Southern Electric wont let me leave!!

[kevlo]

Hi guys and girls, i have recently tried to change my gas and electric supplier to Eon from Southern Electric. Eon did all the hardwork and i received a letter from Southern Electric saying that they are sorry to be losing me on the gas. I also received a letter from them saying that as there are arrears on my electric account i am not allowed to leave them.

 

Can they do this? can they force me to continue to buy from them just because i owe them money. I am not refusing to pay the money i just cant afford to pay it off all in one go (£500 arrears).

 

please help as the saving by switching to eon is at least £50 a month which could go towards paying off the arrears

 

thanks

kev

[nottslad]

Hi Kev

 

Southern are able to object on the grounds of debt, this is an industry-wide protocol.

 

When an objection is raised they should offer you assistance in what they can do for you to help you out of this situation, in terms of energy efficiency advice, repayment plans and looking at whether they can offer you a cheaper tariff to reduce your ongoing energy consumption with them.

[kevlo]

thanks for your reply. does this mean that if we come to an agreed repayment plan that i can leave or will it be the case that i definately cant leave until fully paid up?

 

its seems silly. i cant afford to pay the arrears back because i'm paying over the odds on my electric. i cant change my electric because of the arrears. its catch 22

[Surfer01]

From their point of view, if you agree a repayment plan, then leave them and default on the repayment plan there is vey little they can do as they cannot cut off your supply. We changed form EON to SOUT as we found SOUT to be better on customer service and prics, but that is just our opinion.

[2Grumpy]

If you have a pre-pay meter then you can transfer when the debt is down to £200 and as Nottslad said - they should have been advising you with regard to tarrifs etc. You might be able to get a discount by transferring to an online tarrif

[ihateyes]

i work for an energy company, and the general rule if if the debt is MORE than £50 the energy company can object. Generally less that £50 and they will let you leave.

 

They may switch you to prepayment son, and put the debt on the meter,

[warey74]

what kind of facist regulatory body, gives the gas suppliers complete and full control.

Gas is not a luxury. It is everybodies right to feed and shelter their family.

If for some reason you are behind on your payments to the gas supply, they have you over a barrel. they decide what your payment terms should be, and if you can't afford it tough, they will put a prepayment meter in, which is a higher rate, and still charge you the same amount. They will also object to you leaving.

 

This is another example of government rules and regulations (in this case ofgem) that are designed to suit the private enterprises , and stuff the ordinary citizen who is struggling to cope as it is.

[nottslad]

The payment terms for a utility supplies are normally that you are billed in arrears i.e. for gas and electricity that you have already used. Payment for this is then expected within a 14 day time frame.

 

If you are unable to meet these payment terms utility providers must have support mechanisms in place to help customers in financial difficulty. Repayment plans are often defaulted on and are costly for the utility provider to administer such an arrangement i.e. the cost of processing payments, letters being sent and in the event of the arrangement failing further telephone calls or letters to the customer, I can therefore understand why if a customer has failed to pay in the past they may be unwilling to re-set pay arrangements.

 

Any repayment arrangement must also take in to account the ongoing usage at the property and must be reviewed, usually annually to ensure compliance with the billing code; if a supplier fails to review a pay arrangement and debt builds up charges are uncollectable and must be written-off at a cost to the business.

 

With regards to prepayment meters, these are offered in situations where a payment arrangement at a mutually agreeable level can not be reached, for example if the offer of repayment would take longer than what the supplier considers to be reasonable (typically a maximum of 12 months) Most suppliers now charge the same for energy when paid for through a prepayment meter as what they do when payment is being made quarterly on demand and charged at the "standard" rate, therefore not disadvantaging the customer in this respect.Debt repayment can be spread over a much longer period of time as the repayment is more secure; ie the arrangement cannot fail as without vending the meter you would not receive any gas.

 

If you have other debts it is perhaps worth speaking to an organisation such as Consumer Credit Counselling Service or the CAB to look at the best way to deal with any debts you may have.

[MARTIN3030]

I was with British Gas and switched to E-on-there was arrears on the Gas but E-on was happy to take over the account.

I then switched to Scottish Power.

E-on refused to allow the swich on the gas account as there was arrears,but did say they would release it if Scottish Power was prepared to accept the account with the debt.

They suggested I wrote to SP to ask.

I didnt bother and so just changed Electric.

I have prepayment meters for both Electricity and Gas.

[2Grumpy]

With regards to prepayment meters, ... Most suppliers now charge the same for energy when paid for through a prepayment meter as what they do when payment is being made quarterly on demand and charged at the "standard" rate, therefore not disadvantaging the customer in this respect.

unless you are on a cheaper tarrif, e.g. web

If you have other debts it is perhaps worth speaking to an organisation such as Consumer Credit Counselling Service or the CAB to look at the best way to deal with any debts you may have.

good advice