Bizarre British Gas Statement

RichCH

I'm on a websaver tariff with British Gas and something very odd has happened with my bill this month and I need some advice on what to do.

To give some background to this, we moved into the property on the 1st October 2006. In 2007 I discovered that the meter that was assigned to our flat was actually not our meter. After about a year of messing around, British Gas sorted it out, replaced our meeting and in July 2008 we finally started paying for the electricity we actually use (rather than someone else) and our account was credited based on the average we used over the 6 months after the problem was rectified.

I just looked online at the bill, and apparently they haven't had a meter reading at all since July 2008 (which I swear isn't true) so they have based this bill on an estimated number in January 2011. The bill states that I am £836 in credit! It's listed all the payments we've been making since 2008 (which have been variable) and then saying we've only used £44 worth of electricity, hence saying we are this much in credit. But it also says that this bill replaces the bill of July 28th 2008. Even more strangely it says the bill is dated 15th February 2011, but then underneath it says the bill period is from May to July 2008.

When I inspected my account it has a series of credits made in December 2010 where they have basically refunded every quarterly charge since July 2008, which seems to be why I am so much in credit.

So first thing is tonight, I'm going to submit a meter reading when I get home to see how different it is to the figure they have in for me on my estimated meter reading in January. If it's not much different what do I do? Obviously if it's wildly different then this will all sort itself out, but I haven't even phoned British Gas in two and a half years, so I do not know why they have credited all these amounts.

If they take my direct debit down to zero and we basically get all of the money back (but in my eyes I don't see why we're being credited) can they ask for it back?

penrhyn

If you are on a British Gas Websaver tarrif then you will have been submitting your readings on line every quarter.
Is this not the case?

RichCH

I was never asked to submit meter readings, they just said obviously if you want them to be more accurate then I should submit some. Thing is, I remember submitting one about 3 or 4 months ago, but this does not seem to have registered with them as the site says there have been no readings since July 2008 when it was at zero as it was a new meter and now they estimate my reading to be about 8000 (which is probably going to be about right as I use about 5-6 KWH per day normally)


EDIT: There is more. On the account history they have my meter reading from when I moved in, and then when the meter was replaced in July 2008, they have listed next to that I used 24000kwh as it was 76000 odd, but then the meter got replaced in July 2008 and obviously this said 00000 as it was a new meter. So they have read this I believe that I used 24000KwH of electricity in 18 months, which would be about 3 times my normal usage.

Basically it seems British Gas have made a huge mess of this and I'm not sure what I should do, apart from submit a meter reading of how close it is to what they estimate of course. The problem seems to lie in when they replaced the meter as the bill says it replaces the one from July 2008... as they've thought they've charged me three times as much as I should have. I don't really want to phone them as they might realise they've made a mistake, but if they don't have a reading on the old meter before they replaced it, surely they have no comeback?

penrhyn

To get this straight, you are talking about your electricity account.
How do you heat your property?

If your electricity meter was zero in 2009, what is todays reading?

BTW are you on Economy 7?

RichCH

When I get home tonight I am going to check my meter reading, I am not sure what it is currently. They are working off an estimate from Jan 2011. The meter was zero on the 28th July 2008, which is when it was replaced. But I do not believe the issue to be the period from July 2008 until now (unless they have vastly under estimated) I believe it to be the period before the meter was replaced.

I heat the home predominantly with gas, I have a combi boiler, don't have economy 7.

RichCH

So basically, they have completely cocked up. When we had our meter verified back in 2007 as to which one we should be paying for, they tore out my neighbour's meter and replaced it with a new one and gave that serial number to me again on my account. The serial number of my actual meter they have down as being discontinued. They have no idea what my original meter reading should have been because I gave them the number of the wrong meter when I moved in because they were labeled incorrectly and they have no meter readings on file whatsoever for my actual meter, even though an engineer came out to verify which meter was mine.

The guy on the phone (and I'm still on the phone to them) has said it's one of the biggest !!!! ups he's seen and they're not sure how they're going to work out how much things should have cost over the past 4 and a half years.

RichCH

Had a call from them this morning, he basically told me to continue paying my direct debit, but this could take months.

If they claim I actually owe them money (which to be honest, I don't know how they are going to prove anything if they have no readings at all from my meter) can I just tell them to sod off? Of course I won't complain if they actually owe me money.

mattmk6

so there has been some confusion with your electricity meter and british gas have refunded you money. YOU used the electricity but you think you should be able to tell them to sod off as they made a mistake?

what makes you think you can have free electricity?

Just save the money they refunded and use it when they recalculate what you owe. this will probably be an average of what you use

maddipops

BilliNg code!!!

Ask your supplier about it. They have to write off charges for this bodge. Your supplier has a responsibility to provide you with an accurate bill which they haven't done, so they will almost certainly have to apply billing code to your account and write off substantial charges.

Mrs_Arcanum

Perhaps it may be worth getting a sparks in just to get a second opinion of which meter is actually measuring your usage. Get the meter number and make sure this is quoted on any future bills. That way you will know they are reading the correct meter.