Co-operative Energy

[blackambermay]

I am getting so sick of this company!

I changed from EDF to Co-op back in February 2012. I realised things were not going as planned when 5 months down the line I realised I hadn't had a bill. I telephoned them to be told that I wasn't with them and I needed to contact EDF, who also said I was no longer with them. I emailed both companies, asking them to confirm in writing whether the account was with them. EDF replied but Co-op didn't. I know they got the email as I received their automated "thank you for your email" blah blah.

I got fed up with chasing and decided to wait. Someone somewhere will notice that they are not getting any payments and will contact me surely.

Roll onto to January 2014 and I came home to a red letter threatening to break into my home. I emailed them again as I can't record calls here. Got the same auto reponse.

next day still not receiving a response. So I went onto Facebook and left a sarcastic message. Shouldn't have needed to take such a drastic step but there we are.

Anyway......it got their attention....but they then had to publicly admit they couldn't find the email. So a private message was sent to me, could I forward the email onto a named person in customer services and I was given an email address for this person.

I forwarded it on and after a little bit of an exchange, a request for the back billing code applied to be denied stating they said they had emailed me the bills but they clearly hadn't. They apologised as clearly there is nothing wrong with my email address or postal address and rather than leaving it so long they should have realised something was wrong and sent the bills by post. I made an arrangement to pay per month and they said they would send all bills by post.

Roll onto May 2014 and not a bill in sight. Nope instead they thought it would be much more professional to send a debt collectors letter to me instead. Now I have made payments as arranged. I emailed this women to which I have received no response. I sent a further email two days later stating that it would have been polite to at least acknowledge the email, again deadly silence.

I have now sent this to the energy ombudsman but short of turning up at their offices, somebody please explain to me why they see this as good business practice.

It just can't be normal to refuse to send bills wait some time then sent threatening letters.

I have no words to describe how inadequate I find this company. I just can't see what else I can do. I have kept all copies of the emails right back to 2012 to prove contact.

[Bazooka Boo]

Email the CEO and have them deal with it as clearly their staff are incompetent at best.

 

Plus they can only bill you for 12 months useage, they cannot bill you for the last two years.

[blackambermay]

Email the CEO and have them deal with it as clearly their staff are incompetent at best.

 

Plus they can only bill you for 12 months useage, they cannot bill you for the last two years.

 

 

I did that that last tuesday, no response to that either, I even have a delivery receipt through outlook for the last 3 emails so I know for a fact they have received them.

I know I am not the only one, their facebook page is littered with the same complaints

[ericsbrother]

Ok, phone Andy Springall, head of "customer experience" on 01926 576228 or 07837 902632. He is one step down from Chris Hill.

[blackambermay]

Well I tried that, in fact I sent a text to which to be fair he responded to straight away. I kept it at text message so again proof could be kept and supplied if needed. He asked for the account number and name which I gave him and he said he would look into it the next day and would get back to me. I was talking it over with one of my clients the next morning who advised that it would be very wise to keep everything still in writing so I send him a further text stating that given the seriousness of the situation all communication to be kept in writing.

No response to that message and I haven't heard anything else since. I was optimistic at first when he replied to the message straight away but unfortunately, and I am quite disappointed about this, he appears to have the same morals as the rest of his staff.

I work with quite a few companies and one thing that is clear to me that good attitude starts from the top down and if it is crap at the top it filters down to be crap at the bottom and I suspect this is why several parts of the Co-operative are struggling.

A few of my clients have fantastic attitudes, and when a complaint is made they really do make an effort to put it right first time.......and that is why they are successful companies.

[blackambermay]

Hmm, popped back home today to find an email.

Much of the same really, alleged contact, apparently even solicitors have been in contact.

I am so sick of this company treating me as if I am a special kind of stupid.

I don't know how many times I have got to say it.......they have made no contact whatsoever.

 

The email was missing so much of what did happen and contained more of what I know didn't happen.

[Bazooka Boo]

How long has this been going on since your first complaint? In excess of 8 weeks?

 

I'd send him one last message telling him that as they are unwilling to assist, you have today escalated the complaint to the energy ombudsman

for them to investigate.

And have also made the media (Watchdog) aware of the utter contempt his staff and senior management have for it's customers.

 

http://www.ombudsman-services.org/energy.html

[blackambermay]

I already have sent it to the Ombudsman.

I originally told them the truth about when I called them to be told that they didn't supply me, it was two months after I had received the final bill from EDF, so what was going on there I just don't know.

The ombudsman wrote to me telling me they couldn't investigate as it was too far back. I did say that it was actually an ongoing issue and that the phone call I made back in 2012 was the first indication that anything was wrong.

 

Didn't make any difference so I have resubmitted the complaint using the dates from January this year and just included all of the email correspondence.

From what I can see from the email is that their system holds very limited information, either through default or pure laziness. The run down of events is just plain not true, for sure.

[Bazooka Boo]

OMG! If the ombudsman doesn't want to know then we're all doomed!!

 

Have you contacted your local MP at all regarding this?

 

TBH if the energy companies don't want to help, and the EO doesn't or can't, then throw your hands up in the air like you just don't care and

ignore them, OR invite them to take you to court.....I really don't know!

 

The EO have their own complaints procedure too, either way no-one gets anything until the left arm knows what the right one is doing!

[blackambermay]

Well the Ombudsman so far hasn't thrown the 2nd complaint back at me yet so that option is still open.

 

After I received the last email from him, I forwarded all the contact emails that "didn't happen" including the facebook messages etc. I'm not beaten yet.

 

I need to to be sending them an invoice you know! The hours I have spent on this has meant less time spent on what I should be doing and that my clients accounts!

[Bazooka Boo]

Well tot it all up, LiP rates are £18 an hour now, so could be a nice little earner!

[blackambermay]

Well I would love to be able to come back and say that The Co-operative sorted themselves out but I am afraid not.

No customer ever should have to repeatedly ask for things to be done, whoever this Andy is, he is useless.

He is clearly relying solely on what the system says despite receiving evidence that the system is wrong. He had no intention of resolving this for sure. He doesn't do what he says he is going to do, he sidetracks questions, and the best excuse was the customer service has a large backlog of complaints. You don't say! I'm guessing that it might be a sweet time to find out why?!

 

Anybody considering The Co-operative for their supplier please don't. Their Facebook page and internet reviews are littered with the same complaint. We can't all be wrong

They make me so livid!

[nadosh2211]

I used to work for this company they are a shambles! Their systems never work and customers call and complain all day long. The staff are unprofessional sit and talk about things of a sexual nature and mangers abuse their positions. They are always over charging people and put people in credit which goes into the customers account and never into the customers pocket. Stay away from them . They charge customers to leave pathetic company. Treat their staff like second class citizens. Lie to customers constantly. The ombudsman aren't much better you have to go through a lengthy complaints procedure before they will even speak to you. Waste of time and money .

[blackambermay]

Tell me something I don't already know. The energy ombudsman had to remind them to send me a bill haha. Despite assurances that they would send me regular statements, I have received nothing other than an email from their collections requesting me to contact them. I had been making payments of £10.00 per week. Small amount because I wanted to drag this out. Despite the overwhelming evidence that I had against them, they merely gave the ombudsman the dates they claim they sent emailed bills.

In the absence of any promised statements, I stopped paying a couple of weeks ago, now I did email the person who contacted me to ask me to contact them and warned them that I would only remind them once to honour their promise to send statement. No response. Payments have now stopped and the little list of dates they allegedly sent bills will be the evidence they now present in court when they sue me. Compared to my evidence which includes every email I have sent and received from them, they are going to look very silly. I will be counter suing them for the stress caused and the hours spent trying to resolve this with their customer service department. (I am self employed you see) I can't wait!!

[Bazooka Boo]

How about letting your local MP know about this too, you'll be surprised how quickly these

corporations jump then!