Gas Bill Problems.

loosername

We use to be on a meter in a one bed house and it use to cost about £40 a month max. We moved to a 3 bed semi and obviously expected the bills to go up. We we're with Eon, paying £80 direct debit a month. To start with,we got a bill for over £1000 and it took us ages to dispute that this could not have been us and finally they admitted that the meter had been changed without their knowledge so changed the bill. From then onwards, our bills were constantly wrong. They would send us 3 bills on the same days all with different meter readings. We were constantly chasing them up to admit their mistakes. Finally we had enough so we switched to Scottish Power. We got a final bill from Eon saying they owed us £23. But then another saying we owed them £80. We disputed this so they changed their mind and say we owed them £300! They had our meter reading down as 4000 even though it wasnt even on 2000 yet. They have now changed this but are still insisting that we now owe either them or our new supplier over £700! We were only with Eon for 7 months... And paid them £80 ever month. So we've already paid them £560. Now with the £700 theyre saying we owe thats a £1260 for 7 months! Most of this is gas. We only have the heating on for about 5 hours a day in the winter and everything else is electric.

Is there anyway way we can proove that we have not used all of that?

KimYeovil

Amongst all the confusion do you have a note of your actual meter readings? Have you a note of how much you are using just now?

loosername

Yeah we keep giving them a note of our actual readings and they have even gotten us to take a reading at a certain time one day, and then again a week later etc and have admitted that our average consuption is much lower that what the bill is stating we owe.

The £700 they are saying we owe is with the correct meter readings... But I just refuse to believe we could possibly have used that much in the final 2 months we were with them!

Every single bill we ever got from them had to be disputed and they always eventually admitted they were wrong so it just gives me no faith in them now.. If my electricity was really high, i would be more likely to believe that but there is no way that a heater on for 5 hours max a day is going to amount to that much??

KimYeovil

If there is a relatively new meter have you checked they are charging you for a metric meter rather than an imperial meter? That is, the kWh should be about 11.2 times the readings for an electric meter but 32 times the readings for an imperial one.

DirectDebacle

loosername wrote: »

... and finally they admitted that the meter had been changed without their knowledge so changed the bill.
Is there anyway way we can proove that we have not used all of that?

Might be a long shot but check whether you have a metric or imperial meter.

If your new meter is metric and you are being billed for an imperial meter then your bills will be 2.83 times what they should be.

Edit crossed with above post.

loosername

I did try to go down the metric meter route but i dont think that is it.

Gas previous497 estimated on 10 February 2009
Gas current1875 estimated on 13 May 2009

Difference1378

unitswith multiplier value 1.0
conversion value 1.02264, calorific value 39.4

15423 Gas kWh (kilowatt-hours) usedConverted into
Charges

Gas primary units used676kWh at 6.219p each £42.04
Gas secondary units used14747kWh at 3.388p each £499.63

Total gas charges £541.67

Plus they reckon i already owed them £302.03 from god knows when!


(the fact that it is estimated doesn't make a different at this moment as they're still saying from the start number til the end number, this is what is owed)

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

loosername wrote: »

We use to be on a meter in a one bed house and it use to cost about £40 a month max. We moved to a 3 bed semi and obviously expected the bills to go up. We we're with Eon, paying £80 direct debit a month. To start with,we got a bill for over £1000 and it took us ages to dispute that this could not have been us and finally they admitted that the meter had been changed without their knowledge so changed the bill. From then onwards, our bills were constantly wrong. They would send us 3 bills on the same days all with different meter readings. We were constantly chasing them up to admit their mistakes. Finally we had enough so we switched to Scottish Power. We got a final bill from Eon saying they owed us £23. But then another saying we owed them £80. We disputed this so they changed their mind and say we owed them £300! They had our meter reading down as 4000 even though it wasnt even on 2000 yet. They have now changed this but are still insisting that we now owe either them or our new supplier over £700! We were only with Eon for 7 months... And paid them £80 ever month. So we've already paid them £560. Now with the £700 theyre saying we owe thats a £1260 for 7 months! Most of this is gas. We only have the heating on for about 5 hours a day in the winter and everything else is electric.

Is there anyway way we can proove that we have not used all of that?

Hi loosername

Sounds like a real mess. Already some good advice on here; thought I would just add a couple of points.

When was the meter changed? Was it during your occupancy or before?

If it was changed whilst you were already in the property, then you should have had a bill from the date you moved in until the date the exchange was done. The removal will be shown as a letter R on the bill.

Should this be the case, make sure the readings used on the bill are accurate. The engineer changing the meter will have attached a label to the meter detailing the serial number of the meter taken out, the date this was done and the reading at the time. Make sure these match what is on your bills.

Also, check the Meter Serial Number on later bills is the same as that on your actual meter. If not, we may be charging for someone else's usage.

Did you advise us when you moved in and give us meter readings at the time?

If you did, make sure we started your account from these readings.

Have we closed the account to actual readings? These should be given to us by the gaining supplier (Scottish Power). If so, the new supplier will start their account from the same readings.

Let us and Scottish Power know if there is a discrepancy. We need to close our account to the same readings Scottish Power use as opening readings.

Sorry for all the questions loosername but trying to understand what might have happened.

Malc

dogshome

Hi loosername - It's difficult to tell from your post when the meter was changed, but as you don't give a date, I asssume that was changed prior to you moveing into the house, but EON only twigged that it had been changed during your occupation.

This new meter would certainly been a Metric meter and the bill details you have given bear this out - Each unit of gas converted to 11.19KW for chargeing.
However all the bills sent to you prior to EON realising you had a metric meter, were probably charged on an Imperial meter basis of each unit being converted to appx 31.5KW for chargeing, which would have been an overcharge of nigh on 200%

During the 7 months you were with EON Gas prices have been fairly stable and you do have your reading when started with them, you also have the reading when you started with your new supplier, which by the rules should be the same as EON's final reading. - If it not, ask EON why it is not
Using your Eon start reading and your new suppliers start reading, apply your present tariff to the total use, subtract all the payments you have made and that will give close figure as to what you owe EON, or they owe you !
If as I suspect, it's very little or even they owe you, WRITE to EON heading the letter Complaint listing your calculations
Good Luck

loosername

Yeah the meter was changed before we moved in.

Eon didn't send us a final bill until 6 months after we had changed supplier so we couldn't just read what the meter was currently on. However Eon and Scottish Power had completely different meter readings so they are basically arguing about who we owe the money to. But every single bill Eon has sent us, has had a completely different reading on it.. We tell them the reading and then they send the bill and just make a number up... This is why we changed supplier but the problems just seem never ending...

I just cannot believe that in 7 months my bill can be over £1200 for a 3 bed semi... Does any body know the average?

Sorry if i'm confusing anybody but they have completely confused me!

dogshome

Hi loosername - For the moment forget the pile of conflicting bills you have had from EON
.
The important thing is the Start Meter reading you gave when you signed up with them - If you no longer have a record of this, ask the company you were with before the Switch to EON, for thier End Reading - This will be the same as your Start Reading with EON.

When you Switched to your new supplier, you would have been asked for a meter reading and given the date the Switch would take place - This Meter Reading and Date should be exactly the same as the End Date and End Reading on EON's final bill

From these two readings calculate the total amount of gas EON supplied to you, and multiply it by 11.2 to convert it to Kwatts for chargeing, then multiply this by the prices per KW on your tariff, take off any discounts and add 5% VAT.
Then deduct the value of all the payments you have made, and that gives you a total that is very close as to what you owe EON or they owe you .

As already posted, if you figures don't concur with EON's demands, WRITE a letter headed Complaint, listing your calculations

Whilst you are understandably angry with EON, the basic problem may not be their fault - When the meter was changed, the meter changeing company were supposed to register the new meter with the central agency, who would have informed the distributor supplying your property at that time - Obviously some one slipped up in this information chain, and this error was already in the system when EON took over your account.
However all this does not excuse EON from sending out conflicting bills

We know this shambles of a Metric meter being charged at Imperial meter rates was caused by a system failure. But system failures can be the devils own job to put right so I strongly advise that you phone your new supplier today and check that their records show that you have a Metric meter
Best of Luck

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi loosername

Dogshome is right; forget about the pile of incorrect bills and concentrate on meter readings.

If you have the readings when you moved in and when you changed to Scottish Power then let us know. Ask for the entire account to be re-billed to these readings. This will cancel all previous charges and produce a bill covering only the gas actually used.

The re-bill will also offset all payments made to give you either a credit or debit balance.

If we are trying to close the account to different readings to those Scottish Power are opening to, then I would ask for an Agreed Reads Dispute to be raised. This is an industry wide process to help suppliers agree opening/closing reads. The process is to make sure you are billed continuously when changing supplier.

As dogshome says, make sure we are not trying to bill you on an imperial meter if you have a metric one. As a heads up, metric gas meters have 5 dials, whilst imperial ones have 4 dials.

Hope this helps a little loosername. Give me a shout if I can help further.

Malc