How to get around a possible scam...

Miss_Ratty

Hi There,

Something just occurred to me...if my gas and electric supplier do only quarterly bills, and say their prices go up, how do you get around the issue of proving how many units were used at the pre-hiked prices? Say it's 8 pence kwh, and mid way through your quarterly bill it goes up to 10 pence kwh, how can you get around them estimating that you used say more during the lower priced phase than the higher priced phase?

Submitting a meter reading will not get around this as I have found to my detriment - as they said only a visit by them will result in actual meter readings. Short of calling them out every week...how on earth can you prove it??

I had a bill recently which spread my actual meter readings over the course of the quarterly period - when I was actually travelling for a month and used most units prior to leaving.

Hmmmmmmm....any thoughts would be appreciated!

Monkey1984

Depending on your supplier some will take the readings from you over the phone. I don't see a reason why they would refuse them to be honest.

I think what they would do if they don't get a reading is use the previous and current readings and calculate the reading pro rata to the date of the change.

Premier_2

They should accept a meter reading from you on the day the prices change, despite what some call centre person may have told you to the contrary.

Even if you don't and you have reason to believe the estimated reading the supplier makes up is very wrong (e.g. in your case where you left the property empty for 1 month), as long as you can provide some sort of proof, then the supplier will adjust the figure.

Last time the prices changed, one supplier (I think it was SSE? or maybe just their Atlantic brand?) just rebilled everything at the old rate for anyone that called up to take issue with the estimated change point - the cost & effort coming to a mutually agreed meter reading at price change was more than the extra going to be collected I presume.

Btw, there's no scam involved here. How can a utility company know you didn't use any energy for the month after the prices changed unless you tell them?

1carminestocky

As we get told all the time that the energy companies buy their fuel in advance so know what the price is going to be for the forseeable future, why can't they forewarn customers of an impending increase and set the date at some point in the future? It's not rocket science....is it? As per most thing energy company-wise, they sort of get away with it somewhat. If they can't inform all their customers of an increase within a reasonable time frame (and I certainly WOULDN'T class 65 working days as in any way reasonable, btw) then they clearly have far too many customers for their infrastructure to cope with IMO.

littletommytucker

Inform customers of a price increase? Were you not awake throughout may june and july when all the big 6 were holding press confrences every day explaining that there would be a huge price rise? The actual date of the price increase cannot be realeased for legal reasons as this could lead to unfair trade on the stock market.