Quicky... Southern electric manager calling back

Bean_69_99

To be brief...

about 8 out of 10 times we have rang southern electric to update meter readings for both gas and electric we have had issues with mixing up the day and night readings of the electric

We have been put onto monthly DD. They set this at £30 a month for each, regardless of out usage, and we have been billed twice in the first month, once in the second month and only slightly in credit.

Rang today to correct readings, and workout the credit. Theyve sent a bill out with estimated that ive not yet seen. Tried to update readings over the phone but they're the wrong way round to whats on the system, so they cant confirm any of my usage. Between myself and the operator on the phone we have 100% confirmed which rate is day / night.

this means they cant confirm that the bills i have paid to date are accurate, or if the obviously low, 'in-credit' amount, is correct. Convenient.

The offered resolution has been to reconfigure the meter correctly so bills in the future can be measure correctly and billed correctly, however this also means that anything i have paid to date will be assumed correct and will receive no further credit. Nor can i resolve the low in credit level im currently at.

He offered to recalculate based on the meter readings given in the past, but as its day / night rate change it will mean the more usage will change to higher billing, and as the readings have been adjusted / reset atleast 3 times in 9 months already, they cant guarantee it will be accurate, only that i'll end up paying more!

Ive obviously asked to complain and they have promised the manager will ring me back to resolve it.

Question is how do i tackle it?

I want to recoup the deficit between the estimated/billed amount in comparison to the actual used quantity, but neither I nor they can work this out, as they cant go back and look at what numbers of units Ive paid at either night or day rate as theyve been changed so many times.

To put another angle on it, In february we recieved a bill for £320 for 3 weeks electric, after 'correcting' the usage. We range up and pointed out an obvious error and they recalculated at -£0.21. I accepted this as It meant we had a month of no bill, naive and wrong but nothing i can change now!

In a bit of a tizz as to how they've worked thigns out and what they can / can't see. All i know is that compared to our usage between january and march (which i have accurate readings for) our current DD is overpaying by approx £25 a month between the gas and elec, and we have paid three DD for gas and three for electric in the last two months due to 'admin error'. The credit i would therefore expect as a minimum ( as acutal usage is lower) would be in the region of £110 (50 for two months @ DD rate above actual usage and £60 for the extra bill)

Thanks in advance, sorry for the length, some detail needed!

foxglove666

Just ask them to manually bill you on the correct day/night rates from the reads when you moved in to the reads as they stand now. take away all the direct debits you've paid and that will be the correct debit/credit. forget about re estamating prev bills just ask them to scrap the lot and bill manually as described. also ask them for a gesture of goodwill for the length of time taken and the amount of stress this has caused. It's always worth a shot, you've done all the work so you may as well get paid for it.

Hope this helps

Bean_69_99

thankyou... thats pretty much what i did when he rang at about 6...
I asked that they bill be from the readings they do have, deduct what i have paid, and then settle the difference. Pointing out that if this means I have to pay more then they should think seriously about settling this as a gesture due to the complications there have been for the total period.

I was expecting them to turn around and say, we can't do that, but they didnt! He told me that he'd looked into my billing back to when we started the account in novemeber and found during the time of transfer from one tariff, to another, and back again without our consent (from Eco7 to standard back to Eco7) they overcharged us by £30.93.

In his words, this proves to him that there have been serious failings on their part, so this £30.93 credit will be added to the account once calculated and any other debts will be settled as a gesture of goodwill and any credits will remain on the account also.

Needless to say I will be working out the figures to date myself having asked for the rates etc.

thankyou

Matt

brewerdave

I hope you got his full name, and asked for a record in writing ...these forums are full of stories of promised repayments from Customer Disservice agents which mysteriously vanish on next contact!!

Bean_69_99

I have first names but didn;t get reference for call... which is unlike me. I have a desk plastered with post its of ten digit numbers company names and times. DOH!