Boaz Trust was founded in 2004 to address the needs of the growing numbers of destitute asylum seekers in Greater Manchester, whose asylum cases had been refused and who had nowhere to turn to for help
Boaz Trust
Customer Challenge
- Meter reads were not being registered by the energy supplier. As a result, they were issuing estimated bills to the client, which we calculated to be overestimations. This also made it impossible for Boaz Trust to monitor their energy use, aside from conducting their own separate monitoring, which is time-consuming and labour-intensive
- The supplier has not always provided us with validation/copy invoices in a timely manner for the Boaz Trust account
Our Solution
- After detecting the incorrect invoicing, we spent lots of time chasing the supplier to ensure they were using the correct reads, often having to prove that they weren’t using them when they falsely claimed they were. We made sure the actual reads were applied as soon as possible to avoid further overestimated invoices and consumption uncertainty
- We have on numerous occasions requested missing copy bills along with an explanation as to why they weren’t received
Results
Corrected invoices
The supplier has now been applying actual meter reads going forward, which have been lower than the estimated bills. The overpayments were offset on the first corrected invoice and we have since been able to closely monitor their consumption and thus make improvements
Smart meter installation
In order to further streamline the data collection process, we arranged with the supplier for smart meters to be installed to ensure consistently accurate invoicing and to relieve Boaz Trust of the duty of taking regular meter reads
Validation reports
All missing invoices have now been sent across and processed. A validation report was sent to Boaz Trust for payments to be made
