Sorting out the muddle and ending the necessity for Diane Best to fill in additional types, will ease the stress on her too as she copes with life as a widow.

Yet one other casualty of provider Bulb’s chaotic administration previous to its collapse in November 2021, adopted by Octopus Energy’s takeover, Diane was nonetheless fighting the fallout and attempting to set her account straight when she got here to Crusader a few weeks in the past.

Like many others doing their finest to learn their meters and file utilization numbers, Diane had slipped up up to now. As an Economy 7 buyer, she had filed the identical readings for day and evening charges, which had put her severely out of sync along with her direct debits.

On realising her error in June final 12 months, she despatched in right readings and meter photographs.

“But Bulb continued to make estimates,” Diane instructed Crusader.

“Then from October until January, before it moved to Octopus Energy, they reduced my direct debit to £1 a month because of the credit they said I had.

“But this was immediately followed by a statement from Octopus showing that I was in £2,000 of debt.

“I explained to them that Bulb had not increased my debit despite me sending in correct readings. It was all so confusing and unfair.

“The next I knew was last month when I saw I had been debited for the £2,076.

“I was then asked to complete another form for an affordability specialist. The worry has been really terrible.”

We despatched the saga to Octopus, and in addition identified Diane’s struggles and sincere makes an attempt to rectify issues earlier than they acquired out of hand.

In a unbelievable and honest end result, Octopus has now agreed to return the cost so the debt is cleared.

In a method Octopus was unaware of when it made the choice, that has had much more impression due to Diane’s specific circumstances.

“This is such a weight off my shoulders as I budget for a life living alone, thank you all,” was her heartfelt response.

● Diane’s title has been modified