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4 hours ago
1
Believe me, I would love to write a drama about something other than the energy bills of strangers, but try as I might to find new inspiration, nothing creates tension, plot twists and psychodrama like the utilities sector. So here we go again …
Act I
The scene is London, where AH has discovered that his spending power is spent. His credit rating has plummeted by two-thirds and his credit card limit slashed to £150. With a reputation like that, he’s unlikely to get the mortgage he plans to apply for. The culprit, it turns out, is British Gas, his old and unlamented supplier, which has invented a missed payment on his credit record.
The story begins in 2023 when his account is one of an unknown number to be screwed when British Gas migrated it to its new billing system. The new account on the new platform showed an inaccurately low balance, so AH unwittingly fell into arrears. By the time British Gas got round to noticing the shortfall and informed him that his direct debits needed to rise by 100%, he owed £1,500. That was last April. AH promptly transferred to another supplier and, in the meantime, agreed a monthly payment plan with British Gas to make up the shortfall.
AH’s bank statements show that his payments have not once faltered, but British Gas suddenly decide he’s missed one and record a default on his credit record. When he complains, British Gas initially professes to be as baffled as he is since it can see the incoming payments, then claims it has received no payments at all and that he is hundreds of pounds in arrears.
So a monthly payment plan set up because of the incompetence of British Gas has trashed his creditworthiness because of the incompetence of British Gas – and thus matters might still have stood had I not asked the company what it was playing at. It has nothing to say about the cause of its blunderings, but glibly it declares that it has now applied all AH’s payments to the account and rectified the erroneous default notice. To acknowledge the weeks of stress and hardship, British Gas has dug into its coffers and produced £50 in “goodwill”.
Act II
There’s consternation in Selsey, West Sussex. AN’s father is receiving electricity bills from Ovo. He is not, and never has been, an Ovo customer. The bills are in his name, but the supply address is an empty flat in a neighbouring block. The tenants, it seems, have done a runner without settling their dues and Ovo has decided that since someone must pay, it may as well be AN’s father. He successfully persuades Ovo that he has never set foot in the place and his name is removed from the account. To be replaced by AN’s.
AN lives in her parents’ house and this time the address on the bills is her family home. Ovo is not interested in the fact that the house is supplied by British Gas, nor that the debt they are chasing was accrued at an address next door. AN therefore faces a vandalised credit rating through no fault of her own.
Happily, a pending headline bestirs Ovo. It claims its tracing agent matched AN’s father to the debtor’s address and blames the flat numbers in the block for being potentially out of sync with Royal Mail’s property database. AN’s family does not live in a flat in the block. Their names have now been removed from the account and they’ve been sent a food hamper for the “inconvenience”.
Act III
The scene shifts along the coast to Brighton. Here lives a woman who is desperate to pay for her energy but can’t interest her supplier in her cash. Because she hasn’t received any bills for over seven months and therefore hasn’t settled her unspecified debts, she’s unable to escape to a more proactive provider.
The saga began with a smart meter, those ingenious devices designed to make our bills more accurate and our lives easier. RM’s smart meter was installed by EDF last June but the technician failed to link it to the network. Its clever screen has therefore remained blank ever since and it’s unable to produce manual readings. EDF has ignored her pleas for estimated bills and ignored an ombudsman’s decision in November that the meter should be commissioned. Regulations require suppliers to address faulty meters within five working days and RM fears being clouted with a cobbled bill for over seven months’ worth of consumption.
EDF tells me it hasn’t ignored the ombudsman’s decision three months ago to repair the meter; it’s just that installers are hard to come by. By sheer good luck it manages to secure one as soon as I question the delay. It has already credited RM the regulatory £180 compensation for delays plus an extra £100 in goodwill.
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