My Electricity Bill from B.G. has £160+ added on

fridayschild_2

I am a bit miffed to say the least.

Changed to British Gas for my electricity last year and my bill came through online today as the meter reader came the other day. Went to pay and it said I owed £371.74.

Bit much, I thought considering there's only two of us in a 3 bedroom terrace and we have gas heating, perhaps the chap had read it wrong - not the first time it had happened to us.

Went to check but no, everything was as it should be. Looked on bill and readings given with power used should be £209.15 so I rung them.

There was a lot of puzzlement, I appear to have a bill renewed from June 2009, but then they realised that at some point since I joined them someone thought that my night and day readings were reversed and changed them. This was, of course, incorrect so they have just changed them back and decided that they had therefore undercharged us by £162.59 in the interim.

The guy himself said that "its not as though you had cheap bills through the year" and we didn't or alarm bells would have been jangling.

I said that I didn't think it was fair to lump that kind of amount onto a bill without any explanation and he agreed and offered to 'spread the payments'. I pointed out that none of this was our fault and he said the best he could give me was £20 credit (thats the limit) or a free gift worth more than £20 (wowee).

I'm really not happy about any of this and haven't paid yet. If we have used this and not been charged then I guess we owe it but I should like more proof of this.

What do you think we should do? Thanks for listening to my rant

Premier_2

I think it is wise to always check a billed meter reading against an actual and in case of dispute contact the supplier at that point

If you had done that, you would have realised that the supplier was billing on a wrong, or at least different, basis to a previous bill.

Joyful

As you have gas central heating why are you being billed on a 2 rate meter?

dogshome

Hi fridayschild - It seems that some time in the past, the heating in your residence was changed from ECO 7 Electric to Gas, which was a wise move as Gas CH is far cheaper.

However at that time the ECO 7 heaters should have been discarded( were they?) and the supplier should have been told of the change and asked to fit a Standard electric meter

A bog standard ECO 7 annual bill will show a far greater number of units used on the Night Rate than the Day rate, but because you now have no working storage heaters (?), and the Night rate is only powering the Fridge/Freezer and a few things left on Standby, your Day units used are far higher than the Night units, which is why that 'someone' at BG thought the situation only halfway through, and without reference to you or anyone else, swapped the readings over.

ECO7 tariffs offer a cheap rate at Night, but they charge a considerable premium on the Day rate - Add the readings together for a years use and use the total on a couple of Switch sites for Standard elec. tariffs and you will see what I mean

Take tough stand with BG on the basis that the readings were correct until one of their staff
made a half baked assumption and without reference to you the customer, reversed the readings - Also make hay of the fact that you have consistently been paying them over the odds for Day electricity, which would have been corrected at the time that the figures were reversed if you had been contacted about the anomoly.
AND you want your ECO 7 meter changed for a Standard meter within 28 days.
Good Luck

fridayschild_2

Thanks all.

Yes, dogshome, I had almost forgotten but you're right, there were Economy 7 heaters when we moved in, that was back when we were with Eon (or whatever they were calling themselves at the time) in 1988.

We did have a 'new' meter fitted in around 1995 and we already had gas heating then.

I guess I've always gone with the cheaper night time electricity rate, its what we had at my parents (they have no gas at all) so just automatically went for that when we swapped to B.G. last year.

I don't see why I should just accept this. At the very least they should have contacted me about their mistake rather than just whack it on my bill - it isn't even itemised anywhere.

kjsmith7

I would check that they do now have it the right way around. Take a meter reading, remember to read both registers, and then read it again a few hours later. Make sure you read it in the 'day' time. The day register should obviously have increased. The day register is also what you're obviously charged more for so you'll be able to cross reference it to the new bill.

macman

You've had 22 years on E7 but had gas CH all that time? And never noticed that you have been billed for (presumably) minimal cheap rate units, but paid a premium for all your daytime and evening consumption?
In which case BG have done you a massive favour by making you aware of this by their error!

markharding557

You need to get off e7 it is no good for non storage heater users

kjsmith7

British Gas can bill you as though you have a single rate meter (still read both registers, but don't charge one at 'day' rate and one at 'night' rate), or you can ask to have the meter exchanged. The supplier will arrange this with the meter operator (the company that own your meter). There may be a charge (imposed by meter operator), if that's the case just ask to be billed a single rate customer until there is no longer a charge.

fridayschild_2

Thanks to everyone that replied.

Just rang them again and they are adding £30 credit to my bill - funny because on Friday they couldn't possibly add more than £20 (it was the law and everything)

I also discussed swapping to a single rate meter rate and once I've had a chat with 'im indoors I think we will be converting to that.

Also at the moment we are paying quarterly when the bill comes in and the B.G. man said we would be better paying by D.D. and we could spread the extra charge out better that way too. (The only reason we aren't paying by D.D. already is 'the old man' hates all the dd's coming out of his wages every month - I didn't say he was rational but he is mine, bless )

macman

Not paying by monthly DD excludes you from all the cheapest tariffs, it's just throwing money away.