50% rise in monthly d/d???

backfoot

becky23w wrote: »

I cant defend the amount you have been told to increase the DD by, but what I can say is when customers call the contact centre and refuse to set their DD to what we advise and choose a lower amount they regularly complain when they go into debt as they have not been paying enough so this may be why you find it difficult to set it to the amount you require. Advisors are not authorised to lower the DD amount below the system amount so I would suggest speaking to a manager - do not accept a call back they must pass you to someone straight away. A DD is designed to be a suitable amount to cover the consumption and to take into consideration the time of year and personal circumstances.

I know this is well meaning, but it really does typify how frustrating this whole process has become.People are complaining because the increases being requested are definately above the amounts required to service their accounts.Many customers will have doen the maths and then to be faced with a frontline policy of not listening to them, is where it is all going wrong.

Isn't it simple enough just to make a note on their record that the level agreed/being paid is customer led, so any future complaint can be dismissed.

BG's Head honcho says his highly trained frontline staff will listen to you and advise, but in my personal experience they do just the opposite.I am well enough qualified to understand my electricity and gas accounts and don't need to be told how much I need to pay to keep this account operating correctly.:mad:

Jasper27_2

I was paying one amount then Scottish Power asked for more each month which I paid. 12 months later I was overpaid and got a cheque off them basically totaling 12 months of extra payments. They had an interst free loan off me as far as I can tell, I doubt if i rang and asked they'd do that for me if I was short of cash. Fair enough they gave me a cheque and reduced my DD. Now 8 months later they want to increase it again even though I'm healthily in credit. It's a joke and no-one seems to be able to do anything about it. Supermarkets can't ask you to pay upfront for something you've not had yet on the off chance you might buy more in the future yet the energy companies seem to think they can just do as they please.

Stubbsy055

I have recently had my Npower 6 monthly statement through and was in credit on both the gas and electric. However they wanted to put Electric up from £12 pcm to £25 and the gas from £35 to £66.

A call to customer services soon saw my Electric DD back to £12, and gas down to £45. They reckon that they can't put the gas lower as the next 6 months are taking in to consideration winter.

I have asked for my credit on both accounts to be refunded to me also.

hansi

Magentasue wrote: »

I think the whole point of DD is that they can force an increase.

You don't have to pay by DD. You can pay by standing order or on receipt of bill if you don't agree with their calculation. You have every right to negotiate and they have every right to insist.

Not true. The customer has the authorityand the final say to set the DD at whatever reasonable level they want to.

flea72

im currently in dispute with Eon about my DD too, as they want to double it

years ago when they first introduced the ability to view your account online, i assumed that was all it was, the ability to 'view' (the sign up process never intimated anything else, other than you could input meter readings). whereas it seems, 'viewing' your account means you have opted for paperless billing. Therefore i have received no bills for the past few years, and tbh i hadnt really noticed, as my dds were being paid fine each month. I did occasionally get a letter from them saying my payments were set at the right level, or letting me know about increases in the cost of fuel, but other than that nothing

Well for the first time ever this month, i got an email saying my latest bill was ready to view online, at that point, i thought hmmm why have they sent me this email, and decided to view my account. Now bearing in mind i shred all household bills over 2yrs old, i have nothing on paper to get my customer reference from (something you need to acces your online account), so this shows how long since ive had a paper bill (at the minimum). After a quick email session back and forth, i finally get my customer refence number and log in details, and to my shock horror, ive been over £500 in credit for the past 2yrs, and they have been using that to pay off any rise in prices, and to keep my monthly DD low (when comparing fuel costs with colleagues, none could believe how little i paid a month for my elec)

had i known i was that much in credit, i would have asked for the money back, and paid the right monthly payment to cover my bills. Why should they get interest on my money?

Now they want to double my DD, whereas if they had refunded me the excess years ago, and increased my DD gradually over the years to take account of the rising costs, then i wouldnt feel this price rise so greatly.

Also on their website they give a graph estimate on your usage over a year, and although my graph starts fairly low last january, they reckon come this december im using roughly twice the amount of elec i would in january, so unless my graph is gonna take a sharp downturn come this january, something, somewhere isnt working out. But i also cant see that there is a great differential in usage from one month to the next. ok winter to summer (as we dont use lights so much, or the tumble drier), but january to december, i would have thought the difference in usage between those two, would be minimal

Flea

SwanJon

hansi wrote: »

Not true. The customer has the authorityand the final say to set the DD at whatever reasonable level they want to.

Aaargh.
For the nth time...if you cannot persuade the supplier to agree to your suggested amount, there is nothing to say that have to accept what yo suggest - they would prefer to cancel the DD and move you to quarterly rather than give you the discount and let you run up a debt.

Give regular readings (keep copies), work out your annual consumption. Price it at current prices, divide by 12. If this is partway through a plan year it may be more complicated, but not much.

dogshome

I not only keep an eye on my utility bills, but also those of my kids and a couple of friends - This autumn I've successfully dealt with unreasonable D/Debit increase demands from N'power, Southern Electric & Scot.Power, but you have to do to the homework.
You must know the annual consumption figures and apply them to the tariffs
to get an accurate figure for the annual bill, which divided by 12 gives a true monthly D/D cost to keep the account in balance over a full year.
Armed with these figures WRITE to the supplier - Do Not Phone or EMail.
Head the letter COMPLAINT, list all the figures and at the bottom of the letter, write this phrase in bold - You may adjust adjust my monthly Direct Debit payment to £ (list your figure) but I deny you the mandate to alter it to £(List their figure)
This has worked every time

rennysnell

dogshome wrote: »

....... but you have to do to the homework.
You must know the annual consumption figures and apply them to the tariffs
to get an accurate figure for the annual bill, which divided by 12 gives a true monthly D/D cost to keep the account in balance over a full year.

......but, as my earlier post describes, the story doesn't necessarily end there, because E.ON (in my case) wanted to up the resultant monthly figure (which they didn't disagree was correct) by an amount sufficient to mean that, on forecast, my account never went into debit, even at the end of winter. In my case, this meant a 20% increase over the calculated average monthly figure. This 'account never in debit' policy is new to me and, if E.ON are programming their computers to achieve this result, it's no wonder customers are being notified of very large increases as we go into the winter months.

I haggled them down, but they were extremely reluctant, and I got a finger-wagging warning of higher DD levels to come if my running account total goes into debit.

I've written to E.ON asking if 'account never in debit' is in fact their DD policy but, as yet, I have not had their response.

Cardew

hansi wrote: »

Not true. The customer has the authorityand the final say to set the DD at whatever reasonable level they want to.

That is also not true.

You sign a DD mandate giving a firm(any firm - not just utility firms) authority to take what they consider necessary from your account.

The only stipulation is they must notify you in advance.

The flaw in your argument is what constitutes a 'reasonable level'.

I think it 'reasonable' that I pay, say, £1 a month. I suspect my gas, electricity, water, Sky, Phone, Insurance companies etc will not agree that is reasonable!!

My option is to not pay by DD and pay in advance or lose any DD discount.

1carminestocky

I await that rampaging lion of a regulator Ofgem's ruling on this one. Meooowwwwww......