Good energy, appalling company

Three years ago, the Other Half and I decided that we’d change our electricity supplier to one that only used renewable sources to generate energy.

We settled on a company that was then known as Unite, finding it via a page on the Liberal Democrat website that listed the company as the only energy supplier that used renewables only.

We’d come across a few mentions of Unite before that, but decided to click through from the Liberal Democrats and sign up as new customers.

Since then, we’ve had more than three years of hassle with the company, now known as Good Energy, culminating in my submtting an official complaint to EnergyWatch today.

The final straw was receiving a final demand for £96 today - 17 months after we paid Good Energy’s previous final demand of £214 and 20 months after we ditched them as our electricity supplier. We’ve received no other communication from them since making that payment.

To add insult to injury, when I called Good Energy today to complain, I was completely unable to get past their call centre’s interminable hold music and messages.

Then, when I tried to email the address on their letter the email bounced back.

So, my next step was to visit EnergyWatch and submit a formal complaint. The key details are posted here - bearing in mind that this was cut and pasted from the EnergyWatch form:

What is your complaint about?
I signed up with Good Energy (then Unite) when I lived in Skipton, North Yorkshire, and set up a direct debit to pay the bill.
In fact, at first, they sent us a letter saying we’d opted to pay in arrears by cheque or cash - even though we’d set up a direct debit.
The direct debit was then paid a couple of times, then the money stopped going out. I complained, thought it had been sorted and then discovered it hadn’t. This rumbled on for some time.
We then moved to our current address and stayed with Good Energy. Again, we had problems with getting the correct amount taken out via direct debit.
Every time we spoke with Good Energy, they had no record of our previous contacts, and by January 2005 it was obvious the stuffups meant our account was seriously in arrears. So we paid £300 on 22 January to catch up, kept paying the direct debits and initiated a change of electricity suppliers, which went through in April).
We then received a final notice from Good Energy dated 14 June 2005, demanding £214.78 within seven days. A further demand, dated 28 June, arrived a couple of weeks later.
Aside from our communications to change suppliers, we had had no other communications from Good Energy.
Upon receiving the final demand, I contacted Good Energy, re-informed an Alice Waltham - 01249 766090 - of the whole sorry mess (which wasn’t on record apparently) and paid £214.78 via bank transfer to 57-02-34 00000000.
I thought that would be the end of it.
However, today I received another final demand from Good Energy. This time for £97.64.
The demand stated that we had been sent a bill and two reminders. We have had NO communications from Good Energy between 28 June 2005 and today, 20 November 2006, and we have never ignored a bill from any company. We always pay on time, usually by direct debit, debit card or bank transfer.
When I’d read the demand that arrived today, I tried to telephone Good Energy but after 40 minutes listening to an interminable on-hold message, I decided to complain.
The difference between Good Energy and our current electricity provider, Scottish Hydro, is so marked as to defy belief. When we switched, Scottish Hydro was a model of efficiency, has kept us informed of any changes needed to our direct debits, and their communications on all matters (including blackouts, line repairs, tree topping) has been impeccable.
Green Energy on the other hand has been a disaster from start to finish - and as we’ve found there seems to be no finish.

What did you say?
I have been unable to contact them by phone today to say what I think, but I am emailing them with a copy of this complaint using the address on their demand - enquiries@good-energy.co.uk. I’m also posting them a copy, but as they plan to take further action against us with 14 days of the date of the letter (14 November 2006), then I want to get this moving ASAP.

What did they say?
Nothing this time. In the past, every single telephone call has been along the lines of “We have no record of your complaint/problems/queries”. I then explain everything again, get the situation sorted (I think) and then discover the problem has either happened again or something else has gone wrong.

As I signed up with Good Energy after finding it as a recommended, all-renewables supplier on the LibDem website, I’ve also copied the complaint to both my MSP, Nora Radcliffe, and MP, Malcolm Bruce - both of whom are Liberal Democrats.

While I’m not taking the complaint up with them at this point, I did point out that if a political party endorses an incompetent, arrogant and blundering business then it is bound to reflect badly on the party. I had a personal response from Mrs Radcliffe with half an hour and an equally quick response from Mr Bruce’s office.

So if you’re thinking of buying your electricity from a company that boasts how it sources electricity from renewable sources only, don’t let it be Good Energy.

The energy may be good but the company is truly appalling.