Spark Energy Gas & Electricity www.sparkenergy.co.uk Reviews

Spark Energy Gas & Electricity www.sparkenergy.co.uk
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Latest Reviews

“Truly Terrible”

★☆☆☆☆

written by smudge055785 on 15/11/2019

Wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy never mind to a friend. Endless billing issues which they don't seem interested in sorting out. Don't reply to complaints or return phone calls. Send your account to a collections agency without issuing a bill or requesting payment first. God help you if you have any issues as Spark Energy won't.

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“Have setup with estate agent Gibbs Gillespie”

★☆☆☆☆

written by ramkrishnajain on 31/07/2019

This energy company works very closely with estate agent Gibbs Gillespie and will hit you with extortionate charges as the agent receives commission. I received a bill after 6 months of leaving them and they cannot give me the reason why the charges are so high. They will threaten you with solicitors etc and will make you pay. There customer service sucks. Please be careful with this. I will never recommend this company to anyone. One of the worst energy company you can deal with. Surprised they are still in business. Absolute terrible and I am surprised that ofgem are still allowing them to continue.

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“Absolutely avoid at all costs.”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Rich0202 on 28/03/2019

I have had a frankly terrible experience with Spark Energy ever since we joined them. Their customer service is non-existent. Complaints are never addressed, emails are never answered and call-backs are never honoured. It is very, very poor and frankly disrespectful to simply ignore queries raised by paying customers giving up their free time to try to resolve their issues in this way. There is absolutely no excuse for it, particularly given the number of times they have vowed to rectify it by promising to get back to me and then not doing so. In addition, customer service staff are often rude and do not know the answers to the most basic questions. The company went into administration in November, creating new accounts and leaving the old ones to be dealt with by debt collectors, all without notifying any of its customers. Following this Spark increased our direct debit to a more expensive rate without notifying us beforehand. This has been an absolute nightmare to rectify and remains unchanged. We are frequently over-charged for our energy usage due to inaccurate meter readings on their system which are simply not altered despite their recurrent promises. They are an incredibly disorganised business and I would absolutely not recommend them. I was not in the slightest bit surprised to find out that Spark Energy were ranked the second-worst energy supplier in the 2019 Which? Survey. We have now switched to another energy company, and fully expect to have to involve the ombudsman in order to resolve the current dispute regarding over-payment. Never in my life have I felt so mistreated by a company. Absolutely avoid at all costs.

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“WOULDNT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE”

★☆☆☆☆

written by khDouglas171 on 22/08/2018

I bought a property who had Spark Energy as the supplier.I gave them my opening readings and then set about arranging to transfer to another supplier. I read the meters again one month later and checked on my account to find that the readings recorded were incorrect and were actually higher than those on that day, 1 month later.I was told it was because they were estimated but I had sent through photographs of the actual meter and also spoke to a staff member.I was cut off several times and couldnt get any response. The same thing also happened to a friend of mine, who's readings were estimated despite phone calls and emails advising that they were higher than the opening reading when he moved in. plus photos being sent and several phone calls. They were estimating his monthly bill for a 3 bed house to be £300. I would never ever recommend this company. they are still holding on to my credit balances for both my accounts and I have not had any final bills since moving supplier.

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“Shambolic, avoid and switch to another provider before...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Halery85 on 22/05/2018

Shambolic company that should be stripped of a licence to operate in UK and should be further fined by the government for abusing customers and not respecting basic consumer rights. For a year now I cannot get the legitimate correct bill from Spark Energy. On several documented occasions he company has attempted to extort money from me, over-charging me and including fake meter readings in issued bills, changing electricity rate randomly without my agreement. In spite of Energy Ombudsman ruling supporting my claims and demanding from Spark Energy to revise the bills and issue a correct final bill for the whole year of 2017, the company still issued incorrect bill with wrong meter readings, with higher charge than agreed and than requested by Energy Ombudsman. Staff at customer service and customer relations team are incompetent and have demonstrated that on several occasions (including but not limited to, by lack of knowledge of consumer rights). My advice is avoid and double check all your bills and meter readings included in your bills. In my case Spark Energy demonstrated on several occasions that their business model is based on attempts to extort money and other illegal practices and not on providing a fair service. I documented already few examples where the company attempted to extort money from me by providing illegitimate bills and harassed me to pay those with everyday text messages and automated calls.

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“Steer well clear of these incompetent bullies!”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Pugpuppy on 03/04/2018

Awful company, unsuspecting tenants are offered an attractive introductory rate which swiftly rises leaving them in debt, larger payments are then taken from their accounts by direct debit with no warning. Once in debt, customers are unable to leave and are harassed by debt collectors. Their app and website don’t always accept meter readings which gives Spark another method of extracting money by issuing an estimated bill because they didn’t get the readings. Customer service is appallingly poor, wait times of over an hour to get through by phone, ring back service doesn’t ring back, long wait times on live chat. They “lose” important letters and manufacture accounts, their staff for the most part are rude and inefficient. They are causing misery for countless numbers of current and past customers, they seriously need to be investigated and hopefully shut down.

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“In a League of their own... for incompetence!”

★☆☆☆☆

written by InspiredCanterbury on 28/03/2018

We are multiple landlords (50+ properties). Dealing with utility companies is never easy, and sadly we waste lots of time doing just that at the end of tenancies. Spark Energy however are in a league of their own when it comes to incompetence! Multiple email threads, facebook messenger threads, and HOURS wasted on the phone with this bunch over a period of many weeks, in the end has the same result, they just don't reply! All we ever get is a barrage of emails/texts/phonecalls from their debt collection companies, even tho we pay IMMEDIATELY upon receipt of CORRECT bills! We have now requested that our tenants NEVER switch to Spark Energy under any circumstances, and we'd offer the same advice to you! N.B Would have given zero stars if possible!

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“Hell”

★☆☆☆☆

written by torionya on 23/03/2018

Moved in my new flat in September last year, have tried to contact Spark countless times ever since to get the correct bill and clear the balance. I provided them all meter readings and proof of my move in date. The responses from their customer service are all robotic and they never got anything sorted! It's been 7 months now and I still have no correct bill. Spark kept sending me wrong bills from date prior to me moving in, including late payment charge, admin fees?! Contacted them again and again via email, chat, phone, etc. but never get it sorted! FYI phone calls took me 2+ hours to stay on the queue and dropped in the end! They also had a "calling back" option, but you guess it right, not a single call back whatsoever! I couldn't change the supplier either since Spark refused it because of unclear balance. Spark also transferred the case to a debt agency who threatened to cut out electricity and charge me debt collection fee, reconnecting charges?! Hey Spark, I've never wanted to be a Spark customer and never will! Believe me, you will never want to deal with Spark in your life!!!

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“Terrible experience with this company - would not...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Caddy100 on 08/03/2018

Terrible experience with this company - would not recommend. They have taken over £1200 from me in 6 months, over £900 of this in the past 2 months. My bills and online account have two different tariffs and they almost doubled my direct debit without any advance notification nor have I received a clear explanation for this. Have tried to switch provider and Spark have blocked this twice. Poor customer service and will never use again.

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“I moved to a rented property in which the previous...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by meVelez497 on 22/02/2018

I moved to a rented property in which the previous tenant racked up £3500 worth of bills with Spark. Because Spark only send quarterly statements it wasn't until three months after moving in that I got all the information and the absurd estimates. They keep texting me for money, keep putting up my DD without permission and every time I call to complain they smooth it over with the same speech - oh we don't want you to pay for the previous tenant but we do rely on estimates. I live alone, in a studio, I work all day - I must be providing electricity to the ENTIRE 20 floor building to justify these estimates. Started giving my readings every month and was told that because I give them in the middle of the month and not at the end - they can't calculate daily usage. A kid with a calculator can do it but not Spark. NEVER use them, run away from every letting agent that says you have to have Spark, burn every Spark sales leaflet you get. AWFUL service and insane calculations (or lack thereof).

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“left without electricity following fire”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Ashworthyp206 on 02/11/2017

refused to fit new smart meter after fire despite being declared safe by western electricity. neighbour with another company had new smart meter fitted immediately. still no electricity after two weeks unable return home despite auto immune disease. very difficult to speak anyone takes hours on phone, told 80 people ahead in que and then operators cut you off when do get through.

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“THREATENING TEXTS & EMAILS after never having account ?”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Suzie777 on 15/05/2017

After moving into a rental property in Jan 16 and seeing a welcome pack from Spark I immediately changed to a company I knew and trusted. I stayed in the property about 6 months then moved and never heard from Spark again. Which was lovely. Then Apr 2017 I start getting threatening texts and emails from spark demanding £29. I've phoned twice now, and been given 2 dates one is Feb 16 by which time I had already changed to a different company. That company sent me a refund when I left as I had over paid. The second date is Dec 15 before I even moved in. Spoke to a manager who refused to stop the threatening texts. AVOID this company at all costs. READ the reviews and visitor posts on Facebook. It's common practice for this company to distress customers.

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“Incompetent, no supply”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Tinahurford on 12/05/2017

Left with no gas supply. Breached contract as failed to supply pre payment facility. Never told me this till I switched. No in debt with previous supplier and have no gas . To cook , heat my home and no hot water. Think carefully before switching. Customer service go over same thing for hours.... promise call from management... didn't bother. Still not RESOLVED after 10 days of switch .... THINK ABOUT SWITCHING

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“Masters of unprofessionalism”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Nnandat on 22/02/2017

Spark Energy is essentially a 'sponsoring' energy supplier of many letting agents and/or landlords, so the latter especially get commission whenever they sign up new tenants to them – regardless of the tenants' explicit permission to NOT do this. That aside, it is also a company that seems to thrive on incompetence, errors, prevarication, playing obtuse games and – what has since become their glittering hallmark – creating phantom [final] bills should customers dare defy them by switching supplier, particularly when customers have corroboratively NOT used any energy whatsoever to constitute a bill, let alone one of an illogically exorbitant price. Should a customer dispute such bills, Spark Energy pretends to consider and/or accept the fault, then – when the customer thinks the matter has been long resolved – unleashes the debt collectors and further harasses and threatens to deceptively extort money. Money-grabbing. Unethical. Crooked. Deceitful. And, of course, unprofessional. This is Spark Energy.

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“POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Sierra260 on 16/01/2017

I moved into my new apartment 8 months ago and have had nothing but poor service from Spark. I was sent bills for the previous tenant who had left without a forwarding address. I don't know what tariff I am on but having received my last bill, I think I am heating the whole building. I lived in a larger property before, had a pay as you go meter and did not pay half as much. I have tried to agree a figure with them with regards to my direct debit but the figure they want is far too high. I'm out at work all day and hardly use electricity and there is no gas in the property. Where they get their figures from I do not know. Looking to change supplier ASAP.

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“Poor IT, incorrect billing, incorrect meter readings”

★★☆☆☆

written by AiyanaErickson42 on 01/11/2016

As a tenant moving into a new property, the letting agent had moved utilities (gas and electric) over to Spark Energy. As a 'new' company to the energy market I was prepared to give them a chance over the 'big' companies, and hoped that they would not be constrained by legacy technology systems, and poor customer service. Unfortunately what followed was a catalogue of errors: 1) Upon moving in, and discovering gas & electic was supplied by Spark, submitted my meter readings and registered online account. 2) Online account did now show any electric or gas accounts as set up for almost 3 weeks after initial readings provided and account registered 3) Once accounts were visible, did not show correct meter readings 4) Took 3 attempts to submit initial meter readings, tried online, chat and phone 5) Received two bills in 3 months. Despite sending meter readings 2 weeks before each bill, both bills were incorrect either due to initial starting reading or not using supplied meter reading and using an estimate 6) Bills exceptionally expensive when compared to any of the big suppliers (E.On for example were almost £100/month cheaper on a like for like comparison) 7) Wait times either on chat or on phone averaged approx 20 mins Unfortunately Spark have a long way to go to either be competitive on price or service to take business away from the big suppliers.

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“Yes, but....”

★★☆☆☆

written by Richardinglesmaldie on 29/10/2016

Good service and excellent tarrifs. Pricing stayed good throughout the contract so no need to reapply or switch every year. This is in contrast to the "great deals" from big 6 and many others where deals are for 12 months then revert to standard (ie expensive) rate without notice. However after moving house and doing a market check I found a better deal and closed my Spark account. That was in June and was followed by several phone calls and emails to have my credit balance refunded. It took until late October to be told - your refund has gone through and will be with you in 28 days. Not good enough. More review to follow if it does not turn up.

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“Fine until you change supplier”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Awright12 on 12/08/2016

Didn't have any problems with spark until I changed supplier. Have been trying to have a problem with my account sorted for weeks now but getting nowhere. Don't know what's happening and get palmed off every time I contact them. Ok as a supplier but no rewards for being in credit. Would have rated average/ good before but would definitely avoid now.

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“Appalling company.”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Keshawne33 on 24/07/2016

Gave up the tenancy on my 1 bedroom flat after paying £40pm for 30 months for gas only, pre-payment meter for electricity. I work full time and gave regular readings for my gas and every time I called I was told I had a dual fuel tariff for electricity and gas despite having pre-payment meter. I gave correct info and was told things would be updated and was assured my £40pm was covering my gas usage. I have just received my final bill and they are suggesting I have used over £1,000 of gas in 29 days and are threatening to take me to a debt collection agency. Customer service beyond abysmal, just wish they had a no star rating for this company.

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“Absolutely appalling company”

★☆☆☆☆

written by Jess47890 on 18/07/2016

We arranged for our electricity prepayment meter to be changed over to a normal credit meter, following our move into a new rental property where unfortunately Spark were the energy supplier that we inherited. Towards the end of June, the engineer completed this work and told us that he would send all of the required information to Spark so that they could update their records for us. One week later, I receive a bill from Spark that is only for our gas supply. Sure enough, I log onto my online account and it is still showing that our electricity supply is a prepayment meter. When I contact Spark to tell them about their error, I am told that I will have to send them a picture of the new meter to enable them to update their records. Ah, of course it would be my responsibility! I do wish that this had been the end of it. However, it wasn’t. I have then spent the next two weeks chasing Spark to get them to update their records because despite receiving the photo I immediately sent them, they still have not updated the database. Last week, after reaching the end of my tether with them on this, I asked for their complaints team to get in touch. Again, I’m still waiting even for this call, as well as the resolution to my problem that will actually allow me to get away from Spark and switch to a new supplier. They have used delaying tactics so that they can keep me hostage as a customer. Either that, or they are just woefully incompetent. Probably a combination of the two. Please do not use this company, they are the worst energy suppliers I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Utterly appalling.

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Asked by joannethrelfall on 26th April 2015 Report this content
Hi iv lost my electric key what do I do

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Answers (1)
Report this content layna Written on: 27/04/2015
I would phone them or there's a live chat on the website that may be able to help you.
Asked by Scotland1314 on 7th June 2014 Report this content
My sister has joined spark energy and has asked me to find out if she has done the right thing before her cooling off period ends. Should she stay or should she go?

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Answers (7)
Report this content ElectricEX Written on: 09/06/2014
In my experience this company is not worth the apparently cheap prices. There are other cheap companies out there (such as Utility Warehouse) who offer much better websites, call centres, etc. I would say avoid while you still can. ElectricEX
Report this content michaelmac Written on: 09/06/2014
I left spark energy in february/march this year, although their prices are competative if you decide to leave them,they raise objections to delay the switch, I had to email the managing director in order to get back £300 which I had been overcharged, their online CHAT never ever worked I have been with many companies for my energy supply, but this company I reported to OFGEM it is disgracful, tell your sister to leave them, their customers are the last thing they care about ! and don't beleive all the "GOOD" reviews about spark energy its a load of lies !! they say sorry for everything then do nothing, I would not return to spark energy if they offered me my energy supplies for FREE !!!
Report this content tatatospark Written on: 09/06/2014
Tell your sister to run a mile. My son had this company imposed on him by the estate agent renting out his previous flat. They are a nightmare to deal with and we had to go to the ombudsman to get rid of them. Your choice but my advice is run while you can!!!
Report this content ed_liv Written on: 09/06/2014
My final bill arrived quite literally a matter of years after I moved out of the supply address and I was subsequently pursued relentlessly as if I was at fault. Impossible to deal with, accountable to no one and a long standing thorn in my side. Never again.
Report this content lennys26 Written on: 09/06/2014
Dont waste any more time with questions. Cancel, run, move house if you have to. DONT sign any agreement with Spark Energy.
Report this content lhendry Written on: 09/06/2014
Go! I'm back to British Gas/Scottish Power who yes are more expensive but I wouldn't go through my experience with Spark again for all the money in the world. Chances are that she will have a problem leaving though, like many others they will trap her into staying.
Report this content dmox Written on: 09/06/2014
Go - I was in credit for about £400 and it took me months to get it back
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