new contract. The main concern for John, a pensioner from Norfolk who cares for his poorly wife, was price, so his focus was on the monthly direct debit charges he was quoted.
“But the day I joined they took £145 from my account which I wasn’t expecting,” he says.
This was in the terms and conditions as was the fact he had
LIGHTBULB MOMENT
KItChEN appliance company Neff UK is the cherry on the cake as far as customer Ray Nash from Surrey is concerned.
“We needed to replace our oven’s light but it was impossible to get the bulb cover off,” he says. “We asked Neff UK for guidance but were still not able to do it.
“Eventually it organised for an engineer to call free of charge and he sorted it all out within 10 minutes.
“that’s first-class support.” elected for a variable rate could change.
John had also joined just around the time the gas industry was experiencing some of the worst market disruptions for years, tripling prices and hitting new, smaller suppliers the hardest.
He says he remembers receiving an email shortly after warning of the tariff so the introduction of a “seasonal direct debit” that could increase his winter charges by 50 per cent before being balanced by offsets in summer and also dual fuel tariff hikes.
“It was a bit much so I decided to get out,” he says. “As there was no penalty I went to another supplier after just four weeks, leaving on December 27.”
In late December he was debited £218.44 and then the same sum again a month later.
“I hadn’t closed the account as I thought it would be easier to leave it open to receive the refund but in hindsight this just left the door open and was a big mistake,” adds John.
Come the end of January, the total amount taken by TOTO stood at around £580. But the final straw was the last message he received on March 23 apologising for another delay in refunding him almost £400 he was due and which they swore would be with him in “28 working days”.
John was appalled saying: “That’s weeks in reality and a bad way to treat people. I don’t know why they offer prices they cannot sustain. Surely they budget for rainy days like we all have to.”
He was also angry that despite sending in meter readings, it looked as if the month with TOTO had cost him £205.25, nearly £100 more than his normal usage.
“But I’ve had no breakdown of any charges and this amount seems high even for a winter month.”
TOTO did respond after we got in touch and John was refunded within days. TOTO says the calculation for his month is correct and is going to send him a breakdown.
It also said that it had cleared the queue of customers waiting for refunds.
Tomorrow thousands of people with prepayment meters will be switched from TOTO to another supplier Utilita Energy, in a move by the company to improve its business and service. Current tariff rates will be honoured until at least the end of June.