London Electricity

I bought a brand new house last year and as such didn't have the choice of who supplied my utilities when I moved in. The house builder had chosen Scottish Power as my electricity provider and London Electricity (or London Energy as they are now called) as my gas company.

Things went well with the electicity side of things and I received a welcome letter from Scottish Power as a new customer and then started to receive regular bills from them. If only things were as good as that on the gas front!

I bought my house in October 2002 and by February 2003 hadn't had a bill or even heard from London Electricity, so I decided to contact them. The whole thing has been a shambles from start to (and I wish I could say finish but the saga still continues to this day) present!

At first London denied I was their customer.I then got in contact with my Gas transporter company who confirmed to me that London did supply my Gas. After some tooing and frowing London agreed I was their customer and set up my account with them. I then asked them to send me a bill for the five months I had been in the house. Sure enough I received a bill a week later, not from London but from SWEB! When I phoned both companies to enquire, no one from London or SWEB could understand why I received a bill from SWEB when I was a London customer. Understandbly I was reluctant to pay the bill to SWEB when I knew I was a London customer but was forced to pay or be cut off. It was only then that SWEB admitted that they are the same company as London Electricity and I had obviously been set up under the wrong brand. However, SWEB can't actually supply properties in Scotland where I live due to regulatory constraints and would have to swap me over to their London brand...but they were unable to simply pay the money I had paid SWEB to my London bill even though the call centre person could see both my SWEB account and London account on her computer screen! They had to send me a cheque which I cashed and then used to send a cheque for the same amount to London for the same bill!

Foolishly I decided to swap my electicity over to London and pay by monthly direct debit as they were cheapest for both fuels. What a mistake! Its my own fault really, I should have learned my lesson by the fact that their call centre staff know absolutely nothing about their products, services or prices anytime I call them. It started when they decided to lower my gas monthly payment to only £2, no one can yet provide me with an explanation as to why. Surely after four months of the billing department looking into it someone must have an answer by now?! And then the higher gas pricing than anyone else because I am "not a Transco customer"?!? Since the start, every time I get a bill from London for either gas or electicity the discounts I am entitled to as a 'dual fuel' customer (an impressive £38.20 a year) are never applied to the bills. Countless calls to them and promises that it will be sorted have never been fulfilled.

I am still trying to get my gas account corrected almost a year later, and the electricity account after seven months. I would have quit long before now and moved both supplies to another company, but doing that would be admitting defeat and I am now rather enjoying the challenge!

In short my advice to anyone thinking of moving to London Electricity is don't..........unless you relish a challenge!