“Warning - Please stay away from this company
Please listen to my warning and do not use this company.
They are utterly incompetent, and the customer service is terrible.
Here’s what has happened to me (sorry it’s long):
Moved into my current rented property in December 2018 and received letters from Spark Energy and another company both claiming to be my supplier for gas.
After many phone calls, emails and a lot of investigation on my part I discovered that someone (most likely the previous tennant) requested the supply be moved to Spark shortly before we moved in.
The electric was changed over fine, but the wrong gas meter was changed over. An understandable enough mistake to make given there are 3 flats in my building, however, to this date Spark energy have failed to fix the problem. This has been costing me money, time and is an ongoing stress.
For a long time, Spark denied that any mistake had been made despite having been provided with the correct meter number by me which didn't match their details.
I continued to try and speak to Spark about the problem. Every time someone would say they were making notes and someone would contact me again soon – but they never did. I would then have to call again to chase up only to find no notes had been left and have to explain the situation again. This continued for months.
I provided copies of the letters I had from the other company with our meter number, screenshots of records I found online and photo’s of the actual meter after completing a burns test. Still Spark have not fixed the problem.
When I very first spoke to Spark, I set up a monthly DD of £50 per month for gas and electric. Due to us not being able to supply a meter reading Spark advised they would increase our direct debit. I called them, explained (again) and was assured no changes would be made. This happened several more times, then, Spark increased my payment to £150 without providing any notice. When calling them to discuss this I was told they would not refund the additional payment they had taken and would also not reduce it to our previously agreed amount.
As a result of the massive increase I cancelled my DD but have continued to pay our agreed £50 as a card payment each month. While they aren’t actually supplying the gas, they are supplying the electric so I think it’s fair to pay for that service.
Spark have chased me for what they feel is an outstanding payment for the rest. This involves text messages twice a day, an email once a day and an automated voice call a couple of times a week. It is utterly infuriating that they feel they can harass me for a debt relating to a service they have not been supplying and have failed to fix for a year and a half!
I called (yet again) to talk about the problem and Spark did agree that I shouldn’t be chased for any payment until this was resolved. The chasing did stop for about a month but has now resumed out of nowhere. I emailed them again last week but haven’t received a response.
I desperately want to move away from this terrible company but can’t until the national database has been correctly updated. At this stage I feel Spark are simply not updating this in order to extract more money from me.
I am currently gathering copies of my correspondence together to make a complaint to the Energy Ombudsman to see if they can help me resolve this once and for all.
Please save yourself time, energy and stress and DO NOT USE SPARK ENERGY”
“Useless, they switched us to another company without telling us, and continued to take our money for 6 months despite not providing us with anything. When we were cut off (by the new company), we phoned them and they just said they had no record of us being with them, took hours on the phone for them to admit we had been their customer and then they said they didnt know who our new provider was, they also tried to blame us for continuing to pay them, many hours of arguing later they finally told us who we were now with. Then they told us it would take weeks for us to get our money back. So we were left in a situation where we owed another company hundreds of pounds and had nothing to give them. They were unhelpful, difficult and rude on the phone, even swearing at us. This was months ago, and now we've been getting pestered again saying we owe them a bill of over £80. terrible company, terrible service.”
“Glad to have left Spark after a short while as their Account Management system is just rubbish. Even after paying a bill you still get daily text message reminders insisting on payment. Just uneccesary and very annoying! And despite a statement saying you have weeks until a required payment date you get almost daily text messages until that date. People in their call centre however are professional and lovely.”
“This company made me cry . The adult 30 year me sat down and cried as they kept waking me up post nightshifts asking me to pay a bill that wasn’t over due . I decided to throw money at them to stop calling me so switched to a fixed direct debit . Guess what !!! I kept getting crazy bills and crazy phone calls .. worst worst experience.. Over priced and border line harassment ! They keep asking you for loads of money and when you try to understand why they never really have a reason why and just say reflects on ur account u need to pay xy ! I would rather live under a tree and live without electricity then ever go with this company again !”
“Absolutely disgusting company. STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS. This company will harass you non-stop one day after your bill is due, and will not stop until they have their greedy claws on your money. I get 2 calls, 3 voicemails (automated), email after email, and text after text, until the bill is paid. It is not necessary and induces a lot of stress and anxiety. I have never missed a payment and their customer support, despite being informed of this harrassment, are not prepared to do anything about it. Spark energy have such an aggressive approach, and truly do not care about their customers. I am ready to take my custom elsewhere. Shame on you SPARK energy. Shame, shame shame.”
“Worst suppliers ever. They make bill up as they go. When you call to query they blind you with science. we lasted 6 months and changed. Would not even recommend to my worst emermy.
EVERYONE STAY CLEAR”
“Absolutely disgusted by this company and their harassment and hounding for NON OVERDUE payments. Several texts and emails and calls for a bill of £47 which was not overdue.
Explained the Covid situation and being in hospital etc- they have no heart ears or soul.
Online site had issues which would not allow to sign in and pay.
Meter readings wrong.
Will be going with another proper customer service based Energy company.”
“Worst energy supplier ever. Got my readings wrong from day one. Never managed to correct it properly. I was overcharged for almost 1.5years (£90 with Spark and £40 with my current supplier). When I moved to another supplier, my account showed £480 credit. I had to contact them several times to receive my refund. When I spoke with them, I gave them again my final readings which reduced my credit to £370 according to technical support on the chatbox. 2 hours later, I opened my account again to see if they had updated my account and suddenly my credit went down to £270.”
“Has a harrassing nature. As soon as your bill is due, there is no time limit to pay. Normal companies will wait a couple of weeks before sending you a reminder but from spark energy as soon as the bill is available and due you can expect 2-3 text messages, 2 emails and a phone call everyday until it is paid. I find it quite stressful to be honest. Extremely over the top. Communicating this to customer services made absolutely no difference.”
“Awful, awful company - expensive, murky billing, impossible to keep track of charges, customer service simply don't seem to care and don't have any expectation that any compliant will be dealt with, be it email or phone and the online account - don't trust it. Try to switch to another supplier, they block it and make live very difficult - took me 6 months of sheer frustration and stress to be rid of this company, it was like being held hostage!! I have never had such a horrid experience with any kind of supplier. Don't touch them with a barge pole.”
“Absolutely horrendous. Constantly have to call to get bills sorted after getting invoices at completely random times throughout the month, with totally different amounts to pay and it is a pain and a struggle to resolve this issue every time. I do NOT recommend this provider. It is not worth your time and money.”
“Never ever again!!
I am currently on a third month of trying to switch providers. They are objecting every single request of mine. The reason is the outstanding balance - but there is a balance every day. Just avoid by any means. They always mix something up. On the phone with them every single month.”
“When I rented the house, Spark Energy was the provider the estate agent moved me onto. I did not want them so changed to my old energy provider.
Several separate bills came through for gas and electric, with wildly incorrect meter readings. I supplied the correct reading to Rebecca on 12/03/2020. I was told a new bill would be sent out.
After 2 weeks I received a text to say my bill was overdue. I had still not received the updated bill. I was allowing extra time due to the Covid-19 outbreak as I suspected companies, including the mail delivery were now struggling with staff numbers. However, I used the link in the text to pay the bill.
The following day I received a text from a debt collection agency saying I need to call them!
Wow!! The updated bill had (and still has not) arrived. Yet after two weeks (2 weeks!) they passed my bill to a debt collection agency.
I am still trying to get to the bottom of if this has affected my credit rating. If it has I will take this further.
I asked for confirmation the account is closed. I still have received nothing.
Mickey Mouse company, and expensive as well.
Disgusting behaviour.”
“Spark supplied my gas only when I first moved into my property in June 2019. The customer service was good initially so I asked them to supply my electricity on the 11/12/2019. When my first bill came, I also got a bill from my previous electricity provider (Utilita). When I queried with utilita who was providing my electricity, they confirmed the national database stated it was still them. I got back to spark who said they had the wrong meter on their system which was creating charges. I provided evidence of the correct meter twice and also did a burns test to confirm that they have the wrong meter. They have since stopped charging me for electricity but have not deducted the electricity charges from my bill and have given no written correspondance about what they are doing to resolve the complaint. I have wasted hours of my time when they only need to do simple maths and communicate with me. Absolutely horrendous service!”
“Not even worth a star! Worst company, worst switch already switching within 2 months. Charging 3 times the amount for 2 bed house and not giving me any sort of explanation at all and refuse to investigate. Robbing company!”
“I changed over to spark at the end of last year with the promise of cheaper energy and that I would still be using my prepayment meter, meaning I can control my top ups. However, when I was switched over I was told that I would be required to pay £80 a month which was more than double what I was paying with my current provider and they had also switched me from my top up meter without my permission.
I immediately switched back to my old supplier but this took a month, so I was charged by spark for that month. I set up a direct debit with them over a few months to pay this amount back, however after the first payment went out they began chasing me for the rest saying it was overdue and that they would be transferring it over to a debt collection agency, even though I had a direct debit set up with them. I contacted them and they said that the direct debit had been cancelled for some unknown reason.
So, I set up a new one to go out over a 3 month period. The first payment went out fine and the exact same thing happened again. They passed the debt over to a debt collection agency despite me having a direct debit set up and two further payments planned. When it came to the second direct debit due date, no money went out of my account. I contacted spark to find out what on earth was going on and they couldn't even be bothered to reply and in the meantime I'm getting emails from a debt collecting agency demanding payment. So, I assume for the second time that they cancelled the direct debit for no reason, didn't notify me and passed over the debt, causing me an enormous amount of stress.
I therefore paid off the remaining amount by borrowing money from someone, as I couldn't be bothered to deal with the incompetent company that is spark.
This is not my only bad experience with them as at a different property they demanded nearly £200 saying that I owed them this despite not living in the property for weeks. I argued for weeks with them, stating that actually I was probably owed money back. I eventually caved and just paid the money. What a surprise, when I few months later I checked my old account randomly, to find that I was due a refund of more than I had been forced to pay a few months earlier. I received no notification of this and I'm sure they would have happily closed the account without notifying me, keeping my money.
Do not use this company.”
“The worst energy company in the world. We had 6 months of hell with them. We moved supplier a year ago and we’re still having problems with Spark... Customer service is a shambles, they way over charge on your direct debits, they install ‘smart meters’ which cause issues with your bills, they change your account information without informing you, they scare people into paying money which they do not owe, the list could go on. Honestly I have never dealt with such an awful company, I would not trust these 5 star reviews. Just check out the comments on their twitter page and you will get a feel for this company...”
“The worst energy company in the world. We had 6 months of hell with them. We moved supplier a year ago and we’re still having problems with Spark... Customer service is a shambles, they way over charge on your direct debits, they install ‘smart meters’ which cause issues with your bills, they change your account information without informing you, they scare people into paying money which they do not owe, the list could go on. Honestly I have never dealt with such an awful company, I would not trust these 5 star reviews. Just check out the comments on their twitter page and you will get a feel for this company...”
