1st Eon Bill for 1500

[Durtymanc]

Was wondering if anyone can advise me on what to do:

 

When we moved into our house it had a prepayment meter. we tried call the supplier as the prepayment meter had a BG sticker on it but when i called them they didnt have any records of it. So i called transco/national grid to find out who our supplier was and they informed me that BG was our suppliers! So another call went out and they took details and said they will call back but never did! So i gave up.

 

Some time later transco came by and then changed the prepayment meter to a meter reading one.

 

After years of using free gas, an Eon meter reader came by quite recently for the first time and then subsequently a bill came in for £1500. They supply us for electricity but this was the first time that we had Eon around for gas as we thought that BG supplied us and some how we fell off the radar even though i called them several times to no avail.

 

Just wondering now how should i proceed with them? Read up similar posts regarding the bill where they cant bill you for more than a year but quite puzzled in how they got to the figure of 1500 when this is the first reading that they took. Haven't called them up yet as i want to garner some advice first before i call them up. Been reading similar posts and it seems to me that the billing code will apply.

 

Any help will be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks

[zazen.warrior]

After years of using free gas,

 

Not sure how far back they can bill you for but as you state above you were fully aware you were not paying anyone for your gas consumption.

 

I think you will be liable to pay for at least a year of it.

 

When the meter was fitted they would have taken a start read. This is where the total comes from.

[nottslad]

If you have proof you contacted BG then they will only be able to back bill for one year

[Durtymanc]

Thanks for confirming what i thought. How do they come to the figure for a year? Do they take the industry average?

[ozzywizard]

Their database (ICE) works on an average for that household for previous useage of previous occupants useage, its all automated, it is correct they can only backbill one year. you need to take a reading, then another after 7 days then the differance x 52 will give a years useage and this is all you will accept. then they have to allow you to spread this amount over 12 months to pay. Dont accept anthing differant. I no longer work for them and have not done for like 3 years now so forgot a lot, but if you search my earlier posts from 2-3 years ago all the procedures to do this will be on this forum.

[Durtymanc]

thanks for the advice ozzy. Havent been back here since my last post.

 

Things have got interesting lately from recent conversations with them.

 

They have since acknowledged that the billing code does apply and they have come up with a new figure which i am disputing. The reason is that the figure they produced i think its still to high. They mentioned that they feed the readings that i have gave them into a system and it gave an amount.

 

My argument is that its still an estimated figure and its not an accurate amount. The units which they calculated and estimated that i use per month is about 4.3 units per day. The actual meter readings for July only gave a usage for 1.96 per day. Its a big difference and they seem stubburn that they want to rely on 4.3 figure. Their argument is that it includes the winter usage which will be high.

 

I have left it at that for now with no resolution at the moment and will call them back some time later this week after i have done more research into Ozzys posts

 

Any more help would be most useful. Thank you.

Edited August 11, 2009 by Durtymanc