Unusually High Powergen Bill

[redseven]

My usual bills are around £70-100 a quarter and I pay them with reasonable efficiency, my meters are read for every bill and I have been relatively happy with Powergen for my needs. I have a small 1 bedroom flat with storage heaters (which have been off at the switch since March) and my usage has not gone beyond the same computer, washer, dryer, cooker, TV, hot water and lighting over the past year or so I have been here. But I have come home tonight to a very very high electricity bill it is £340! This bill is not even the post-winter quarter bill!

I have spoken to them, we checked the meter readings (which they say are correct) and they seem at a loss to explain what has happened and are currently investigating.

Would love any suggestions or explanations to this anomalous bill?

[Clare_L]

It might be worth checking the timeswitch on your meter, im assuming you have E7. If you have a faulty timeswitch it may not be switching over to the night rate at the correct time, if at all. Powergen should be able to arrange for someone to come out and check it for you. Powergen have a department which deals with faulty timeswitches who should be able to go through this with you.

Clare

[2Grumpy]

Are the "old" meter readings on the bill the same as the "new" readingss on the previous bill?

Have you compared the number of units that you are being charged for with the previous bill?

Are there any suspicious extension leads going to the flat next door?

Can you get access to your meters? Are the readings close to what they are now. If there is a rotating wheel in your meter you can do a rough quick check by turning off everything & boil a kettle full of water. (It says 1 revolution = xxx, your kettle uses x kw for y seconds, the meter wheel makes n revolutions, you can do the maths to check it.

[emma81]

We live in a one bed flat also with storage heaters and we to recieved a high bill, we pay our bill monthly we were paying £40 pr month which didnt sound to bad, we then get a bill saying we are £400 in debt and our monthly payments will now need to be amended to £147 per month, as you can imagine we went mad, called Powergen in which they said there is nothing wrong blah blah blah, we managed to gain access to our electric cupboard which our previous management company wouldnt let us despite being the owners of the flat and took meter readings etc called up and found out from day one we had been on the highest elec rate, they hadn't had us on Economy 7 we were paying one flat rate for the hole flat, this only came to light when the advisor asked us for what the day and night readings were on the last bill in which we replied there are no day and night readings.....we spoke with a lady in the Consumptions Dept which i suggest you do as it sounds like your not on what you are ment to be on, after we spoke with them it works out they owe us money and our bill is now in credit and were back to paying £40...... dont let the fob you off as they will as to speak with a manager not a monkey!

[Clare_L]

I work for Powergen and can assure you we are not all monkeys!

[emma81]

Its only fair you would jump on the defensive, i never said you were all monkeys just the 10 people we spoke to before we got anywhere!

[2Grumpy]

redseven

did you manage to get this sorted?

A friend of mine has just discovered that his electricity supplier has been billing him & his neighbours on the wrong meters - could that be happening?

grumpy

[mree]

While that does happen, it's rare and sounds unlikely in this case, sounds like the faulty timeswitch theory is more likely, have you arranged an appointment to have this checked?

[mree]

And Emma81, how about no-one refers to anyone else as monkeys, that way no-one will be offended and we can all just get along?