Extra Energy gave me £2,992 bill

I left Extra Energy more than a year ago, having advised it in various emails and conversations that we would change supplier if it did not tell us about the billing. We heard nothing until we received a bill for £2,992.

We had been paying monthly and sending regular meter readings and so were in credit for £1,921 because it had never acknowledged or debited the money for our bills. The alleged debt was for a 16-month period ending four months after we had changed supplier. I had previously been assured on numerous occasions that I owed nothing.

Finally, I went to the energy ombudsman, which found in my favour and I received £75 compensation. However, the requested reworking of the account has not been carried out, in my view, correctly. Extra Energy put me on the wrong tariff, has supposedly adjusted this and now says I owe a further £278, reduced from an initially revised sum of £622, including approximately £50 of early cancellation penalties. Despite my having an ombudsman ruling, Extra Energy instructed debt collectors for an alleged debt of £200.

I was able to defend my position and referred the debt collectors back to Extra Energy. The confusion about bills, though, remains. SJ, LEICS

You had been paying by direct debit and thought the payments that had been taken covered everything owed. The energy ombudsman, which you took the matter to, said that Extra Energy needed to compensate for its late billing but Extra Energy did not apply this fully.

Further to my involvement, Extra Energy looked as if it was at last complying with the ombudsman’s ruling. It said it was bringing the bill down to zero and paying another £75 for goodwill.

However, a month later your final account had still not been brought up to date so there was no closure. The promised goodwill refund, despite your pursuing it, took three weeks to arrive and has been upped to £100. Although the figures don’t stack up with you, whatever the whys and wherefores, the bill has been erased at last and, all this time after you left it, your account with Extra Energy has been closed down. used. I was informed that the only way forward was to buy a new sim card costing £10 and that the £10 credit I had on the old number could not be refunded or transferred and was lost.

I feel I have effectively been swindled out of £20. I would appreciate your advice. GW, HANTS

The subject of mobile phones no longer functioning after a period of non-use is a perennial one.

Vodafone said: “Our policy is to recycle numbers when they haven’t been used for some time. When a customer doesn’t use their phone we have no way of knowing whether it’s being kept for emergencies or has been disposed of for good.”

It added that customers should make a chargeable call (not to 191) or top-up their credit every two months to keep the line going. Check what the precise timings are either online or by ringing 191.

Vodafone has, as a goodwill gesture, added a £20 credit to your new phone. You say you are very satisfied with this outcome.