British Gas being cheeky?

Capt_Slog

I've just received a gas bill, online.

This bill runs from 11 Oct 2009 to 11 Jan 2010. Now, from Jan 1st, British Gas put up their prices, so they've split my bill into two lots of gas......

from 11 Oct to 31 Dec, (which is 82 days), they say I've used 129 units
from 1 Jan to 11th Jan (11 days of course) they say I've used 29 units.

Basically, they've just decided that my meter read a certain value at midnight on 31st Dec, and estimated the two amounts from that.

Now, the mathematically astute amongst you will already have noticed the discrepancy. For the first 82 days I'm supposedly using 1.57 units of gas a day, and then for the last 11 days I'm suddenly using 2.63 units per day.

I don't see how they can make this decision. What is it supposed to based upon? I could have been out of the house for all of those 11 days and used no gas at all! The estimate for the changeover appears biased in their favour:rolleyes:

The way I see it.........

1. If they wanted a meter reading on the 1st of Jan, they should have asked for one, I was sober at midnight, it wouldn't have been a problem!

OR

2. they should have used the total usage to get my rate of use for those 11 days.

OR

3. if pigs were flying this month, they should have charge at the old rate for the remainder of my bill. :rotfl:

spiro

The weather is taken into account, given the snow over the last 2 weeks split sounds reasonable.

Capt_Slog

spiro wrote: »

The weather is taken into account, given the snow over the last 2 weeks split sounds reasonable.

It sounds reasonable, and if I was using gas at a higher rate over that period I'd agree, but I don't think I was. If anything it was lower then than in the fortnight before due to us not being there all day and using two woodburners instead of central heating at night.

My point is, that if BG can't prove what I used at what rate then they have no right apportion charge.

Premier_2

Capt_Slog wrote: »

...The way I see it.........

1. If they wanted a meter reading on the 1st of Jan, they should have asked for one, I was sober at midnight, it wouldn't have been a problem!
...

The way I see it, you should have been aware that your existing deal was about to expire at the end of the year and that the company would need to have a reading on that date to ensure a completely accurate bill.
You could have provided one if you were that concerned - perhaps you'd have ended up with an even more expensive bill then.

Otherwise, the company can only estimate what the reading would be on the day of the price change, and that is exactly what they have done as per Spiro's post above.

Cardew

This has been covered several times on MSE.

For the estimated meter reading on a price change, all companies use an independantly audited computer algorithim which has input from the Met office which is supposed to accurately take into account the various factors - including your consumption pattern.

Obviously this is a method approved by the Regulator.

I don't think any company will dispute it if you correct their estimated reading by giving one of your own; loads of people do just that and heaven forbid they might even fudge figures in their favour!