Energy runs out for Utility Warehouse customer

I was recently tagged on a Facebook post. Normally I would send a link to a relevant page on my site to help with the specific consumer issue, as I cover most things. However, this complaint about energy supplier Utility Warehouse was a new one on me, so I decided I had to get involved! It was such as a story that I pitched it to the Mirror and it was published on 23/01/23 as

Helen Dewdney head shoulders Mirror strapline

EXCLUSIVE: Mum who was switched to prepay energy meter without being told wins £620 in compensation.

Below is the longer version with a full opinion comment by the Utility Warehouse customer Claire-Marie!

It’s much more than Utility Warehouse not telling her that they had fitted the meter…

Justice at last for beleaguered energy customer

Claire-Marie, a 33-year-old mother of two, is a vulnerable customer of Utility Warehouse (UW). She had been trying for many months to get the monthly payment date for her direct debit changed to correspond with her pay day and clear the debt on the energy account. However, UW told her that this was not possible. Claire-Marie said that UW staff had been rude and unhelpful.

In fact, Claire-Marie says she is usually very good at complaining. But believes that Utility Warehouse “Makes problem resolving as hard as possible, and it’s mentally draining and affected my mental health.”

When it started to go wrong with Utility Warehouse

Back in 2021 Claire-Marie had got muddled over one payment and didn’t realise that she had paid what the bill said it was but had missed paying the previous month. For about 8 months she was paying extra on the 15^th of the month to try and clear the balance. But, because she was one month in arrears, the company were cutting off her mobile phone on the 9^th or 10^th of every month. This contributed to her anxiety and on one occasion meant that she was unable to ring Lifeline, her GP and the West Yorkshire Mental Health Support team support service. She cancelled the phone part of the contract in February 2021.

UW says that it only allows payment dates on the last or first day of the month but Claire-Marie says that she gets paid in the middle of the month and was trying to sort out a convenient payment method to fit. So, although she was clearing the debt “They kept disconnecting my services, rather than allowing me to pay on the 15th as I did every time.”

Trying to resolve the issue with Utility Warehouse

After 10 months of trying to sort out the issue, UW installed a prepayment meter for her gas, without informing her that this had been done. In doing so, it seems that UW had not given her a method to make a payment. UW installed the meter on 16 December and didn’t inform her until 19 December, leaving no instructions on how to pay! Claire-Marie, her 33-year-old fiancé, 14 and 16-year-old children were without a way to pay for energy for four days. “I honestly felt they were going to leave my family without gas for Christmas!”, says Claire-Marie.

A spokesperson for UW said: “In the customer’s time with UW, our call records show that we have worked with them on a number of occasions to help manage their account” However, a screenshot I sent UW showing calls made and received on Claire-Marie’s phone did not tally at all with the times given by them!

Apparent breach of Ofgem performance standards by Utility Warehouse

I contacted Utility Warehouse to inform them of their apparent breaches of all four of the following Ofgem standards:

[Behaviour towards consumers]
[Providing customers with information]
[Customer service processes]
[Considering vulnerable domestic customers]

Ofgem standards in a table

There were a number of issues regarding the communication with UW. Under Ofgem Standards of Performance rules, if you can’t get electricity or gas due to what you think might be a faulty meter, your supplier must attend and repair or replace it within 3 hours (or 4 hours on a weekend or bank holiday). The elapsed time starts at the beginning of the next working day if you contact them out of hours. UW appears to have breached this standard.

Ofgem rules also state “For unplanned interruptions to your gas supply, you are entitled to at least £60 for every 24 hours it is off. There are also additional payments and provisions available for households on the Priority Services Register, such as alternative heating and cooking facilities.”

The Complaining Cow complains to Utility Warehouse

I got involved and requested that UW switch on the gas for Claire-Marie’s family as soon as possible. This would mean the company taking immediate action to put credit on the meter. In addition, I requested appropriate redress for each of the Ofgem standards which were breached and for the poor service that UW had provided.

UW said that its engineer left instructions on how to top up the meter. “Ring” doorbell footage showed otherwise! UW’s response to this was “While we trust the agents to leave the letter behind, we do know that human error can happen. If that is the case here and a mistake has happened, we are sorry and we will give feedback to our third-party contractors.” But this did not acknowledge the effect this had on their customer.

Ofgem comments on leaving customers without energy

An Ofgem spokesperson said: “Customers in vulnerable circumstances being left without power for days or even weeks is completely unacceptable and we take this issue extremely seriously. Ofgem has already taken action against suppliers through our compliance and enforcement action, including our recent review into how energy suppliers treat vulnerable customers.”

Some redress from Utility Warehouse

As a result of all my emails to UW, Claire-Marie received a phone call from the company offering her £200 plus £66 late payments, plus £18 Debit Legal fees refunded, payment holidays, the opportunity to leave Utility Warehouse without objection and an alternative repayment plan. If Utility Warehouse had resolved the payment plan problem for Claire-Marie, she would not have incurred those charges. This payment was offered on the 23^rd December, so a nice Christmas present.

The UW spokesperson said “Since the meter has been installed, we ensured that the customer was kept on supply by providing her with a top up on their meter and through emergency and friendly credit.” However, this ran out without knowing how to top up.

Further redress from Utility Warehouse

UW believed that the complaint was closed, having received verbal confirmation in a phone call from Claire-Marie. However, I subsequently told UW that it had not offered the right amount. The goodwill offer referred to service and did not include the £60 a day to which Claire-Marie was legally entitled. So, we emailed on the 4^th January, clarifying that the payment plan had been agreed but the complaint was not yet closed.

I continued the complaint with the CEO escalation team (find details of CEOs and their teams at ceoemail.com). After SIXTEEN emails from me, UW finally acknowledged their obligations and offered £60 per day for 4 days plus a further £100 by “way of apology”. It appears that it had taken this lengthy email exchange, the provision of evidence and threats to escalate to the Energy Ombudsman for Claire-Marie to obtain an appropriate pay-out offer and apology.

Once the matter was finally resolved, a spokesperson for Utility Warehouse said:

“We have worked with the customer to resolve this issue and have spoken with her at length on multiple occasions to try and bring this to a satisfactory conclusion. This includes offering a gesture of goodwill payment, payment holidays, and the opportunity to leave Utility Warehouse without objection and an alternative repayment plan with suitable time to pay arrears. We have now reached a resolution and consider the matter closed. Should they encounter any further issues, we will do our utmost to resolve these.”

How redress for energy company failure should be paid

UW wanted the payout to be offset against the debt. However, Claire-Marie wished to continue the existing payment plan and have the goodwill gesture and compensation paid into her bank account. I asked UW where the Ofgem guidelines state that compensation can be used against outstanding debt. She has now received the payment into her bank account.

The total Claire-Marie received was £624. She told me:

Final comment by Claire-Marie Utility Warehouse customer

“I believe the problems would have gone on much longer without help from someone who knows the rules and persevered. I feel that they use the power of network marketing to get people to sell it to their friends and family. However, once a problem arises, they don’t make it easy to rectify it. I felt I couldn’t speak out against UW publicly in case I offended a friend. When eventually I did speak out, I was messaged by someone who was a UW rep and told I was disappointing them by my personal social media posts. That peer pressure certainly made standing up for myself harder. Thankfully, I had the right support to eventually sort this out, and I just hope no one else is facing this kind of disgraceful treatment and feeling too scared to stand up to them.”