Where do I stand with my complaint?

GaryMonster

Hi all, looking for some advice here ...

I will admit I'm not the best at keeping on top of my Dual Fuel Bill, when I say that I mean I pay whatever they send the DD through as but in terms of working out usage etc I find the whole thing just too confusing!

Anyhow ...

• I had my electricity meter changed to a digital one at the request of whoever, provider or general electricty I can't remember which a few years ago!
• Back end of last year I someone knock at the door and said they were reviewing on behalf of my Provider, as they owned my Provider! ... Obviously this smelt fishy to me as why would my Provider knock at my door! I said no anyhow.
• I then called my Provider to question this and reported this guy and was obviously told "No sir they don't own us they are a competitor".
• Whilst speaking with the guy on the phone I asked if there was anything they could do to help me reduce costs etc. He investigated and discovered that it turns out they transversed my Day & Evening rates when they changed my meter over to digital - so I had been paying a much cheaper rate. I left this with them to resolve and said I wouldn't be happy with a huge bill and felt that some form of compensation was in order, they guy said to leave it with him and they would deal with it.
• Low and behold they did, my DD jumped from £70 a month to £287 (310% Increase)! Which they actually took from my A/C.
• I called my Provider to find out what was going on, obviously they were trying to reclaim the money from the transversed meter readings, and without any form of compensation!
• I was told that I had used it so had to pay for it and it wasn't their fault, I said it certainly wasn't mine and that didn't alarm bells ring when they saw a 310% increase in my bill! My Bill is now currently standing at around £700 that I owe them, lucky this didn't go on for any longer and now I'm thankful for the guy knocking on my door! Anyhow I expressed my concerns over two matters now a) the transversed readings and b) the DD system on the increase! Oh and I also threw in there about me being a loyal customer and letting them know they had competitors telling people they owned them ... and look where that's got me. I was basically offered £20 off my Bill and I said that I wanted this taken further up the complaints chain.
• I was then contacted again a few weeks later and again my Provider stated none of this was their fault, really - so who's was it? As it certainly wasn't mine. Going back over old ground I pushed and got offered £50, again I said that's a small dent in what I owe and I didn't accept it. I was also told that the DD was entered in manually so not reviewed, I told them I work in Computer Programming and that's a pretty poor system not to highlight such an increase!
• They later came back with another offer of £106 which they said was 20% of what I owed, in fact my Bill says £700 so I need to determine how they've came to that figure! Anyhow I said I wasn't happy and when asked what I felt was reasonable I said well all of the debt being written off or at the very least 50%, I agree I've used their Electricty but still not happy with the fact. The guy said that he couldn't authorise that kind of compensation and he would push this onto, wait for it ... "Executive Complaints". They have called me but I was very busy at work and said I would call them back (which I'm yet to do).

Am I pushing my luck with what's been offered as obviously I have used their services. I feel so fed up that companies can make such mistakes and then feel that they can just demand the money back. I rasied with them that if this had gone on for a few years (or even if this happened to an elder) then how the hell do they expect people to pay that sort of money back as it could have potentially been running into thousands, I was told "we do offer to spread the payments". Fantastic, absolutely fantastic reply ... and that makes all the difference does it!

I now need to call them back but wanted to seek advice on what level of compensation I should be entitled to (if any!) and how best to play this. I have in some of the calls said that I would go to Consumer Advice (such as local radio etc) and take this to the Ombudsman.

Look forward to your advice.

Gary

KimYeovil

Your second paragraph sums it up - you have never bothered to check your bills. You owe the money. Pay up. You have been offered a substantial discount that is not at all warranted.

On what possible grounds do you want to go to Consumer Advice, the radio or the ombudsman? You have already been offered 100% more recompense than your case deserves.

No wonder government (and other) IT projects are pants if computer programmers can't handle fuel bills.

Plushchris

GaryMonster wrote: »

I feel so fed up that companies can make such mistakes and then feel that they can just demand the money back.

Probably as fed up as the companies get when people refuse to pay for fuel they have used (and not checked the bills for)

dogshome

Hi GaryMonster - CONGRATULATIONS ! You have done damned well

These threads are full of posts from hard working families, who pay for thier fuel and budget accordingly, only to be hit with a totally unexpected bill because somewhere down the line, someone swapped over thier Day & Night readings
Then the usual response from the supplier is "You used the fuel and must pay for it, but as a special favour we'll raise you D/debit so you can pay it off over time"

To get the debt discounted is almost unheard of WELL DONE

GaryMonster

I said "I will admit I'm not the best at keeping on top of my Dual Fuel Bill, when I say that I mean I pay whatever they send the DD through as but in terms of working out usage etc I find the whole thing just too confusing!" ... that didn't mean I don't check them.

Working the usage out is mind boggling, absolutely mind boogling and let's look at it another way, how would I know the usage is wrong as it was transversed?! ... So I was seeing consumption and a rate! I'm not an expert on electricty consumption nor claim to be so how would I actually know?! ... Ask me a question on the rate my kids get through shoes ... yeah I might be able to answer that one!

So another way to look at this is the elderly? ... would my 90 year old nan be able to work that out? She's got more chance of jumping out of her chair and running the marathon.

So how about looking at it this way ... if you buy something on your credit card and you noticed later on you've been undercharged would you expect the shop to hunt you down for the extra?

Plushchris

If you looked at your bills would you not have thought "Hang on a minute, why on earth am I using so much electricity at night?"

Cardew

The bottom line is you should check your bills; if you really do find it too confusing you should ask someone for help!!

Let us look at this from 'the other end of the telescope'. Many people have been overcharged several hundred pounds in exactly the same circumstances as youself - transposed meter readings where the majority of their consumption is at(what should be) cheap rate, but they have been charged day rate.

So if they had been overcharged, say, £700! would you think it reasonable if the provider decided that the customer should write off the amount he was owed? or after a lot of negotiation it was reasonable to repay him £106 of the £700 they owed him?

GaryMonster

Cardew yes I totally agree I should ask for help, and yes your example is exactly bang on ... of course we'd all want our money back.

All good debates, and I set out to ask for some advice and its nice to know that my request has been fulfilled. I have no idea about how to tackle these things or if I'm in the right or wrong, but by reading responses I know where I stand and I've managed to get myself in a favourable position.

In my eyes companies as big as this should not be making such mistakes, as I said earlier this could have gone on for years, and this could be happening to many people in a position worse than me. Certainly the elderly, that's what worries me, how some people could be put in a dire financial situation due to simple mistakes.

Thanks for the feedback

Gary

Plushchris

You dont say who your supplier is so here are some examples..

EDF - http://www.edfenergy.com/products-services/sme/my-account/how-to-read-your-bill.shtml

Scottish Power - http://dataserveuk.com/mediaassets/doc/AYB.pdf

Npower - http://www.npower.com/web/At_home/customer_service/yourquestionsanswered/index.htm

Ovo - http://www.ovoenergy.com/help-advice/reading-your-bill.html

E-on - http://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/ExistingCustomers/Understanding-your-bill.htm?WT.svl=4

BG - https://www.britishgas.co.uk/HelpAndAdvice/ProblemSearch/?Id=271&Sec=L

Southern Electric - http://www.southern-electric.co.uk/GasAndElectricity/BillingAndPayment/

Cardew

Gary,

The problem with Utility companies is their over-reliance on 'The Computer'. In order to cut costs our bills are largely 'untouched by human hand!'.

The 'rubbish in - rubbish out' principle applies, and one mistake when an account is set up will not be corrected until there is human intervention. The computer algorithm ignores meter readings that it 'thinks' is a mistake, so even if the correct readings(often sent by the 'untrained' customer) are received it will correct that mistake.

Often people are under-charged(or overcharged) for years. Then a new meter is fitted as part of a routine replacement programme, the correct details are fed to the utility company and the error with the old meter is never discovered.

There have been a couple of cases reported where a customer has discovered that they were under-paying like yourself, so switched to another company(giving them the same incorrect transposed readings) to avoid paying any arrears to the old company. Of course you could carry on switching every few months until(if) the error was discovered and you would only pay the arrears to the company that discovered that error.

darich

Gary

When the meter was changed didn't you notice a drop in your bill?
If you pay by direct debit as you say, then the company adjusts the direct debit periodically to reduce any large over or underpayments. So why wasn't this done?
If you've racked up a large deficit then your bills mist have decreased while your usage remained constant.

Whilst I sympathise with you and your plight I can't help thinking that it could easily have been avoided. I've been there myself - with ScottishPower. A few estimated meter readings and I owed them £500. I got a check meter installed and they even admitted that there could be failts in the system but I still never got any reduction on my bill.

By all accounts you've done well to get a reduction but I would say that since you used the electricity you are bound to pay for it. Can you negotiate a payment plan over a period of time?

Best of luck