British Gas final bills

[sweetjane487]

Hoping someone can advise me here. I switched energy providers from British Gas to Atlantic back in February. When my son read the electricity meter (I couldn't do it, it's high up on the wall in a dark corner of the garage) it was clear that there was something wrong. The reading he got began with a 3 whereas estimated bills I had had previously had begun with a 4. The reading was checked by my boyfriend and he agreed with what my son had read. The initial reading that Atlantic made also agreed with us. When I phoned BG to give them my readings, I pointed out that there was a problem and was told not to worry and that they would take the reading from my new supplier anyway.

The following month, I received a final bill from BG crediting me with £197. I accepted this in good faith - there was no way I could understand how they work out their bills anyway so I assumed that they had got it right. Last week I received another "final" bill stating that I owed £451 (this including the £197 they had credited me in the first bill).

Looking at previous bills, the only times that the meter has actually been read was when I moved in, in January 2007, and in December 2007. It seems that the error occurred in December when the meter reader either misread the meter or transposed a 3 and a 4. Subsequent bills were estimated against the erroneous reading. These were roughly what I would have expected so I had no reason to query them. I called Energywatch who basically said it takes time for them to sort themselves out and that i'd have to pay it but should be given the same amount of time as they'd taken to provide the corrected bill to repay it.

Given that it is clear that there has been an error on their meter reader's part I felt this was unfair and energy watch put me through to what they described as a high level department who could deal with my complaint. Basically this person told me the same thing. She accepted that there was an error on their part but said I should have been checking the estimates. My thoughts on that are that the location of the meter is such that I cannot read it myself and naively I expect a person representing British Gas to actually be able to do his job! I also wonder what happens for disabled and elderly people. Are they expected to check their meters and if they don't, are they penalised when there is an error? To add to it all, I have now received another bill from them (not a final bill so i'm now worried that they've still got my account open). This one credits me with £5!

I accept that I have got to pay what I owe, my problem with all this is that British Gas has made several errors not least crediting me with an amount of money that I was not entitled to thus ensuring that I have an even bigger bill to pay! How can I possibly trust them to provide me with an accurate final bill when they make so many mistakes? Why should I be penalised for their incompetence? I cannot possibly pay back the amount of money they are asking for in one hit - the actual bill only gave me a week to pay.

I have written to their head of complaints outlining my concerns. Having read some of the threads on here about BG, I will not hold my breath for a positive response but would be grateful if anyone could give me any advice as to what other steps I could take.

[Dipply75]

Hi sweetjane, you have my sympathy, I know what they are like. I wonder if you are dealing with the same useless so & so at BG, she seems trained to talk guff and make you go away!

To me, they should just go back to the last accurate reading (possibly when you moved in!) and just re-calculate you bills up to the final reading you have supplied. They can do this - I made them do it for me so don't let them tell you otherwise. Once you get it, if you are unsure, ask the CAB to have a look over it as they can be very confusing to work out. Or if you can blank out your personal details, scan it and put it on here to be looked over?

You are like me, all you want it an accurate bill to pay!

[JonCris]

This may not help but I mention it show your not alone.

One of my BH tasks it to obtain final utility bills & each occasion of which there have been very many & when checking all the previous payments she has never found one to be correct. Not only that but in all cases the mistake are to the benefit of the company & never the customer, in some cases many thousands the last being £4K (four thousand pounds)

I suggest you need to gather all your bills & have someone who does understand them read them to calculate your indebtedness if any

[unclebuck60]

hi.I to have had trouble with bg I have a pre-pay meter,and was paying of a debt weekly.the debt was paid in full last june.febuary this year I changed to another elec company.in june of this year I was sent a bill for £197 saying this was theamount owed . buchananclark-wells sent me a second letter (there address is the same as bg in glasgow) I rang them and was told the biggest load of rubbish ever,the girl did not know what she was talking about,after setting up a d/d , I then phoned bg after speaking to two people at bg they told me I owed no money and did not know why I had got two letters.I wonder how many people say nothing and just pay