Energy Protest
How to PROTEST energy bills and NOT get into trouble!!!
As we have seen many times, the energy companies WANT you in DEBT so they can fit a pre-pay meter and charge you EVEN MORE!!!
They CHANGE the METER and what they are pushing are PRE-PAY SMART METERS that they can change the rate they bill every 30 minutes!!!
So my advice is DO NOT simply stop paying. Cancel any payments and RAISE A COMPLAINT.
This can take MONTHS. If everyone does it they can OVERLOAD the system.
Factor in SAR's are you can REALLY put energy companies under pressure (we already do it with debt buyers).
If the take longer than 30 days to respond, report them to the ICO who can give them a hefty FINE.
The energy companies get charged for every complaint raised (£500 according to some sources). They can also be sanctioned for having too many complaints open and risk losing their operating licence!
On top of that a well worded SAR can cost them thousands and put their system under severe strain the more people that submit them and demand the response on PAPER.
https://www.ombudsman-services.org/sectors/energy
https://sites.google.com/view/subjectaccessrequest/home
Add even more pressure by following up a normal SAR with a NIGHTMARE version:
https://sites.google.com/view/nightmaresar/home
SAMPLE COMPLAINT LETTER WITH SAR
[YOUR NAME ADDRESS & POSTCODE]
[THEIR ADDRESS & POSTCODE]
[THE DATE]
Your reference: [THEIR REFERENCE NUMBER]
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to raise a formal complaint about the service you are providing. You have suddenly increased the charges without warning and in breach of any contract that may or may not have existed to date. Please provide a copy of the contract, upon which you rely, for the provision and supply of services at my address listed at the top of this letter.
I wish to further complaint about the customer service responses to my earlier complaint raise on the telephone prior to this formal written complaint. I do not believe that my complaints were dealt with to the standard expected of a national energy supplier.
I further concerned that you appear to be basing calculations for usage on what appears to be faulty readings. I require that your company carries out the necessary steps to ensure that the meter readings are accurate within the legal limits permitted.
I am aware that I have the right to have the meters tested independently and that test is FREE. Please state in writing how much you would charge to organise this test should I wish to have the meter independently tested.
GDPR & DATA PROTECTION ACT 2018 SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST
I also wish to make a formal 'Subject Access Request' for a copy of information that you hold about me which I am entitled under the General Data Protection Regulation 2018.
Please supply me the data about me that I am entitled to under the data protection law including:
confirmation that you are processing my personal data;
a copy of my personal data;
the purposes of your processing;
the categories of personal data concerned;
the recipients or categories of recipient you disclose my personal data to;
your retention period for storing my personal data or, where this is not possible, your criteria for determining how long you will store it;
confirmation of the existence of my right to request rectification, erasure or restriction or to object to such processing;
confirmation of my right to lodge a complaint with the ICO or another supervisory authority;
information about the source of the data, where it was not obtained directly from me;
the existence of any automated decision-making (including profiling); and
the safeguards you provide if you transfer my personal data to a third country or international organisation.
please provide the mapping management process involved in the data usage;
include the regulatory compliance process used to ensure sufficient governance is in place ;
include the the same for any third parties you provide access to my data;
include what your legal reason for holding such data, and any data you do not have a legal reason to hold, please delete and provide necessary regulatory requirements to evidence the deletion of said data.
I look forward to receiving your response to this request for data within one calendar month, per the General Data Protection Regulation. If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer, or relevant staff member.
Kind regards,
[YOUR NAME]