British gas electric please help

vlevans

Hi guys this is my first post on here but I could really do with your help and advice.
I recieved my anual statement from British gas for our electricity supply last week which was an estimate, so I rang them with a meter reading that day and yesterday I recieved an actual bill for £2168 :eek: The last reading I gave them was 10 June 2010 so this ammount is for the past 9 months!
I cannot understand where they have got this figure from and to be honest when I have asked them neither can they, the only answer i got yesterday after spending the day on and off the phone to them was that's how much you used so that's how much we owe. This is obviously completely out of pattern to our previous bills and we're now at a complete loss at what to do. We live in a 2 bed semi and have one daughter so there are 2 adults and one child living here, we also have gas central heating throughout the house and have nothing in the past 9 months that we didn't have in the 3 1/2 years before now.
We have an engineer coming to look at the meter on monday but Britsh Gas have said if they find no fault with it then we have to pay £60 for the engineer coming out and we have to pay the £2168.
Please help me where to go or what do from here because it's such a worry I can't stop thinking about it
Thank you

t0rt0ise

Are you sure that the reading they have used for June 2010 is the one you gave them. Often we give them readings that they totally ignore.

vlevans

When I rang them yesterday to ask about the bill they said we only ever had estimates, luckily I was looking at my british gas account online and it clearly had the date and reading so when I told them the date I gave them the meter reading they looked at the account and said oh yes I can see that. So I would assume that they have used the right one as it is in line with all our previous ones too.
But trhe fact that they first of all said I didnt provide them with one seems fishy to me.

penrhyn

Is the reading that BG have now accurate, and does this follow on from the reading used for your last bill, and was that an estimate?

How many Kwh do they say you have used over the last 9 months?

vlevans

I gave them a reading in June 2010 and gave them the next reading last week so it is 9 months between readings. They are saying that we have used over 16,500 units from june 2010 to l17 march 2011

penrhyn

Thats in the order of 60Kwh a day. The average electricity consumption is around 5000Kwh/year.
Is there anything in your house that could consume that amount of power? Immersion heater on 24/7, electric showers always being used, electric heating, exotic horticulture etc.

Are your bills from prevoius years based on actual readings, if so what was your annual consumption then?
PS You have read your meter correctly? Its usually a 4 digit number.

vlevans

We have full gas central heating no electric heating at all, we do not have an immersion heater and have a shower once a day each in the evening. We have nothing that wehavent had in the 3 1/2 years before the June 2010 reading.
I'll admit we did have estimates from when we moved in Jan 2007 to June 2010 but we provided a reading in June they said that we had under paid by £300 so I put our direct debit up from then on, and now they are saying that we have used 16632 units in 9 months!

penrhyn

According to British gas the average national consumption is 16,500 kWh for gas and 3,300 kWh for single rate electricity, averaged across all regions.

All I can suggest is that you start taking weekly meter readings to see what you are actually using. If you suspect the meter is incorrect, get hold of a 2 Kw electric fire or similar run it for an hour and check the reading.

Have BG ever read the meter?

st999

What about giving us your actual meter readings and dates?

These will be more helpful than amounts in £s.

Also the tariff that you are on?

Again this will be helpful.

macman

Given an incredible 3.5 years of estimated bills and no readings, I am wondering if the £300 catch-up bill from 6/10 was just part of the defecit?
Have you compared your own reading from June 2010 to the present one and does the difference come to 16,632 kWh? Don't rely on BG, do your own calculations.
You should be supplying readings at least every 3 months to avoid this sort of situation.

grahamc2003

Could you type out the details of your bill, the readings, their date, whether there's an 'e' after a reading, the number of units, the tier 1 price, the tier 2 price, and the bill calculation?

It seems strange to me that your reading passed validation (i.e. your reading is checked to make sure it's in a reasonable range). The bill seems incredibly high to me. Have you disclosed all the facts you know which could have caused this high bill? If so, you could have just misread the meter, or typed it in incorrectly, or the person the other end could have misheared a digit or something.