Crazy British Gas electric bill

JimmyTheWig

Decided it was time to switch energy suppliers a couple of months ago and I used this site to find the best deal. We switched away from British Gas to e-on.

Got a final gas bill from BG about a month ago. Was a bit more than I was expecting, but not too bad. Paid it.

Finally got a final electric bill from BG. They want something like £2500!
Looked at the bill and the initial meter reading they've got, in December 2005, is 00000 and all other readings have been estimated.
The final readin looks reasonable, though.

Now this 00000 has got to be garbage. There is such a small chance that this was the real reading on that date to discount the fact.

Then it turns out that they haven't been collecting our direct debit for a year and haven't told us about it. Yes I should have noticed, but equally they should have taken it - or at least told me that they weren't taking it.

So I phone up and the guy I speak to almost acknowedges that it is wrong.
he works out from the final reading and the current reading that maybe the bill should be about £1500, and am I happy with that?
I say I'm not happy.
He's going to pass the matter on to the department who deal with this sort of thing - they can give me a discount for the inconvenience of the bill being so late, but he doesn't know how much this discount would be.

I've told him that in my opinion British Gas have made the mistake and it is their job to sort it out.
They don't have any record of any meter readings, despite people coming from time to time and taking readings.


I've since remembered what happened in December 2005.
We were with British Gas at our old house and reasonably happy with them.
We moved here mid December and decided to stay with BG. This meant switching from the existing provider here. This took a couple of weeks to go through.
So we got a final gas bill from the previous gas company for the two weeks we were with them.
But we never got a proper final electric bill from the previous electric company. They sent a full bill which we obviously disputed. they said when they got the final reading from BG they would send a revised final bill.
They wrote to us after a while to say that they hadn't got a final reading from BG and so were writing off what we owed them (as I say, only a couple of weeks).
So even from there there was no initial reading for the gas.


So, does anyone know what should happen now?
If they can't establish an initial reading (or any reading other than the final one) can they give us a final bill?
Would we be under any obligation to pay an estimated bill?
Who's fault is it that the direct debits haven't been taken for about a year?
What sort of discount should I expect / ask for for the inconvenience?


(Sorry for such a long post - I didn't realise how much I'd waffled!)

Premier_2

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

....So, does anyone know what should happen now?
If they can't establish an initial reading (or any reading other than the final one) can they give us a final bill?
Would we be under any obligation to pay an estimated bill?
Who's fault is it that the direct debits haven't been taken for about a year?
What sort of discount should I expect / ask for for the inconvenience?


(Sorry for such a long post - I didn't realise how much I'd waffled!)

Whoops, should have clicked quote not thanks

Anyway,
If they can't establish an initial reading (or any reading other than the final one) can they give us a final bill?
Yes

Would we be under any obligation to pay an estimated bill?
Yes...unless you can prove it to be wrong

Who's fault is it that the direct debits haven't been taken for about a year?
British Gas...probably

What sort of discount should I expect / ask for for the inconvenience?
I guess it depends on how much they say you owe and whether they agree any of it was their fault. How does £20 sound?

batmansmellsfunny

If they can't establish an initial reading (or any reading other than the final one) can they give us a final bill?

If they have a final reading and a current reading (as you said in your post) it will allow them to work out an approximate bill. This will be based on daily usage between the time of the final reading and the current reading and, as such, will reflect your usage so it should be quite accurate.

Would we be under any obligation to pay an estimated bill?

Yes. Unless you can demonstrate that the estimated bill is significantly wrong. Take a reading from your meter today, wait 3 days then take another, use the difference to work out if they have your daily usage correct. Did u move into the house in December 05? if so it may be worth contacting the Estate Agents to see if they have a reading for that time, they are usually pretty good about keeping records like that.

Who's fault is it that the direct debits haven't been taken for about a year?

The harsh reality is that it is a 50/50 error. The initial fault is certainly theirs for not setting it up correctly but as the problem went longer than 3 months, they can justifiably claim that you should have realised and contacted them. You should not have had to do this certainly, and if it had been spotted within 2 or even 3 months their responsibility would have been higher.

What sort of discount should I expect / ask for for the inconvenience?

They may go as high as ten percent depending on the circumstances, however they may refuse discount altogether. Be polite but firm, make sure you speak to supervisors and try to get the matter escalated as high as possible.

Hope this helps

JimmyTheWig

Thanks for the responses.
Was hoping things might be a bit more favourable than you have indicated, but there you go.
Will wait and see what they come back with.

Jim

JimmyTheWig

batmansmellsfunny wrote: »

Did u move into the house in December 05? if so it may be worth contacting the Estate Agents to see if they have a reading for that time, they are usually pretty good about keeping records like that.

Just phoned them to check. They don't readings for sales, only lettings.

JimmyTheWig

Update...

Got a revised bill from BG today.
Because of all the delays they are going to only charge us for electricity used in the last year. We're well chuffed with that.

But the bill still estimated the last year's usage based on a reading of 00000 in December 05.
So I've phoned them up today and they're going to do an estimate of the last year's usage based on today's reading and send a revised bill.

By my calculations we owe them about £40.

JimmyTheWig

Update...

Have had plenty of phone conversations with BG, along with the odd bill and reminder which the people on the phone have told me to ignore!

I think they didn't realise what a good discount they were giving me when they said we didn't have to pay for electricity used over a year ago. On the figures they had it was fine, but on the real figures it was a different story.
But I've got a letter to say we don't have to pay for it and I'm not intending to.

Twice I've been told on the phone that they're going to sort it, only for the next time to be told that the "back-office" wouldn't authorise it. Grrrr. I told them that if they expected me to pay for more than electricity used in the last year then I wanted a written explanation of why.
Got a call yesterday to say it was all sorted. Paid the outstanding bill over the phone (about £44) and am expecting a final zero balance through the post...