Help! - we are owed 700£ by Spark Energy - back-billing?

[Katharina]

A while back we decided to pay a direct debit of 200£ to Spark energy our supplier.

Since then we have regularly checked the meter and added the numbers into our account.

We also had someone come around a couple of times to take the reading.

 

Recently My boyfriend discovered that we had 800£ in our spark energy account.

He contacted Spark energy to get a refund. they wanted another meter reading, which we gave them last night.

 

Their reply was:

 

"Thanks for that. The bill at the end of March wasn't charging for your gas so I corrected everything on your account so that it'll bill correctly going forward.

 

As at the end of May, the credit balance is now £ 310.37.

Would you like me to refund you about £300 and then set the direct debit at £100 per month as that's your average usage?

Please bear in mind that refunds do take 28 working days to process.

Alternatively, we could lower your direct debit to about £65 per month if you prefer."

 

To me, this doesn't add up and sounds like a con.

How could we have used 500£ of gas in the last 3 months, if our average according to them is 10£ a month.

 

I know that back-billing only applies to bills that are over 12 months old,

but can we fight this?

get the Ombudsman involved?

 

Thanks for your help

[dx100uk]

so you are dual-fuel?

 

 

dx

[Katharina]

Dx,

 

I'm not sure, I would need to check tonight when I'm back home

[honeybee13]

Their website says they do electricity and gas, dx.

 

https://sparkenergy.co.uk/

 

HB

[Katharina]

Yes they are both our Electricity and gas supplier. is that what you mean?

[dx100uk]

yes.

so, what they are saying is that for some reason

the cost of your gas for XX months wasn't paid

even though the money for the dual-fuel account was there ready.

 

 

how longhave you been with them?

can you not compare months where gas cost has been taken to see if it matches the figure they have now taken?

 

 

dx

[Katharina]

We have been with them for two years, so yes i should be able to compare it with last year.

 

And that is exactly what they are saying.

Plus somehow we have suddenly spent twice the amount that they just stated we usually do

[dx100uk]

winter billing period

do you have gas central heating?

[Katharina]

Yes we do and perhaps that's why.

 

But there was 600£ in the account back in March, so why did they not use it? Why now that we want a refund suddenly there was an error? Sounds a bit fishy to me

[dx100uk]

yes I agree

but they might not have discovered the non payment till they

looked at the account

however, don't take their word for it

check usage/cost for your nov-mar bills last year.

[Katharina]

Will do that tonight. I assume that if they are approximately the same then I'll just leave it be.

But what if they do not?

 

Thank you for your help!

[dx100uk]

well pull them up on it then

[Spark Energy 1]

Hi Katharina,

 

Sorry that there's been some confusion with your Spark account.

 

I spotted your post and wondered if I could help you get to the bottom of things.

 

Feel free to send me a private message with your full name, postcode and account number and I'll be happy to help.

 

Thanks very much,

 

Marty

Customer Relationship Manager

Spark Energy

[dx100uk]

you wont be able to PM anyone yet

 

 

Katharina if you send me or one of the siteteam a PM

with your details

we will fwd it on.

 

 

dx