I would like to ask the audience if me and my partner should just move out without paying out energy bill. I know how it sounds but let me explain. And sorry for the writing style im not the best story teller.
My husband and i moved into this overpriced "flat" in August. We were getting married in October so we were quite busy and weren't really concerned with setting up energy suppliers at the time. (I admit that was our mistake) However our current supplier Octopus Energy was informed that we were moving into the new place and that we wanted to continue being with them.
Come october time we recieve a letter from the energy provider E-on, the letter was addressed to our landlord, lets call him Micky, (first floor, of our address) you owe us £800. We contacted e-on and explained we are not your customer. At the time we didnt even know that was the landlords name since he lives in Thailand and the communication was fully through the agency. After calling and emailing E-on they said dont worry we will sort it out no problem. We took the employee word for it (another mistake we made.)
Then we focused on octopus energy. For months we didnt receive an bill at all from them. Online it was zero. We advantageously called them and told them look we dont have a bill whats the problem. Then all of a sudden it was a huge bill but the gas was added. For reference out flat is only electricity. Confirmed by our agency. We called DOZENS of times and emailed back and forth with octopus saying we dont have gas. This took months. Where they would remove it and then a couple days later it would be re-added. I cant stress enough how frustrating this was. Being on the phone for hours just for it to be reverse. Then we would have to call again
Even the agency contacted octopus and told them but nothing. Months of this, went by and we advantageously found out a few issues.
-the landlord was doing shady things and didnt separate the addresses on the national database. So octopus would constantly refer to this and reverse the bill thinking it was one address.
-octopus was the provider for our downstairs neighbour. So eventhough we sent them out meter (dozens of times) on our bill it was our neighbours meter.
-they later send an engineer and he got the evidence logged it, gave us a job number, so when we contact again they can see the evidence for themselves. He said "with this even if they dont have the best english skills they would still be able to see the evidence" so it was very clear.
But no another month goes by and they were straight ignoring our emails and the gas was re-added.
While this was all happening E-on was harassing us for a bill which then climbed to £1500+ And a engineer was sent. Who refused to leave for 45 mins trying to attach me to an account under someone else name. (At the time i didnt know it was the landlords name and the address was set differently to what our tenancy was. (For ex the bill said – first floor, our address to our tenancy – flat A, our address) he threaten me with court and i replied with good luck my name isnt on the account. He continue to try to get any information to stick me to the account when i said many times i was with octopus. Another engineer was sent later but he left alot quicker then the first.
Meanwhile they found my downstairs neighbours information and stuck her with the bill and threatened her with court. (When she moved in, years prior, she contacted them and told them to close her account with them because she was with octopus. So E-on reopened it and attached her name. Eventhough its not her meter.
We even contacted Octopus telling them about E-on and they replied with "not sure why that is happening, you have always been with us"
Now to present time. Octopus then sends us one more email saying we have found out that we have made a mistake and attached your bill to you neighbours account. ( no shit we been saying this for months but go on) then said we will refund you the money you have paid us because we have found out that you are E-on customer… i was in shock.
So not only have we had to deal with all this nonsense but now we are being thrown at E-on when we were never there customer to begin with. Hence them not having any of our information. And E-on would of ran that bill right up by now with late fees and anything else they could imagine. When we never wanted to be with them in the first place. At best we owe e-on two months, from Aug-october then closed the account. There employee should have done this but just told us dont worry we will sort it out. Then octopus should of taken over. Like they told us they have. Ive logged an official complaint with octopus because its not fair. Its not like we were trying to not pay our bill all this time. But now we are being told to go back to the more expensive provider when were not ever there customer.
So my question is… should we just dip ? Because honestly we are tired with both providers, agency and horrible landlord. E-on doesnt have out information. But this has gone on for a year. And i believe we have done everything right. So can we get away with this? Or should we bite the bullet and contact E-on and pay the huge bill with most likely fees.