Power switch sparked debt demand
AN ENERGY customer was sure he was in credit when he switched suppliers, but that did not stop him getting payment demands afterwards and being chased by debt collectors.
Not even an Energy Ombudsman finding in his favour over the poor service he received when he switched could stop the hounding.
“I have been bombarded by emails and texts. Please help,” Patrick Horsley implored Crusader last month after the evidence he supplied fell on deaf ears.
Patrick switched from Good Energy to Solarplicity at the end of 2018. But the switch was carried out without any final readings being done, he says.
When he realised, he provided them and got a final bill from Good Energy. “The gas bill was right, but the electricity still only estimated,” he explains. “Both companies failed to communicate about the readings. I went to the Ombudsman and in May it supported me and it also ordered Solarplicity to apologise and pay me £75.
“I was still chased by Good Energy’s collections agency but they then accepted I didn’t owe them anything.”
After Solarplicity collapsed in August, customers were transferred to EDF under regulator Ofgem’s Supplier of Last Resort scheme.
Patrick, who had sold his property in April, got demands to pay £34 and was told by Solarplicity’s debt collectors he must pay £62.30 to its administrators. “But the readings cited were estimated, not the correct ones the Ombudsman confirmed,” he adds. “I wrote explaining and attached the ruling, but was then threatened with legal action.”
We asked EDF to right the wrong. It spoke to administrators, who cancelled the demand and came up with a new bill putting him £92.05 in credit, a sum that claims to include the Ombudsman’s £75.
EDF said: “The information initially provided by Solarplicity was incorrect and we are pleased we have been able to resolve this.”
Patrick is delighted, but still feels the £75 has not been clearly accounted for. He also received another payment demand from Solarplicity last week, which we have sent to EDF for action.