meter and billing issue

jaybeerex

Ok well i've been having some issues with UW at the moment in regards my billing and wanted opinions. This is my first apartment living alone therefore have no basis for comparison bills wise and would value some advice.

I moved into my apartment in Mid June 2010 and received my first bill the following month addressed to 'the new occupier' i initially called to give my name etc for billing and pay the first bill. this was for the amount of £46.01 OK i thought, welcome to the cost of living alone! incidentally this is a 2 bedroom apartment. device wise i have a fan oven, fridge freezer, ADSL router, flatscreen, xbox laptop, 5.1 system. I work mostly 10 hour days so am only in the apartment in the evenings and weekends.

I continued with billing and invoices came as below

AUG:38.22
SEPT:36.80
OCT:46.72
NOV:62.70
DEC:82.17

Now, when the December bill came i thought, ok, somethings not right here i live alone in a 2 bedroom apartment and literally turn things off as i go from room to room, always being careful not to have things on unecessarily.

When i queried this with UW they said they couldnt find my meter on the system and could i find the serial number details for them. After obtaining a key from the landlord for the meter cupboard i went and checked the meter. The digital display was off..... hmmmm. I contacted UW and gave the serial number and was told it was 'de-energised' meant nothing to me but eventually they agreed they needed to fit a new meter. Because of their inconvenient engineer booking system this took until late February to get a replacement meter fitted. They agreed in the meantime to hold my billing until this situation was resolved. In the interim the following bills came.

JAN:89.34
FEB:94.82

Again, crazy amounts for a single person in a 2 bed appt. Now at this point i had the case escalated with an escalation number from UW and the case was being handled by a very helpful member of their team Chris Wheeler. What we agreed was that with the new meter in now, i would send him exact weekly readings from the new meter for 4-5 weeks and their billing team would estimate back from the period i moved in to generate a correct billing amount for the time i've been in the property. Now it's worth noting that i am now on a dual rate tarrif and the meter has 3 different readings on it T, R1 and R2. these are the 3 figures i provided weekly, god knows if im even on the right tarrif?!

Basically after doing all this i've been told that the estimating they had done previously was basically right and in an email Chris broke it down as per below:

Due to the nature of the billing issues you have been experiencing the most information I can offer other than what is on your invoices is stated below:

Your invoices from July 2010 to February 2011 were for Electric use of £482.82 + Surcharges £13.96 = Total - £496.78
You then received your March 2011 invoice, this invoice credited you back the £482.82 previously invoiced for Electric. It then started the billing again from your start date of 26/05/11 and billed you up to the 28/02/11 for £505.58.
We then sent your April invoice which followed on from the previous and billed for £54.69 in Electric.
The most recent invoice in May bills you back to the 22/02/11 when the meter was exchanged and credits you back £64.63 on the old meter. This means the total amount billed on the old meter from 26/05/11 - 22/02/11 is £495.64.
On the same invoice you will see we have billed from the 23/02/11 to 30/04/11 for £125.84

The total amount we have invoiced for is £635.44. The total amount you have paid is £230.45. The amount outstanding is £404.99.


Now what i need to know is a few things, firstly were do i go from here as i still feel i have been grossly overcharged for electricity. And while i have this escalation open with them, am i able to change supplier to prevent further expensive bills being accrued with UW?

Any help would be appreciated.

eurmalian

One important question that you haven't covered here: Is your heating also electric? And if so, is it storage heaters or some other form of electric radiators?

As, to be honest, if you have electric heating that doesn't look anything out of the ordinary to me. It's got the seasonal fluctuation in it that you'd expect with heating and the ammounts seem fairly close to what I'd expect.

If you've got gas heating, then I'd say that seems a bit high. But you haven't mentioned anything about gas.

Sorry that that's probably not the answer you hoped for...

jaybeerex

I have thermostatically controlled radiators. its essentially a standard radiator with an electric water heater inside it and remote temp control. Although these haven't been on the entire time i have been providing actual readings and still my billing was calculated at around £80 PM.

Cardew

As you have posted this in two threads, below are my posts on this issue.

As you asked for opinions!

I can't see why you feel that £89 and £94 are 'crazy' amounts for Jan and Feb respectively(assuming you use electricity for heating)

Or indeed why you feel a total of £635.44 for almost a year is being 'grossly overcharged.'
If it were double that amount for an all electric flat, over one of the coldest winters for years, it would still be below average.

UW can, and probably would, block your switch with that outstanding balance.

Not only do I feel £90 a month for a 2 bed flat in winter reasonable, it seems very low indeed. A single person does not use that much less electricity - heating, fridges, routers, TV etc cost the same.

Bear in mind that the average bill in UK for those heating with gas is approx £1,300 a year. With electricity it is much more expensive.

Read posts in MSE and people are paying £200 and £300 a month in winter.

You also need to bear in mind:

1. That on an Economy 7 tariff you pay a premium for daytime electricity.

2. With UW you pay a monthly membership fee.

3. UW are very expensive for Economy 7 electricity - in my area approx 25% more than the cheapest tariff.

I am no fan of UW, but I cannot see you have any grounds for complaint on an annual bill of £635.

eurmalian

Unfortunately, as I said, with electric heating added into the mix (especially standard electric radiators rather than Economy 7 heating) £80 a month doesn't sound over the odds at all over what was an incredibly cold winter.

Electric heating costs a lot to run and quite possibly makes up more of your bill than everything else you have in the property. Unfortunately, the colder the weather the more it costs as well (as heating a house up from -5 degrees to 20 degrees takes a lot more power than heating from 10 degrees to 20 would).

Sadly, their bill sounds completely plausible to me and I wouldn't expect you to have too much luck challenging it. That's not to say that you can't do it, just warning you that the bill really isn't anything over what I'd expect with the details you've given.