Electricity buyer lastly receives £6,000 settlement

Electricity buyer Yvonne Bayford has had loads of staggering moments since she started chasing a last invoice and sure credit score over a yr in the past, however the newest one has topped all of them.

Now as an alternative of the £3,000 she reckoned she was owed, £6,000 has been paid into her account in a settlement by her former provider SSE (Energy), now a part of Ovo.

“It has been such a slog. Although I hadn’t given up, I used to be in despair. One time once I known as they mentioned I used to be owed cash, then I might hear it was the other and I could be in debt.”

Crusader had been my last hope and now they have done what they promised,” Yvonne said when she shared the good news.

Beaten back by brick walls at every turn and shocking bungles, we had joined forces with her a few months ago after her complaint had been upheld by the Ombudsman Services: Energy, but it had not resulted in any action.

She had done everything required of a customer before moving home, sending in regular meter readings and photos and keeping a record.

In return, she received hugely contradictory usage and cost figures. The roots of the problem, it emerged, stemmed from massive technical failures by her first supplier Bulb, prior to it going bust.

It changed Yvonne’s meter but failed to register it and update it on the national database, something today’s customers might take note of if they also have a new meter, to ensure it has been done.

From then on Yvonne was in a digital black hole, naturally unaware of the error and bewildered as to why it was impossible to get accurate bills from her new supplier, SSE.

The Ombudsman backed her but SSE/Ovo appealed so it reinvestigated last year and ordered she be rebilled from actual readings.

While both parties agreed to this, and many times both she and Crusader were told she had been paid, Yvonne kept double-checking her bank account, but it was not so.

Unable to face the prospect of resorting to court, she kept plugging away with our support.

And the sincere apology Ovo offered for the inconvenience, plus a £200 goodwill gesture and the correct credit, are now a reality.

“I never did get a cost breakdown but that’s alright. Crusader’s persistence helped me stay the course.”

I felt so misplaced, unable to work out what was happening and why,” says Yvonne, who’s celebrating one other new-found freedom as she now lives with household.

“My days of worrying about energy companies and bills are over, but never give up is my message to others,” she declares. “It could happen again.”