HELP! huge gas bill. Whos right Whos wrong

shannel84

Hi every1
Im new to this but it seems great for advice so i'll give it a go.
In Dec 09 i was paying off a debt to N power £250, by May 2010 i had payed it off. To my surprise in May a new bill had come through £600. I was confussed so called N power to find out why the huge bill. They explained even though i had paid off the £250 i was still being charged for gas from Dec to May which is fine, But £600 u must be joking!! I suggested they had NOT taken of the £250 i had already paid. Thier answer "NO". I suggested they had the wrong meter reading . Thier answer "NO" To them the bill was correct. I know the bill is wrong i have no understanding off how this bill became so huge. Consider these facts...
*I am a single parent living on the top floor of a 2 bed flat.
*I work full time so i am not in the home from 8am til 6pm
*The only thing that runs on Gas is the boiler which heats water and the home.
*I have solour panals which heat my water and home when the sun decides to come out and play.
With all these factors how can a 6 month bill amount to £600.

I need all your help, support and advice on this issue how little it may be. I cant afford this amount. Even worse N power wont let me close my account with the current debt so in 6 months time i will be billed again with the cost of that 6 month bill.
HELP PLEASE
Thank you. xx

dzug1

Have you tried taking meter readings yourself to see what your actual consumption is? Only if you do that can you have any idea of whether they are charging you correctly or not. It's not a lot of good harping on about the size of the bill without knowing how it's made up.

Cardew

£600 for 6 months through a very cold winter is high but not exceptional. You should understand that NPower have a unique system of billing(seasonal weighting or sculpting) where a high proportion of the units are charged at the high rate.

It is also not clear if one or both of the meter readings on your latest bill were estimated.

Solar in winter contributes next to nothing.

As said above you have to check the meter readings on the bill to see if that is correct.

bristol_pilot

It was very cold last winter, my gas usage doubled. So £600 for six months could easily be correct.

shannel84

dzug1 wrote: »

Have you tried taking meter readings yourself to see what your actual consumption is? Only if you do that can you have any idea of whether they are charging you correctly or not. It's not a lot of good harping on about the size of the bill without knowing how it's made up.

Yeah i have given reader meetings. Ive compared all my bills from past bills. Meter readings match up to current one. Ive kept my boiler off since that bill in may to see what happens. Thank you for your advice.

shannel84

Thanks every1 for responding. I will double check all bills but i still think its high considering only the boiler uses gas everything else is electric. Well see. Thanks again. if any1 else has suggestions i would be greatfull to hear them.