southern electric gas bill

cattie1

Not sure if I should put this somewhere else?
Anyway I received a letter (yesterday)from southern electric stating I owe £200 for gas, which would be fair enough except we have been with npower since march and on a key meter since may!
I rang them and got the rudest woman in the world! who said the bill was from march, when I queried it stating that I had a bill from april saying I owed £180 and had been payin £22 a month off it, she became stroppy and said that npower had given them the wrong meter reading in march so this is our new bill from an estimated reading .
I admit that we possible owe them £100 but definately no more than this but when I tried to explain this (politely) she just kept repeatin what she had said above!
In the end I said I will do this in writing (still politely!) and she replied "please do" and hung up the phone!.
What I want to know is what is the best way to query this without them sending me another letter demanding £200 or court action, I am willing to pay £100 but no more than that, as I don't think we owe it, we moved in the house from october 30th and were with southern electric until march-and already paid 1 bill to them so how can it cost this much?

raq

why are these people so nasty.

I rang our gas company last week to see we couldn't afford to pay it straight away and would have to wait another week and she said, "Can't you borrow it".. No I can't. I was so upset I said goodbye , rang back the following day and spoke to a lovely bloke who said that it wasn't a problem and don't worry. Some people are so far up their own a***, what goes around comes around I say. What's it to them, they don't get any bonus and extra money in their pay at the end of the month.

in-trouble_3

we use to get letters from british gas that we owed such and such amount, but the housing we lived at that time only has a key metre the amount they where asking for was over £300 everytime the letters came we kept phoning them has we where concerned, eventually they admitted they made a mistake.

I would speak to someone again about it, or even write to them

sorry i cant be much help

cattie1

thankyou, I know there was just no need to be rude to me, If I had been shouting at her or loosing my temper I could understand but I was actually already nearly crying! perhaps she had a bad day-but still no need to take it out on me!

r.mac_2

hiya sorry to hear about your problem.

I would write to them querying the letter and charges and ask them for the dates and meter readings that the bill originates from as well as a copy of the rates they are charging you on.

When you get this information then go through it carefully. It may be right - it may not. If there are any problems or you don't understand what they have send you - request clarification. should you not get the info or they aren't willing to help you contact energywatch. They are brilliant and fight your corner for free (they are the energy business watchdog). They will also happily tell you if your complaint is reasonable nor not and so on.

Their website is www.energywatch.org.uk I used them when I had problems with npower and they were fabulous.

cattie1

r.mac wrote:

Their website is www.energywatch.org.uk I used them when I had problems with npower and they were fabulous.

thankyou so much, that is so helpful.xxx

gettingitsorted

Cattie im having the same problem but with british gas over our electric.

when we moved we changed over to npower for both gas and electric the meters were read by the company and low and beyhold i got a final bill from british gas for £600 for a months electric ,having rang them i discovered that they had the reading nearly 2000 units more tham what was showing on the actual meter,so i rang them again and had a very rude lady tell me that i must be looking at the wrong meter!anyway to this day they are still saying that the reading is wrong even though npower have told them it is correct (had someone out to prove it) iv been 5 months sorting this out and still have got no where.

cattie1

gettingitsorted wrote:

Cattie im having the same problem but with british gas over our electric.

when we moved we changed over to npower for both gas and electric the meters were read by the company and low and beyhold i got a final bill from british gas for £600 for a months electric ,having rang them i discovered that they had the reading nearly 2000 units more tham what was showing on the actual meter,so i rang them again and had a very rude lady tell me that i must be looking at the wrong meter!anyway to this day they are still saying that the reading is wrong even though npower have told them it is correct (had someone out to prove it) iv been 5 months sorting this out and still have got no where.

oh dear £600 is extortionate! why are all these companies so useless?
perhaps you should use the sight above?! it might help, I'm hoping they help me! I'm GOING TO SEND A RECORDED DELIVERY LETTER FIRST ASKING WHY i OWE SO MUCH! put caps on by mistake sorry! to lazy to write it again!

anniestar

Huge hugs hun. It really angers me when you come across that sort of inflexable rudeness.(United Utilities are world champions in this) keep calm and remember that you are worth 10 of them!!!! Keep smiling(and pouring the tea!!)

rog2

Hi Cattie - These Utility Companies are an absolute nightmare. :mad: :mad:
We normally receive Gas and Electric bills in November - We received our electric bill (Southern Electric) which we paid, but had not seen the Gas Bill - my wife was a bit worried, in case we got chased up for payment for a bill we had not seen, so I rang British Gas - after about 10 minutes, I got a 'voice' at the end of the line, who explained, in very poor English, that our meter had been assigned to a meter reader who had not got to us yet Furthermore, I was told that the bill could be included with the next bill. The LAST thing we need was a double bill in the winter, as this could be anything up to £600 (CH, Cooking and Hot Water) so I asked if I could give him the meter reading - to which he replied 'that's not my department'. :mad: After a further 10 minutes, on a non-geographical phone number, I was put through to someone who finally took the meter reading but we STILL haven't seen the bill.
Quick to threaten but slow to give any Service. :mad: :mad: :mad:

sarah_ace1

i've had this from british gas and npower and now they are on 'the list'. i'm going bankrupt next month so they can shove their meters and readings any where they like. rude and arrogant customer services from both