I have recently taken over a business and switched electricity to British Gas from the previous owners supplier N-power. Today I returned to my business after having a few days break to see that my business had been broken into and my electric switched off. After ringing the police and asking my neighbours if they seen anyone I was informed it was someone from an electric company. I then rang British Gas who told me my supplier was N-power. I then rang N-power and was told they had gained entry and switched off my electric. They left the door to my business damaged and entry into my business was easily obtained by opening my door. It was left totally insecure and as a result items have been taken. By whom I do not know. They now tell me I have to pay £500 to have my electric switched back on. I have only just taken over the business they should not be allowed to break into my business and leave it insecure and then bill me for it. Can anything be done with this? As I am not their customer or ever been. I can not owe them money as I have only just taken here over. Are they allowed to enter my business when I am not the person who is contracted to them? Should I have been informed about this? Should they have left me documentation to say they had entered and disconnected my electric? Can they leave my business insecure? Also can I do anything to have my electric switched back on without having to pay the previous owners bill? Thanks in advance

Hi, I moved into my flat in June last year. The letting agent told EON of the move and I went to the shop to get a pre-payment dongle. EON sent me a 'welcome to EON' letter 'let us know if you have any problems etc'. Fine. Since then I've been toddling to the shop to top it up each time I run out, only once have I ever used the 'emergency' function for a few hours. However, I received a letter from them this morning saying 'we are investigating your account, please provide copies of any receipts and your meter number'. They know who I am and my meter number already? Anyway, I called up and they say I owe money. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???? Surely the whole point of a pre-payment meter is to NOT get into debt and only pay for what you need at point of use? I freaked out on the phone as I'm on JSA and Housing Benefit at the moment and being chased for unpaid CTX through the courts next week. This is the straw that broke this camel's mind... There will be blood. Can anyone explain to me what I should do next before I call them back? Genuine thanks. M

I currently have two prepayment meters with Southern Electric (gas/elec). As I seem to be paying over the odds compared to normal meters with direct debit (eg, paying 13.99p per unit for elec, and the gas has a daily standing charge), I'd like to come off these meters. SE have quoted me a total of £100 to change the meters, and mentioned I would first have to go through a credit check. Has anyone been able to get this fee waived by SE? I've heard other companies have offered to remove the units for free (as long as you stick to a contract).

Hi all, I'm having a pain with Southern Electric; they're claiming an unpaid final bill from a property we left at the beginning of March, 2013, of £160.78, which has now gone up to £184.90 as it's been taken over by their dept collectors "Past Due". We paid the final bill of ninety-something pounds at the end of February, and my mother (who's name the account is in) called them to give them the final reading a few days later and advise them we were moving out. The man my mother spoke to told her we'd be due a rebate of over seventy pounds because we'd been over paying, and to send the reading in writing with a cancellation letter. A month later after we'd long left the property we received the bill for £160.78, which I queried and after some back and forth (because we were moving out there was practically nothing electrical in the property, so this bill was ridiculous), the case was moved to someone else who, on the 2nd of August 2013, advised me they'd review the case and contact me soon when they had an update. At the end of January (this year) I received a letter from PastDue saying this had been passed to them and we needed to pay £184.90. I contacted SE. again, and they claim to have emailed me on the 8th of august, though I have no record of this, claiming they had decided I do owe this money based on the final reading with no further explanation. I'm not currently in the country so cannot go to CAB (and my local one has removed their online support). Please can anyone make any suggestions for what I can do? I don't want to take a trip back to the UK to resolve this as that would cost more than they claim I owe, but do not wish to pay a bill that is clearly a rip off. Thanks for your time reading my wall of text!

First thread/post in this section - Had new meter fitted earlier in year after inheriting a day and night meter which was read the wrong way round for the first 18 after we moved in (Muppets). changed tariff at same time. Anyway - just rec'd a letter stating meter faulty - checked it and no numbers displayed on the meter. Coming to fit new one soon. What is the protocol for billing usage on occasions like this - inclined to press for bill to be scrapped. intend

Hi im looking for advice, came home last week to a meter readers card on doorstep from british gas. Its the first anyone has ever been to read it in four years. They send me emails with an estimated amount for gas/electric and i have been paying what they ask. Unfortunately, its been grossly underestimated and i now owe them £1008 for electricity which they want back at £120 a month. I was so relieved they were willing to spread it out that i accepted that payment plan at once. However, iv now had time to think about it, im off work ill on ssp and will really struggle to pay that every month, as well as my current usage, and then gas on top. Is it possible from others experience, they will accept a lower amount?, i appreciate i used it but surely they should have read the meter in four years?. My other query is, if some of this electricity was used over a long period, is it fair iv been charged for it all at current prices? im worried sick over this, so thank you for any advice.

Can anyone help me?? A few months ago I set up a standing order which I thought was Southern Electric for £85 per month. For 4 months the funds were debited from my Nationwide bank account. I then received a letter from Southern Electric advising that my electric was to be cut due to none payment. I called them and to cut a long story short I realised that when setting up the standing order on my tablet that I had mistakenly selected Scottish Electric instead. I'm 100% sure I selected Southern Electric and checked the bank details were correct before accepting. The bank details were supplied by Nationwide (via drop down menu) so I didn't have to fill in any bank information i.e.. bank account number and sort code. I've asked Nationwide to recall the £340 but they were hesitant due to the fact I had set up a standing order and not a direct debit. They agreed, however in the meantime I'm trying to track Scottish Electric but I've had no luck. I've called all the utility companies that supply electric/gas in the UK but none can recognise the account number. I've contact the HSBC bank who confirm the account is theirs but would not tell me which company the account belong to. I tried to set up the standing order again on the Nationwide site but the funny thing is they have removed quite a lot of the utility companies from their drop down menu. Scottish Electric Sort code: 400530 Account number: 41760548 If anyone recognises the above account details please let me know. Many thanks

Hi I bought an electric scooter on a Group on offer, although sceptical, I trusted group on. When it arrived my fears where confirmed and it hasn't got the torque (power) and I wanted to return it. I had the usual perfunctory instant non-help and then no one got back to me. When I approached the company Sto Racing Products, they had the attitude of "what did you expect" and that I had negated their returns policy by even riding it once. I rode it for a 100m and new it was no good. I approached them to complain to no avail and also group on to no avail. I want my money back and I don't even expect to be reposting it, I have threatened to take it further and no response. I have also checked on ebay and all the scooters of that power rating are considered "kids" and this was not the case in the advert. What can I do

Hi All, I have a question regarding an unwelcome final bill from my previous electrical supplier Southern Electric. I rented a property for about 6 years and was with them throughout; I paid monthly and had an estimated bill with a meter reading I think once every six months. I was always informed after the actual reading that the account was in credit (the amount slowly built up), but the bills weren't brought down, which was OK by me as I just thought I'd get a rebate at the end. I left the property on the 2nd of March, and at the end of January my mother (who's name the account was in) called them to advise we'd be leaving, and was told over the phone we should expect a rebate of about £76 pounds and to just send them a meter reading via post when we left. We paid the normal bill for January and February, and our previous actual reading by the company was in December with our December summary saying we were seventy-something pounds in credit so this all looked good. At the beginning of April we received a bill at our forwarding address for over £170(!), so I contacted them and they said they hadn't received the final reading and our account was still open. I sent them the final reading again via email, and they said they'd send me an updated bill, which when it arrived was still over £160, having been reduced by just a few pounds. The last couple of months in the property most electrical goods were already in storage so there's no way we ran up such an excessive bill in this time that it not only used up the amount we paid each month, but also the money we had in credit and over one-hundred and sixty more pounds! I don't know what to do next for this, but definitely don't want to pay the bill as it's completely unrealistic; what should I do next? Should I contact Ofgem for this? Thanks a lot for any help you can give!

hello i am new to this forum and would like someone to advice me on what i should do we have an account with eon along with 3 tariffs a day tariff, night tariff and a weekend tariff which they told us was the best for us. last week we recieved a letter telling us that since 2004 the night tariff rate was transposed with the day rate which told us that we were having electricity during the day on night tariff rate. they have admitted that it was there fault and have rectified the 2 tariffs, but now are demanding that we pay for the mistake that they had done. it amounts to over 4000 they then said that they would only claim for the last 12 months which is still a lot of money to find with 25% discount the bill runs to £800 do i have to pay for there mistake.... or can i tell them i am not liable to make amends help with this problem would be very grateful..

Hi everyone, Here is a quick summary of my story. I moved to my property in late 2011. My gas and electricity are pre payment meters. After a year I thought it would be more convenient and cheaper to go on to a pay monthly meter so I called EDF to arrange it for me. They said it would be free of charge to change the meters and booked in both meters to be changed the same day. Long story short, the engineer popped up in the morning, had a look at the meter and said he couldn't get this fixed and would escalate the job to another engineer who would come and fix it. I said ok, as long as you change the meter today that's fine with me. He said they will come today to fix it. By the way, the gas engineer showed up, changed the meter and left in a jiffy, no problems. The engineer for the electric meter came and said the meter had been bridged from terminal 1 and 2 and other technical stuff. I said what does that all mean, and he said that I was only paying for the standing charge (Which is false as I have my bills and receipts). He would prepare a report and send it off to the revenue protection team who would then charge me for my unbilled usage AND the call out and labour of the engineer!! I called to let them know that several of EDF engineers visited my flat over the course of the year to read the meter and didnt they notice the problem? Plus I do not use electric alot at home so I wouldnt accept any estimate consumption. Also I didnt tamper with the meter, it could be the tenant before me since its a private property. I am not permanent at this address so why should I have to pay for someone elses dirty work. I also told them that if it werent for me wanting to change to a pay monthly meter, EDF would of never found out about this problem so you should be thanking me rather than trying to judge me. I am ok with paying any unbilled units if I have used them, that I am fine with but I do not accept any of the allegations and charges. I just think its unfair to pay for something which isnt my fault. Can anyone please advise me on what to do as I am stressing myself out. Thank you in advance. Sorry for the long text.

Hi All, I'm new on here so I'm hoping I have found the right place to post this. I bought a brand new SIP mitre saw on ebay July 2012. The model in question has now been dsicontinued. This was a 'buy it now' transaction if that makes any difference, and payment was sent through PayPal, direct from funds in PayPal account (i.e. not credit card unfortunately). Saw was apparently fine, but soon developed problems. The saw works by driving a circular saw blade by motor. The motor transfers power to the blade via two pulleys and a drive belt. One pulley is bolted to the motor, one is driving the saw blade. There are bearings at either end supporting the axles between motor and pulley, and pulley and blade. Basically what's happened is, the bolts holding the pulleys to their axles have come loose during use, this has caused excess vibration, knackering the bearings and causing catastrophic failure of the belt, resulting in damage to the plastic cover housing all these works, completely destroying one of the bolts that was holding one of the pulleys on, and damaged pulleys. I contacted tool_stop (the eBay seller) on ebay in September to see what they would do about it, to which they replied it was outside of their 30 day warranty for a replacement, but they could get it picked up and sent to SIP to be repaired. I contacted SIP myself, and they collected the saw, and returned it to myself repaired in November. The saw has now failed again due to the same reasons. This time the belt has worked its way off and rubbed the casing, melting its way through before failing catastrophically. The casing is there partly to protect the user from such failures hurling high speed debris/pulleys at the user, which could result in severe injury if not worse. I really don't want to be using this saw anymore, because such catastrophic failure could result in injury or fire, so I would like a refund instead of a repair. I assume it's the seller I need to contact about this, not SIP. Do I have the right to demand a refund? I think I read somewhere that I could refuse the contract of sale or something, even having used it, but I'm not sure what exactly my options are or how to go about them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Ben

Hey was wondering if anyone could help. my girlfriend works as a health care assistant in a Hospital. Yesterday she went to unplug a machine from the socket which seemed fine but when she pulled out the plug she got quite a shock and the socket came partly off the wall. She felt a lot of pain shoot all up her arm and jumped backwards. Her fingers and arm started to go red and was told by a nurse to go to A&E to get seen to .She had an ECG and then was told to fill out a datix form. Thankfully everything was okay apart from her whole arm tingling the whole night. Today there's no tingling but her arm still feels a bit numb. She was told to go back in a few days to get checked out again. When she got home last night she told her friend what had happened. This friend was a health care assistant on the same ward as my girlfriend but left a few months ago to pursue another career. Her friend told her that she had complained to a staff nurse about the very same socket months and months ago. The staff nurse just said to her "there's a screw driver in the draw in the office". this socket has been faulty for months and months and has resulted in my girlfriend getting an electric shock due to the Hospitals negligence and failure to ensure the safety of its staff. My girlfriend has taken a picture of her arm which clearly shows redness and also the socket hanging off the wall from where she pulled the plug out. i'm wondering if she has a case for claiming compensation ?. To be honest i'm just glad she's okay but i'm VERY annoyed that it could of been avoided had the Nurse acted accordingly once being told of the faulty socket. Amazingly straight after it happened they had an electrician come and sort it.

My son has had a letter from EDF demanding 150.00 or the baliffs are coming 17th December to force entry. They have not read the meter i over 2 years and just provided estimated bills h e has being paying them around £40 per month and now this. I dont know what the correct bill is because it has been left for all this time, I guess it is partly his fault for not being on the ball. He is on benefit and cannot pay them anything untill the 26th when his benefit is due. Don't know what to do when they arrive. Any advice would be appreciated. Regards, Mashmallow

Almost 2 years ago, we bought a pair of Electric Bikes. They have Lithium Batteries which had on the back of the booklet they have a warranty of 1yr, but 1000 charges. One of the batteries is fine, but the other one barely keeps a charge and drops out quite quickly - they are supposed to go from 4, 3 2 & finally one. Where I bought them from has been on to the importer, who says the battery is out of warranty & therefore they are not liable - a new battery is £300 + so not a cheap item to replace. I have just contacted the importer who again says out of warranty - but take it over & they will test them. My point is that I would have had to have charged the batteries approx 4 times every week since new - certainly have not (bear in mind the other bike one is still ok) - any thoughts on how to proceed with this if they do not want to replace.

Hi all, Long time member of this Forum but 1st post I moved into this flat back in July 2009. The previous tenant had left a while previous owing a lot in rent and utilities - in particular her Electric bills. I have never met the woman and her current whereabouts are unknown to my landlord (he would like to catch up with her as well) British Gas have been sending regular letters to her which i have always returned as "No longer at this address, return to sender" Up till now I was quite unconcerned by the whole thing, however.......... A couple of days ago i recieved a letter fromm Face2Face Contact, addressed to 'The Occupier' headed 'Warrant Notice Letter' stating that their records show that the this address is currently unoccupied and that they had made numerous attempts to gain access to the property to read and inspect the electricity meter. They then state they serve notice that they are applying for a Warrant of Entry at the local Magistrate Court under the Rights of Entry Act 1954 Section 2 and the application for the warrant is so they can enter the property and disconnect the electricty in accordance with para 8(2) Schedule 6 of the Electricity Act 1989. Entry to the property will be by force if necessary. At this point i hit the ceiling and contacted Face2Face and explained, as calmly as i could, that I wasnt the person that they're after. I have religiously paid EVERY electric bill i have received within a couple of days of receiving it. The woman i spoke to at Face2Face was very unhelpful and basically ignored everything i told her. Hopefully this will all come ot nothing but I'd hate to come home one night after a late shift and find the electric has been cut off for something that is nothing to do with me. Suggestions anyone?

Hi all I was just wondering if anyone could help? We have prepayment meters for both gas and electric and both with British Gas. They were in the property when we first started renting it so have carried on with them. Does a person have to come out and read them? I am sure I read on their website that we don't need them to as it is done automatically via the card and stick thing (this was september 2009). I am sick and tired of people knocking on my door - I won't let them in as I don't trust them and on pay as you go phone with minimal credit to ring and check their ID. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your response

Hello, After moving out of my house i received an electric bill for £870 for the period Dec 09- July 10. I really feel that this bill is way too high and the first person (I have spoken to a few people from Npower now) I spoke to at Npower agreed with me, that it didnt seem correct. The bill is based on the meter reading I gave to Npower. The gas bill for the same period is £255. The heating and cooker were both run on gas. Given this I am worried that the electricity is being stolen, especially as some of the landlord's family live next door to this end of terrace house and the landlord does not seem to be entirely above board. Can Npower go and check this out? Will/can they charge for this service? Im also wondering if there is perhaps a fault in the system to cause such a high bill, can this happen? Warm regards