Economy Energy
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I was lucky- took them to the small claims court and they paid up
I switched from Economy Energy several months after a swingeing price increase only one month after I had moved to a new tariff. After getting agreed initial readings from my new supplier I was still awaiting a refund of over £400, made higher because Economy Energy kept taking direct debits after I had switched, even sending a threatening letter within 24 hours after I had, with good cause, cancelled my DD. Many calls and web chats failed to give a firm timetable for the return of my money. I gave them one last chance to come up with a timetable for payment otherwise I would take court action. Despite promising to do so they did not give me a date so I went online and lodged a small claims court action for what they owed me plus interest and my fees. They settled fully without question the next day! All so unnecessary. A few hours investigation on the Internet had led me to believe that they were going bust. The obvious signs were there - almost every director had resigned, several dreary and long-winded Ofgem investigations were in progress and a business plan that relied on advanced customer payments to fund growth - a classic Ponzi scheme. Fine when customer numbers were growing but not sustainable in a growth downturn. If I could so easily spot that this firm was collapsing what on earth was the Regulator doing? My advice to anyone in a similar situation with an energy supplier which won’t give you your money back is to use use the Small Claims Court rather than ombudsmen or regulators once your reasonable efforts to gain redress from the supplier have failed. Odds on that you’ll end up in court to get your money back anyway. They get two stars because the service was ok when I was with then, other than giving me my money back, and the staff were generally pleasant even though powerless to help. I feel very sorry that so many will have lost their jobs. I hope that the controlling directors face a full investigation of their conduct, however.