Powergen Nightmare!

[iceboy]

Hi everyone;

I have a problem with Powergen which is worth exactly £1080.86!

I have swicthed my gas provider to Southern Electric 2 months ago.

Before that, i was with Powergen and had an amount for around £500+ to pay. I did pay this amount in instalments and when the balance was cleared, i have moved to Southern Electric. Otherwise Powergen wouldnt allow me to move to to another company if i havent cleared the balance.

As of 13 November, i have recieved a "Final Bill" from Powergen.
It shows excatly this:

Summery Outstanding Charges from bill on 23 Oct 2007
Total gas charges £1027.46
VAT £51.37

Total Charges including VAT £1078.83
Account Balance frm previous bill on 26 July 2007 £2.03

Total Outstanding £1080.86

This is killing me! Its like a joke! I have cleared my balance and it shows that my previous balance is £2.03 only as of July 2007. How can someone have a gas usage of £1000+ in 4 months! Although, i have already paid for those 4 months and was included in the instalments i was paying!

I dont know what i should be doing now! How can they just send me a bill after i close my account with them and cleare the balance.

Is there anything i can do about this?
Helps will be appraciated.

Many Thanks

[dx100uk]

TBH iwould phone them and discuss it.
seems obvious they have made a mistook

dx100uk

[iceboy]

Thanks for your respond. I'll phone them up tomorrow and see what they gonna say.

[ozzywizard]

When you phone ask them what the COS (change of supply) reading was and if it was estimated or an actual read. Also ask if your last read was estimated or an actual read. You have not used this in such a small period of time so it can only be due to incorrect or estimated reads. Find out from your new supplier your start read with them also (the transporter read should be the same as your COS read.

[iceboy]

Hi ozzy,
I did phone them today. Both Southern Electric and Powergen (my previous supplier)

Southern electric gave me start reading as: 10887 started 1 of Oct.
Powergen gave me COS reading as 11085

Apparently they are not same! Therefor, Powergen asked me for my current meter reading which is 11567 and said they will dispute it with Southern and get back to me! Why do they need the current reading for? they are my old supplier.

What do you think of the situation? I couldnt make any calculations! Will i be ending up paying more than i was meant to or wat?

Basicaly, Powergen should have calculated the bill for the reading 10887 instead of 11085. But i dont thing the difference between 10887 and 11085 should cost £1078! Thats 198 unit.

And just out of subject question. Do you think in two months, using 680 unit of gas is normal?
Start reading is 10887 and the current reading is 11567. Meanind current usage unit is 680 in 2 months. How much do you thing that would cost normaly estimated?

Thank you

[iceboy]

Also, Powergen told me the reading was estimated. And as oF COS reading, they said they have obtained it from my new supplier (Southern Electric)

Although, SE told me my start reading was 10887. And Powergen telling me tey obtained it from SE, yet the reading is not same even tho they took it from SE!

[mree]

If your current read is higher than your COS read, I'm afraid your bill is going to go up. It sounds as though they may have been underestimating your account for some time, or your start read was wrong. Start taking meter readings every day, at around the same time of day, for at least 7 days. This will give you a daily average, which will in fact be higher than your daily average for the year as we're in a peak usage period. Work out how many days between your supply start date and the date you last took a reading, multiply this by your daily average, and add it to your start read - if the read you get from this calculation is significantly lower than your current read, then your start read was wrong.

[ozzywizard]

Mree is right, great advise. Regarding Powergen asking you for your current reading this is procedure to raise an ARD which is an agreed read dispute. let us know how you get on.