2 years free electricity from Powergen

zebedy

Hi,

I have been having an ongoing nightmare with Powergen ever since I switched to them just over 2 years ago.
They never gave me an account/customer number and never set up my direct debit. I didn't receive any bill after the first quarter either so I started phoning them every month to try and get it sorted.

After a few months of really poor customer service they finally completely denied that they supplied me with electricity (said it must be another company and I had mad a mistake) and stopped taking/responding to my calls.

Earlier this year I got Energywatch on the case and finally got someone in customer services to respond to my calls. Energywatch confirmed that powergen do supply my electricity and requested that Powergen set up my account and waive some of the cost of the last 2 years of electricity.

Nothing happened for a while despite 3 more letters and many phonecalls from both me and Energywatch.
When i finally got Powergen Customer Services to talk to me the lady agreed verbally that when my account finally got set up she would call me for my meter readings and I would only be billed from that point (ie I wouldn't be back charged for the past 2 years). I immediately asked for written confirmation of this and amazingly i got it.

Last week my account was fianlly set up and my meter readings were noted and they confirmed that i would be billed from these meter readings onwards and no back charges.

I'm so pleased I've finally got it all sorted and it's great to know that Powergen have supplied my electricity since Jan 2004 and will only bill me from August 2006!!

Anyone else who is having problems - keep persevering!

PabloNeruda

Wow. Nice result! :beer:

Ken68

Nice one Zebedy...:beer:

debs626

It happend to my mum too but not sure it was with powergen, they waved a £250 bill.

cupid_s

this is probably a dumb question but if they were supplying you and denying it - and you weren't having to pay anything why was there such a big fuss with letters and calls?

Kerryc82

We had problems with powergen when we bought our house in May 2005. We found out they supplied our electricity and every couple of months I would ring requesting a bill as we never received one and I didnt want to get in arrears. By Feb 06 I was so fed up I swapped over to British Gas. In April 06 Powergen cheekily, and at last, sent us a final bill of £106! not impressed!

anniecave

cupid_stunt wrote:

this is probably a dumb question but if they were supplying you and denying it - and you weren't having to pay anything why was there such a big fuss with letters and calls?

I had this with npower - they suddenly found a meter that no-one was paying that was listed as being somewhere else, and they established it was supplying our flat, and we got hit with a bill for 16 months electricity (close to £1300) at once. Npower were useless at sorting everything out, and refused to take anything off the bill at first, we got a measly reduction of £50 for my time eventually and we were told we HAD to agree to pay the rest otherwise they would take us to court.

Powergen agreeing to waive charges is exceptionally nice really, although it does sound like they were even more useless than npower.

At the end of the day though, we had used the electricity, so I was willing to pay for it, though I did calculate we could have saved approx £200 if we'd been with a cheaper supplier rather than npower!

I do see it from the other side (I work for a company that does electricity debt collection work) and if you use electricity or gas I belive you should be willing to pay for that, no matter if they don't send you a bill for whatever reason for a few months. In the electricity industry it's a nightmare if the information you have is incorrect, if the computers are telling you the meter is at one address and it's actually somewhere else, or buildings have been converted or subdivided and the metering not sorted properly.

It's also wise to show willing, and try to find out who your supplier is, and ask them to send you a bill, as when the bill does arrive the company SHOULD be me more amicable if you've been trying to get a bill, rather than just if you've just been doing nothing and hoping you can get away with it.

in_my_wellies

We had building work (drilling up the floor beneath the meter) done and our meter stopped. When I rang to tell them they said it was impossible for the meter to go wrong as they were designed to withstand nuclear attack. When the man came to read the meter he also said it was OK, even though we had only used about 20 units in the winter and the dial had stopped when he could see several lights were on.
About a week later we got a letter telling us that 'our meter was old and due for routine exchange in two days time'.

zebedy

Hi,

the reason i kept calling powergen to get my account established is because I was worried I would suddenly get a huge bill and also I plan to rent my flat out from January onwards and I wanted it all cleared up before then.

Anyway i got 2 1/2 years free electricity out of it so I don't really mind having to pay for it again now.

ellielou_2

When they bought out TXU Engergi (who I was with at the time). They did not claim the direct debit from my bank account. I rang & rang & rang and every time was told I was not a customer of thiers?

I rang Transco who assured me I was with Powergen. Powergen still denyed this! I registered with them on line & set up a new DD on there - it wasn't collected. Then they decided I was a customer & made me 1/2 a bill before I set up a DD. I did this - still nothing was collected form the bank account or any bills I've had (4 bills in 3 years!)

Last Sept I got 2 letters one from them & another from a debt collection agency and they both said they'd cut me off if I didn't pay £1,100. I wrote to tham asking them to cancel the amount owing as it was obviously their error. They said they'd records of sending me bills and that I still had to pay.

I reluctantly agreed to them fitting a meter. A year down the line they've sent me another final demand - this time for £1,700, I've not had a bill & they haven't been in contact to fit a meter.

I'm writing off to them today (not too sure what I'm going to say) but they've got 14 days & then I'm of to Energywatch.

They really do provide a discraceful service!

Feux_Verts

in_my_wellies wrote:

When I rang to tell them they said it was impossible for the meter to go wrong as they were designed to withstand nuclear attack.

What postman in his right mind will be delivering Electricity bills after a Nuclear Attack?

I'd love to see the "pay up or we'll disconnect you" notice.