Final Gas Bill - 10 months late - Shall I Pay?

Hippo332

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of having a final gas bill amended and sent out 10 months later??

I switched at the end of Oct 2008. In Jan 09 the old gas company sent me money back as I had overpaid.... but looking through my details didn't send me an actual final bill. They have now sent me an amended final gas bill and are asking for £50 back....

The bill is for 22 Aug - 16 Oct 2008.

I am inclined to tell them where to go... but don't particularly want to get into legal wrangles...

Any advice??

DVardysShadow

Hippo332 wrote: »

...

Any advice??

If the amended bill is correct, pay it. Otherwise challenge it.

Premier_2

Hippo332 wrote: »

...I am inclined to tell them where to go...

Go on, do it! :T

Hippo332 wrote: »

...but don't particularly want to get into legal wrangles...

Oh perhaps you should just cough up then! :cool:

Eydon

I had a similar situation with npower some years back.

I switched supplier and npower sent me a final bill for around £5, which I paid. Twelve months later, npower sent me another final bill for around £100. I checked the readings and the second "final" bill seemed to be correct. Before I paid it though I wrote them a letter, explaining what they had done, and politely asked just how many "final" bills they were planning on sending me. I got a very nice response back saying sorry for the bother, the £100 has been written off and the account closed.

Worth the price of a stamp surely - just remember to be nice.

scattykatty

I was contacted in June saying that i owed british gas £78 from when i left the 2 years ago. I challenged them and they couldn't explain the reason i had not been contacted with regard to it and I ended up paying

alewater

Hi,
I'm in almost exactly the same situation I left my old companies a couple of days after you and then received a bill yesterday from them which has different readings than what I gave them. What did you end up doing?
thanks
alex

KimYeovil

I trust if they owed you money you would shrug and tell them where to go?

PNPSUKNET

as they say if you use it pay for it, its most probably when you switched you didnt provide an actual read so now the other company has found you were underbilled. Look at it this way it would of been cheaper back then than it is now

DrScotsman

IIRC, Ofgem or Ofsomething guidance says that they should not collect bills more than 12 months old if the customer has made an effort to pay their bill.

Doesn't help you here but I just thought I'd mention it. Do what Eydon did, might save you £50. But don't act like you have a right to get out of it.

Gerrard_8_lfc

You owe it pay it easy as that.

I dont think you would just accept it if they owed you £50 and they thought 10 months later ... we will just leave it.

If no final bill comes in for me anyway id be phoning chasing it up.

PNPSUKNET

people play stupid as you say if it was a company owed them like bank charges.....