£3000 electric bill!!!They've got it wrong

troll35

A friend of mine received a £3K bill from her electric company a few weeks ago. She immediately queried it as her usual winter bill is about £150. She is very careful with what money she has and pays some money each week so that when a bill arrives it is already apid for and she is usually in credit. Imagine her shock when she goes from being £60 in credit to £3K in debt.
Her meter has been read regularly though I'm not sure about htis time. She gave them a reading for the meter but the revised bill was still £900. She has asked for someone to come and check her meter (do things go wrong?) but she seems to be having no joy, despite numerous phone calls. She has now received a letter saying they are taking her to court!! :eek:

How can I help her. I've suggested citizens advice but what else can I do?

molotov_3

Worth speaking to a senior manager at the elcetric company as then you are likely to find someone with a brain!

Parents had a similar problem and they kept being fobbed off until the company admitted that they had no idea what they were doing and wrote the whole amount off!

Testee

These meters do go wrong - I had a problem with our old electricity meter whereby we had the two different rates, night rate and day rate. The day rate meter went round during the day but at night both meters were going round!! I took regular readings over a period of time and insisted they sent someone out to look at the meter cos the call centre bods just kept insisting these things never go wrong.

They installed a new meter and gave me a credit - I ended up in profit so all ended well.

[Deleted User]

I think you should name and shame the electricity company. Best of luck to your friend.

smartie1976

Need to ask some quick questions - has she had a meter exchange at all?
It is possible that the supplier has failed to update this, and the actual read you gave will look like mega useage.

Eg. Last read 2468
Current read (new meter) 00568
Meter reader puts in: 568x (last figure will be est).
Consumption = 2468 thru 568x = big bill.

Are the meter details on her elec account correct. This is again, mostly linked to a meter exchange, but sometimes DIGITS are updated incorrectly. 5 dial meters go round more quickly than 4 dial metric (even though cost will be the same).

She must try and speak to a designated department, not the call centre, who can help her investigate this properly.