Electricity issues

[Surfer01]

When was the last time that you phoned your gas or electric company to give them an up to date reading? According to industry regulations they only have to read a domestic meter once every two years.

Most of your bills are estimated and because the amount seems reasonable you don't query it, however should you decide to change supplier, either the new or the old supplier may request that you give a closing read and suddenly you have a bill in excess of £200 or £300 because everything was estimated up to that date. You then have no choice but to stay with your current supplier in order to pay off your bill because they under estimated and they continue to hit you with high charges as they know you are now locked in.

It is a brilliant tactic and helps the company keep their customers and you are the one suffering as you cannot enjoy a lower price from another company. This is actually anti-competitive.

In order to avoid this I strongly suggest that where possible you give readings to your supplier at least every 3 months. Monthly is obviously better. Also if your bills are over estimated they are taking money from you and enjoying the interest. Imagine if they over estimate £10 on the bills of a million people, the interest is quite handsome.

Initially you may have a high amount to pay off, but once you have paid it, you are free to chop and change and the end result is the market becomes more competitive and forces prices down.

[scottishpol]

I make a point of phoning all my utility suppliers with my current readings as soon as I receive an "estimated bill".

Some of the estimates have been as much as £290 ott:o

[Movingon]

Here's a good one; when they change your direct debit as a result of estimated readings!!

 

I had a year of estimates, and at the end of that year they said that according to their calculations I would use XXX gas next year and accordingly my payments were put up from £34 pcm to £43 pcm!!! When I checked my reading, it appears that they were so far out that they had to revise my payments DOWNWARD...

 

like the OP said - BEWARE!!!

[mcuth]

Yup, good advice - I always double check my bills against meter readings (and have even been known to go through the calculation to make sure it's correct!). The one I'm having difficulty with at the moment is the water, since the meter's below one of the manhole covers outside and none of us in my block have a key.... BTW, if you're with SWEB and sign up for their "Read. Reduce. Reward Scheme", they'll email you each quarter with a reminder to submit your meter reading online (and you can earn Nectar points too!) Cheers Michael

[Guest Lueeze]

Cheers for that surfer!

 

Lou x

[MARTIN3030]

From this July they will only be able to ask you to pay arrears going back 2 years.

From next July it will be 1 year.

[Surfer01]

There seems to be a lot of debate regarding some electric suppliers over charging and using bully boy tactics to get customers to pay up. Perhaps the administrators could consider opening a forum for this issue. I can advise on electric issues for domestic customer as I work in the industry and help steer people in the correct direction where possible. Our company supplies commercial customers so there should be no clash of interest. I cannot advise on where to find the cheapest supplier but there are sites where you can decide what is best for you. The only drawback is that sometimes you may need to wait a few days for a reply from myself.

[Gruffle Gaw]

Good idea - I'd certainly welcome a dedicated forum considering the problems I'm having with NPower.

[ozzywizard]

This is a suggestion I made here . To get this done you would need to reply here and if enough people reply it will be done. Just no one has replied or shown interest yet.

[Surfer01]

About two weeks ago my eighty year old father kept receiving telephone calls from a DCA called "Robinson somebody" or other, demanding from him my contact details. It seems that PGEN had handed over a default amount of £65 to the DCA as arrears.

This stemmed from an amount of £196 which I owed PGEN and I happily pay them in instalments of £32 per month until end of December. I then cancelled the standing order as I thought it was finished and the bill paid up. PGEN did not even bother to send me receipts for every payment or a warning that I still owed them some money.

Originally PGEN tried to bill me for nearly £350 until I pointed out to them the error of their ways and eventually they reduced it to £196. It took them approximately 4 months to sort out this mess and it was me that had to keep phoning them.

I contacted the DCA, made an offer to pay when it dawned on me that I had never given PGEN my father's contact telephone number and the number was unlisted. At the time when I was negotiating with PGEN on the outstanding amount, on more than one occasion, I told PGEN that it was my father's address and that it was a mailing address only as we would be travelling.

The only way that the DCA could have got my father's telephone number is by accessing the unlisted telephone numbers list or by PGEN supplying them with that information as my father's power is with PGEN.

Either way I am sure that it is a breach of the Data Protection Act and as it is a DCA involved I think I should pursue it all the way down the line as I have nothing to lose as the bill is now settled. I want to make them squirm for a change as breaching the Act is quite a serious offence and may also force them to disclose how they go about obtaining information on people. May even get some compensation for the inconveience.

Do you think I should give it a go and nail the DCA or just walk away and forget it ever happened.

[Twinkly]

From this July they will only be able to ask you to pay arrears going back 2 years.

From next July it will be 1 year.

 

Could you please post linking to or provide more details regarding this ? Thanks

[pdrskint]

Warning british gas rip off,

Have had my electric bill reconstructed by BG there idea,

I suddenly owe £1600 back dated 2 years as there new calculations cost on todays unit price of 11.14 per unit as 2 years ago it was 5.28

i will fight this all the way , so this must be happening to otheres.

[morteee]

Yup, good advice - I always double check my bills against meter readings (and have even been known to go through the calculation to make sure it's correct!). The one I'm having difficulty with at the moment is the water, since the meter's below one of the manhole covers outside and none of us in my block have a key.... BTW, if you're with SWEB and sign up for their "Read. Reduce. Reward Scheme", they'll email you each quarter with a reminder to submit your meter reading online (and you can earn Nectar points too!) Cheers Michael

 

 

I used to work for severn trent and I know that their policy (I dont know if they actually HAVE to do it) was that if the meter was outside the house and the person person affected couldnt easily access the meter they HAD to send a meter reader out to read it

 

however this can cause another pitfall, meter readers CAN (not all of them) be lazy so and so's and there do what is known inside the industry as a 'van read'

 

i.e they drive past the house, dont bother checking the meter and 'estimate' a read and submit is as a true meter read!

 

so my advice would be if you have an external meter, request that someone reads it for you (if you cannot easily access the meter) and make sure you are there when they do it!

[scott1985]

Warning british gas rip off,

Have had my electric bill reconstructed by BG there idea,

I suddenly owe £1600 back dated 2 years as there new calculations cost on todays unit price of 11.14 per unit as 2 years ago it was 5.28

i will fight this all the way , so this must be happening to otheres.

 

This practice surely is illegal. Its like buying a 2 year old car at brand new prices. Im pretty sure the principal that applies to retail should apply to this. If it is labeled at 5.28 pu then you pay that, irrespective of arrears. If a shop charges a customer more due to a recent price change, even though they have a written quote then that is illegal, isnt it?

[dx100uk]

From this July they will only be able to ask you to pay arrears going back 2 years.

From next July it will be 1 year.

 

 

i thought this only applied to where the Co. has failed to charge you the correct rate, i'e they have not updated your meter, then suddenly hit you with the back-dated new rate?

 

so thus, it does not apply to outstanding debt through non payment or estimates that latterly turn out lower than real usage?

 

might be wrong though

 

dx100uk

[pdrskint]

what i carnt understand with this, is that i have always had my meter officially read,

and there figure goes some 11000 units back to a estimated reading

but they say they havent backdated the reading,

they say they are ignoring the official readings and cancelling all my previous bills and re-constructed my account { no explanation as to why } they say they are forwarding my new account details.

 

It doesnt sound right does it.

[pdrskint]

Warning british gas rip off,

Have had my electric bill reconstructed by BG there idea,

I suddenly owe £1600 back dated 2 years as there new calculations cost on todays unit price of 11.14 per unit as 2 years ago it was 5.28

i will fight this all the way , so this must be happening to otheres.

 

With referance to this item i have just phoned BG to see where my account details were. i was told i now have an accounts manager and was put through to him,

He told me my account wao OK and no money outstanding,

Why have they suddenly said this is it because i was threatening them with further action,and intended to fight all the way.

They say they are sending a letter explaining everything.

If i hadent of been streetwise then BG would of ripped me off,

But this practice needs stopping.

[Surfer01]

This topic was closed on 10 March 2019.

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