Scottish Hydro Electric overbilling some DD customers

mdolan · 22 May 2007 at 3:14PM

Hi all,

Couldn't see this in the forums but its worth pointing out that Scottish Hydro Electric overbilling many customers on monthly DD/quarterly billing.

This is how it happened:
1) During 2006 the prices increased and the increase was applied to the bill from the *announced* date
2) They announced decreases from 1st Mar & 1st Apr 2007.
3) The decreases are NOT applied until the "end of the billing cycle"

So if your bill date falls past the 1st Mar and 1st Apr.... you pay more because you pay the old unit prices until YOUR next billing cycle starts.

A supervisor tried to argue the case until I pointed out I had bills where they applied the increase on the actual date. End result: refund issued for the overbilled amount.

To quote the operator: "We're waiting to see who complains before we offer a refund".

So - they know it's shady practice.

Cheers,
Mike

mdolan · 22 May 2007 at 4:18PM

I know its bad practice to talk to/reply to yourself, but I've now done the maths and it's very worrying.

My billing cycle runs 17th Feb-16th May (89 days).
Original bills
Electric: 940 units (unit price 9.74), total bill £105.53
Gas: 6345.53kwh (kwh price 2.52), total bill £168.48

Now the revised versions
Gas was reduced 1st Mar from 2.52 to 2.03
Electric was reduced 1st Apr from 9.74 to 8.94

Gas
13 days/926.86 kwh @ 2.52 = £24.61
76 days/5418.67 kwh@ 2.03 =£117.67
New total: £142.28
Overbill: £26.20

Electric
43 days/454.16 units @ 9.74 =£50.99
46 days/485.84 units @ 8.94=£50.20
New Total: £101.19
Overbill: £4.34

All bill prices include DD discounts, vat etc (yes, I was sad enough to write a spreadsheet to do all the maths)

So overall I would have been £30.54 overcharged if I had not noticed this. Now if thats scaled up even across a few thousand customers.... :eek:

So - if you're with Scottish Hydro it's worth checking your bills.

Cheers,
Mike

oldwiring · 22 May 2007 at 6:02PM

This problem is common to all Scottish and Southern Group companies and customers, of which Scottish Hydro is part. If you search this sub-forum for Southern Electric or Atlantic you will find some interesting and informative posts. In those some customers have had bills adjusted, but not always without some effort on their parts.

Dolhaidd · 25 May 2007 at 8:39PM

I very much like the calculation process. I have had the same situation with Swalec in South Wales (fortunately only with electric) but I have five properties, all billing at the same time, so the total over-bill is quite substantial. I have reported it to Ofgen and they already have quite a catalogue of cases against Swalec - the problem is (they say) that Swalec refunds immediately to those who complain and denies there is a problem with those who do not. Ofgen can only prove the individual cases it knows about and cannot prove the vast majority because most people don't notice the scam or do not complain. Ofgen has only 9 (now 10) cases on file. So we should all encourage everyone to register the complaint with Ofgen to get them to penalise the skin off Swalec for this fraud.

jackieb · 26 May 2007 at 11:22PM

I'm with the Hydro for both my gas and electric. I pay by DD. I got my quarterly statements in today. I pay £56 a month for my gas. In the letter I got it says they owe me £10.40 because i'm in credit. Then it says they've reviewed my account and based on their prices and how much gas I use they don't expect my payments to cover future gas charges. It says my monthly payments will increase to £57 from 16th June. Now I know it's only £1 a month extra but i'm credit! Unless they're planning to increase their gas prices I can't see how they've come to this conclusion!

Edited to add: At the bottom of my statement it shows how they've calculated my new payment amount. They have estimated my usage at 23913.91 kWh @2.52. That's the old price! This comes to £602.63 (not including DD discount, standing charge or VAT). If I do it with the new price of 2.03 it comes to £484.45. A £118 of difference! I'm getting mad here.

jackieb · 26 May 2007 at 11:26PM

Mike, thanks for this. I have my statements in front of me just now (dated from 15th Feb to 17th May) and you're right. I'm going to phone next week. I'll have to sort out my parents too.

One question - on my electric bill it says :

standard energy 365 units@13.81p = £50.27
discounted energy 2120 units@9.7p = £206.48

Why do I have standard units? Do you know how much the price per unit was reduced to?

mdolan · 27 May 2007 at 11:38PM

Hi JackieB,

You can find all the revised prices here:
http://www.hydro.co.uk/ForYourHome/OurPrices.aspx
(You need to enter your postcode).

At least in Dundee I think the Hydro will see an upswing in calls as I contacted the local press (the Courier) who ran a nice article on the problem

Good luck in getting your refund! (Although luck has nothing to do with it - it's *your* money!)

Cheers,
Mike

jackieb · 28 May 2007 at 12:08AM

I couldn't sleep last night as I was so mad.

I found my old bills, and like you said, when they put the prices up on the 1st of January, they put them up straight away on the statement. They didn't wait until the start of the next billing cycle.

I'll let you know how I get on. My parents billing period ends on the 27th of May, so i'll have to wait until their statements come in before I see about theirs.

Mike, i'd press your thanks button 10 times if I could!

jackieb · 29 May 2007 at 9:17AM

I phoned today and they're crediting my account with the difference on my next statements. The girl I spoke to said that it had said on the letter (i'm assuming it was the letter telling us about the price drop) that it would be from the next billing period (I can't remember that), but as I wasn't happy with this they would refund me as a goodwill gesture!

mdolan · 29 May 2007 at 9:56AM

jackieb wrote: »

I phoned today and they're crediting my account with the difference on my next statements. The girl I spoke to said that it had said on the letter (i'm assuming it was the letter telling us about the price drop) that it would be from the next billing period (I can't remember that), but as I wasn't happy with this they would refund me as a goodwill gesture!

Yup, they told me the same thing. But I asked the question "why do you put it up on the day, but wait for the end of a quarter before lowering, especially when you name a date...?".

This threw them entirely and they tried to say that they had never done that - and then I produced my old bills

A complete scam if ever I saw one.

Cheers,
Mike

jackieb · 29 May 2007 at 10:23AM

My parents billing period runs up to around the 27th of May, so we're just waiting on theirs to come in. I'll be phoning on their behalf. I will mention about the last price increase if they say anything!

Scottish Hydro Electric overbilling some DD customers

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