Best is yet to come for growing pottery
Electricity dispute sparks debt of £6k
THE owner of two sandwich shops claims he is being victimised by his electricity supplier after he was trapped in a contract for a year.
Brenton Barratt, who runs the Subway franchises in Newcastle town centre and Milehouse, is now more than £6,000 in arrears with npower because of a dispute with the company.
-
BATTLE: Brenton Barratt, who runs the Subway franchises, wanted to move to different power supplier.
The 34-year-old claims his broker contacted npower in March last year, asking for his contract to be terminated in July so that he could move to a cheaper supplier.
npower asks contracts to be terminated in writing at least 90 days before they are due to expire.
But the supplier claims that it never received the request.
That meant Mr Barratt's contract was renewed automatically for another year at an increased price.
Since then the Subway boss has been paying npower as much as he believes he would have owed the cheaper supplier.
But that left his debt with the company increasing by hundreds of pounds each month.
Mr Barratt, of Sorrel Gardens, Newcastle, said: "I'm disgusted that a big company like npower is treating its customers in this way.
"My broker has said that another one of his clients wrote to npower after having this same problem, and npower took their word for it and allowed them to get out of their contract.
"I feel I'm being victimised by npower. I think it's because we're such a high user of electricity.
"Everything at Subway is electric – the ovens, the microwaves, the fridges – and so I think they're discriminating against us."
After discovering the contract was going to be renewed, Mr Barratt's broker Simon Askew sent npower a copy of the original termination request. But by that point it was too late.
The Energy Ombudsman, which Mr Barratt asked to look into the matter, has now ruled in npower's favour – a decision that surprised Mr Askew.
He said: "I was really expecting them to agree with us.
"We act as brokers for all Subway franchises, and there was one in Buckingham which had the same problem.
"They did the same thing as us, but in their case npower agreed to terminate the contract.
"I don't know why Mr Barratt's case should be treated any differently."
A spokesman for npower said that, while the company did not require termination requests to be sent via recorded delivery, doing so would provide customers with reassurance.
He said that if Mr Barratt had been able to send evidence that the original termination request was sent in March, npower would have done as requested.
The spokesman added: "After a thorough and independent review of the case, the Ombudsman was satisfied that we had not received the required termination notice.
"As such, the Ombudsman required no further action from npower.
"We are confident that we have acted correctly in this instance and, having now received the Ombudsman's ruling, we will not be taking any further action.
"The customer has been free to transfer to their chosen supplier since their renewal contract ended on July 11."
But Mr Askew said it was unlikely Mr Barratt would be able to transfer his account to another supplier due to the £6,000 debt, meaning he is effectively stuck with npower.
16 Comments
View all
by Simon, South Yorkshire
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 10:51PM
“Darren,
We have proof it was sent just not proof it was received.
Npowered,
You are much mistaken. A supplier can object for 3 reasons. 1- Contract 2- Debt 3 - Related supply issue.
I'm not sure where you get your information but I suspect that you believe that domestic rules apply to commercial accounts. This is not the case.”
by dave, stoke
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 9:22PM
“as everyone else has to pay the bills. Suppliers can object to supplys leaving them if you owe money.”
by npowered, stoke
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 6:18PM
“what get me in all this is that an SME customer can change suppiier without notice, so why worry about the debt?
npower cant object to him moving on grounds of debt, that is part ofgems condiions of supply.
Surely if he used a broker he would of advised hom of this?”
by Gary Elsby, Baddeley Green
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 4:58PM
“A contract is only for the supply and not the price. The price only guarantees one year of the set price and then it enters the full market. So why sign a long contract? How many cases has the Sentinel covered of a supplier suing a client for breach of contract? Can I guess at none? I have just informed my supplier that they are too expensive and I'm off! They have just dropped my price by 50%.”
by Darren, Stone
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 4:29PM
“Simon
"Suppliers frequently deny receiving communication" - so why the hell didn't you have proof?
This is your job to broker deals. You have the experience of knowing what these companies are like.
It is but a tiny part of mine dealing with them, but I still manage to make sure I have proof it's been sent, and then acknowledged.”
by jason, fenton
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 4:16PM
“I can fully understand where Mr Barratt is coming from. Earlier this year I had a dispute with Npower after they sent me a bill saying I was £350 in arrears on my electricity account, after examining the bill I found that they had charged the same for day and night electric, and not the two different charges that are displayed on my electric meter. I paid the amount in full on my credit card then went about making a complaint through the company's complaints proceedure which I was told could take between 6 and 8 weeks. However after 8 weeks the matter had still not been rectified so I contacted Consumer Direct on 0845 4040 506. They gave me a reference number which I e-mailed and sent another letter by recorded delivery to Npower and surprise surprise Npower all of a sudden resolved the matter within a couple of days. So my advice to Mr Barratt and Mr Askew is not to give up and contact Consumer Direct and appeal the decision by the ombudsman. These companies will only walk all over you if you let them, keep harrassing them and they soon get tred of dealing with your complaint and let you out of your contract. Best of luck with your appeal.”
by Simon, South Yorkshire
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 3:52PM
“Darren,
Suppliers frequently deny receiving communicaton be it termination notices or otherwise. Even when evidence such as read receipts are produced they still don't offer an apology for their error and only backtrack because they are forced to. In a feeble attempt to convince the Ombudsman that the letter hadn't been sent in this instance they tried to say the emailed document wasn't even created until June 08. Again another error on their part which was later acknowledged.
The industry needs a big kick up the back side and situations such as this are the reason why sneaky tactics by suppliers will no longer be succesful from 1st December when the new regulations kick in.
Too little too late and suppliers have been getting away with this for years.”
by Darren, Stone
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 3:09PM
“Simon
A letter may have been sent - doesn't mean it was received. Verbal notice was given - presumably it was asked to be confirmed in writing.
It's alright stating that another franchisee was treated differently, take that as your warning that unless you've received confirmation, or have proof that termination was given, these contracts will roll over.”
by dan, newcastle
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 2:50PM
“R, Staffordshire ' who are you with if you dont mind me asking lol ?”
by dan, newcastle
Tuesday, August 11 2009, 2:48PM
“ive just moved into a house and its on a brittish gas meter top up, we wanted go on a pay monthly with edf or scottish power but couldnt get through to then and they never gave the call back, npower answerd so they are sending the forms through to switch, do any of you think its going be a bad move to npower, who would you recomend for a pay monthly using electric only?”