Moved to Scottish Power last Novemeber and yesterday they send me a bill for £780?

Martin_McCarthy

Hi All

New to this site but found it very helpful!

My wife moved us to Scottish Power last November as they said they could beat British Gas for gas/electric. Salesman said £55 per month would cover our 3 bedroom house (there is me the wife and 2 kids) so we have been paying that amount since then only to get a letter yesterday to say we owe £780 in back payments and need to pay £190 a month to clear this?

We complained and asked why we was not informed about the debt before and they said they only check usage ever 3 months (no excuse I said) I will be asking them to confirm that both the gas and electric metre and working correctly as the lady on the phone said to my wife that the read she had from a check 9 days ago doesn't sound right compared to what my wife read out to her over the phone.

Going to look back over our British Gas bills from last year and compare our usage as we didn't have the heating on all summer so I'm confused as to how we have run up this bill?

We have lodged a complaint (verbally and via letter) about the sales guy and the fact they didn't bring this to our attention sooner, is there anything else I should be doing or contacting about this?

Hope you lovely people can help

Many thanks & regards

Martin McCarthy

espresso

You seem to want to blame someone else for the money that you now owe your supplier. Did you really think that paying only £660 per annum would cover your actual usage? You have meters in your property and you can read these and easily work out if your payments are enough to pay for your actual consumption. You may have been conned into switching but I can't see that you have anything to complaint about - you didn't have to switch to a 'cheaper' supplier.

molerat

Are the reads from your meters the same (or close) as on the bill. This is the first place to start. Meter readers do make mistakes. £55 per month is fairly low unless you are a penguin. £1440 is a wee bit above the average bill so maybe not far off the truth.

Martin_McCarthy

espresso wrote: »

You seem to want to blame someone else for the money that you now owe your supplier. Did you really think that paying only £660 per annum would cover your actual usage? You have meters in your property and you can read these and easily work out if your payments are enough to pay for your actual consumption. You may have been conned into switching but I can't see that you have anything to complaint about - you didn't have to switch to a 'cheaper' supplier.

Hold on I'm not blaming anyone accept the wife perhaps for moving us over???????????????

Added to the fact that I wouldn't know how to read the metre and then work out from there what we actually use? Maybe someone here could assist me with that? Although I doubt that will be you going on your first post to me!

Martin_McCarthy

molerat wrote: »

Are the reads from your meters the same (or close) as on the bill. This is the first place to start. Meter readers do make mistakes. £55 per month is fairly low unless you are a penguin. £1440 is a wee bit above the average bill so maybe not far off the truth.

Hi molerat

Firstly I need to work out how to read my metre and calculate this agianst my bill, that way I can be happy I'm an infact being charged correctly..

I have asked for an itemised bill from last Novemeber to now so I can look at this..

Also checking back on last years bills will also give me a good idea I think

My initial recation was shock at the cost but this may actually be correct it's just the fact that we was not notified of the DD shortfall until last minute, I would have upped my payments had a known we was so far behind as I have done in the past with British Gas

Many thanks

Martin

espresso

Martin_McCarthy wrote: »

Hold on I'm not blaming anyone accept the wife perhaps for moving us over???????????????

Added to the fact that I wouldn't know how to read the metre and then work out from there what we actually use? Maybe someone here could assist me with that? Although I doubt that will be you going on your first post to me!

So what is your complaint then?

Surely anyone can take meter readings and multiply the number of units used by the rate per kWh unit for your suppliers tariff. If you can't do this then learn how to!

For gas you will need to use the conversion factors to convert to kWh but this is all explained on your bill.

veronarona

Why not post your meter readings here, together with details of the tariff you are on - and probably an altruistic professor of mathematics and MSE enthusiast will work it out for you :j

I've just managed to work out my annual consumption and total spend for the first time ever

veronarona

molerat

http://www.edfenergy.com/products-services/for-your-home/my-account/how-to-read-your-electricity-meter.shtml

http://www.edfenergy.com/products-services/for-your-home/my-account/how-to-read-your-gas-meter.shtml

How to calculate the bill will be shown on the bill itself

espresso

veronarona wrote: »

Why not post your meter readings here, together with details of the tariff you are on - and probably an altruistic professor of mathematics and MSE enthusiast will work it out for you :j

I've just managed to work out my annual consumption and total spend for the first time ever

veronarona

Good point as no mention of actual usage was made in the OP just the cost.

Martin_McCarthy

Hi Guys

Many many thanks for this I'm currently at work but I will get this info tonight and post when I get home

Thanks for the links also, very handy!!

Martin_McCarthy

espresso wrote: »

So what is your complaint then?

Surely anyone can take meter readings and multiply the number of units used by the rate per kWh unit for your suppliers tariff. If you can't do this then learn how to!

For gas you will need to use the conversion factors to convert to kWh but this is all explained on your bill.

Hi

My complaint is why they have left it so long and let the bill get so big before highlighting this fact to me, plus I think it could be incorrect, but I'm going to work it out now thanks to the help from here