2023-09-03 04:00:00
She clicked the orange “Alert Us” button to warn.
Christelle had a (very) bad surprise when she noticed that Engie had “interrupted my energy contract“. “I realized that it had been two months since I had received my energy installment bills. I went to my customer area, on the website and there, I saw that my contract was inactive“, confides this resident of Mettet.
“The first instinct? The panic“, she adds with a nervous laugh. Without wasting time, Christelle contacts her supplier. An incredible conversation ensues. “They told me that I had moved. I said no, I have lived in the same place for eight years. Then they told me that I had requested a change of supplier. I said no, still not.”
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Eventually, she learns that it was a third party who made the request. “I asked them to show me the proof of the request to deactivate the contract, but they never told me who was the person behind this request“, continues our alerter. “I asked that they reactivate this contract, which they never wanted.”
I will have to pay double
Christelle will then turn to the SPW mediation organization which deals with this type of dispute. Initially, she is not a priority for this service, because she did not receive a letter from ORES to warn her that her electricity was going to be cut off. This mail will still arrive a few days later. “The courier finally arrived telling me that they were going to cut off my electricity and that I had five to ten days to rejoin an energy supplier. I immediately contacted the organization which reassured me by telling me that ORES had not received an immediate shutdown order“.
But given the short deadline imposed on her, Christelle does not want to procrastinate and takes on a new energy contract, “but it is less advantageous than the one I had before. I calculated and I will have to pay double what I was paying before.“
The end of the story will eventually reach Christelle, thanks in particular to the help of the police. “It seems that it was my former neighbor who, when he moved, asked Engie to suspend his contract, except that Engie suspended mine“.
Mystery Switch
This error is linked to a fairly well-known phenomenon in the industry: the Mystery Switch. In Belgium, each energy meter has an 18-digit EAN code. However, it happens that a bug occurs and that this code is attributed to another consumer by mistake, without anyone having asked for anything. This is what happened to Christelle.
More than ever these bugs are topical. In 2022, 1200 complaints for Mystery Switch were registered, this is six times more than in 2021. “In our opinion, it is linked to the new Mig 6 communication system, which has been developed by Atrias”, concedes Eric Houtman who works as an energy mediator. “Since the beginning of 2022, we have seen a huge increase in complaints about the Mystery Switch.”
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If Christelle was finally able to recover her old contract, without having any form of explanation, she still decided to file a complaint.
Engie recalls that it is not the cause of the problem and points to the supplier of Christelle’s neighbor who did not follow the appropriate procedure. His neighbor should also soon receive a bill for Christelle’s drinks. The energy mediation service advises him not to pay them and to contest them.
engie Mystery Switch ores energy electricity bill
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