£750 Gas usage over 6 months with Swalec?

jellybean09

I called Swalec this evening to give them a meter reading as we hadnt received a bill for sometime and I wanted to check our status. We currently pay them £50 a month DD.

After giving them the reading, they worked out from 19th March 09 to date I am outstanding £450 :eek:(after taking into account the total of £300 ive already paid them by DD).

I questioned with them the figures etc as theres 2 of us in a 3 bed (work full time), all appliances are electric and the only gas we have actually used through the majority of the summer months is one shower a day (my partner showers at work) and very rarely heating which is always on very low.

Our heating is a combi boiler, new rads, double glazed etc etc

Can someone tell me if this seems feasible at all as I have never paid anywhere near this amount for Gas before. We would pretty much need to be paying £130 a month DD to cover our summer months bill, lord knows what the winter usage would be.

They have agreed to investigate this but im concerned if after all investigations they still confirm we owe that amount, how on earth can I pay that when I know I havent used that amount?

We pay 4.30p per unit for the first 1143 and 3.24p thereafter, it resets itself after the end of each quarter. He told me from 19th March 09 to today we have used 4004 units or 44358 kilowatt hours.

albyota

welcome to the forum jellybean09, I'm sure someone will be around soon with a very big calculator to help you with this, i'll pass on this, good luck, hope you get it sorted, as that (£750) would frighten the bejasus out of me!

pinkie_pie

Have you had a new meter fitted recently? When ours was fitted (they came and did it, wasn't optional and didn't cost anything!) he said our bills may be way off for months (like 10x more) and if it happened I had to query it! I said I wasn't happy with that but he shrugged and left.

albyota

stand by ya beds 'Major' cardew is approaching.............

jellybean09

We had the meter installed maybe around April/ May 08 as it used to be a prepayment.

So I wouldnt have thought it could be that after this length of time.

The only option they could give me was to take a reading the same time for 5 days and call some number with the details, they would then work out a daily estimate and based on that outcome decide if the meter is reading correctly.

I dont hold much hope to be honest, the poor guy was nice enough and adamant they would investigate but at the end of the day the onus is on me to pay it if they eventually decide I still owe it and I just cant physically pay that.

Why is it so hard to just have straight forward billing? lol

albyota

Have you been paying £50 / month since april 08?

albyota

unless I am corrected 4004 equates to just over £1500 for 6 months!!! if you have paid £50 / month since Apr 08 thats £850, balance £650 ?? could it be you had not received a previous bill? HELP!

bigheadxx

jellybean09 wrote: »

it resets itself after the end of each quarter. He told me from 19th March 09 to today we have used 4004 units or 44358 kilowatt hours.

What do you mean by this?

Rikki

heating on all the time, even on low will occasionally click on and use gas.
How long is you water heating up for a day? Its not how many showers you have or how many times you wash up, it's how long you heat the water up for.

Its difficult for you to judge if you don't take regular meter readings. Is March 09 estimated, possibly under estimated?


3 months summer gas for me (July-September) with just 1 hour heating water a day, no heating, has cost me £60. (Accurate meter readings.) I take readings every week.

jellybean09

Albyoto- I made a mistake the meter was installed 2007 not 8. I've just had a look at previous bills (we havent been with Swalec continuously). We left Swalec in Jan 09 and gave an actual meter reading, on top of the £50PM we still owed £110, which was cleared.

In March 09 we went back to Swalec (now I wonder why) and would have had to give them a meter reading to start the account. However since then I havent received a bill which is why I took a reading today and called them to get a bill. Whilst since March again we have been paying £50 a month continuously. They are telling me after taking the £50 PM off I still owe £450. I hope that makes sense?

Bighead- What I meant with the chareg breakdown is after the end of each quarter I go back to the higher tarrif until I have used 1143 units and then drop back to the lower scale.

Rikki- Apologies again I didnt word the post very well, the heating is not on low continuously its switched off completely unless we put it on and then I always switch it on the lowest thermostat setting until the house warms through. Also as we have a combi boiler we wouldnt be heating water unless we were using it.

I have a cold water feed dishwasher so not even the dishes being washed contributes, so the heating of water is really minimal.

albyota

unfortunately, I think if all this is correct and you do owe the amount stated, you will have to ring them and if they are prepared to help, offer to clear a bit of the balance and see if you can get a payment plan for the remainder, you want to steer clear of a PPM if you can help it. good luck.