Sometimes, when we instruct a switch, this can lead to the wrong supplies being transferred.
There can be any number of reasons that this can happen. Most of the time, this is due to:
- Human error somewhere in the switch process (and we’re all human!),
- Your properties supplies being registered incorrectly on the national databases for fuels, e.g. a missing house or flat number, or
- A cancellation instruction being sent too late for the supplier to act on it
In certain rare other cases, for example when a supplier goes bankrupt, other industry processes can lead to supplies being moved without anybody’s consent. If you want to find out more about this, see our page on "Supplier of Last Resort".
There are two ways that an incorrect transfer can show up:
- Your supplies are transferred away to a new supplier by mistake, e.g. if a neighbour is trying to switch their energy and the energy company picks your meters to switch
- Someone else’s supplies are transferred instead of yours when you’ve tried to switch
How is this fixed?
If the transfer of the supplies has been started within the last 14 days, the incorrect switch can be corrected or cancelled very easily as we're still within the "cooling off period".
What’s an “erroneous transfer”?
After the 14-day window has passed, a switch can’t be cancelled, even if it’s being done by mistake. For this reason, the erroneous transfer process is used.
When you’re speaking to energy companies, you might hear them use the term “erroneous transfer” or “ET”. This industry shorthand can be used to refer to two things:
- The incorrect transfer of the supplies, or
- As shorthand for “erroneous transfer process”, which is the fix for erroneous transfers
