“So, having worked for a utility company myself (yes one of those people) I can only apologise for all the advisors that actually WERE doing their job. [Here is a quick summary because the two stories are long]:
- 6-8 weeks for a final bill to be produced, used predicted despite being given actual
- rang so many times it was beyond a joke to be told the previous agent hadn't done what they were supposed to have
- chasing a refund for essentially 2 months AFTER the final bill
- Total of 3/4 months to POTENTIALLY get what is owed to me (if this had been a customer their credit file would have been shot)
- Rude "floor support", no managers in sight. Unable to help in general.
-Being lied to over the phone by 3 advisors
-Staff unaware of their own bill changes and do not give any warning to customers
-Now ridiculous "estimated" prices. Were going to be paying for the equivalent of a 5 person household for just 2 people. (Increase of bills for £50 a month to £95)
- Refund issues again, the advisors have no idea on what they are advising
DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING.
*An old account*
My story starts 16th July (2018) when i moved out and gave in my actual meter readings. I lived in a house-share with 4 other people so they were relying on me to communicate any credit or debt they owed me. I expected maybe 1 week wait (if any) for a final bill. I was told it can take 6-8 weeks. That was my first shock. This is my first gas/electric company having dealt with so I didn't question it (despite water being able to do it there and then over the phone). I rang up multiple times within that time frame just to check if anything had been produced, nothing.
Time frame coming to a close I finally got told that they had produced the bills, but based on "predicted readings, as I had not supplied them with actual". I had a picture in front of me with the actual and told them they were incorrect. They said they would re-process (thankfully not taking another 6-8 weeks). I ring up again, "Oh your electricity bill has been produced, but for some reason not your gas, I shall try to force that through and will email the team"... right. So I request the refund for the electric, get told 3-5 days (standard). Okay. Eagerly tell my 4 old house mates. (At this point we are in the back end of August).
I ring up again, end of the week, get told gas has now been created, refund shall take 3-5 day. Again, okay. But I get told for some reason electric still hasn't gone through, why? "No idea, I shall put it through again this time with the gas for you". Fab.
I ring up again, still no refund. When will I get this? "Oh for some reason neither have been accepted, give me 72 hours I shall get this sorted for you and will get someone to call you back". Awesome... No call back. Ring them again. "Oh they didn't put it through, I shall for you now, it will take 10 working days".
So we have gone from 3-5 days, to 72hr, to 10 days. I am annoyed. I just want it over with, so do the 4 housemates.
I ring up near the end of the 10 days (no longer trusting ANYTHING I am told). Get a lovely agent (she's drawn the short straw sadly). She tells me that "The gas hasn't even been put through yet and sadly we now have a backlog so it will take up to 28 days for a refund"... 28 days... TWENTY. EIGHT. DAYS. I HAVE BEEN CHASING THIS DAMNED THING FOR CLOSE TO 3 MONTHS NOW.
Ask to speak to a manager, apologise to the lovely agent, completely not her fault. Get given "floor support" who says "Why do you want a manager, I can deal with any request, I am a senior member of the team", because my dear, i no longer believe any of your agents, much less their support. She tells me there is nothing they can do but advises because the electricity was initially requested on the 6th of September, and according to their new (and recent) promise they need that to get refunded to me by the 5th of October (28 days folks...). So here we are.
*Soon to be old account*
Despite all of the early stages of above Economy energy (we are now in were still the lowest cost for gas and electric so in my new house with just the two of us decided to swap to them again (what a mistake). Swap was no hassle. They took their strange 2 double first payment (not met any other company that does that) again.
I ring up to get the DD date changed, here is when the party started. I ring up, get a very tired gentleman (who can blame him, Monday) who yawns on the phone (we've all been there bless him). He tells me he will do that for me today and change the pay date from the 8th to the 22nd, and would call me back.
He calls me back (shocker!). And says that has all been done and not to worry. I ask him 3 times just to make sure, The. Price. Will. Not. Change. Confirmed 3 times. Awesome.
Next day I get an email saying Electric DD date has changed. Perfect! But then I notice it says "This price has increased from £32 so £52". [WHAT]. Ring up get an advisor "Oh this is due to an industry wide increase". But I was told it would stay the same? "Nothing we can do, the prices have increased". Okay, I have had no email about gas, will that change, has it changed? "No, everything should stay the same, I can see on your account nothing will change". Good. Okay, I can accept a £20 increase, not happy, but will accept.
2 hours late. TWO. HOURS. I get an email 'We have changed your gas DD and have increased the price". Fuming. Absolutely fuming. I get the fella to ring because I am ready to rip a head off at this point, which will get us nowhere. Bloke says "Oh yeah, company increase, practically double the charges". So we have increased by almost £40 a month and am now paying £95 a month for 2 people, whereas my previous account with 5 people was £90 a month, and we were owed a pretty big refund.
Same day I rang up Bulb and immediately transferred.
DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY. ABSOLUTELY BLOODY SHOCKING.”
“Why would anybody want to join a comedy energy when they are treated so poorly I have joined another energy supplier back in April but still have not got the money that a comedy energy hold in there bank and now it's 5 months on should it take this long to give Back money that is held in there account that is owed to the customer and why can't they issue me with a proper bill a proper paper bill to show what my account is as they cannot work out my bill and give me back the money they owe. this is why I'm writing a review is to warn other people not to join a comedy energy until they can become better at what they do.”
“Billing system is a shambles, customer service is practically none existent as they don't respond to phone calls, e mails or recorded letters,
Worst of all its practically impossible to get a refund of credit when you leave them.
Steer well clear of these crooks”
“Absolute shambles of a company who added £200 to my bill for no reason and then couldn't fix it in 8 months.
Finally reported them to OFGEM who found in my favour. Oddly enough I'm still waiting for them to do what the Ombudsman told them to.
I'm not holding my breath as they have never once done as they promised.”
“Their billing system is a complete shambles. Despite providing meter readings every month without fail they use estimates resulting in increased direct debits when in reality the account is significantly in credit.
Trying a get your money back after leaving them is likewise a major struggle.
Without doubt the worst company I've ever had to deal with.”
“stil lnot refunded my credit on my energy or lowered ddebit.thet are not bothered.very obscructive to deal with.seem happy to receive negative reviews as long as they have your energy credit which they do not refund.thousands of customers in same boat.very naughty.”
“have contacted police action fraud energy ombudsman ofgem and bank reguarding refusing to lower ddebit and 140 pounds credit.only been with them 4 mths.worst energy provider ive used in 30yrs.”
“I had a contract with Economy Energy for a year then in May I have cancelled as found a cheaper provider...since mid May I am still chasing for my refund...been calling them for over 3 months and again and of Aug 2018 when I called them they told me that my refund is still waiting for a approval and when it is approved it will take 10 working days to be transferred to my bank account. I cannot believe it that you have to chase for your monies to be refunded and if the final bills (took 3 months to be processed) are issued why refund team need to approve them? and still awaiting approval for all this time? Just a shamble this company is. I have dealt with a few energy companies in my life but never had an issues as with Economy Energy. I would not recommend it to even my worst enemy. Now they promised that the refund should be done in 5 working days...lets see as otherwise I will take to court.”
“I was with this company for two weeks. In that time I spoke to "customer service" agents at least five times.
They were unerringly rude, obnoxious and totally oblivious about other conversations I'd had.
I had to explain, multiple times, that my being in a wheelchair meant that I couldn't just 'pop down to the basement'. Apparently this is a very difficult concept to grasp.
Many of the times I phoned there was very loud dance music in the background making it hard to hear and be heard.
I finally got to speak to someone decent who wiped my account clean so that I could move to a different supplier as the treatment I had received had been so atrocious.
Nearly a year on I have started getting daily telephone calls, texts and emails about a phantom debt which I do not owe. Despite talking to a number of different people and being told it was settled this is still occurring and is impacting my credit rating.
I wish I had glanced at their Facebook page before signing up - it is full of endless complaints very similar to mine. Avoid at all costs.”
“Horrendous customer service! After 7 month of being supplied electricity only by this company and having no problems whatsoever, I moved house and left their supply. I gave a final meter reading on that day I left the property and had to chase this for the final bill. Eventually I was sent a bill, showing, as I believed, that I was in credit. When asking for the credit back I was told I actually owed £176! A new bill had been created for the entire previous 7 months, despite me paying these monthly with a meter reading. It has now been 4 months and I am being harassed by them to pay up whilst also being told by staff that they know I don't owe anything. I have now written 3 complaints, all of which are not even allocated to anyone by their 10 working day deadline. Each time someone promises to call me or cancel the erroneous bill, but they do not. I have had to go externally to Resolver to help me. I cannot begin to describe the stress and wasted hours over this.”
“Had an email from them saying they were upping my gas bill to 85 pound per month. This meant in total, my bill was over 170 per month with electric. I emailed customer service and had no response. When they called to collect my meter reading, I asked to be put through to their customer service team. After trying to find out why my bill had increased so much, he said it is an estimation and that it cant be changed for 6 months. I asked to be put through to the billing department, but he said he would email them. He then said that no one in customer service could help or give a proper explanation. We only use gas for our cooker. Everything else is electric in our house. Stay away from these people if you want to be able to afford your bills.”
“Wish I could give them a minus score. I have a ongoing complaint with the Energy Ombudsman that as been going on since mid June when they took a substantial amount from my bank without notifying me, promised me a refund that didn’t happen which was returned to my account eventually through me contacting my bank myself. It has taken me an eternity to Switch to another supplier due to the fact that they kept blocking the switch first with the electric and then the gas going backwards and forwards allowing one to switch and cancelling the other lost time how many times this happened regardless of their agents assuring me many times that there would be no objection. The switch has finally gone through but not without problems. My account as far as I know because of the sparse information apparently is in debit with the gas and in credit with the electric. They agreed on more than one occasion to settle up after the final meter readings which is the norm with other Energy companies I have dealt with in the past. I have been harassed by their debt recovery service with approx 40 phone calls including 22/23 when I was on holiday in USA with a time zone difference of 8 hours behind the Uk receiving 2/3 calls in the early hours of the morning any between 1am to 6pm over a three week period. I emailed them explained that I was on holiday and the time difference and asked them to stop calling. The calls continued so I had no option but to switch my phone off. I am still receiving calls every day since I got back from my hols and a email with a amount owing with a blank PDF. I could go on and on about this company but I’m losing the will to live. Avoid them like the Plague.”
“I left Economy Energy in April (2018), paid my outstanding gas bill (thinking it was correct by looking at the reading numbers), but the final electricity bill was clearly wrong, from credit went to debit, after providing the final reading, that it was a lower number than the estimated. Since then I have been calling and emailing, and time after time they/software fails to generate the correct bill. So I decided to make a manual calculation, from the day I join to the day I left, with the overall consumption and with all the direct debit paid into it, and I was astonished to realize that not only they are owing more than expected on the electrical bill, but also the gas bill is incorrect. This means that somewhere in between they charge me more on the gas (since the final bill seemed correct) So big advise, check your bills, don't trust their automatic software calculations!!!!!
If it wasn't bad enough, every time I call I have to repeat everything all over again. They don't seem to keep on file on-going issues/discussions, nor either they communicate with different departments.
I keep been harassed by their debt collection department, which is completely outrageous, they fail to correct my bill, they are OWING ME money and they keep calling me and sending me mails to collect money from me!! I keep telling them to stop, UPDATE MY FILE, and they call me twice a week?!
I don't understand why it is so difficult and it takes so long to correct a bill, is a simple calculation !!
I WOULD ADVISE CHECKING YOUR OVERALL CONSUMPTION AND CALCULATE YOURSELF THE VALUE. THEY CHARGE ME MORE THEN THEY SHOULD.”
“Used them for just over a year to provide gas & electricity supply. They were hopeless - could never give me any information about my supply, continually passed from dept to dept and then on closing my account kept chasing for additional monies despite being assured that my account had been settled in full and closed. Not recommended - would suggest using a more professional energy supplier.”
“Truly awful. Asked several times for a bill for the gas and electricity, by email or post, didn't get one at any point in the year I was with them. Switched asap to another co. = 5 months ago. Still have not received a final gas bill. Nor the refund that is due to me. Nor has the gas been switched - no bill from either company. Despite many calls (long wait)) and emails from me. Haveeived threatening emails from Economy Energy tho, demanding money. AVOID. TERRIBLE.”
“Absolutely disgusting service, they over charge make up readings that are much higher than the actual reading. I cannot wait to get away from them.. AVOID at all cost, cheap is not always good, you can lose more money with this company.”
“I wouldn't give that company one star, only the fact that I have to, to put a review on your site. The most appalling company I have had the misfortune of dealing with and I would urge everyone to give them a wide berth. From the very beginning they got everything wrong even so far as taking over the wrong MPAN number for my electricity, even though I proved I had given them the correct one. Since then it has been a catalogue of errors; bills being issued that I simply don't owe for my actual account and other accounts that don't even belong to me, including the account with the wrong MPAN number that, last year, THEY had to refund me on. I could go on and on but won't bore you. Avoid like the plague! They should not be trading, it's that simple.”
“i was in credit for gas £16 and in debt for electric £29 so I sent a cheque for £13 which should have cleared the final bills but oh no I don't think Economy Energy staff can do maths. They have bombarded me with emails claiming I am in debt, abusive phone calls insisting I owe them money and finally a letter threatening court action. I left them in April and had to wait nearly eight weeks for my final bill. They are a shocking company and deserve all the bad reviews and more. Don't join them they will be finished in a few years if they keep on the way they are going.”
“Would give zero if it were possible!!! Avoid at all costs if you value accurate bills and days without harrassment! This company is so woefully inadequate that not only do they fail to keep accurate and complete accounts for their customers, but they cannot even provide a bill! Instead they have no idea what your account is (credit or prepayment, direct debit payments, readings etcetera) and will hassle you repeatedly with blank PDFs demanding payment! Their licence should be revoked!!”
