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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Zoe Wood

How can I get So Energy to sort out our £524 bill problem?

ESB Energy’s change of ownership led to a breakdown of online systems for payments.
ESB Energy’s change of ownership led to a breakdown of online systems for payments. Photograph: Reuters/Alamy

We have a longstanding problem with a missing payment to our energy provider ESB Energy, now part of So Energy.

The change of ownership was poorly communicated and led to a breakdown of online systems for payment, as well as readings.

This resulted in us paying our January bill of £524.82 bill by cheque. The money left our bank a month later but has never been credited to our energy account.

Numerous attempts to resolve this have been unsuccessful, as was a formal complaint in May.

So Energy acknowledged the issue, and apologised for the delay, but did nothing to actually resolve it.

Last month I received an email from the company with the subject: “You’re not paying enough”. It said: “We’ve noticed that you’ve fallen behind … we need monthly payments to prevent your account from falling too deeply into arrears.”

GT, Ilkley

In January you were no longer able to access your online ESB Energy account and were surprised to be told it was moving to So Energy as you did not know about the merger.

Without access to the account you were unable to make an online payment and, after much to-ing and fro-ing, were advised to send a cheque to ESB’s Manchester office.

Unfortunately, it arrived around the time your account was migrating to So Energy. It doesn’t help that you were advised to post the cheque to an office that no longer exists and, when it arrived in the right place, was not assigned to your account. This has now been rectified and your account, which is now linked up to smart meter, is up to date, bringing this saga to an end.

So Energy says: “We strive to provide the best possible service but, on this occasion, it looks like we fell short, so we apologise.”

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions

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