British Gas prepayment meter woes

t0rt0ise

Hi all

Another rant from me about British Gas. I'm no longer with them but they have just sent a letter to the previous occupant who still seems to have an account with them for the electricity prepayment meter that I had removed a few weeks ago. It says that she is on the Fixed Price 2012 tariff with a unit price of 13.734p and a standing charge of 13.730 per day. As they never actually transferred the account to my name, despite them assuring me they would many, many times, I imagine I was paying that high tariff for the 7 weeks I had the meter.

Do you suppose they can check what I paid over that time, recalculate it and remimburse me?

spiro

How do you know what a letter addressed to someone other than you said? You should have just put it back in the post marked 'Return to sender, no longer at this address'.

dogshome

Hi tOrtOise - So you moved into a flat and inherited a PP meter supplied by Brit. Gas, then quite quickly changed the supplier who then swapped the PP meter for a Credit meter ?

At the time the previous tenant moved out, providing she advised BG of this, whatever tariff she was on would have been cancelled and you as the new tenant with a 'new' account would have been put onto the 'Standard' tariff - Your Final Bill from BG going up to the point of Switch, should list the charges.

That BG, after your repeated requests to register you as the new account, failed to do so is both a worry and a puzzle -
THE WORRY If the last tenant did not advise she was vacating and BG have not recorded you as the new tenant, this left you on the expensive 'Fixed Tariff ' and the responsibility for any debt on the meter
THE PUZZLE If BG did not have you registered for the meter, why did they allow you to Switch the supplier.

All this has to be sorted quickly - WRITE to BG, Do not phone or Email, and head the letter Complaint Enclose a copy of your lease agreement with shows the date you took on the flat and ask why they have done nothing about your repeated requests to become the registered account holder

t0rt0ise

spiro wrote: »

How do you know what a letter addressed to someone other than you said? You should have just put it back in the post marked 'Return to sender, no longer at this address'.

Unfortunately seeing a letter obviously from British Gas I assumed it was my final bill with them and opened it before seeing it wasn't addressed to me.

Why do people here always jump to the conclusion that people are dishonest? You helped me when I needed it Spiro, remember you looked up my meter for me on the national system to see there wasn't a joint fuse situation. Now don't make me out to be a nasty person.

t0rt0ise

dogshome wrote: »

Hi tOrtOise - So you moved into a flat and inherited a PP meter supplied by Brit. Gas, then quite quickly changed the supplier who then swapped the PP meter for a Credit meter ?

No. The supply was with BG and I stayed with them. A week before I moved in I informed them and they sent a new Gas card but no electricity key so I called them again and they said just to use the old tenant's electricity key.

They then changed the gas meter for me but the guy who came to change the electric meter said it couldn't be done. This turned out to be rubbish and eventually after many calls, they did change it. Every time I called they said the account was still in the previous tenant's name but that was easily fixed, they said. But it never was fixed. When they changed the meter eventually (after another missed appointment when they ordered a gas meter instead), they did open a new account for me. So now it appears there are two electricity accounts here. One for the new meter and one for the old meter.

Because of all the trouble I complained and got two lots of compensation for missed appointments and they agreed to let me go without paying the release charge on the gas account which I changed to websaver9. So I just moved to EDF.

All this has to be sorted quickly - WRITE to BG, Do not phone or Email, and head the letter Complaint

I was going to email but maybe then it is better if I write.

What I was really asking was whether they can check what has been paid on a prepayment meter and work out whether I overpaid?

dogshome

Hi tOrtOise - By using the the previous tenants key to top up the electric, you were to all intents and purposes that person, and paying whatever tariff they had elected for and any debt the meter was set to recover

The way they messed around with Elec account is cause for a written complaint in itself, but you must ask for a fully detailed statement for the meter from the date you moved in. When you get it look at the tariff costs, are they more than 'Standard' which is what you should have been on when you moved in, and is there anything about debt recovery?

t0rt0ise

Thanks. .

t0rt0ise

I just looked at my BG electricity account online.. there's one gas and one elec accounts with readings and so on and 3 elec accounts there at the pending status.. two at the first stage and one at the second saying that they will soon give me a start date.. ho hum.

SwanJon

Even if you used the old tenant's key, it is entirely possible to have the meter set your way. Does the bill you opened have readings and dates on it?
Messages are sent back and forth via the key each time you top up. What price was on the meter when you were using it?
It is entirely possible to add up what you paid and look at the readings when you moved in. You could write, but you are about to hit the Christmas post. Phoning would be quickest (open 24 hrs), webform is also much quicker.

spiro

SwanJon wrote: »

Even if you used the old tenant's key, it is entirely possible to have the meter set your way.

The old tenants key will be tied to their supplier and account. Any transaction to/from the meter would be to/from the old tenants account so things like debt rates wouldn't be changed until a new tenant gets their own key. Also by using their key after your move in date they will get your money on their account and you will owe for the fuel used on your account.

The golden rule is NEVER use someone elses key unless instructed to do so by the supplier (very rare if not never).

SwanJon

Spire, I work for British Gas in their Pay as you go team, and I've managed this regularly. Yes the blanket solution is to get a new key, but that doesn't mean that we can't reprogram old keys & meters.
As long as an active account is set up, messages are sent to the meter with the new tenant's details, regardless of which key they use. I admit, that in the more extreme cases human intervention may be required.

While the physical keys may be branded with a supplier's details, any payments are automatically redirected to the supplier according to the independent database, ecoes. In this case as it is a change of tenancy, not a change of supplier we don't have that to worry about.