Powergen - sudden huge bill

[tnoemis]

If a bill isn’t due to be sent within 2 weeks (last time I heard), by law they have to refund you the credit on the account and cant refuse and to be honest wouldn’t refuse unless the account is billed to an estimate in which case all you have to do is update the readings and once its through the system (24 hours) the account will be up to date and a refund can then be issued.

The way they calculate the direct debit is they use the previous year’s readings to calculate the usage for this year at the present rate and then break it down into 12 equal payments. The only reasons why people complain about the direct debit being put up is either due to a large price increase or the customers usage going up and then they complain that it's powergens fault for them getting into debit when they get a monthly bill showing the debit on the account and the customer lets it build up and up until the account gets reviewed by Powergen (every 6 months but used to be a year) who then put the DD up to cover the usage and debt. As long as prices stay reasonably the same and the usage doesn’t change too much, you shouldn’t really have a problem and end the year with a small credit or small debit

[racer1]

Ok I'll double check into that then, thanks. Still not going to set up a DD debit for now - this time last year there was no-one living in the house anyway [was empty before we bought it] so will wait a while.

[racer1]

Weirdly this quarter's bill has just come in....at £86 [from meter readings]. Really failing to understand how one quarter can be £206 and the next only £86!!!

[racer1]

this is still ongoing - have been paying each bill but the £206 is still outstanding as all bills since have been smaller and they still can't explain why it's so high. we have paid each quarters bills to keep the account up to date but as I said this amount is still outstanding. We have written to them but in need of urgent advice please....

 

someone came to visit 3rd sept ish - called Powergen who said no-one shoud be here.

 

wrote to them 10th sept [same person / address as previous correspondence], on 13th sept a "PDV visit" which we've been charged £30 for. They sent us a table with breakdown of account but didn't make sense.

 

Anyway last week received a letter from a Powergen in Bedford address [previousy was Powergen in Nottingham] saying they were issuing a court warrant for access to the property and court appt was / is 29th Oct.

 

Replied to Bedford address explaining the account was in dispute and had not had a reply from their Nottingham person. Also sent copy of documents to the court and Bedford address - but to date heard nothing from either.

 

received a letter from Nottingham today, but this time the Director's office, saying we were notified of PDV visit by letter [never were] hence the charge. Tried to call the number given earlier and no answer.

 

Court is on Monday and would rather sort this before - do we pay the outstanding amount less £30 charge or keep fighting and run the risk of a warrant?

 

Really need to call them soon and need help please!

[tnoemis]

I suppose you have 2 options and neither are very nice to be honest. 1, you can pay off the balance and keep pestering them once you have the collections people off your back or 2, you can continue on this track. Court is just to get a warrent to get access to your property to change your meter from a credit meter to a prepayment meter. Although they call it a pre disconnection visit, You WONT be cut off. The only problem with that is they will add the money they think you owe to the meter so when you top it up it takes say £5 for the debt and what ever is left goes towards your usage. The only bonus is you wouldnt have to worry about debt any more. If there was a problem with your meter. didnt they backdate your bill to the day/reading when you first moved in?

[zazen.warrior]

Unwanted Advice

[racer1]

I ended up paying it off and now looking at it....

[ozzywizard]

lol, for those not well up on utility jargon PPM meens prepayment meter.