Bulb useless at simple maths.

philthunder · 30 November 2017 at 9:52PM

We have been with Bulb for 6 months now. Wondering why we were getting such high energy bills. I downloaded all the emails and bills for the last 6 months and after much searching I found we had been overcharged by over 1000 Kw in August. Checking the bill I also found the cubic feet to Kw conversion was also out, digging further the daily standing charge was out.
By now I was beginning a headache, further investigation found every bill had discrepancies. None were consistent though, it was like going through a primary maths class, simple mistakes abounded. Prices rounded up by 2 or 3 pence. Even the readings were out, some months we were charged up to a reading, next month were were charged up to the one we had just been billed for!
Some credit to Bulb though, in October they said all the bills were wrong and issued a fresh bill from the beginning, THAT was also wrong! November bill was also out, that was reissued, THAT was also out.
I am bracing myself for another session on the phone.
Anyone who is with Bulb should scrutinise every section of their bills, they are possibly being ripped off wholesale. Particularly note the gas conversion from cubic feet to kilowatts, even though Bulb give a convenient conversion chart at the bottom of the bills.

Lord_Baltimore · 1 December 2017 at 2:17AM

The Bulb Community have mentioned billing issues on the bulb website. Looks like you'll need to keep a close eye on their calculations with your own spreadsheet. I would always reconcile the maths of any energy firm as a matter of course; too many people rely on Companies to get things right.

I prefer to manage my money myself

nic_c · 1 December 2017 at 9:39AM

Well they have to get that £100 for each new sign-up using referrals from somewhere :rotfl:

It should be fairly easy to make an excel sheet with all the relevant formulas in that you simply type in useage and the time period and it will give the charge. That way you could keep track. Have you highlighted the inaccuracies to bulb?

philthunder · 1 December 2017 at 9:58AM

nic_c wrote: »

Well they have to get that £100 for each new sign-up using referrals from somewhere :rotfl:

It should be fairly easy to make an excel sheet with all the relevant formulas in that you simply type in useage and the time period and it will give the charge. That way you could keep track. Have you highlighted the inaccuracies to bulb?

They show 2 decimal places on the bill for each charge unit Gas 11.97 Electric 2.5 pence. but charge at 4 decimal places 11.9729 and 2.5008 and nowhere on the bill is that mentioned, "apparently ok with OFGEM", but even then they get the figures wrong. None of my previouse companies only showed 2 decimal places.
Revised bill, new inaccuracies. Wonderful, calling them inefficient hardly describes them. Anyone know how to contact the CEO?

philthunder · 1 December 2017 at 11:17AM

For anyone confused as to how a bill should be presented, Ogem's letter to suppliers, says in the relative part here:
Also, the information on the consumer’s bill should reflect the information the
consumer is provided at the time they entered into a contract.

chiny · 1 December 2017 at 11:45AM

Oh drat... I am due to start the tariff swap process in 2 weeks time, and the current candidate is Bulb. Not good then.

I am currently with Bristol Energy who have been flawless, and their tariffs are contractually to 3 decimal places but shown to 2 decimal places. Their arithmetic appears correct and unsurprisingly, the £££ are rounded to 2 decimal places also (aka pence). So Bulb may be correct re OFGEM on what appears acceptable. No excuse for dodgy arithmetic of course.

I abandoned my energy spreadsheet 8 years ago by the look of it and opted for an app on my phone. It keeps tabs on meter readings, plus gives daily/weekly/monthly/annual use in kWh and £, in figures and graphs. So, I know this cold snap last week has increased my gas bill by £6.67 - I claim an MSE nerd prize

philthunder · 5 December 2017 at 5:25PM

Spoke to Bulb help desk yesterday (yes they do answer fast, but that is little help when they are of no help). Explained that bills were wrong, and some of the straight forward bills like killowatt usage on the electric were out. I then got the waffle, "ah but those are rounded up figures." I explained that I had calculated to 4 decimal places the same as the actual unit billing charge. Then rounded up to 2 decimal places and I was still being overcharged by 4p. Nit picking, yes but I expect a a bill to be accurate. At that stage she put me on hold, probably to get in the queue for the calculator. When she came back there was further waffle about how they charge to four decimal places but the bill only showed 2 for the billing cost. Yes but taking that into account the bill is still wrong. After she went through it again I asked for a supervisor. Milles came on and we went through the same scenario, he then went off and took priority possession of the calculator. After much deliberation he admitted the figures were wrong. At last! Right now lets go through the gas bill that was corrected after I showed them the last mistakes. Pennies rounded up 6p overcharged on that bill. "Ah yes we have had trouble with the billing" Right what about the cubic feet to kilowatts conversion as shown on the base of the bill. You have overcharged 8kW on the conversion. "Ah yes we are working on that, that conversion chart is wrong" Not according to other power companies. "No thats right but out working of it is wrong" So a big c*ck up all round? "No we bill as per year so the yearly bill will take account of that". So all will come right? "Yes we cannot cope with the demand".
I'm sure that will all be taken care of when customers see how bad things are. So are you offering compensation? "Yes I can offer you £10" Is that all? I have been working on these bills for two days now. "Sorry thats all I can offer" I did press for a bottle of Whisky but he would not budge, probably needed it for himself.
Considering I have yet to get a correct bill in 6 months I am not confident that it will be right in the end. You can make up your own mind. I would say it does not inspire confidence, but if you change to Bulb check every calculation on your bill.

matelodave · 5 December 2017 at 5:37PM

Always check your bills against meter readings, Always check the calculations, Always get them corrected if they are wrong,

Never ever accept an estimated bill and always download and save a copy of your bill/monthly statement so you can keep a track of what's going on.

Finally and most important, save the copies for at least three years, ideally six so you've got evidence if they come back after a year or two trying it on - like BG seem to be doing at the moment

singhini · 6 December 2017 at 2:43PM

philthunder wrote: »

Spoke to Bulb help desk yesterday (yes they do answer fast, but that is little help when they are of no help). Explained that bills were wrong, and some of the straight forward bills like killowatt usage on the electric were out. I then got the waffle, "ah but those are rounded up figures." I explained that I had calculated to 4 decimal places the same as the actual unit billing charge. Then rounded up to 2 decimal places and I was still being overcharged by 4p. Nit picking, yes but I expect a a bill to be accurate. At that stage she put me on hold, probably to get in the queue for the calculator. When she came back there was further waffle about how they charge to four decimal places but the bill only showed 2 for the billing cost. Yes but taking that into account the bill is still wrong. After she went through it again I asked for a supervisor. Milles came on and we went through the same scenario, he then went off and took priority possession of the calculator. After much deliberation he admitted the figures were wrong. At last! Right now lets go through the gas bill that was corrected after I showed them the last mistakes. Pennies rounded up 6p overcharged on that bill. "Ah yes we have had trouble with the billing" Right what about the cubic feet to kilowatts conversion as shown on the base of the bill. You have overcharged 8kW on the conversion. "Ah yes we are working on that, that conversion chart is wrong" Not according to other power companies. "No thats right but out working of it is wrong" So a big c*ck up all round? "No we bill as per year so the yearly bill will take account of that". So all will come right? "Yes we cannot cope with the demand".
I'm sure that will all be taken care of when customers see how bad things are. So are you offering compensation? "Yes I can offer you £10" Is that all? I have been working on these bills for two days now. "Sorry thats all I can offer" I did press for a bottle of Whisky but he would not budge, probably needed it for himself.
Considering I have yet to get a correct bill in 6 months I am not confident that it will be right in the end. You can make up your own mind. I would say it does not inspire confidence, but if you change to Bulb check every calculation on your bill.

Having read this post I thought I would take a look at my bill (I only have the one bill as I switched back on the 18th October).
And yes the OP is right, there are small / minor errors on my bill too. OK they have only over charged me 7p but the maths is wrong.
Electricity: 307 kwh x £0.01177p = £36.07p (no its not, its £36.13p so an undercharge of 6p)
Gas: 85 units and this they have converted into 954 Kwh (no its not, its 948 kwh, which resulted in a 13p overcharge)

I take my hat off to the OP for noticing

philthunder · 7 December 2017 at 4:09PM

Interesting tariff price difference
I am charged
2.5008p for gas
11.9729 for electricity
23.39p each for standing charge
£28.58 dual fuel discount
I just checked the latest tariff price on Bulb and it is
Electricity Unit Rate: 12.572p per kWh
Gas Unit Rate: 2.626p per kWStanding Charge: 24.56p per day
Dual Fuel discount: £30/year
We offer our members one, single tariff for electricity and gas. It's one of the lowest on the market - renewable or not.

We don't even charge exit fees.

How do we do this? We use cutting-edge tech that keeps our costs low.

Not quiet what customers are getting. Areas differ considerably, mistakes do not!

[Deleted User] · 7 December 2017 at 6:20PM

@philthunder
The first prices do not include VAT at 5%.
When you add the VAT on then the prices are the same.

Bulb useless at simple maths.

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