Spark/Countrywide have hijacked my supply!

[billy_79]

I received a letter from Spark Energy yesterday, addressed to 'The Occupier', welcoming me to them as my new supplier. Goes on to say that "As instructed by your letting agent on your behalf, we've been appointed as the gas and electricity supplier to your property".

 

But I don't have a letting agent/landlord, I own the property! I was the tenant, but I bought it from the landlord two months ago. My landlord used a local letting agency, and during our tenancy they've been taken over by Countrywide.

 

It's obvious what has happened - Countrywide have an agreement with Spark to refer as many tenanted properties to them as possible, they are clearly getting kickbacks/commission from doing so. When they processed my tenancy agreement they have done the (allegedy automated) process of requesting Spark to take over the gas and electricity supplies.

 

But they should never have done this, they had no right to. My tenancy ended on the day my purchase of the property completed. They were no longer acting for the landlord, since there was no longer a landlord.

 

This is the first I've heard about any change to my supplier, and the electricity changed over to them 4 days ago, gas due to next week! If they'd contacted my (or 'the occupier') beforehand, I could have told them to do one and stopped this from happening.

 

Obviously it's Countrywide that's initiated this mess, but I find it shocking that Spark are just blindly taking instructions from Countrywide to acquire supplies without bothering to attempt to make contact with the occupier until after the switch has been completed. Is this allowed, seems like sharp practise to me?

 

I phoned Spark first of all, who confirmed that it was Countrywide behind it.

I told them they had no right to perform a switch without my consent, and Countrywide had no authority to request it.

 

 

I asked them to reverse the switch immediately and put me back with my previous supplier.

Initially I was told they couldn't do that, and I should go through the normal switching process again to change back!

 

 

Told them that wasn't good enough

- I've not entered contract with Spark, it'll take weeks to switch back, I'll be on an uncompetitive tariff with Spark in the meantime. And the (exceptionally good) tariff I was on with my previous supplier is no longer available to new customers.

 

After a bit or denial and erring, they finally accepted that they could attempt to reverse the switch under the erroneous transfer correction procedure, which I instructed them to do asap. Although they said that it was conditional on my previous supplier agreeing to reinstate my contract with them.

 

I then spoke to my existing supplier (GB Energy), who were very helpful.

They immediately understood the problem and said that they could also initiate the erroneous switch reversal from their side, and it would probably be quicker.

 

 

So hopefully it will get resolved and I'll be put back to where I was with GB Energy before this fiasco. But it sounds like it could take a while to resolve.

 

I then called my old letting agent to bring the problem to their attention and get them to escalate it within Countrywide (in the hope of them improving their procedures if nothing else).

 

 

Letting agent was very blase about it,

"just standard practice, nothing we can do, no point in me even raising it".

 

 

They used to be a really good local letting agent, always had a good relationship with them in the past. Then Countrywide took them over, the staff are the same, but the service has turned to rubbish.

 

So, who has done this,

is it just Countrywide,

or are Spark partly to blame accepting an unauthorised switch?

 

 

I guess the regulator can't touch Countrywide?

Even if I get put back to where I was, I'm not happy that this mess has ever been allowed to occur, and I intend to kick up as much stink as possible.

[dx100uk]

knowing spark i'd point to them

 

 

dx

[ericsbrother]

if your existing supplier cant sort this out seamlessly then any monies you expend on the matter should be billed to Countrywide.

 

 

Standard practice my backside,

they earn a fee from it and without express consent they are deeply in the muck regardless of the status of the property cos it aint theirs and that is that.

[billy_79]

It gets better

- today I've received a letter from the water board telling me that I've got a £50 credit.

Looks like Countrywide have told them I've moved out as well.

 

But curiously,

they have my vacating date as 15th January (two months after my tenancy has ended).

 

 

I wonder if they told Spark to take over my gas and electric on the 15th January as well?

Would explain why the first letter I received from them was dated 16th Jan,

but not sure how they could have commenced my electricity supply from that date

- I thought the switching process was supposed to take weeks?

 

I'm going to make Countrywide sort out the water,

I'm guessing that's less critical, as there's no change of supplier or tariff involved.

[dx100uk]

makes sense

 

they put their in pet suppliers [well the ones they'd signed under a franchise deal] in as soon as they 'thought' you'd vacated.

not remembering you'd bought the property...doh!

 

naughty naughty...

 

left arm right leg jobbie

countrywide should be doing all of this and you push for compo for their admin errors.

[Surfer01]

It gets better

- today I've received a letter from the water board telling me that I've got a £50 credit.

Looks like Countrywide have told them I've moved out as well.

 

But curiously,

they have my vacating date as 15th January (two months after my tenancy has ended).

 

I wonder if they told Spark to take over my gas and electric on the 15th January as well?

Would explain why the first letter I received from them was dated 16th Jan,

but not sure how they could have commenced my electricity supply from that date

- I thought the switching process was supposed to take weeks?

 

I'm going to make Countrywide sort out the water,

I'm guessing that's less critical, as there's no change of supplier or tariff involved.

 

It takes 6 weeks to switch suppliers therefore they must have started the switch ar beginning of December 2016.

 

 

However they should have sent a letter to you notifying you of the switch and by the same token the previous supplier would have been aware of the switch and should have notified you that you are being switched.

 

 

Failings by both suppliers!

[billy_79]

According to a couple of websites I've looked at,

the switching process has been speeded up to now take 17 days (14 days cooling off period, and 3 days to actually perform the switch).

 

 

I'm not sure of the mechanics of the process,

but it's possible that the new supplier (Spark in this case), doesn't have to contact the old supplier to inform them of the switch until the 14 cooling off period has passed.

 

 

with Countrywide requesting the switch on a vacated property,

rather than an actual consumer,

it could be that Spark just cut to the chase and the skip the cooling off period.

 

I've spoken to GB by telephone several times in the last few weeks for other reasons regarding my account

(fallout from them collapsing and being taken over by Co op),

at no point did they mention an impending switch away showing on my account.

 

 

During our conversations they were well aware that I wanted to stay with them,

I should think they'd have mentioned it if the switch request was visible on their systems at that time?

 

 

Even when I phoned up after receiving the Spark letter,

their advisor was a bit miffed by what I was telling him,

 

 

at first it appeared to him that my supplies were still live through them,

he was quite shocked when he dug a little deeper into their system and found that my electricity supply had already gone.

 

 

Maybe it's the normal way their internal computer systems work, or maybe the switch really did go through in 3 days, and it threw their systems somewhat?

 

The other consideration is

that I obviously didn't go through Countrywide's standard check out process

(end of tenancy inspections etc),

 

 

I certainly didn't provide any meter readings to them,

which I believe is normally what happens with this Countrywide/Spark tie up.

 

 

they have absolutely no excuse for what they've done.

 

I wonder what's next

- a council tax rebate,

my telephone & broadband cut off?

 

 

Anything else they could do?

[Surfer01]

According to a couple of websites I've looked at, the switching process has been speeded up to now take 17 days (14 days cooling off period, and 3 days to actually perform the switch). This must have changed recently as I am in the process of switching and it is taking 6 weeks.

 

 

I'm not sure of the mechanics of the process, but it's possible that the new supplier (Spark in this case), doesn't have to contact the old supplier to inform them of the switch until the 14 cooling off period has passed with Countrywide requesting the switch on a vacated property, rather than an actual consumer, it could be that Spark just cut to the chase and the skip the cooling off period. The new supplier needs to contact the current supplier to inform them of the switch. A form is then sent off by the new supplier for the registration and then there is a window of approximately 8 days in which an objection to the registration could be raised by the current supplier so the current supplier would be well aware of the switch.

 

I've spoken to GB by telephone several times in the last few weeks for other reasons regarding my account (fallout from them collapsing and being taken over by Co op), at no point did they mention an impending switch away showing on my account.

 

 

During our conversations they were well aware that I wanted to stay with them, I should think they'd have mentioned it if the switch request was visible on their systems at that time? As above they would have been aware of the switch.

 

 

Even when I phoned up after receiving the Spark letter, their advisor was a bit miffed by what I was telling him, at first it appeared to him that my supplies were still live through them, he was quite shocked when he dug a little deeper into their system and found that my electricity supply had already gone.

 

 

Maybe it's the normal way their internal computer systems work, or maybe the switch really did go through in 3 days, and it threw their systems somewhat? Again the current supplier is notified and they should be able to see that they are losing the supply and would be able to object and prevent the supply from moving to another company.

 

The other consideration is that I obviously didn't go through Countrywide's standard check out process (end of tenancy inspections etc),

 

 

I certainly didn't provide any meter readings to them, which I believe is normally what happens with this Countrywide/Spark tie up. they have absolutely no excuse for what they've done.

 

I wonder what's next - a council tax rebate, my telephone & broadband cut off?

 

 

Anything else they could do?

 

Hopefully the above helps. I worked in the utilities industry and did registrations as part of my job.

[billy_79]

And now I have a council tax rebate, since they too think that I vacated on the 14th January. All this is happening two months after we completed and thus when my tenancy terminated.

[ss002d6252]

Used to see it relatively regular ( I used to work in council tax)

- agents or landlord send an erroneous or vague letter to the council and it all goes wrong from there.

 

I've had agents who've argued and argued that they never told the council

- even when I've had the email or letter from them in front of me.

 

Craig

[billy_79]

I thought this was all sorted out months ago

- in Feb I had a letter from Spark acknowledging the error,

and saying that GB had accepted my account.

 

 

Spoke to GB who agreed,

and said it would show up on my account within a week.

And it did,

was all there showing as normal when I logged in.

 

 

Then it disappeared again,

and I was only getting bills from GB for the gas.

 

 

Spoke to GB again and they said,

'no it isn't resolved yet (it bloody well was!),

and it will take 12 weeks.

 

Today I get a 'sorry you're leaving' letter from Spark,

and them reminding me to provide a meter reading to my new supplier,

apparently my switch took place 11 days ago!

 

 

My GB account also shows an 'opening reading' for that date.

I'm guessing I'll be getting a bill from Spark for the interim period.

 

 

Spoke to GB again today, who said they are still sorting it out internally.

 

To be fair to Spark,

they appear to have done everything right to resolve the situation,

 

 

it seems like GB have got themselves in a real mess over reversing the erroneous switch.

[ericsbrother]

dont forget to send countrywide a bill for your time and effort