Please HELPPP - Overcharged electricity bill - Good Energy

[Loryyyyyy]

Hi Everybody!
I'm new here and I have been spending the last few hours reading several forum. I hope you can help me with the following issue as I have to make a decision by tomorrow!!!
Basically I lived in a studio flat from April 05 to November 07 when I had to move somewhere else cause the landlord needed to repossess the flat.
During those 2 and a half years I never paid an electricity bill as Good Energy (the supplier) kept sending me credit bills stating that those were for information only and I didn't need to pay anything as my account was in credit.
I have to say that because of my job I spent most of my time travelling abroad therefore the actual time i spent in that flat was probably less than a year. Also because I am so busy I have never had the time to reply to Good Energy's requests of reading that I started receiving I would say after 6-8 months I had moved in that flat. So basically for 2 and a half years I never provided the readings. While running around I kept postponing the fact that I had to do it.
Anyway when I moved out and I finally sent the last readings I got back a bill of almost £1800. You can imagine the shock! I appreciate I never paid a bill however it wasn't my fault if they were sending credit bills all the time plus I actually spent less than a year into the flat and that amount sounded ridiculous to me. Please bear in mind that it was a studio flat, no washing machine + i used to switch off everything when going away.
I challenged Good Energy and their answer was that they had tried to get in touch with me several times and I never replied.
I explained the situation and the fact I thought the amount was too high and they said that they had tried to get in touch with me since March 04.
I thought...hold on!I moved in in April 05 how come that they are now mentioning March 04. Obviously something was wrong....
I contacted the landlord and I asked him a few information. To my surprise I found out that the landlord had contacted the supplier twice in April 05 to provide the final readings of the previous tenant + my details and the same readings to open the new account. Guess what? The readings provided by the landlord were not the ones used by Good Energy on the credit bills sent to me over the entire period.
They agreed to the fact I had been wrongly charged for the consumption of the previous tenant so the bill dropped to £1300 ca.
Again I disputed this amount as I thought it was still to high for one single person living in a studio flat for a short period of time...
They kept saying the usual.That they had tried to contact me however I had never replied. However this time around I had the proof that they got the readings twice and they ignored the the information both times.
i asked the landlord to put it in writing stating both the dates and the readings and on top of that I also had another proper look at the new revised bill and I spot out a mistake in their calculation.
I e-mailed again underlining the mistake (I spent hours calculating everything again!!), they apologised, they agreed to the mistake and they raised a new bill of £1233,00.
In the meantime I have to say that I informed EnergyWatch and I told them I was ready to pay and close the whole issue cause I was fed up! However I wanted to pay a fair amount (£750,00) but Good Energy didn't agree to it. EnergyWatch got so fed up that they gave up and left us talking to each other directly.
On top of that I also have to say that Good Energy calculated the bill in a very funny way. Obviously it was all for their own benefit rather than mine.
To cut the story shot as they revised their fee rate 5 times between April 05 and Nov 07 they calculated the total meter readings for the entire time and they estimated the readings each time that they updated the fee rates. In this way I have been charged the highest rate for the longest period of time and the lowest for the shortest one. When I disputed it again they said that it was my fault and that I should have replied to their requests in order to avoid the estimate of the reading in those 5 periods of time.
My points were that they kept making mistakes all the way through, they got the readings twice and they ignored the information both times hence I can easily say that I don't trust them and they way they dealt with this situation. Even if I had provided them with the readings they would have most likely ignored the information for the third time!
The end result is that I could pay the full amount by tomorrow gaining a 10% discount, otherwise I have to agree to a different way of payment of the entire 1233£.
What shall I do? I threatened them saying I would talk to a solicitor. And I have actually got in touch with one who asked me for £180,00 just to right a letter to Good Energy. Do you think is it worth to go down that way or I should pay everything by tomorrow? Please bear in mind I could get a written confirmation from my employer stating that I'm often abroad for work and I could also list all places I have been to over those 30 months.
In addition to this...do you think that the 1 year law could help me, too?
And if you want to laugh...Good Energy have also been chasing me cause they would like to sign wiith them again for the new flat I have moved in to...I believe I must be a very good customer to them!
Please advise.....
Thanks
Loryyyyyy

[tiglet]

Bump

[nufsaid]

I would write them a letter explaining exactly what appliances and heating ect was there also reiterate the fact that this is a studio apartment as you have already stated to them.

Did they get the moving in / moving out readings ???

I would fight this is does seem to high to me to I am sure some clever bod on here could work it out better.

I had a bill like this from British gas they messed up the moving in figure and the moving out figure they wanted £500 for 6 months back in 2002 but it was a tiny cottage and we were hardly there it was more a base as we were relocating, the final bill after lots of to and froing was £98 which I paid, a YEAR later I had a dca letter for the £98 I called and after speaking to a rude guy they eventually agreed it had been settled.


Good luck...

I hope you manage to sort this.

NS

[AwakeNow]

Hello,

Wow sounds like a mess.

As you have calculated the bills I would suggest you pay based on those and not what the company have said.

I would write a letter - again, to the company stating the amount you are paying with the calculations you provided, once again stating it is a studio flat etc and that as far as you are concerned the debt is clear.

I also suggest you go back to EnergyWatch through your local C.A.B. with all the letters and paperwork and ask them if they can help you, this might free up some of your own time.

Looking though the web, it seems Energywatch are the last port of call for utilities and if they are unable to help you could end up fighting this on your own, so C.AB. would be better.

If need be take them to court - you don't need a bad marker for debt on your credit file.

[tiglet]

Actually, no, if you get a deadlocked letter and Energywatch refuse to help you, you can then take it to OFGEM.

[AwakeNow]

Originally Posted by tiglet

Actually, no, if you get a deadlocked letter and Energywatch refuse to help you, you can then take it to OFGEM.

Thank you for the info Tiglet. I suggest then OFGEM is the next port of call. Good luck.

[tiglet]

No probs.

[Loryyyyyy]

Thanks guys for your posts!
However...yesterday i went to see a solicitor and he will deal with the matter from now on.
Unfortunately I couldn't go through OFGEM cause Good energy are not included in their list....I wonder why!?
Anyway just to give you another details on the whole issue....yesterday i realised that for 2 and a half years I have been sent credit bills where
the readings were always decreasing rather than increasing. So for instance if the first estimated readings were DAY 20000, Night 35000 in June 05, the second time they raised a bill they estimated the reading at DAY 19500, Night 34500 in Sept 05 and DAY 19000 Night 34000 in Dec 05. In this way they sent credit bills for the entire period and eventually they charged me for everything in one go....
What do you think that was it done on purpose or not
This is the first example in the world that someone uses electricity and the actual meter keeps going down rather than up....that's a great meter, isn't?
Believe me....I'm ready to go to Court!I'm not gonna give up as I'm sure they messed up everything all the way through!
keep you informed!
Loryyyyyy

[AwakeNow]

Grr they seem to have made a right mess of it.

Good luck and hope it all ends well for you.

[nufsaid]

Good luck keep us posted on how you get on.

NSx

[mree]

Loryyyy, do you know what the readings were on the dates you moved in and out of the property? I'm sorry to say that if you don't you're probably going to end up having to pay this bill. The 1 year rule doesn't apply as your have been sent bills - it doesn't matter that they were incorrectly estimated. When you move into a property it is your responsiblity to inform the utility providers that you've moved in and what the opening reads are, not the landlord's. Trying to prove your usage after you've moved out is futile - the only way to prove your usage would be to have 2 actual readings some time apart which can be used to calculate your average daily usage, and from that the initial and final reads can be more accurately calculated - whilst I appreciate your point about the amount of time you spent there, it is actually irrelevant to this particular situation because you've already moved out.

If they're confident that their bill is accurate and based on actual reads (or manual estimates based on 2 actual reads at some point during the tenancy) and they're offering you a discount, my advice would be to pay up.

Please remember that by law energy suppliers only have to read your meter once every 2 years, and it's deemed reasonable to expect you to read your own meter from time to time to check the accuracy of bills you're sent - if you're sent a bill showing a credit balance time and time again, knowing you've paid nothing, common sense surely should indicate that something is wrong and you should read your meter!!!!

While I fully accept that suppliers should take responsibility for providing accurate bills wherever possible, consumers also have a responsibility to do what they reasonably can to check their bills are accurate.

[Loryyyyyy]

Hi Mree,
Yes I have both the initial and the final readings. the point is that Good Energy got the initial readings twice by the landlord. the first time when the previous tenant moved out and after 10 days when I moved in. However Good Energy have raised all invoices since the first one basing the amount on estimated readings. Why did they do it if they were provided with the right initial readings TWICE???On top of that they were so clever to estimate the readings in the wrong way every time they sent a bill. In particular they kept lowering the readings rather that adding up meters....in this way they always came up with credit bills. i have the feeling they did it on purpose to get at this point.
Yes I thought there was a problem when I kept receiving the credit bills after a year however believe me I didn't have the time to deal with it and I kept postponing until I moved out. Just to give you an idea of what my life is, I spent more time at the airports of all Europe rather than at home in the last 4 years. I would say that almost the 50% of the time I rented that flat I was actually out of there!

[tiglet]

I think you may be a bit confused by the energy supply ombudsman and OFGEM - OFGEM regulates all suppliers, ESO only signed up members.

I would go back to Energywatch and ask them what they are going to do about it - you may have to be persistent.

[mree]

Originally Posted by Loryyyyyy

Hi Mree,
Yes I have both the initial and the final readings. the point is that Good Energy got the initial readings twice by the landlord. the first time when the previous tenant moved out and after 10 days when I moved in. However Good Energy have raised all invoices since the first one basing the amount on estimated readings. Why did they do it if they were provided with the right initial readings TWICE???On top of that they were so clever to estimate the readings in the wrong way every time they sent a bill. In particular they kept lowering the readings rather that adding up meters....in this way they always came up with credit bills. i have the feeling they did it on purpose to get at this point.
Yes I thought there was a problem when I kept receiving the credit bills after a year however believe me I didn't have the time to deal with it and I kept postponing until I moved out. Just to give you an idea of what my life is, I spent more time at the airports of all Europe rather than at home in the last 4 years. I would say that almost the 50% of the time I rented that flat I was actually out of there!

I would suggest writing to them, stating the dates you moved in and out of the property and the initial and final readings, then telling them to send you a bill based on these readings ONLY. I don't think they have done this on purpose, as sending you credit bills means they don't get any money, and now have this situation on their hands, which means they're probably going to end up having to give you a discount on what you do owe - when it's finally worked out!

I understand what you're saying about travelling and being away a lot, and I do sympathise, but this fact will be entirely irrelevant to the energy company. Not having time to call and query obviously incorrect bills isn't going to be seen as any kind of defense I'm afraid.

If after you've sent the letter I suggested they continue trying to get you to pay an estimated bill, I would give them one more go, enclosing a copy of the first letter and copy in Energywatch and OFGEM. If you still get no joy, speak to Energywatch (or OFGEM, if Energywatch aren't being very helpful) and ask them to deal with it.