Great 'Energy pre-payment meter issues' Hunt

Luluz

Hi,

I wonder if someone can help me on this or point me in the right direction.

I live in rented accommodation (have been here for 5 years) and the property has a prepayment meter for gas supply. I notice that each time I top up it deducts a debt amount. Is this normal? I don't have a debt and surely its a pay as you go type meter? Is it possible that the meter has a debt from a previous occupier that I have been unwittingly paying?

What can I do to explore this further? I think EDF supply the gas but not sure.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thank you..

Terrylw1

Luluz wrote: »

Hi,

I wonder if someone can help me on this or point me in the right direction.

I live in rented accommodation (have been here for 5 years) and the property has a prepayment meter for gas supply. I notice that each time I top up it deducts a debt amount. Is this normal? I don't have a debt and surely its a pay as you go type meter? Is it possible that the meter has a debt from a previous occupier that I have been unwittingly paying?

What can I do to explore this further? I think EDF supply the gas but not sure.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thank you..

Its possible its a debt as the other scenario would be emergency credit being recovered. Given the length of time, it will be.

You are not liable for a previous occupants debt so contact your supplier and get a full refund if its a debt. The supplier might say they can't, but they can.

Can you check on the meter for any recovery rate?

Luluz

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Its possible its a debt as the other scenario would be emergency credit being recovered. Given the length of time, it will be.

You are not liable for a previous occupants debt so contact your supplier and get a full refund if its a debt. The supplier might say they can't, but they can.

Can you check on the meter for any recovery rate?

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm not sure how to check the meter, any clues? I also recall that there was some confusion over who supplied the gas, I think when I first moved in it was British Gas but now think its EDF. Should I call both? Or start with EDF and take it from there?

When I have used emergency credit and top up, it shows an amount for topping up the emergency credit AND another amount for a debt. So it does seem I'm paying for someone else's debt. I'm not sure how a recover of the debt payments would work if there have been multiple suppliers?

Once again, thank you for your advice.

SwanJon

It could be that you are on a standing charge tariff, and the meter is recovering this when you top up.

Your meter holds a lot of information if you know how to get it.
Start on the screen that shows your credit, with the card out.
Press and hold the red A button until the screen changes.
The first screen you see will either be 00 - Last Credit or 27 - GD Remaining, depending on the model of meter. The screens are in different orders on the different models, but the numbered screens always mean the same thing. To go tot he next screen press and release the red button again.
00 - the last amount you topped up
01 - how much from that top up that was taking for a bill
02 - how much from that top up that was taken for emergency credit
03 - how much of that credit you got to use for gas
09 - the price for Tier 1 gas (p/kWh) if you are on a no standing charge tariff
10 - the price for Tier 2 gas on NSC, or all gas on a standing charge tariff
18 - (I think!) - Standing charge
24 - if you have been going through the screens in order you will be asked to put your card in here.
25 & 26 -How much the meter would look to take each week towards a bill (if there is one)
27 - How much the meter thinks yo owe for a bill
29 & 30 - as 25 & 26, but a diffrent (non-gas) bill
31 - as 27 but the bnon-gas bill.

Terrylw1

Luluz wrote: »

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm not sure how to check the meter, any clues? I also recall that there was some confusion over who supplied the gas, I think when I first moved in it was British Gas but now think its EDF. Should I call both? Or start with EDF and take it from there?

When I have used emergency credit and top up, it shows an amount for topping up the emergency credit AND another amount for a debt. So it does seem I'm paying for someone else's debt. I'm not sure how a recover of the debt payments would work if there have been multiple suppliers?

Once again, thank you for your advice.

Swanjon has given you everything you should need for the meter.

If it turns out to be a debt on top of standing charge, ask your current supplier to check and give you the different suppliers & their start/end dates from when you moved in. Any supply can do this for you.

If you don't know the current supplier for gas, use this link for more information.

http://www.energylinx.co.uk/independent_gas_transporters.htm

Luluz

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Swanjon has given you everything you should need for the meter.

If it turns out to be a debt on top of standing charge, ask your current supplier to check and give you the different suppliers & their start/end dates from when you moved in. Any supply can do this for you.

If you don't know the current supplier for gas, use this link for more information.

Thanks! I'll check the meter as per Swanjon reply. The meter is not in the most accessible place, so hopefully I'll be able to work out what's going on. When Swanjon says 'bill' is that referring to a potential debt from a previous tenant?

Luluz

SwanJon wrote: »

It could be that you are on a standing charge tariff, and the meter is recovering this when you top up.

Your meter holds a lot of information if you know how to get it.
Start on the screen that shows your credit, with the card out.
Press and hold the red A button until the screen changes.
The first screen you see will either be 00 - Last Credit or 27 - GD Remaining, depending on the model of meter. The screens are in different orders on the different models, but the numbered screens always mean the same thing. To go tot he next screen press and release the red button again.
00 - the last amount you topped up
01 - how much from that top up that was taking for a bill
02 - how much from that top up that was taken for emergency credit
03 - how much of that credit you got to use for gas
09 - the price for Tier 1 gas (p/kWh) if you are on a no standing charge tariff
10 - the price for Tier 2 gas on NSC, or all gas on a standing charge tariff
18 - (I think!) - Standing charge
24 - if you have been going through the screens in order you will be asked to put your card in here.
25 & 26 -How much the meter would look to take each week towards a bill (if there is one)
27 - How much the meter thinks yo owe for a bill
29 & 30 - as 25 & 26, but a diffrent (non-gas) bill
31 - as 27 but the bnon-gas bill.

Hi,

I checked my meter and here's what it displayed:

00 - £10.00
01 - £1.67
02 - £1.35
03 - £6.98
09 - 0
10 - 4.080
11 - 0.00
16 - 39.800
17 - 23.10
20 - 91
21 - £2.00
22 - £6.00
23 - 30
25 - £0.00
26 - £0.00
27 - £0.00
28 - 0
29 - £0.00
30 - £0.00
31 - £0.00

Any advice on what this is telling me is appreciated.

Thank you

jademews

I'm a student living in a flat with 4 other students and we have a pre paid meter for both gas and electric, when we moved in (in August) our landlord said both meters were being changed over! We were putting money on and him pay us back (all bills are included in rent) and a few months later the electricity had been changed, yay!!

Since that happened in November we have all paid about £170 ALONE for the gas, someone was meant to come over but never came, our landlord phoned them and they were told to come on an "emergency" basis but still haven't come after 2 weeks, we went from British Gas to what I can only guess is EDF as after our landlord complained we got a £50 gas card through the post. This ran out on Tuesday and since then we have paid £20 for 4 days of gas, no heating being on at all! Usually £10 would last 6days witg the heating on but now it's lasting 2 days and we can't have the heating on! I'm going to ring the landlord and ask why this is happening but from what I've gathered here EDF are the problem!

DavidP24

jaimelicious wrote: »

I had a nightmare with this in December 09/Jan 10.

Moved into a Council flat, of course it's all on prepayment and there's no card for either the gas or the electricity.

'Because of their excellent customer service' (cough, splutter, choke) the Council'd handed all the contracts for energy suplly to Southern Electric.

I was without electricity for about four weeks, and without gas - and therefore without heating, while there was six inches of snow outside - for about six weeks.

Completely unable to get in touch with them for the first week - spent a total of about 23 hours on hold. Then got through, got told to get an emergency card from a shop because they were 'too busy' to sort out new cards for me.

Spent a week walking to Paypoint shops in the snow asking for new cards, only to be told at every one they didn't have any. Finally, at one about ten miles from my house, someone explained to me that the company had stopped issuing cards, including emergency cards, as all the meters were going over to keys.

Note, *going*, as in, some meters still require cards and cannot be topped up with a key, yet they'd stopped issuing them.

Took me half an hour on hold and a further twenty minutes shouting at an idiot for them to admit they'd spent a week insisting I walk miles in the snow in pusuit of something that was not actually possible to obtain.

Said they'd change them for credit meters - they promised to do the electricity one the next day, and said if I 'refused' to sit in an unheated, unlighted flat from 8am til 6pm I obviously didn't want the meter changing. No-one turned up, I called, and they said they'd book it as an emergency job, and someone would be there before 11pm.

Nope. I spent fifteen hours in a totally unheated, unlit flat and they didn't show up.

After about two hours on the phone next day, I eventually threatened to rip the meter off the wall so they'd *have* to come and fix it, and after telling me they would 'have me' arrested, someone turned up late that evening - I'd already refused to spend any more time in the flat and was at a friend's round the corner, had given them my mobile and told them I'd need five minutes notice.

Guy rings up and mumbles something, I said 'Pardon?' and he screamed 'It's Southern Electric for the meters! F****** idiot' down the phone and hung up. When I got there, he pushed me out of the way, swore under his breath pretty much continuously, and then fitted a prepayment meter with a key - when all the shops were shut - instead of the agreed-upon credit meter. (And he thought *I* was an idiot...) Pointed it out, he swore at me again, barged past me out of the house and disappeared.

Southern Electric's response was that it couldn't have happened because none of their staff would do that.

I did eventually get an insipid and insincere apology - along the lines of 'we don't believe this happened, but if it had we'd be very sorry'.

Gas meter... which would let the heating work... cancelled four times in a row due to 'emergencies'. What, other than a gas leak, is more urgent than someone who has been without heating for weeks in minus temperatures? (According to Southern Electric's call centre, the answer is variously b****, c***, and !!!!!!).

Eventually lost my rag, phoned up and demanded it be done that day or a) I'd kick the hell out of the meter and they'd better bring a new one when they came to fix the gas leak and b) I'd take them to court.

Answer was that 'other people have been without heating' and that selfish little me would just have to wait - job eventually agreed for next day.

When they didn't turn up the next day, I called, only to be told it'd been my fault for missing the appointment yesterday (which I hadn't known about because I'd been told it was completely impossible to do the job that day!).

Eventually managed to get a 'goodwill gesture' that just about covered what I'd spent on the phone, and get credit meters installed.

Oddly, once I had a credit meter and a direct debit they were falling all over themselves to apologise and keep me as a customer - my reply was that if I was ever that desperate for heat and light, I'd set my own hair on fire first.

So, yeah. Pre-payment meter == lying, worthless scum in the eyes of an energy company, as far as I can see.

Quite apart from charging higher rates to someone who is already (if they've been forced to have a prepayment meter) struggling to pay, which is bloody idiocy in and of itself, likely to be counterproductive and is simply gouging those unable to stand up to the companies.

So yeah - will never have one again, they can try and 'force' me if they like, but these days I know I can refuse on the grounds that my physical disabilities mean I can't usually get to the shop to top it up. (Answer last time was 'get someone else to do it').

Price is an acknowledged disadvantage, but there's also the fact that the companies treat you like a supplicant instead of a customer, and really couldn't care less if you're without power.

If I was in that situation I would simply remove the meter, I would probably warn the company that failure to respond by a given date would result in removal of the equipment, then if they did nothing I would also change supplier and tenant name.

lilia_fellini

I have been told by npower that because I have a child under 1 in the household they will change my prepaymet meter to Economy 7 for free. Probably applies to disabled and OAPs too. Hope this helps.