£1000 Quarterly bill!!

saltnvinegar

Hello All

I'm new to this forum but a long time reader but now have a problem of my own I could do with some advice on!

I currently have my supply with Scottish Power and have done since Oct 2008. I have just received my quarterly bill and it has come in at almost £1000!!!

Our equivalent bill last year was £450 so I can't see how Scottish Powers excuse of 'we've had a cold winter and fuel is more expensive' can be right.

We live in a very modest 3 bed house (about 1000 sq ft) with only one reception room, kitchen, 3 beds and 2 bathrooms. We have two storage heaters (on Economy 7) and 2 convection heaters in the house.

We're doing nothing differently from last year (if anything we're more careful about when we use the convection heaters) but Scottish Power are being pretty unco-operative.

They want us to speak to an 'energy saving' advisor who wants to go through all the electrical items in our house to assess whether our usage is appropriate. According to Scottish Powers own figures we have used more electric in one quarter than their average customer does in a year!

I want them to come and check the meter (this was in fact replaced last year to a 'new' one) but they want to charge me £87 to do this and won't entertain anything else.

Where do I stand on this?

Thanks in advance

Dave

molerat

Is the bill based on readings or estimated, have previous bills been estimated ?

border_collie

Has anybody a bit odd moved in next door? Sometimes cannabis growers nick your electric.

Easy test, turn off EVERYTHING , and see if meter stops.

saltnvinegar

Hi thanks for your help.

The bill is based on actual meter readings I do this every quarter so I'm pretty sure its not that.

What is bizarre is that we seem to be using as much electric at night as we are in the day which does not seem right?

Border Collie - Thanks for your suggestion, the red mist had descended so I wasn't thinking of that. I'll turn everything off tomorrow and see. I don't think next door are growing cannabis and nicking our electric but stranger things have happened!

Cheers
Dave

timmmers

IF you have your old bills, why not run though them and compare to the current one?
Any large increase would be a sore thumb if you used so much more.

I had this last year, I was speechless for a while. They made xcuses, they claimed under estimates catching up etc...past bills were very smiliar usage though. The meter AND their billing was at fault, by the time I sorted it out I'd paid it and they owed me money though which was annoying.

Check the freebies section for companies giving away usage monitors...you don't need to be their customer to get one for nothing sometimes (mine came from BG who I don't use).

As far as people stealing lecky..look in the loft if that's a possibility...nowhere else would show on your meter readings if it was theft. It would have to be after the meter and you'd notice anything but external and loft access.

Ninety quid to check a meter? What's that about, I didn't have that.

t

KimYeovil

I fail to see in what way Scottish Power is being uncooperative. They have offered you advice and offered you an opportunity to test the meter. (Of course they have to charge for this - it will be waived if the meter is faulty.) You should be happy that they charge for it - you do not seriously want this to be offered free on demand, do you?

If you spent £450 last winter why would you not expect to have used £1000 this winter?

How much are you using per week just now?

And it does not matter how much Scottish Power's average customer spends. How much does an electricity-only customer spend? - that's a lot higher.

tazzy2010_2

I think that Scottish Power aren't being fair if your bills more than double and then you have to pay to have everything checked. Secondly, yes I do think a rise from 450 pounds to over 1000 is unreasonable and should be questioned!

Our bills went up recently but mainly as my mum moved in with us for 6 months ( was suppost to be one month :mad:) however, it no where near doubled and she cooked 13 christmas cakes (6 hours each!) while she was staying with us.

It definately sounds like something is going wrong somewhere. Definately turn everything off for the day and see what happens.

I hope you get is sorted!

KimYeovil

tazzy2010 wrote: »

I think that Scottish Power aren't being fair if your bills more than double and then you have to pay to have everything checked.

Why is it remotely unfair? If there is a fault with the meter the charge is returned. Why do you want to pay more for your electricity to give free checks to people every time their bill is different from what they hoped? It is relatively straightforward to check yourself whether or not there is something questionable with your meter. If you aren't willing to bet £70 or £80 on there being a fault then you must know yourself that there is unlikely to be a fault.

macman

You have the bills from the same quarter last year? So how many units used that quarter, and how many used this quarter a year on?
Forget about the price, what we're interested in is your consumption. Has that gone up?
If your storage heaters are set up properly and you're on E7, then you should be using more at night, that's the whole point of E7.
However you will of course be paying a premium for running the convectors during peak rate.
How do you heat your water-is this set on a timer so it heats up during the E7 hours?

Fire_Fox

saltnvinegar wrote: »

I currently have my supply with Scottish Power and have done since Oct 2008. I have just received my quarterly bill and it has come in at almost £1000!!!

Our equivalent bill last year was £450 so I can't see how Scottish Powers excuse of 'we've had a cold winter and fuel is more expensive' can be right.

What dates does your bill cover this winter and last winter? I bet this year you have paid for all of the snowy weather in your quarterly bill, last year parts of January were very mild and it didn't snow until February.

merlin68

My quartely bill from them was £91.75 on an actual meter reading so even £450 sounds excessive.