Economy Energy
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Avoid Like The PLAGUE!
Sorry, this is going to be long ! I had been a customer of Economy Energy for four months during which time they took two months of payment as an advance (twice as much as any other energy provider) and also a little over £100 per month in total as bill payments, raising two direct debits, one for each fuel type (I later realised why). Since it was summertime and we have solar panels, our bills were actually credits; by the end of four months we had a credit balance of about £416. Then EE announced that they would have to increase my direct debit payments by 21% for electricity and 68% for gas. Astronomical or what? I decided to compare prices and switch away to another supplier. That switch all went smoothly. But then some three weeks after my change I had a communication from EE which reminded me that I had not yet received any refund. I emailed enquiring and was told that my final bill had not yet been calculated which was strange as the last communication from them had been to tell me my final account figure could be viewed on-line (and it was there for all to see). I emailed back and was then told "Ah, but you hadn't asked for your refund, we will need to re-calculate your bill", apparently if you don't ask, you won't get. They also will not make a refund payment on one fuel supply only when they have not finalised the bill for the other fuel. A nice little ploy to waste time and avoid having to pay refunds any sooner than they absolutely have to. To me that looks to be why they have two direct debit mandates, again unlike any other energy provider. A further email from me confirming my request for a refund was then met with the response that my final bill had only been made up to "???" and here I was quoted a date that was a full month before I even became a customer of Economy Energy. When I pointed this out to them I was told that nevertheless they would still need to calculate my final bill again. Eight days later I emailed once more asking if my final account had been calculated but this was never answered. What did happen however was that EE took another month's payments from my account. I had left my direct debits in place for the refunds to be paid back into my account. I promptly cancelled both direct debits to EE and wrote a letter to them confirming the above as the reason why (and asking again for the refund money which was now over £515. within 48 hours of stopping my direct debits I got an email from EE asking me to phone them to discuss re-establishing my direct debits so that payments could continue. A second email was received the next day asking again for me to phone etc. etc. I wrote once more explaining again why I stopped the direct debits but up until two weeks ago no reply has been received to either letter. So there you have it Folks; Economy Energy's tactics are delay, delay, delay by giving stupid answers to corrspondence, procrastinate in making a reply or just plain not responding. Then suddenly two weeks ago an email came in confirming that my credit balance had been put forward for approval by a Director and once approved would be confirmed by SMS or email. Note it is only for approval, not for payment. No confirmation has been received yet of approval and heaven only knows how long after that before payment/s will be made. Two things I will share with you; firstly in my emails I twice advised that I expected some financial compensation for loss of interest on the money which should have been in my bank account, I mentioned a rate of Bank Rate plus 5%. EE never responded to this in any way, shape or form. By dint of this I assume they have accepted this arrangement. Today I sent them my first invoice claiming lost interest. Secondly, in three weeks time, if my refund has not come through then all correspondence will be passed to my lawyer with instruction to take Economy Energy to court to seek punitive damages as well as the outstanding refund money. Companies should not be allowed to get away with this sort of behaviour and judging by the reviews on this website I am far from being alone in suffering this shabby treatment by EE. It is not the money, rather it is the principle involved and I am fortunate in that I can afford to throw a few thousand pounds at this case, if necessary, to see justice done. IMcC