wrongly billed - what are my consumer rights?

CB94

2 years a go a new meter was installed at my house. It was set to zero.

6 months ago I received a bill saying they owed me £500. I couldn't believe it and phoned to tell them that they must have made a mistake.

They checked their records. They confirmed their meter reader person had given them the figures, I confirmed these were the same numbers I could see on the meter (just a few numbers different as a few days had gone past since the reading). They said there was no doubt that they owed me money. I was up to date. They repaid me.

I have just received another bill saying they owe me £75.

After close inspection of my bill someone pointed out to me that I use significantly more nightime than daytime units. Then it became clear. They have been charging me the day rate for night units and vice versa.

The trouble is honesty and fear of a mighty bill down the line forces me to tell them. The result : a big bill.

But.
The mistake is theirs. I didn't give them the meter readings, their person did. I trusted that they did owe me the money. I don't know what an average bill is and surely their system should have flagged up a problem.

Going back to Martin's moral problem. The inexperienced till person only types in a few pounds rather than a few hundred for a laptop. The transaction is completed, legally the laptop is yours for that price. I did pay for my electricity by direct debit, but they refunded it.

Should I only owe for electricity used sice they assured me I was up to date with payments - i.e. 6 months ago?

Please help. I need all the ammunition I can as they will not accept the error is theirs/ any responsibilty.

Thank you.

Incisor

So, you didn't want the electricity after all? Could you send it back?

When it appeared the error was in your favour, were you glad to take the money?

CB94

Of course anyone would be glad to receive a refund. I took it only in the belief that it was fair. They assured me it was correct.

I don't have a problem paying for the electricity I use. That is why I am being honest about the fact they have been charging me wrongly. If I wanted to rip them off I would try to keep this going for years! I'm not doing that.

I did pay for it in the first place. The point is, I am in debt because of their mistake, not mine.

Don't they owe me some kind of safe guard?

They are the big company with all the technology and knowledge. I'm the busy Mum trying to do things right. Should it be all down to the little person checking that the big company is doing things properly or should we expect a level of service from these huge companies ?

Incisor

CB94 wrote: »

Of course anyone would be glad to receive a refund. I took it only in the belief that it was fair. They assured me it was correct.

I don't have a problem paying for the electricity I use. That is why I am being honest about the fact they have been charging me wrongly. If I wanted to rip them off I would try to keep this going for years! I'm not doing that.

What you should do is keep this going for years. You should now be seeking to pay this back over the same period as it arose, and maybe negotiate a discount.

I did pay for it in the first place. The point is, I am in debt because of their mistake, not mine.

You are not in debt. You owe them some money. Different thing. Your pride might be hurt over this, but really if you are diligent with paying your bills then you can be proud. Owing this money is no reason to change that, its not your fault.

Don't they owe me some kind of safe guard?

They are the big company with all the technology and knowledge. I'm the busy Mum trying to do things right. Should it be all down to the little person checking that the big company is doing things properly or should we expect a level of service from these huge companies ?

Ha! Service disappeared years ago.Getting bills right went ages ago too. You really have to understand your bill and look after yourself.

Mikeyorks

CB94 wrote: »

After close inspection of my bill someone pointed out to me that I use significantly more nightime than daytime units. Then it became clear. They have been charging me the day rate for night units and vice versa.

Sorry .... but your post doesn't make sense.

I assume you have an Economy 7 tariff and a double indicator meter that supports that? In which case the fact you use more night than day units is only common sense ..... the Econ 7 tariffs are only viable if that's the case. As the charge for day units is more expensive than normal tariffs. But - the charge for night units is significantly less than that for day units (overnight electricity being cheaper as it's surplus capacity and it's beneficial people use it as it saves shutting down generating capacity)

So - if they've been charging you day prices for nightime units ..... your bill would have been massively inflated?

Cardew

Agree with Mickyorks above.


I think you must mean that you use more daytime units than nightime units.

Regardless of that, you have no consumer rights when a company make a mistake of this type.

It is much like a bank who wrongly credit your account with money - which you spend. You still owe that money.

Once it is realised(within a 6 year time frame) it is simply a case of a debt that is owed.

Incisor is right, it is your responsibility to check your account.

I have little doubt that the company will make a 'goodwill' gesture for their error.

Alfie_E

Cardew wrote: »

Regardless of that, you have no consumer rights when a company make a mistake of this type.

It is much like a bank who wrongly credit your account with money - which you spend. You still owe that money.

It’s not as simple as that. It’s a general legal principle that, if you acted reasonably and in good faith and have changed your behaviour because of the mistake, you should not be put at a loss. For the example you gave of banking, look at the Financial Ombudsman Service’s banking - mistaken credits.

I know that utilities are not the same as purely financial matters, and there’s an expectation that you must still pay for what you’ve used where the supplier has made a billing mistake. But, even there, the cut-off point of how far back the supplier can go has been made significantly shorter than six years. Is it now two? Certainly, it would not be expected that a customer be put in a position of financial difficulty, by being made to repay all the money owed immediately. Mikeyorks’ post ends with a question mark, yours contains “I think.” We don’t seem to know what the problem is, so it’s unfair to expect CB94 to have noticed it straight away.

Cardew

Alfie_E wrote: »

It’s not as simple as that. It’s a general legal principle that, if you acted reasonably and in good faith and have changed your behaviour because of the mistake, you should not be put at a loss. For the example you gave of banking, look at the Financial Ombudsman Service’s banking - mistaken credits.

I know that utilities are not the same as purely financial matters, and there’s an expectation that you must still pay for what you’ve used where the supplier has made a billing mistake. But, even there, the cut-off point of how far back the supplier can go has been made significantly shorter than six years. Is it now two? Certainly, it would not be expected that a customer be put in a position of financial difficulty, by being made to repay all the money owed immediately. Mikeyorks’ post ends with a question mark, yours contains “I think.” We don’t seem to know what the problem is, so it’s unfair to expect CB94 to have noticed it straight away.

Agreed, perhaps my banking analogy was not totally relevant.

The 'going back 2 years' on bills( now12 months from July last year) I believe only applies to cases where no bill was produced, not an incorrect bill.

So I believe that a debt is still recoverable up to 6 years.

It is also common practice to allow the debt to be repaid over the period in which it built up.

There is also normally provision in the small print T&Cs that the customer should check bills; albeit I would agree that it would be unreasonable for the OP to pick up on this straight away.

However when given a £500 rebate, it might be reasonably expected that the OP should have checked more thoroughly?

However there was no implied criticism of the OP, merely that IMO when the mistake is discovered the OP will be liable for that debt.

CB94

Thank you for your replies.

I have probably been incredibly naive thinking that I was owed such a massive amount by my electricity supplier. But they assured me I was.

I know it doesn't sound like my thread makes sense. But I do use more daytime units than nightime - they have been charging me a nightime rate for day units i.e. about a quarter of what they should. Then the small amount of nightime uints were charged at a higher rate, but what I overpaid for nightime units makes only a tiny dint in what I underpaid in daytime units.

Yes I should be diligent in checking my bills. I do check the meter numbers relate to the numbers on my bill. But I never thought in a million years that the company would have got these figures the wrong way around.

My problem isn't about paying for what I use at all. I can see that I should owe for what I use but I didn't imagine that such an error could be made.

The real problem is then that I owe for what I received, I had paid for it and accepted it back in good faith.

So, I am in arrears to the electric supplier but will become in (more) debt to my bank because I need to pay the arrears owed to the electric supplier who I had paid but gave it back to me which I have spent believing it to be mine. (I didn't spend it on luxury stuff).

Yes, I am expecting that that the company are going to spread the cost - but I really want to know if there are any consumer laws / rights that would expect the company to meet me somewhere in the middle as so much of the responsibility is with them.

I am fast understanding that customer care has in many cases gone out of the window but that does not mean we shouldn't expect/ be entitled to some does it...?

Thank you again for your replies, they are helping me make some sense out of it.

Joyful

When you change providers your supplier is told what is day / night rates so they put this on their system. If a meter reader ( usually an independant company) sends reads through in the same way it will be billed. As most companies have no human intervention nowadays this would probably not be brought to light.
When you brought it to their attention did the advisor ask why you were using so many night units before giving you a refund?

If this was not picked up on I would say that they should discount this balance for you.

SwanJon

CB94 wrote: »

I do use more daytime units than nightime

While you are looking at this it might be worth checking if (once they spot the mistake) you'd be better off on a single rate meter.
Your night:day ratio needs to be about 20:80 upwards to make E7 worthwhile (varies by prices so maths needed I'm afraid)