HELP! Electricity bill more than £1000

norjen

dollarjon wrote:

This bill doesnt sound right

Firstly do your readings make sense? "twisted reads" with E7 meters are common place, the reader will get them mixed up so you'll be paying day rate for your night usage and night rate for your day usage.

The other thing to point out is some E7 systems have a time switch if you have a modern seimens meter then this is built into the meter, this can somtimes fail and not register the night consumption properly therefore if this is the case you'll be paying day rate for your water and storage heaters.

BTW i have worked for British gas, EDF and EON

As Mintymoney saver, nice englishman and you dollarjohn have mentioned, the bill doesn't sound right. That was my feeling and that's why I thought I'd ask for help cause I think I have been paying quite a bit. EDF's argument is that there has been six price increases since my reading was done. Dollarjohn, I did mention to them that their meters might be faulty, but the're saying that it is most unlikely.

A_Nice_Englishman

What I would do now, norjen, is do my calculations again but with exact figures rather than estimates.

Work out the number of daytime and nighttime units you've used since the last meter reading.

Then work out what these would cost at today's prices.

Then deduct all the payments you've made since July 2004

Assuming you owed nothing in July 2004, the amount you owe now must be less then the amount calulated above (as prices have gone up in the last two years).

Britt

Take your July 04 meter reading, present meter reading, contract, and any records of price rises during that period, plus records of all quarterly payments made to CAB. They should have someone who can help you to sort out this mess. You made your payments faithfully but the power company failed in their responsibility to you, and the figure they gave you does not sound right, considering what you have been paying them. If I were in your shoes I WOULD NOT take their word for it and pay up without a proper investigation, some of these power companies are so inefficient in their dealings it is almost unbelievable. When it is sorted, go to uswitch and find another company that allows you to enter meter readings online every quarter. I am with Scottish Power and pay monthly via Direct Debit, they email me every quarter to request a reading, plus they send out a meter reader periodically to check the meter reading for themselves.

BritishGasWorker

norjen wrote:

Hi, can anybody advise on what I can do. I have just got an Electricity bill from EDF Energy for £1600. This has happened because my meter hasn't been read since July 04. Every quarter I pay between £200-£300. I use about 35 units per day and I am on Economy 7. After having spoken to customer service, they said that I should pay the bill as I have used the electicity. They have given me a 20% discount on the bill and I can pay it over 12 months.

Is there anything I can do to reduce this bill further as I think they have a responsibility as well, as they didn't come to read my meter. Also I do not understand how they have arrived at the £1600 as there have been so many price increases since 2004.

Any advice would be most welcome.

Hi there..

I work for a provider myself, so I have some knowledge on this problem..Unfortunatly if you have not read your meter nor contacted them with readings it is down to yourself to pay this back...

Any energy company has to legally read your meter once every 2 years, it is called a meter safety inspection, they check the meter and also make sure it has not been tampered with, if they can not gain access to your proprty during those 2 years it is your responsabliilty to update them if they are under estimating your bills or over estimating the bills.... ( funny enough when we over estimate people are quick to call and moan, if we under estimate they dont moan so much until we read it after the 2 years! )

Now I hear some people out there saying HARK! i dont want to let them into read it...hold on to your hat people...ITS THE LAW!
If you do not give entry to the energy company once every 2 years they WILL apply for a warrents from the courts and gain entry to your property, of course they dont do this straight away as it costs hundreds of pounds and generally upsets the customers when they come home, find there locks changed and a letter telling you to visit the local police station to pick your new keys up..
And yes this is true 1800 warrents are issued every week! ( last time i heard )

So the moral of the story is please check your bills when they arrive, send a letter if you dont want to call them with your readins and the dates they should be updated or do it online

As for Economy 7....thats a little more difficult to explain in full...E7 is really only for people who use the Storage heaters, and use there white goods after the clock has moved over to the low rate < depends on your area...can be after 11.30, 12.30 and somtimes even upto 1.30 am till it switches over, if you can use it after these times and b4 8 or 7 am depending on your time switch you will save a fortune..There is a BUT!

If you use your leccy during the day, and have gas heating..and you are on an E7 Tarriff LOOSE IT....you are paying for a premium during your day usage and you will not gain anything from the vastly reduced night rates..ask your provider which is best for you..

As for Twisted meters..this can happen..its when the night rate gets twisted with the day rate...ask your provider to look into this for you..i would think that this is not the case in your issue, since you have not paid a proper bill for 2 years..

Hope this helps...

Ps Please accept appologies for any typos its 2 in the morning :O)

norjen

I have spoken to another person at EDF today and apparently a meter reader did come to my house in Jan 06 and took the reading. However EDF totally ignored the reading when they did the Jan 06 billing and sent me an estimated bill.
So I think it's mostly their negligence which lead to this chaos. Even the person at EDF acknowledged it, and that's why they are willing to give me a discount of 20%

Gal

Did you ask them to backdate your bill to the previous actual reading in January - This would estimate your usage upto the price increases they have had this year and may bring your bill down more?

BritishGasWorker

They most likely would have worked out the price rise on an estimate reading...they may be unwilling to recalculate..but i would TBH accept the 20% off the total bill..see if they will recalculate...you never know

rosscobley

They may have billed you all the usage at the higher rate. but i would need to see a copy bill to be sure. Im guessing they have had about 4 maybe 5 prices over the last 2 years. If i was you i would work out daily usage over the last two years then work out what the reading would of been at each price rise.. Its quite easy to do. Dont take there word for it.. and as the mistake has been over 2 years they should allow 2 years to pay back the debt. if you need more help give me a should i might be able to help you out a bit more

slenderkitten

i dont know what to say here, you should have at least written to them to tell them that no one has read your meter for a long time, you chould have took the readings yourself, when they didn't turn up and give the company the readings in writing or over the phone and kept a copy of the readings.

i dont quite understand why ur bill is that high when you said you are paying £200/300 a quarter as you said. Could the meter be faulty, maybe you could try taking daily readings and check that they are not ticking over more than the 35 units you think you normally use. is the bill Estimated or actual

if you speak to them again you should ask to speak to someone higher up so that they can deal with it properly.

Yesterday 10:46 PM
norjen I have spoken to another person at EDF today and apparently a meter reader did come to my house in Jan 06 and took the reading. However EDF totally ignored the reading when they did the Jan 06 billing and sent me an estimated bill.

So I think it's mostly their negligence which lead to this chaos. Even the person at EDF acknowledged it, and that's why they are willing to give me a discount of 20%[quote/]

i think you should go to citizen's advice bureau as that amount sounds like its for a business to me i know a few months ago powergen had a problem with their new computer system they had put in and the bills were ballooned but it was something that powergen knew about and it was in the news.

speaking of news maybe you should take it to your local paper and ask them to do a story on it, you never know the company may back down

but in any case try citizen's advice bureau as you mentinoed that they IGNORED the reading in JAN 06, they are not allowed to do that, as they could be saying that the meter is faulty.

as far as i know whatever reading they take they have to use.

kymrob

i only use roughly 50-60 units a week
i have 3 bed house with 3 people living in it .