A Nottinghamshire woman says that an energy company nearly 'sank her business' after they overcharged her by thousands of pounds. Geraldine Murphy, 53, who lives in Sutton in Ashfield, is still fighting to be given more than £3,000 which she says she is owed by Pozitive Energy, a company based in Colchester.
Mrs Murphy runs a holiday lets businesses and Pozitive Energy is the provider of gas and electric at two of her properties in Baslow, Derbyshire. The business was first started in 2007 and Mrs Murphy took on the Baslow flats around two years ago.
She said problems with Pozitive Energy began last June, as Mrs Murphy approached the end of her yearly contract with the company. Mrs Murphy says that she sent an email on June 21 requesting that her contract be renewed for another 12 months.
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Despite repeatedly chasing the company, she said they never confirmed that the contract had been renewed and, as a result, said they began charging an out-of-contract rate. Mrs Murphy said: "The charges just started to go crazy and especially as we went into the winter when the costs were going up anyway.
"We certainly hadn't had any easy time anyway coming out of covid and this nearly sank us. I chased and chased the company but everyone I spoke to just didn't seem to have a clue.
"I was getting more and more frustrated and then I had an email on December 10 with an urgent request to put me back into contract as they had found my email from June requesting a renewal. I'd been on this out-of-contract rate for about four months and in that time, they took more than £5,000 out of my accounts."
Mrs Murphy has four accounts with Pozitive Energy, one gas and one electric account for each of her two Derbyshire properties. After being placed back on contract, Mrs Murphy stopped her direct debit to the company this January.
Ever since, credit of £3,057.33 has been used to pay the bills on three of her accounts, whilst bills on the final electric account have been paid as they are charged. Despite the credit in her account, Mrs Murphy has repeatedly told the company that she wanted the money directly refunded to her and an investigation from the Energy Ombudsman back in April ruled that this should happen.
The decision from one of the Ombudsman's investigating officers said: "I can see that Pozitive Energy has reconciled your account and due to this there is a £3,057.33 credit on your account. I do appreciate that you want this refunded direct to you and although Pozitive Energy say there is no evidence that you have requested this, it is my view that Pozitive Energy should refund this direct to you as you have requested that it refund any overpayments to you.
"I can see that you have contacted Pozitive Energy on numerous occasions and, in my view, Pozitive Energy could have assisted you with your billing queries in a much more efficient manner. I have taken into consideration the longevity of your complaint and the prolonged resolution. It is my view that if Pozitive Energy would have assisted you more efficiently then you may not have felt the need to pursue your complaint to Ombudsman Services."
As well as ruling that Pozitive Energy should directly refund Mrs Murphy, the Ombudsman also said that they should pay her an extra £125 as a gesture of goodwill and send her a letter of apology. Months on from that decision, Mrs Murphy has still not been directly refunded.
She said: "We're leaving the flats and we're leaving on completely good terms with our landlord, so I really don't want to pass all of this on to her. We had no choice about having Pozitive Energy as they came with the flats, but now it seems as though we can't leave them.
"The contract is ending again and I've chased them countless times asking them to now start the termination process but I've not had any confirmation of this. What's going to happen is that they'll end up putting me on the out-of-contract rate again in September.
"It's been so stressful to deal with and it isn't right that people should be having to fight companies like this. If it wasn't for this company, we might have kept on to the two flats for longer but they have just made it impossible."
Pozitive Energy describes itself on its website as having a "unique setup" which means that it can "respond swiftly to new customers needs." The company did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
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