What is a "service"?

[macliam]

We bought two pillows and a mattress topper from Woolroom. The day we ordered them we got a confirmation of order from Woolroom and the next day they were delivered. Now we have allergy free wool filled pillows and topper and loving them. Maybe the Chatsworth estate who are behind The Woolroom should run the country as well as the energy companies

Retail is retail....... it seems that "services" don't quite understand the concept.....

Still no reply to my complaint..... feel an email to the ombudsman coming on

[Richard Frost]

OFGEM will only accept complaints after 8 weeks and usually only if you have not been able to resolve. Not sure what happens when the supplier ignores you.

Complain to the Energy Ombudsman if eight weeks have passed and you still aren’t happy with the company’s response.

Energy companies should write to you to tell you how to do this at eight weeks or when you hit a ‘deadlock’. This is when neither of you can reach an agreement.

You can refer a case to the Ombudsman within 12 months of a deadlock letter. Sometimes they can investigate an older complaint if you have not had a deadlock letter.

The Ombudsman can make a company correct a problem, apologise and explain what happened. They can also make a company pay compensation. Its decisions are binding on the energy company.

Complain to Ofgem if you can’t resolve an issue with a network operator or a comparison website accredited by the Ofgem Confidence Code.

[macliam]

OFGEM will only accept complaints after 8 weeks and usually only if you have not been able to resolve. Not sure what happens when the supplier ignores you.

It has been a lot longer than 8 weeks since my first contact - and that has never been resolved.

The Energy Ombudsman is actually separate to OFGEM, though approved by them.

[macliam]

Still nothing - but have had a request to do a reading! (note, smart meter?)

Confidence level zero......

[macliam]

Yesterday i dug into my Bulb account and found that, in addition to not completing my smart meter installation and not replying to queries (and a formal complaint), they have miserably failed in billing for energy.

Digging into my account, I found that my Gas bills were being estimated, using the "usage" established during my enforced Covid absence..... i.e. at hardly anything. This is despite me providing a reading in December (which was used to calculate the next bill and therefore should have changed any estimates) plus further readings provided in February and April, which appear to have been ignored. The result is that there is massive unbilled usage - and I have now been told that I owe over £900!! My electricity usage is also "suspect", but not to anything like the same extant - mhowever, how can a bill for usage from a "smart" meter be significantly lower than that shown on the meter itself?

So, what they have done, of course, is to charge for all Gas usage since December at today's rates......... nice bit of profit there! Of course I will query the bill, but given their record of responses so far, I'm not holding my breath!

[macliam]

I spent a long time yesterday accumulating all the data I have on my Bulb account.

As I said before, they have totally failed to keep my Gas account updated, with the result that my latest Customer Read had triggered a demand for over £900.

Luckily, I have a picture of my gas meter reading fpor 31 Marsh on my phone (the day before prices jumped). This was shared with Bulb and shows a usage 800 units higher than their later "estimate", after thay had ignored my second supplied reading. It's quite difficult to get an accurate view of the "difference" in price that this would cause, as the "conversion factor" used to convert metered units to billable KWh differs every month! (Did you know that?) - but I calculate a difference of something like £300 in the billable total.

Being hit by a bill of £600 would be bad enough, given that it is due to the incompetence of Bulb and their inability to correctly calculate my bills (amongst other things) - but all of this means nothing unless I can actually get some response and action..... they are still going to bill me £900 as things stand.

.....and yes, I know that I, like the rest of you, am going to pay through the nose for the failure of OFGEM to regulate Bulb and in allowing it to grow to be "too big to bust"..... at a cost of over £2bn, I believe. But then, it's nice to know that the CEO kept his £250k pa job for 6 months after they went bust and that OFGEM got a bonus-pot of £1m to share amongst themselves...... Well done chaps, good to see all your failures have been recognized and rewarded!!

[macliam]

Tried ringing........ lost the will to live.
Tried "live chat"....... it seems to be dead.
Sent an email and appended photos and my calculations....... have an automated reply.... expect that to be the sum total......


To be continued

[Chadwick]

I'll add EON to the list.

I emailed them on their complaints email - didn't even get an auto response. A week later I followed up, again no response.
Fortunately their website tells you to escalate to their CEO and provides an email address for that. (Obviously it doesn't go to the CEO, but at least they suggest an escalation route). At least I got an auto response from that, and from the subsequent follow up 10 days later. But as yet, no human being has replied to 4 separate emails.

So I now have two complaints.

I was complaining to EON about a letter they had sent, urging the recipients to change their electricity meters because they were "no longer safe". The recipient in my case was an elderly, nervous widow. You can imagine how frightened she was that her meter would explode or catch fire. It took weeks to convince her otherwise.

Turns out I wasn't the only one who thought that was a despicable and horrible tactic. EON have been forced to apologise, although 'forced' might just be Daily Mail speak for 'flooded with complaints'.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bil ... nsafe.html

(Apologies for the Daily Mail link)

Still no direct response to my emails though.