Estimated bills warning !!!

[crane9]

I am with Npower, and I would like to voice a warning with all consumers concerning their bills being estimated before the price rises.

 

The practice used by Npower and undoubtably all the big energy companies,

is to underestimate your bills whilst you are still on the pre-price rise rates,

this means that when your rates increase,

the energy that you had already used (and should have been billed at a lower rate) would then be billed to you at the higher rate.

 

I noticed this on my last bill and immediately called to give the accurate reading.

 

The phone call lasted several minutes as the receptionist at Npower tried to persuade me to leave the bill as it was

and not to worry about changing it as " you can have it added to your next bill, you don't need to worry about it now "

 

I had to insist on him taking the correct reading.

 

On recieving the new bill a few days later, they omitted to put the new electricity reading and only altered the more insignificant gas reading,

meaning that the well underestimated electric reading stayed the same.

 

I then rang them again, and it took a full 25 minutes to get them to re-issue a correct bill including the up to date electric reading.

 

Their reason given for the wrong reading initially was that the meter was actually read by one of their own contractors.

On being told that the contractors did not have a front door key to our house,

therefore he could not have read the meter,

the receptionist said " Oh, your meter is not on the outside of your house" then went away for a few minutes to speak to his supervisor leaving me on hold.

 

On return to the phone, he apologised and said that it was " A clerical error " and told me that the bill would be updated and sent out in a couple of days.

 

When the new bill arrived, it showed that there had been a shortfall of £48 on the electric.

 

That meant that if I had not insisted on a correct reading for my bill, it would have made the shortfall increase to approx £60 with the new inreased rate.

 

I would imagine that they are doing this to all customers bills, so beware and check your readings now !

[Andy77799]

Thanks for that, wonder what date southern is going up???

[Stillborn Crisps]

good spot - hadn't thought of that!

 

when do they go up? (I'm with NPower too)

[crane9]

Npower increased prices on the 1st October !

[mattlamb]

Cheeky beggars. Do utility companies actually know the meaning of fairness or customer service??!!

[markwelly]

i had this problem with npower ao switched to eon in jan last year all was well until this last month ,they have just informed me that they want to increase my monthly direct debit from £24 to£118 when id stopped laughing and realised they were serious i contacted them and inquired as to why this was they say im using £91 a month ??? i live in a one bed flat have not had the heating on all year dare not put it on now ,granted its all electric but my consumtion is the same maybe even less as iv not had my heating on,anyways they wont budge so im getting a little concerned iv submitted meter readings but heard nothing back it is a block of flats low storey with the meter cupboards downstairs,advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated,thanks.

[User6809]

Wish I'd read this thread earlier.

Just got my latest fuel bill which includes an estimate of the usage made at the point the prices went up. The Gas bill in particular is extremely skewed - the estimated daily usage rate after the price increase is 3 TIMES the estimated daily usage rate before the price rise. They claim that this is based on previous usage over the August to December period - ie from last year. But this year has been a lot warmer than last year and our gas heating has only started coming on in the last couple of weeks - so it all seems a bit biased to their side (was the price rise made when it was because they knew a warmer autumn was coming up perhaps?). This is supposed to be allowed as part of their terms and conditions - so I'll be digging these out tonight to check!

I'm also currently working my way up the complaints ladder to see if they are willing to adjust the bill but at this point it seems unlikely.

[Andy77799]

£24 to £118 how can that be legal/right???

[wazir]

I changed to Scottish last year. They initially took 35 a month, then this September (after 14 months with them) I complained as I was 200 up [i live a a basement studio flat, energy usage is very low] and they sent me a cheque for 153 and reduced the DD to 30 per month. Then a month later, I got a letter saying they wanted to increase the DD to 50 a month! I called them immediately and they hastily backed down.Do complain if they increase the DD, have your details and balance to hand. And I always read and send in the meter readings myself.