Am seeking advice here due to the issue is with my ex partner. She received a text early November saying the account was been limited due to excessive use and a bill of over £200 been created. The payment was taken by DD even though no bill for the charges has been produced and was requested numerous times. Phone contact did nothing to resolve this issue and she advised them to cancel the contract immediately and send a final bill. She also informed them the DD would be cancelled and if the charges found to be legit then the bill would be paid. The SIM card was removed after that conversation (Early November). I then took possession of the SIM card so know it has not been used since then. T Mobile have now sent a demand for over £200 again for new charges since the last DD was taken in NOV. No bill has been supplied justifying these charges or what they consist of. What is the best way to proceed with this issue. It sounds like the standard not been able to collect DD pay up or else letter. The contract was a 30 rolling 2400 Minutes,unlimited text and internet so i myself would like to see how these excessive bills have come about.

Shortly before Christmas I found that I had a huge credit balance with my energy supplier, Spark Energy I contacted them for a refund of £1000 (which still left me with a fairly hefty credit balance, but having been stung in the past I would rather be cautious about it at least until the summer months). Their refund process takes a ludicrous 28 working days to complete, i am due to receive my refund some time next week. I received an email yesterday advising that they have had to reduce the refund amount to £720 "due to some incorrect meter readings which have now been removed". Checking my online account details, I can see that they have effectively credited every bill since March 2013 (all bar the first I had from them) and issued one whopping bill for little under £3k! All previous invoices have been completely removed so that I couldn't compare the new bill with the previous ones and figure out what they have done. I called them today and after much confusion eventually was told that my account was reviewed as part of the refund process and they noticed that there was a negative consumption of 409 units (which they estimated to be around £400) dating back to Nov/Dec 2013. I have lodged a complaint as the whole thing is very unclear and I am currently waiting for a call back from a Manager. I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of advice about where I stand with this and what my rights are. Am I right in thinking that this would fall within the back-billing principle and therefore since the error was beyond 12 months ago they cannot charge me? And if that is not the case, what are my rights in terms of the info they must provide? Surely they must be able to illustrate clearly the changes that have been made to my account?

Just a heads up: TalkTalk business apparently have a new billing system which they are piloting. This is somewhat ruthless and is going through past accounts and sending out bills for dormant or shut-down accounts. It also appears to be automatically escalating to DCAs (in my case). I had a TalkTalk business account in 2012. I moved the DNS records (website and mail provision) and internet service from them in January 2013. Stupidly I did this half way through a billing cycle. I settled up with talktalk, who agreed to write of the part-billed month. All good, heard nothing from them for about a year until I received a bill out of the blue & nasty letter threatening to cut me off... for a service I wasn't receiving. Phoned them & they explained it was sent in error & cancelled it all off again. I received another bill via email on 29 December 2014 for £9.19 and then a letter from "Debt & Revenue Services", their chosen DCA, this morning, demanding £49.92 Spoke to the DCA who could offer no explanation as to the billed amount or where the bill arose from. I then phoned TalkTalk who couldn't explain the amount on the DCA letter, but attempted, after some audibly confuddled calculator thrashing, to explain the £9.19 as the part-billed month from January 2013 that they'd already agreed to write off! This amused me somewhat. I suggested that billing a customer out of the blue after two years was probably not acceptable, nor was failing to reconcile their accounts for two years, immediately raising it to a DCA was a bit dim and it would be interesting to hear what offcom* would say on the matter. Perhaps they should consider writing off the amount? NOW. Cue some time on hold while they went off to seek guidance. The guidance was given and the "debt" (remember they'd agreed to write this off back in February 2013) was written off. The explanation given for the out of the blue bill was that they are trialling some new software and it's being a bit ruthless with old accounts. I'll still complain to the FOS about the DCA letter, as the amounts remain inexplicable & I like the idea of them being charged £550 which they can pass on to TalkTalk for being stupid. Hopefully this will be the end of the matter. I suspect though that I'll hear from them again in error. *offcom don't actually adjudicate over broadband, you have to speak to either CISAA or the Ombudsman Services: Communication people

Hi All, Npower haven't billed me since Jan 2014. I had set up a new contract and direct debit with them. But nothing was billed. I didn't realise till August. They have admitted the error and are willing to talk compensation as I now have a sizeable 9 month back bill to settle. My question is where can I go with this. Is it just goodwill compensation they're offering or do i have a stronger legal stance for more of the bill to be written off? Cheers for any help in advance.

Hi anyone else recieve a letter from virgin about changing billing dates? below is the text from the letter . they now want me to pay in advance for my services and according to their website it doesnt give me the right to opt out of the contract without paying fees . Anyone with any thoughts ? I cant really get my head around it , and they say they are doing it because some of their customers are confused, I think lots are going to get confused. We wanted to let you know about some important changes were making to the way your billed .Please take a few moments to read this letter so you know what to expect Were always looking to improve our service, so in October we are making some tweaks to our billing system that simlify the way it works Some of our customers tell us they find it confusing that their billing date isnt the same day they get their monthly allowance of minutes texts and data. With our new system were able to bring these two dates closer together , and hopefully make things more straight forward. First things first you wont pay any more for your package than normal but you will have a new billing date . This means your bill will arrive earlier than your used to, and will continue to arrive on ( or no earlier than ) this new date in the future. So you can see exactly how the change affects your bill in the next three months have a look at this table Allowance date 30 sep 2014 31 oct 2014 30 nov2014 Earliest bill date 10 oct 14 2 nov 14 2 dec 14 direct debit 24 oct 14 14 nov 14 16 dec 14 I wasnt confused before this but now I am This is their FAQS on the subject BILLING All you need to know about Billing Bill Change FAQs 1. I still don’t understand why my bill dates are changing, what does it mean to me? Billing isn’t very exciting, but it doesn’t have to be confusing. In making the change to our billing systems, we are going to improve the way it works which means you will find it easier to know when you're allowances are added and when you’re billed for them. It’s a one-off change that we think will make things a bit simpler. 2. What is an allowance? Your allowance is how many inclusive minutes, texts or data that are included in your tariff. It’s easy to keep track of what you’ve got or how much you’re using. 3. Why are you making this change now? You’ve been telling us that billing isn’t as straightforward as it could be and some of you find it confusing as things happen at different times. So we wanted to take the opportunity to make the change as soon as possible. 4. What if I don’t want my dates changed? Can I undo it later? Unfortunately not, but if you need to discuss this with us, one of our agents will be happy to discuss it further and see if we can do anything as an exception. 5. What happens if I change my tariff or upgrade? If you change tariff or upgrade to one of our SIM Only packages after we’ve changed your bill date, the date your allowance gets added will change again. Don’t worry though, we’ll tidy this up by the end of this year without moving your bill date again.If you upgrade to anything else like another contract, it won’t. 6. Why am I being billed twice in a month? Currently your bill date and refresh date have a significant gap between them. As we bring them closer together, this means that your bills will be produced in quicker succession so you may therefore get two bills and two direct debits in the same month. Don’t worry though we’ll only do this once 7. Are you allowed to do this, do I have the right to cancel my contract without penalty if I’m unhappy with the proposal? From time to time we need to make changes to improve the experience all our customers get. If you were unhappy and wanted to leave without early termination fees that wouldn’t be possible. We’ve tried our best to give you the maximum warning to reduce any impact from this change and in some cases can discuss alternative solutions if there are no other options. 8. Is there any chance of a delay to when you make the changes, how will you let me know in advance? Any delay is unlikely, but we would take steps to tell you by SMS if anything changes 9. Do I need to contact my bank if you’re moving my Direct Debit? No, you won’t have to do anything, we’ll take care of all the details. 10. Since you’ve made the change I have two direct debits taking in the same month which I can’t afford, what happens? If you find yourself in that scenario we’ll do our best to help by giving you longer to pay. 11. What is a refresh date? Will this change too? Every mobile customer has a monthly date where your allowances are refreshed. This helps you track how long you have to use your voice, texts or data. Nothing changes, we’ll just be bringing the bill date closer so its all aligned around a closer period. 12. Will the change affect any promos or discounts I have? No. These will remain on your account as normal. 13. If I receive two bills in a month will I pay more than I normally do? No. You will receive two bills in a shorter space of time. Both will have a charge for your monthly allowance and any charges outside of this e.g. charges for using your phone abroad. 14. Will I get pro-ration on my bill? No, you will not receive any pro-ration on your bill. 15. Why am I getting two bundle charges on one bill? Some customers will experience this because you're bill date is being moved later so you will be billed as we apply your next bundle i.e. you will be paying for it in advance rather than in arrears. Therefore, for one month only, you’ll pay for two (the one from the previous month and the one for the following month).

I moved into this property in March, and set up an account with EDF. They activated the account around the third week of April. I have been paying EDF for the last few months, Npower have been sending me bills stating that I have an account with them. I called them up and reported that this is not true but they have refused to take note oif this fact. They keep calling me up and sending me up to 3 letters every other week. They have even sent a coillections guy from METER PLUS to my doorstep and I explaioned to him that this is incorrect since I am already paying EDF for my usage. He called Npower immediately and reported back to me that the matter has been settled and Npower have closed the account. This was two days ago. This morning, i received a bill from Npower for the period July to Sept (their previous bill was for April to June) and two letters from METER PLUS warning further colections and court action. I do not know how to deal with this now. Npower seem to be ignoring the facts and totally disregarding my attempts to show them that I do not have an account with them. Please can someone advise whom I should go to in this case? OFCOM? OFGEM? Thank You for any help!

This is my first post, so please, bear with me. I've been an Orange customer since they first started and currently have 3 phones on pay-monthly contracts with them (mine, my wifes and my sons). When my sons came up for renewal it was automatically put on to EE. He has an iPhone 4s which he got over a year ago on a 24 month contract. After a couple of months we noticed he was getting billed £5.99 for a 1gig 4g bundle. We queried it and it was explained how it had been requested and applied. My son agreed that he'd done it, so we thought no more of it. These charges stopped for a while, but then mysteriously reappeared on the bills. I contacted EE and they said they'd been requested, but when I asked my son he said he hadn't requested them. Now, I'm not daft, I know he could have been telling porkies, so I took it on the chin. However, the next bill came in and the charges were there again. And here is where I stand now; I have spoken to more than 15 people in EE's laughably titled 'customer care'. I've been promised a call back on 5 separate occasions, none of which I've received (including the one I'm currently waiting for), although technically that's not true. I gave EE my work mobile number and my personal mobile number as contacts. I was making tea one evening and my work phone (which was right next to me) rang once then stopped, so I didn't even have a chance to pick it up, never mind answer it. When I checked the missed calls number it was from EE. I checked my personal phone and it had a missed call as well. They'd rung my personal number and when it started to ring they'd hung up so quickly that the ring tone hadn't even had time to kick in!! But, as far as their records are concerned the phone rang, so it shows that they tried to contact me. I have spent well in excess of 4 hours on the phone trying to find out why I've been charged for something I haven't requested, and basically they keep saying that because I've been charged for it then I must have requested it. My argument is that we haven't requested it, but can't prove it. But EE can't provide me with any evidence that it was requested. No receipts, no data logs, no info what-so-ever. They are adamant that their systems are perfect and can't make this kind of mistake, and one has accused my son of telling lies. I'm at the end of my tether! I get no calls back, no-one will escalate the problem to a higher manager, and most of all I can't find any way to prove we didn't request the data bundles. Everything is weighted in EE's favour. If THEY say we did it, then THEY are right. That's it. Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated as this has been dragging on now for nearly 3 months!

Following the death of my mother earlier this year I took over her house and landline. I contacted BT with the change over details - which they noted and accepted. However 6 months down the line... the bills are still showing my mothers name, and despite many phonecalls to 150 etc, all tthey keep advising me to do is "Pay whats owing - and we will make sure we get it right next time!" Im now informed they cannot "reissue" a bill showing my correct details. Apparently its now been passed to a higher level complaints team - but they are remaining adamant that I must pay it - (even though it bears my deceased mothers name). All I want is a correct bill in my name! The front of the BT billing envelope clearly states "To be opened by addressee only". Which Im not! Any help on how to proceed with this would be most grateful. Steve

Just tried to contact npower but they have a wait time of over 1 hour! I thought I would try and get some info here first. we have a letter today from them. Very polite, apologising for not getting in touch sooner about a bill. The problem is that we have been trying to pay the bill. My wife has tried numerous times to set up a direct debit without success. The system will just not set them up for some reason, despite everything looking ok from our side. She has also sent several complaints regarding this issue. She has paid some of the bill via direct transfer, but, sometimes we forget, as nearly everything else is set up by DD. Now, we expect the bill to be quite big as this has been going on for some time. I'm just wondering what options we have. I've read about the back billing which might be a defense here, but if not, what are our options? Bearing in mind we have tried over and over to set up DD and complained about not being able to on many occasions with no reply. Thanks Lee.

Greetings CAG forum members! I left First utility (FU) last June transferring both fuels to EDF. Before the final bill was due I cancelled the direct debit. In the following few months I chased FU up for a final bill on several occasions, they finally provided one in February 2014 which was based on estimates not the final reads provided to the new supplier. After contacting FU customer services they assured me an accurate bill would arrive with 2 weeks. Fast forward to July 2014 and a debt collection threat based on the estimated bill arrives. After many more calls to customer service, including EDF giving me information to advise FU how to operate their own billing systems , I got a bill yesterday based on the estimated reads. I am close to giving up! Do you think there is a back billing claim to be made here?

i recently moved to a new address and a new gas and electric supplier. i had my old gas and electric which were both with british gas closed on the 10th and 11th june 2014 but final days of use were sunday 8th june 2014. i gave them the final readings and accounts were closed. However british gas have now informed me that they have made a error on the gas account. i checked it and yes they made a big error which is as follows they had billed me £0.00 for periods of 21st Feb 2014 to 23rd may 2014 bill showed a usage of £0.00 (Yes a big flat nothing) even thou there was a usage there system produced a bill showing no details at all except in the comparrison box for this year to last year it shows usage of 2171.40 kWh bill dated 28th may 2014 , no other details of unit rate , no readings , no calorific value , no standing order charges , no days usage , basically no details at all. Then my closing bill dated 11th june 2014 again shows a £0.00 usage in cost again , but shows readings , amount used , calorific rate but a cost per unit of £0.00 (Zero) and no standing charges but states days used 16 but again in comparrison box for this year to last year shows a usage of 443.14 kWh. Now my accounts were closed before they found out there error with there system. Not my error as i supplied them with meter readings that were accurate and i pay by direct/debit monthly so hardly ever check my bills just the meter reading section. Now this type of error was done on the gas account on the standard tarrif by there computer system and there fault not mine. As far as i understand it , it is there error and since my accounts were closed and final bills and balances issued they can not make me pay for there errors. Also i assume there must be 100's or 1000's of other customers on the same tarriff with the same errors so why should i be singled out and asked to pay for this error they made and others note. just because i moved house and gone to another supplier they seem to of picked up on the error and now want it all paid in one go. So some advise here please. if its there on fault and error do i need to pay. if others have the same error can they just single me out and make me pay because i have left them and moved and got a new supplier. If my account already had the final readings accepted and account closed can they legally make a change to bills dating back to 21st feb 2014 when its now june 2014 and accounts already closed and force me to pay for there error.

Hi folks, Sorry this is going to be a lengthy one. September 2011 After an unsatisfactory experience with Spark Electricity I decided to switch to nPower in September 2011. In the beginning everything seemed to go smooth, monthly payments taken out and meter readings reported timely, everything worked out just fine. Until.. January 2013 We decided to move house in January 2013. Between September 2011 and January 2013 I had been making DD payments on my old address without any interruption. As a result; there was a surplus credit of approx. £230 in my nPower account. We moved to the new house and I had nPower set up as electricity supplier. I phoned up the customer service desk to confirm arrangements regarding the move of properties. The new house was allocated a different customer number versus the old one. I requested a final bill for the old address (which was sent and had already been paid for) and requested the surplus credit to be moved to the NEW account number rather than putting it bank in my bank account (*now wish I had never done this*) Normal DD payments then commenced for the new account with far higher values than was required for the account, eventually leading up to nearly £500 in credit in my account. May 2013 All of a sudden sometime in May, DD payments started to increase (up to 3 a month, with the same monthly fee). I phoned up HSBC to cancel these duplicate payments as they were incorrect. Spoke to nPower customer service, they were aware of a problem and said they would address it. August 2013 nPower DD payments then fully ceased until August, where they attempted to take 3 payments in 1 go which I immediately had denied by the bank. Logging in to my nPower online account, even with the periods I had not paid my monthly DD, I was still well above the zero mark with a positive balance. September 2013 I spoke with the nPower customer service desk asking them to look into this undocumented and unexplained DD payment behaviour. Customer service employee instructed me to fully cancel payments and revoke my DD until they had addressed the problem. November 2013 Several months went by and I received a bill well in excess of £900. By now I am fuming with their incompetence to sort their billing out and lodged a formal complaint. December 2014 I've had enough of their incompetence and request to change suppliers to Sainsbury's Energy. nPower allow to let me transfer and confirmed they will sort me out with a final bill to clear up the confusion. January 2014 Spoke to customer services about the status of the complaint (no news from nPower). They requested me to send my HSBC bank statements to prove all payments made to nPower under the year 2013. I have contacted HSBC, got all the statements and e-mailed them through to them on January 2nd. February 2014 nPower write to me that they are still dealing with the complaint and offer me a brochure to contact the Ombudsman. March 2014 nPower contacts me to mention they have still not received my statements, which I then sent to them again on March 3rd. April 2014 nPower contacts me again to say they have not received my statements. I have transmitted them again on April 19th. After receiving a letter requesting to call them I phone up the complaints team and endure a hefty discussion. It must have lasted at least 40 minutes (on top of a 1h20m wait!). Conclusively this is what nPower states: - I have made payments close to £400 throughout 2013 - They deny of having received certain payments that have 100% been taking out of my HSBC account and I have the statements to prove it - They have an outstanding charge of £1340 (it took me half an hour of pressuring the staff member to come up with this number) What actually occurred: - I have made payments close to £600 throughout 2013 and have bank statements to prove this - I have moved the £230 mentioned in the beginning of this post from the old to the new account - Even if the charges were to be £1340, the outstanding sum would only be around £500 and I am more than happy to pay that - Additionally, £1340 is a ludicrous amount when knowing that our monthly average sits around £80. I consider £1340 outstanding to be fictitious as they can not back it up with figures. Nor do they acknowledge my payments previously made. For the life of me, I can not understand how hard it can be to simply produce a correct bill with a starting & ending meter reading and match that with the incoming payments. I am aware that nPower have changed administration systems during 2013 which may have to do with this massive c**k up ?! I requested them to give me an overall statement from the date of opening the account to the date of closing. The customer advisor denied this request saying that nPower does not do statements of accounts. I challenged him and asked him how they are going to prove the charge, which he challenged in saying that I can log in to the nPower on-line system and download every historical bill. I actually tried this yesterday and the on-line system does not allow me to retrieve any historical bill, but in stead comes up with an error. I terminated the conversation after not getting anywhere with such an inflexible representative. What next steps should be taken? I have not contacted the ombudsman just yet but believe I should do this sooner rather than later as it must be done within 9 months of raising the complaint, is this correct?

Hi, I heard some good things about this forum and wondering if you guys could help me. My husband and I got car finance though Billing Finance in May 2012. The Car was £2495. We Paid £195 deposit and the full finance cost was £4058.12. We had to pay 35 payments of £104.67 with a final payment of £199.67. However my husband was made redundant and we decided to return the car to the finance company as we had paid over half of the term and was told would could hand it back. A company called G3 came to pick up the car and signed off a collection form after checking the car stating it was ok. We have now received a bill from Billing Finance called a shortfall balance statement for £843.00. They are charging us for stone chips in the car requiring a respray. Saying different areas of the car had a poor previous paint job and needs a respray. The car was an 2003 car when we bought it, it wasn't in brand new condition as it was 9 years old. We have rang Billing to dispute the bill but all they kept saying is "in your opinion" the car wasn't in tip top condition. They have forwarded us some pictures so we can see what they are talking about, and we also took some pictures of our own before the guy drove the car off. Having checked the pictures we noticed that 2 of the pictures dont actually look like out car. The rear lights are completely different. We called Billing again today to tell them that not all the pictures are of our car and they were having none of it, saying that we were accusing them of fraud. We advised we were going to complain to the fos but they didn't care and are demanding we pay this bill. I will admit that some of the stone chips and paint damage are there, but this is a 10 year old car. Are we expected to put it back into a better condition than when we bought it. Also I would like to add that we inquired with G3 Auctions about the car and it has already been sold, we tried to ask Billing if we can get someone to go and do an independent inspection of the car but they said no. (they didn't mention they had sold it) I just don't know where to go with it now, any suggestions. I'm going to put our dispute in writing to them but is there any thing else I can do. Sorry for the long post. Hope someone can help.

Hi chaps, need a little assistance for a mate. I know there is a code of practice for gas and electric companies as regards accurate billing and back billing, but is there a similar thing for water rates? And, if so, can anyone post me a link please? If not, then I'll be back with yet another tale of woe! Thanks in advance.

After getting a new electricity meter fitted I have received a shocking bill I was wondering if anyone could give me some help and advice. On 17/05/13 a new single-phase digital meter was fitted replacing an old analogue meter in the communal hall of the Maisonette I live in. ‘Lowri Beck Services’ have been trying to replace it for years, over that time missing a couple of arranged appointments! Checking my records I have found that the last actual meter read NPower undertook was on 11/02/11 at 36903KWh and the last read I undertook was on 5/10/11 at 38480 KWh. The reading taken upon fitting the new meter on 17/05/13 was 52842 KWh. I have therefore taken the spread of excess KWh owed as the difference between the last actual NPower reading date (11/02/11) and the date of the meter change (17/05/13 ). In order to work out the cost am I right in assuming the excess units should be spread out over this period? The last bill I paid was £149 up to 42372 Kwh estimated used, date 19/02/13. Therefore I work out the excess units as follows: 52842 – 42372 = 15939 KWh over 27 months (17/05/13 – 11/02/11) . The next bill I received was £1562.62 for the excess units generated by changing the meter, estimated meter readings and dates of 41843Kwh 07/02/12 until 52842Kwh 16/05/13 therefore: 52842 – 41843 = 10999Kwh over 15 months (16/05/13 - 07/02/12) I don’t know why they have taken the estimated excess start date as 07/02/12 rather than the last actual read on 11/02/11 or my read on the 05/10/11. I also don’t know why NPower used the meter reading 41843Kwh as the start of the excess Kwh rather than the meter read of 42372 Kwh that I have already paid up to, an overcharge of 305Kwh. Am I eligible for the 12 month back-billing restriction? Would this be taken as 12 months prior to the bill for the excess units of £1562.62 (which was reversed) or from the last bill I have actually been asked to pay, rather than been reversed (I still haven’t received one as yet!)? Answers to the above questions would be really useful and any help in how I go about structuring a response to NPower would be gratefully appreciated. Ps any advice as to where to address letters would be great, my account is currently under review by the complaints team due to informing NPower of the problems via telephone.

I purchased an app through iTunes last week I have just found out apple has been debiting five payments of £1.00 over 5 days Does anyone have a direct number for iTunes/apple billing in the UK FOR THE LIFE OF ME, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE ON ITUNES SITE

Hello, we moved into our new build flat 2 years ago and set up straight away with Npower. for the first year we were paying just £20 a month for electricity only, then suddenly after a year we got a letter saying we owe £300 and our bills have gone up to £120 a month. after looking into it it turns out the MPAN number on our bills is our neighbours meter. We have now been waiting 4month for NPower to send someone out to clarify that our Mpan number is not the correct one and every time i ring up they just tell me they are waiting for someone to get round to it and all i can do is wait! im worried the longer it takes the more we are going to owe them as our neighbours flat was empty the first 6months so weve definately used more elctricity then him. is there anything i can do to speed them up so i can get it sorted and change to a better supplier?? thanks in advance for any help

Hi My wife got a littlewoods account she has had it for 2 years the account has had so many refund and adjustment because of errors made by littilewoods finance team and the overall account balance do not add up to what i been keeping in a spreadsheet on her payments. I have spent days and weeks after week stressing out trying to work out why the account not adding up to the balance littlewoods says. Like this month she return faulty tumble dryer account was CR £275 we order a replacement £265 and they making us pay for it. I try adding up every thing on the account and it do not show that we are in credit i added all our items how meany payment been made and it still says we are short of the account balance even though we used rewards on items and have had return items. I don't know if someone here can go though the statement if i edit any personal info out or if someone can give advice who i can see to do this. I have contact littlewoods but they just over look all this and say the account is right. But if it was right my balance would be lower as i have kept track of it all and gone though the statements of every order placed but i am still going to be paying more according to littlewoods balance.

I took out a sub prime car loan with this nasty bunch in march 2011 for £1500 (£2400) after interest over 18 months paying £120.97 per month for 17 then £125.97 in month 18. All went fine until just before the october 2011 payment when I lost my job and informed them (as they ask you to do on their website claiming they want to help) and I was treated like a leper. Their attitute was 'tough-pay up or else!! I am paying them what I can afford justnow-£80 every 28 days until I am working again and have made them countless offers to reduce the shortfall on top of the £120.97 I should be once working or £80 while unemployed until balance paid off but I just get blanked until the red letters arrive when they demand amounts they know I cant afford. They know I got laid off and they know I am in a vunerable position yet they never sent an inome/ expenses form despite me repeatedly asking for it. Also I have challenged them on letter costs- £20 and £25 and they make sure they send them both out which I feel is an attempt to make me look bad and engineer situations in their favour. When I challenge them they hide behing t&c but the latest letter they sent this month they charged £30 where they demanded £400 in 2 weeks from an unemployed person or theyre threatening repo. This is despite me telling them on countless occasions I need it for travelling to interviews and some of the jobs I have gone for are off a bus route or unsociable hours. They even tried pressuring me into ending the agreement but I keep telling them no because the car is a necessity and no car would mean not getting these jobs and would cost them payment. I have paid over 1/3 and agreement is covered by Scottish Law which with Billing Finance being english they really dont like. I have reported them to the Financial Ombudsman. Any other advice?

I have a rather unusual case that i am hoping someone can help me with. In 2011 i was being supplied electricity by British Gas when one day i received a letter saying sorry you are leaving. This was news to me so i called up to find out what was going on. We discovered that my account had been switched to Total gas & electricity. i am not a business but a domestic customer. It turns out that my electricity meter was logged as something called a multi-occupancy meter (still not sure what this is) and even though i had a bill in my name, when my housing association changed their commercial electricity supply my meter was switched alongside the rest. Whats more the bill was no longer in my name. i immediately contacted both the supplier and the housing association to sort this out which both said they would (done on the phone so no actual record). forward 3 months i still get no bill i again contact my housing association who said they would sort it out. After about a year of this i give up (how long is reasonable to chase this up). i am well aware that i am using electricity and as such should be liable for the bills. Today i receive a bill for the period 12/06/11 to 21/02/12 and i assume that more bills will follow which will total an awful lot of money. Total are a supplier of electricity to businesses i am not sure if they are signed up to Code of Practice for Accurate Bills (back billing) so where would this leave me. Also i have never agreed a contract with Total and as my supplier was British Gas and i did not simply inherit an electricity supply will Total be able to claim that i inherited the supply. at the time British Gas did put in an erroneous transfer request but it was deemed that it was a legitimate transfer due to the meter being multi-occupancy. the earliest email evidence i have is dated 13/12/11 from my housing association stating that they contacted Total asking them to put the account back in my name (on reflection i do not like the wording of that email) Where do i stand on this matter. What can i do going forward. would like some advice before contacting Total. Don't want to risk being cut off with 2 children and 1 due. As i final bit of info i noted on the bill that Total refer to me as a domestic customer (does this matter) also the amount per unit looks very high and they have a standing charge. Sorry if this is a bit long winded.

I have just noticed that My first payment has just left my bank account for sky talk and broadband. what is bothering me was that i never received a bill, on phoning SKY, i was advised that they do not send out bills and that they have to be requested with £1.00 Fee. To check your bill you have to register with sky to view the bill online. I was not informed of this. It is not a complaint as such, just that i was never given a choice as to how i want my bills. I like to know what is being deducted from my account prior to the deduction

Shocking stories of bullying following their incompetence in correct billing. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2232395/EDF-bullies-threatened-debt-collectors.html

Hi, I've just had a letter from Southern Water saying that they will change the billing from rateable value to average consumption of other properties in the area. Looking at the estimate the bill will be £100 more than the current one. I asked how it worked and they said that they will now estimate the bill by averaging the use of other 3 bedroom houses in the area and charge me that. Can they do this? I live alone in a 3 bed house, and the other houses have full families etc... in them? Not to mention the majority of them have gardens and my garden was paved :-/ I told them to install a meter, but they said they were unable to due to the pipes being inaccessible. Surely this isn't my problem? Any advice would be handy...

Please respond with any advice available, please no judgement. I moved into an new flat (as a tenant) on July 27th, 2011. I immediately called British Gas to put the bill in my name, however British Gas told me that the previous tenants had decided to switch to a different electricity company. I asked whether i could stay with them, however British Gas said that it was too late to stop the switch. I then asked them, whether or not they knew which electricity will now be supplying us, and they stated it would be N Power. So starting from the 8th of August 2011 I would be supplied by N Power. I tried to call them several times in the following couple of days, but i never got a response back. I then contacted British Gas to switch back to them, but they said i had to wait a month before i could do so. So I was only able to switch back to British Gas on September 8th 2011. British Gas took care of all the details, and had no problems. However, I never ended up having a bill for the electricity used during the period starting the August 8th 2011 and ending september 8th 2011, as N Power never contacted me back, and after a while i gave up. Now FAST FORWARD to February 23rd 2013, and Sparks energy sends me a bill claiming that i owe THEM £255 + interest for not having paid sooner!! I searched online for any help, and sent them a letter stating that due the Code of Practice for Accurate Back Billing, since they are at fault for not billing me sooner, and that the bill is not applicable because the energy supplied was consumed more than 1 year previous to the bill being issued. Sparks energy then responded stating, that they had received my letter, and that they have looked over the account and they can advise the final bill was sent out on 20th of March 2012. (However, I never received it, as I suppose it was put in the name of the previous tenant.) They finished by saying "unfortunately Sparks Energy are not part of the back billing code so the bill does stand, I do apologise that there has been a delay in the final bill issued out due to this my manage has offered a 10% discount of the balance on the bill. I have yet to respond back. Please let me know if there is any other way i can fight this bill, I just don't have that sort money laying around. Thanks for the help!!

Hi all, an ongoing exchange with Brish Gas is, let's say, keeping me awake at night and I would appreciate any advice. the facts: 1.I have been living in the same 1 bedroom, tiny flat for the past 9 years. 2, I have always paid my bills, on time; some were estimated,some not - regular visits from the meter guy, or I sumitted a meter reading on line. 3. My gas bills have never, ever exceeded £300. 4. In early December before the new bill was due I logged onto my online account to see what was coming. It said, quite surprisingly, that my account was £1329 in credit. I laughed it off and waited, figuring an IT glitch since various pages on the webste were malfunctioning. 5. I got a bill, about a week later, for a whooping £4242. After I picked myself off the floor and had a strong drink, I called customers' services. The lady made all the right noises and assured me someone was going to look into it and get back to me within 3 to 6 weeks. She added that my 'estimated bill' was cancelled. I waited. 6. I sent them an email on February 18 and received the following: Dear X Thank you for your email about the gas bill. I'm sorry for the delay in my reply. I can see from your account we've called you on 18 January 2013,(they did not, I was homeall day and no-one called.) we have cancelled your estimated bills and our specialist team is in the process of resolving your enquiry. In order to resolve your query to the best of our capabilities, I have also forwarded your account details to my supervisor. We will deal this for you at the earliest. In the meanwhile I request your patience. I’m sorry I’ve not been able to fully resolve your enquiry today. I will contact you again on 2 February 2013 to give you an update on my progress. 7. On February 14, I got the following email: Dear X This is with reference to our previous email about the bill. We had billed your gas account to the reading submitted by our meter reader. The details of the bill are below - Meter reading: 14141 Bill period: 26 October 2012 to 17 January 2013 Bill charges: £143.36 Amount brought forward: £4,195.08 The current debit balance on your account is £4,345.60. Just to inform you that the previous readings we had received from our meter reader were - 13888 on 25 October 2012 13805 on 30 July 2012 This shows that we had billed your account to the correct reading. Please reply to my email with the meter reading, if the reading we had used to bill your account is incorrect and I'll be happy to help. Please get in touch by 27 February 2013, so I can progress this for you. Thank you for contacting British Gas. 8. Again I called customers' services. Out of the hour long conversation ( I was hyperventilating) came out the following: that my bills had 'always been estimated' (wrong) and that I was probably owing that money. She then filled in the paperwork for a 'task', which is, essentially, some investigation. And now I'm waiting to see what happens. Am i insane? Does this even make any sense to anyone? Any insight, anything really, would really help. Thank you.