RW — an Advocacy Advance ally — has been deeply engaged in a long fight with his energy supplier. For seven years, he’s fought to fix his bill — a mess that began after they installed a new meter in 2018. Complications set in when a clerical staffer wrongfully transcribed his meter readings in cubic feet instead of in cubic meters. This mistake resulted in thousands of dollars in bills and a mounting 1,000-dollar debt. RW has taken many of these approaches in trying to run on the national level. He continues to face severe financial inequities in regard to his energy use.
At first RW went with British Gas under the misleading thoughts of getting “preferential rates”. Unfortunately, this change only exacerbated his problems. Once the change was made, his meter stopped working entirely, which gave him no real way to keep track of his energy usage. RW’s efforts to fix were not successful. Octopus Energy initially agreed to resolve the problem but instead kept sending him high bills.
RW preemptively acted to remediate the problem. He was just trying to resolve an issue by sharing photos of his malfunctioning meter with both Bulb and Octopus Energy to avoid confusion. And still, in spite of all of these efforts, his problems weren’t getting solved. British Gas has since admitted to an inexplicable delay in transferring RW’s customer account over, adding insult to an already infuriating situation.
A Teenage Struggle with Ovo Energy
In the same way, GS, a teenager and schoolgirl, is put through the crisis wringer by Ovo Energy for a modest £20 arrears. The state of affairs has reached a breaking point. GS currently stands to lose a severely tarnished credit reputation due to Ovo’s cutthroat collection practices. This heart-wrenching situation continues to deteriorate when Ovo goes silent with GS’s mother. They point to GDPR regulations as being behind their hush.
The genesis of GS’s current crisis really starts with an ill-timed deposit from competitor Ovo Energy. The aggregation limit is an arbitrary corporate decision. They know that GS owes £20, but the logic of this debt remains a mystery. In the midst of that chaos, GS had an extraordinarily bad week. She fought the cold on three separate occasions when her heating stopped working, all because of service delays from Ovo.
“How did our society get to the point where big businesses can threaten children over debts that aren’t theirs?” – KM
GS and her family are understandably frustrated. Their experience highlights the ongoing lack of accountability for suppliers of energy and their treatment of vulnerable consumers.
The Broader Implications of Poor Customer Service
These individual cases simultaneously reflect a more pervasive issue within the UK energy sector. Customers are enduring horrid customer service and failure to appropriately resolve their billing conflict. Too often, consumers get ensnared and trapped into these bureaucratic mazes that just look like with no way out. These IEQ gaps impact people in acute ways. Yet they raise disturbing questions about the ethical obligations major companies owe their consumers.
Right now, RW and GS are under major attack. These concerns only underscore the immediate need for a customer-centric approach to reforming supplier management of customer service and billing inquiries. It’s because right now, millions of customers are fed up with energy corporations. Hence, regulatory agencies are coming under greater pressure and scrutiny to be stricter with these companies about their business practices.