Great 'Energy pre-payment meter issues' Hunt

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  • I have a pre payment meter where it only takes what I owe on a Wednesday! I queried this when I first got the meter and was told it will only take arrears on a Wednesday,so if you ignore Wednesday and put the money on the meter any other day it doesn't collect! How stupid is that? I spoke to British Gas ( a young girl in India,sounded about 12 years old) and I said on that score if I ignore Wednesdays the debt will never be paid off and she burst out laughing and said yes! It's a damn nuisance because I constantly have to watch the meter,I charge the card up on Monday and have to wait till Wednesday to put it on,if I don't then I have to put at least another £10 on the Wednesday to make sure it collects the £6 that I pay every week. I haven't been able to fathom it out and have given up trying now as I am waiting for my own charger to do it at home! You couldn't make this up could you?
  • samuellification
    samuellification Posts: 6 Forumite
    edited 28 January 2011 at 11:52AM
    Both houses I have moved in to, both my rented house previously and my own house now, began with pre-payment meters. They are massively expensive and hugely annoying when you forget and run out of electric in the middle of the night!
    The only advice I have is to keep on at your energy provider for a free change to a normal meter. When I got to my new house, Southern Electric tried to charge me for normal gas and electric meters, but as I had been a customer for a while and paid all my direct debits correctly, after a few phone calls they gave in.
    So stick at it if you are a loyal and regular customer, it should be free!!:j
  • cedejah
    cedejah Posts: 44 Forumite
    edited 28 January 2011 at 11:53AM
    OK,
    Up until about a year ago I used to work for a company that British Gas and a few other companies has sub-contracted all their meter work out to.

    Debt
    If there is a debt on the meter 9 times out of 10 it is because the previous tenants have run up huge bills and the meters have been forcibly installed. Sometime people who havent got money allow the meters to run completely out of credit and emergency credit. If this happens the meters shut off and you will have to call british gas to get them to put it back on. As there is no credit or emergency credit the engineer will have to put either £5 or £10 on the meter (BTW the engineer doesnt choose the amount the meter does!). Some people allow the meter to run out again and call british gas to put some more on there and they keep doing that and putting debt on the meter in the process. Regarding the £98 call out charge i've not once heard about that!

    I also believe that the pre-payment meters are alot more expensive than the bill ones. I personally think that they only reason for having a pre-payment meters should be because your supplier will not allow you to have bill one. The pre-payment meters are not saving money (if anything they are costing you more). What they do is simply force you to be more aware of what your spending.

    Also, with alot of the older meters there was a fault with them. Dont worry, the fault isnt a gas leak or anything like that but you might find that your meter just keeps shutting off and it might say something like "call supplier" or have
    or ***** on the LCD screen. Thats typically a sign of the fault. If that keeps happening demand that your supplier change the meter as it will only start happening more frequently. I tried to find a picture of the meters with the fault, but i couldnt. Its a known fault and the first time that it happens your meter is supposed to be changed, however british gas dont have the man power and its just easier and quicker to reset the meter instead of changing it.
  • I had a nightmare with this in December 09/Jan 10.

    Moved into a Council flat, of course it's all on prepayment and there's no card for either the gas or the electricity.

    'Because of their excellent customer service' (cough, splutter, choke) the Council'd handed all the contracts for energy suplly to Southern Electric.

    I was without electricity for about four weeks, and without gas - and therefore without heating, while there was six inches of snow outside - for about six weeks.

    Completely unable to get in touch with them for the first week - spent a total of about 23 hours on hold. Then got through, got told to get an emergency card from a shop because they were 'too busy' to sort out new cards for me.

    Spent a week walking to Paypoint shops in the snow asking for new cards, only to be told at every one they didn't have any. Finally, at one about ten miles from my house, someone explained to me that the company had stopped issuing cards, including emergency cards, as all the meters were going over to keys.

    Note, *going*, as in, some meters still require cards and cannot be topped up with a key, yet they'd stopped issuing them.

    Took me half an hour on hold and a further twenty minutes shouting at an idiot for them to admit they'd spent a week insisting I walk miles in the snow in pusuit of something that was not actually possible to obtain.

    Said they'd change them for credit meters - they promised to do the electricity one the next day, and said if I 'refused' to sit in an unheated, unlighted flat from 8am til 6pm I obviously didn't want the meter changing. No-one turned up, I called, and they said they'd book it as an emergency job, and someone would be there before 11pm.

    Nope. I spent fifteen hours in a totally unheated, unlit flat and they didn't show up.

    After about two hours on the phone next day, I eventually threatened to rip the meter off the wall so they'd *have* to come and fix it, and after telling me they would 'have me' arrested, someone turned up late that evening - I'd already refused to spend any more time in the flat and was at a friend's round the corner, had given them my mobile and told them I'd need five minutes notice.

    Guy rings up and mumbles something, I said 'Pardon?' and he screamed 'It's Southern Electric for the meters! F****** idiot' down the phone and hung up. When I got there, he pushed me out of the way, swore under his breath pretty much continuously, and then fitted a prepayment meter with a key - when all the shops were shut - instead of the agreed-upon credit meter. (And he thought *I* was an idiot...) Pointed it out, he swore at me again, barged past me out of the house and disappeared.

    Southern Electric's response was that it couldn't have happened because none of their staff would do that.

    I did eventually get an insipid and insincere apology - along the lines of 'we don't believe this happened, but if it had we'd be very sorry'.

    Gas meter... which would let the heating work... cancelled four times in a row due to 'emergencies'. What, other than a gas leak, is more urgent than someone who has been without heating for weeks in minus temperatures? (According to Southern Electric's call centre, the answer is variously b****, c***, and !!!!!!).

    Eventually lost my rag, phoned up and demanded it be done that day or a) I'd kick the hell out of the meter and they'd better bring a new one when they came to fix the gas leak and b) I'd take them to court.

    Answer was that 'other people have been without heating' and that selfish little me would just have to wait - job eventually agreed for next day.

    When they didn't turn up the next day, I called, only to be told it'd been my fault for missing the appointment yesterday (which I hadn't known about because I'd been told it was completely impossible to do the job that day!).

    Eventually managed to get a 'goodwill gesture' that just about covered what I'd spent on the phone, and get credit meters installed.

    Oddly, once I had a credit meter and a direct debit they were falling all over themselves to apologise and keep me as a customer - my reply was that if I was ever that desperate for heat and light, I'd set my own hair on fire first.

    So, yeah. Pre-payment meter == lying, worthless scum in the eyes of an energy company, as far as I can see.

    Quite apart from charging higher rates to someone who is already (if they've been forced to have a prepayment meter) struggling to pay, which is bloody idiocy in and of itself, likely to be counterproductive and is simply gouging those unable to stand up to the companies.

    So yeah - will never have one again, they can try and 'force' me if they like, but these days I know I can refuse on the grounds that my physical disabilities mean I can't usually get to the shop to top it up. (Answer last time was 'get someone else to do it').

    Price is an acknowledged disadvantage, but there's also the fact that the companies treat you like a supplicant instead of a customer, and really couldn't care less if you're without power.
  • I had a shockingly bad landlord in my previous rental property and wasn't aware of the gas prepayment meter until I'd moved in. Not having seen one before I had to ask how it worked and then questioned whether it cost any more and was told by him that it was the cheapest way to pay my bills.

    When I realised it was costing me a fortune (£80 a month on my own although that may have been because the central heating was faulty!) I called up Scottish Power to ask them to put me onto a normal billing system but was told that I'd need my landlord's permission and would have to pay an upfront fee in case I defaulted payment. I can't remember what the fee was but I wasn't able to pay it and knew that from past experience with the landlord that he wouldn't pay since he wouldn't fix the heating so I was stuck with it.

    My energy bills in my new property (direct debit system) are high enough as it is so I do think it is most unfair that you are paying a higher tarriff on a prepayment meter, especially for people on low incomes.
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  • SaintMark wrote: »
    As far as I know, pre-payment meters are usually more expensive, so the best solution I know of is to go with EBI Co, who charge everyone the same regardless of how you pay, whether you pay by direct debit or just monthly bills or pre-payment cards.
    They're a lot cheaper than most (if not all) other electricity/gas companies too. They're very good.
    (And no, I don't work for them or anything.)

    When I moved into my new council flat the existing meter was a prepayment meter which I tried to change over (as I had at my previous place 8 years before with no hassle). I was told by Scottish Power that they would charge me over £100 to change both gas and electricity meters over. Scottish Power was also charging me a standing charge of around 14p each for both gas and electricity meters which in the case of my electricity usage accounted for around a 1/3 of the daily cost! (for the privilege I assume of me paying them money upfront!)

    A month or so afterwards I decided enough was enough and moved to Ebico who has assured me that they would probably be able to change the meters over for me for free after watching the account as prepay for a few months.

    Ebico are great in that they don't charge a standing charge on either gas or electricity and as SaintMark says they charge ALL customers the same rates regardless of how you pay (so Prepay customers are treated the same as monthly or quarterly or cash payment customers)

    When I changed over I too had problems with sudden debts being placed on the account despite having paid by prepay since first moving in (there was originally some outstanding amounts on the gas and electricity which I had declared and used up when I first moved in - I assume the electricity key had been left by the builders working for the landlords). Eventually someone at Scottish Power was kind enough to wipe the 'debts' off my account after closing it down.

    Having had problems with the electricity meter failing to accept topups from the key Ebico sent someone out to sort it out. In the process I discovered from one of the call centre people that Ebico now charge for replacement of meters too (which I was a bit !!!!ed off about). Ironically it was however free to replace the existing Prepay meter for another Prepay meter!

    The biggest problem with Prepay meters is the way they rob you of your weekly cashflow. Of course the flip side to this is that you dont ever end up with a large bill looming 4 times a year. I have certainly become more energy/budget aware since having to use them and in that sense they are good. Ive also become used to having them now after 3 months of living here.
  • PS Re Jamelicious's outrageous experiences I forgot to add that I too had discovered that, with the exception of the local Co-op who have always treated me as a valuable customer, I have had run-ins with several local Pay Point shops. None of whom want to take a debit card without charging me stupid amounts of 'admin fees' (read 50p for one shop regardless of how much money you wish to spend on the card). Several of whom have been at various stages rude and off hand in a way I have not experienced previously when buying other goods in their shops.

    This was especially the case when I first moved into the new place and was issued with various codes by Scottish Power which I was to give to the shopkeepers in order to credit the new key - several were downright rude and arrogant - claiming that what Id been told by Scottish Power couldnt be done (it could and indeed it was later by a couple of other shopkeepers)

    There seems to be a negative mentality from local shopkeepers towards people who are topping up Prepay keys and cards (but surely they make money from these transactions don't they? I assumed they did)
  • I have been charged 50p in a small corner shop when I used my debit card to pay,wasn't sure if they should actually be doing this,they said they get charged admin fees,not sure if that's right. Of course the answer is to pay cash every time for the meter. I now know where they don't charge for a debit card payment,co-op is one of them. I only have till September to pay off what I owe and then I will change companies even if to another pre pay meter!
  • Airmike23
    Airmike23 Posts: 403 Forumite
    Would be better if the power co's did not charge a standing charge, at this time only ebico and sse do not charge any sort of daily standing charge, all the other power companies have standing charges, one way or another
  • Saetana
    Saetana Posts: 1,542
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    staircase2 wrote: »
    PS Re Jamelicious's outrageous experiences I forgot to add that I too had discovered that, with the exception of the local Co-op who have always treated me as a valuable customer, I have had run-ins with several local Pay Point shops. None of whom want to take a debit card without charging me stupid amounts of 'admin fees' (read 50p for one shop regardless of how much money you wish to spend on the card). Several of whom have been at various stages rude and off hand in a way I have not experienced previously when buying other goods in their shops.

    This was especially the case when I first moved into the new place and was issued with various codes by Scottish Power which I was to give to the shopkeepers in order to credit the new key - several were downright rude and arrogant - claiming that what Id been told by Scottish Power couldnt be done (it could and indeed it was later by a couple of other shopkeepers)

    There seems to be a negative mentality from local shopkeepers towards people who are topping up Prepay keys and cards (but surely they make money from these transactions don't they? I assumed they did)
    Shops actually make very little out of prepayment top-ups, its why few of them will take cards for these payments as taking cards for any payment involves the shop paying a fee. Even the Co-op have stopped taking cards for them now so I assume there is a valid economic reason for them not to do this any longer.
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