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[Taxi_Driver]

I changed energy companies in 2011 and signed up for direct debit payments....

For the first 10 months they didnt take the direct debit....then after that they did (their website showed dd payments to them from month 1 but nothing coming out of my bank account)

They have now noticed and whacked on £560 for this quarters bill.

I have phoned them twice about it and the young ladies that answer the phone dont know whats going on because as far as they can see my account with them is all well....and have been trying to get an answer from the accounts dept....with latest promise of return call mon/tues next week.

I have had a butchers at the ofgem website.....and apparently this is called back billing.....and guess....if the energy company is trying to claim back more than 12 months....they are not allowed to do so if it was the energy companies fault.....which clearly it was in my case

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/64010/back-billing-leaflet-2012.pdf

There is this link in the above pdf

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication/finish/43-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/412-the-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills-back-billing-for-domestic-customers.html

Look at Back Billing sub clause 9 No 2

This is exactly what has happened to me.....

Could be a good fight here 

If they play ball and remove the charges then fine.....otherwise i will report them to ofgem

[Gaffers]

Give them 28 days notice via a recorded letter, if they dont comply with the rules report to OFGEM.  Back it up with the threat of a small claims court action for time spent, stress, phone calls, etc....

[bigegg]

would this be Npower, perchance?
Or have you managed to find another breakless bunch of 'tards

[Taxi_Driver]

No, its not one of the big 6

[TheBoy]

Ooooo, yes, I can see that being an interesting bunfight if it went far enough...

On the one hand, you've clearly had goods/services that it can be proven you haven't paid for, on the other, the regulator says the company cannot backdate beyond 12 months...

I guess it may come down to whether the regulator rulings are more geared to underbilling (for when energy co's play silly beggers when energy is volatile) as opposed to no billing.

[Taxi_Driver]

Ooooo, yes, I can see that being an interesting bunfight if it went far enough...

On the one hand, you've clearly had goods/services that it can be proven you haven't paid for, on the other, the regulator says the company cannot backdate beyond 12 months...

I guess it may come down to whether the regulator rulings are more geared to underbilling (for when energy co's play silly beggers when energy is volatile) as opposed to no billing.

In case you didnt read the 2nd link 

Scenario     

2. A customer switched supplier on 8
December 2007, and signed up as a
Direct Debit customer. The supplier
created the account for the customer,
but did not set up a Direct Debit
mandate and did not bill the customer
until 25 March 2009.

Would the supplier consider applying the Back Billing clause?

Yes. Because the supplier had not billed
the customer during the previous 12
months. If the supplier had taken agreed
Direct Debits and these had covered the
cost of energy consumed, then there
would be no need to apply the back
billing clause as there would not be any
additional debt.

[Crazycarzowner]

they ain't got a leg to stand on. I used to work for Eon or as it was Norweb back in the day and worked in complaints  they can't bill you in that scenario as you've done everything you need to i.e. set the account up and provided them with a means to take out the D/debit. 

[TheBoy]

Ah, yes TD, that's as clear as a clear thing

[Taxi_Driver]

Just to add a follow up for this thread....

After 2 phones calls to energy supplier with promises to investigate and call me back....which they didnt call back..

I phoned again this lunchtime.....spoke to another young lady, who insisted the charges were legit....at this point (and i hadnt done so previously) i mentioned this is back billing and ofgem says, in this case, you are not allowed to do it, she replied saying she would investigate and call me back.....i pointed out that i'd been promised this before and it hadnt happened, so i was prepared to give them another 7 days to sort it and then i will be reporting it to ofgem.

Funnily enough, 3 hours later i get a call from the young lady, saying her manager is crediting my account with £560  .....she says it not showing up on my account page yet, but it will.....it isnt showing yet....but i'll give it a few days....

[Auto Addict]

Just to add a follow up for this thread....

After 2 phones calls to energy supplier with promises to investigate and call me back....which they didnt call back..

I phoned again this lunchtime.....spoke to another young lady, who insisted the charges were legit....at this point (and i hadnt done so previously) i mentioned this is back billing and ofgem says, in this case, you are not allowed to do it, she replied saying she would investigate and call me back.....i pointed out that i'd been promised this before and it hadnt happened, so i was prepared to give them another 7 days to sort it and then i will be reporting it to ofgem.

Funnily enough, 3 hours later i get a call from the young lady, saying her manager is crediting my account with £560  .....she says it not showing up on my account page yet, but it will.....it isnt showing yet....but i'll give it a few days....

Could be a result

[Taxi_Driver]

Just to add a follow up for this thread....

After 2 phones calls to energy supplier with promises to investigate and call me back....which they didnt call back..

I phoned again this lunchtime.....spoke to another young lady, who insisted the charges were legit....at this point (and i hadnt done so previously) i mentioned this is back billing and ofgem says, in this case, you are not allowed to do it, she replied saying she would investigate and call me back.....i pointed out that i'd been promised this before and it hadnt happened, so i was prepared to give them another 7 days to sort it and then i will be reporting it to ofgem.

Funnily enough, 3 hours later i get a call from the young lady, saying her manager is crediting my account with £560  .....she says it not showing up on my account page yet, but it will.....it isnt showing yet....but i'll give it a few days....

Could be a result

I guess it can take a few hours for a database to replicate itself to a website 

[Crazycarzowner]

Result 

If its anything like our computer systems were at Norweb, it will show 24hrs later when the batches have run.