Compensation offer....fair?

rie340

I disputed high Gas Bills to my provider for well over a year, it eventually came to light that the meter serials in the block of flats were wrongly registered so in effect I had been paying another flats bill!
It's taken my provider 4 months to sort this out, during which time I have not stopped paying my monthly direct debit. My last annual statement showed that I was £279 in debit, where as in fact I am £13 in debit.
My provider is offering me £50 credit to my account by way of apology - which amounts to £37 when my debit is deducted. Is this fair for 18 months of continuous phone calls/e-mails from me trying to get this sorted out??

spiro

rie340 wrote: »

It's taken my provider 4 months to sort this out,
Is this fair for 18 months of continuous phone calls/e-mails from me trying to get this sorted out??

Which is it, 4 months or 18 months to sort it out once they knew there was a problem with the meter serial number?
If you have been checking your bills (meter serial number & readings) were right but the consumption seemed too high then to a supplier everything would appear OK. It would only be at the point you insist of having the meter checked (to prove consumption was wrong) that they would discover that the 'crossed meter' situation existed. Once they have discovered a 'crossed meter' it can takes months to resolve because it will depend on the number of properties involved, number of suppliers and number of meter maintainers involved. In its simplest form meters A & B supply flats X & Y and they need to be swapped around (plus all the reaading history). Now image 10 meters/flats were they are 'offset' by one, so meter A supplies flat 2, meter B supplies flat 3 and so on.

Given that the problem was not caused by your supplier, that they have had to spend a large amount of time to resolve & recalculated your bills and also offer you £50 sounds resonable to me.

rie340

Thanks for your reply,

I was disputing the high bills for over a year with my provider. Wrong serial number situation eventually came to light when one of the tenants decided to switch providers. Their new provider basically sorted the majority of the problem out .There were 3 flats involved, my provider has never sent anyone out, they asked me to provide all the serial numbers and meter readings for all 3 flats at the beginning of the situation. I was made aware that re registering the meters would be a lengthy job (4 months) ... am just annoyed that my provider didn't look into it, despite numerous requests in the first instance.

Devils-Advocate_3

£50 seems more than fair tbh.

Premier_2

How much did the phone calls cost you? Have you an itemised account?

Check on the phone board for better deals if the calls were not inclusive on your tariff or at worst you were paying more than 5p per call.

Even at 5p per call, £50 would pay for 1000 calls - I guess you didn't make that quantity did you?
Sounds like you are quids in to me...


You have to pay for the energy you have consumed. Now you have the meters sorted out, presumably what you owe relates to what you consumed?

undaunted

Bear in mind that anyone can post on these boards - including those employed by energy companies & inclined to side with them rightly or wrongly.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks the questions is how much hassle did this cause you & what do you think is fair recompense?

If £50 satisfies you take it, if it doesn't tell them so & see what else they come up with. You can of course also take your claim to the Energy Ombudsman if you are unable to reach agreement.

rie340

Thanks for all replies.

cing0

Can't say but Npower paid 50 quid & wrote off a small bill for lying about receiving an opening meter reading and £15 for not applying a £5 contractual discount on the bill after blaming the switching site for duff info.
Britsh gas paid £150 in HomeCare fees + flowers for cold calling when previously asked not to.
Its up to you what you will accept.