Complaints mount over Utility Point’s delayed repayments

In December, I flagged up concerns about two-year-old power provider Utility Point. A buyer had waited in useless to obtain £377 credit score owed. The customer support line was not accepting calls, stay chat was unresponsive and emails had been ignored.

That triggered a spate of complaints from different readers, a lot of whom had been switched to the provider by on-line service Look After My Bills (Lamb) and all of whom had been owed vital sums.

In January, a Utility Point worker obtained in contact. According to the whistleblower, the corporate attracts customized with eyecatching offers then hikes direct debits in bulk, whatever the credit score steadiness. “This increases inward cash flow and, because the majority of customers come through Lamb and so are defined as ‘passive’, they don’t pick up on the increase until Lamb switches them to a new supplier,” my supply advised me.

“Because Lamb switched thousands of customers on the same day, the majority of which had been significantly overcharged, Utility Point did not have the resources to refund them within the 10 days required by the regulator, Ofgem. Continuing customers are in an even worse position; if they make a refund request, they are ignored.” The cellphone line was shut, the supply stated, due to the quantity of consumers calling. It’s since been reinstated.

Utility Point denies the allegations. It advised me that direct debits had been reviewed on a person foundation, and pointed to a rise in consumption as clients labored from house. Asked in regards to the delays in refunding credit, it blamed a surge in calls as folks struggled to pay payments, and claimed its cellphone line was shut to maintain workers protected. “Utility Point prides itself on the accuracy of its billing and will uphold its obligations to ensure customers only pay for the energy they consume,” it stated.

The Energy Ombudsman confirmed that complaints about Utility Point have elevated considerably since December, largely about billing.

Why does this matter to the remainder of us? Clawing again overpayments is proving an issue throughout the sector, and if an organization goes bust all of us must foot the invoice for refunding affected clients.

Last week, Ofgem stated it was consulting on proposals to restrict the quantity of credit score that suppliers can maintain after discovering they had been collectively sitting on £1.4bn of overpayments in October 2018. It stated it was “in conversation” with Utility Point, however couldn’t touch upon any investigation.

Lamb stated it could examine allegations of bulk will increase in direct debits. “We share people’s frustrations with how long it’s taking to get refunds,” it stated. “We’re in constant dialogue with Utility Point to try and speed up the process so members, who we have switched away from Utility Point, get their money as soon as possible.”

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