Help! Incorrect bill by Scottish Power?

charleyplackett

Firstly I hope I am in the right place, apologies if not, I'm new and slightly flustered due to Scottish Power (SP).

In March I swapped from Eon to SP as my fixed deal came to an end. I switched through Money Supermarket for both gas and electric. The electric account is fine but I am having problems with the gas.

Eon provided my final bill with an estimated reading of 5889.

I provided SP with a meter reading of 059148 on 22/3/11.

I have just provided my next reading to allow them to generate my bill of 060257. This has generated a bill of over £300 for the gas for 93 days. This is a usage of 12381 kwh in 3 months - apparently this is the avaerage annual consumption for a small home!

I live in a 2 bed coach house that is five years old with my husband. We both work Mon to Friday. We had a roasting April so did not use the heating and the shower was broken and disconnected for May so we showered at work. We also got married at the end of April and were away for two weeks of May on honeymoon so basically for using the heating for 2 hours at max on possibly 20 days and 2 showers a day for 60 days with some cooking on the hob (the oven is electric) I have a bill for well over £300 when I have never paid over £60 per month before.

I had the boiler and hob serviced in May but they did not touch the meter.

I have contacted SP who have said as they are readings the bill is correct and stands.

Is it possible the meter is faulty? Or could I have some sort of leak and not be able to smell it?

My main concern is I now can't swap again until I've paid this huge bill and they've just hiked their prices and if the bills this big when I'm not using the gas what will it be like when I am!

I have just taken a reading again after two days and it is 06027275. We have used the hob once and had 4 showers between us in that time.

Sorry for the essay, any advice greatly appreciated as I have no idea what to do!

neil9313

Did you give Eon a correct meter reading when you left them?

charleyplackett

No but SP insist this bill is based purely on the two readings I have given them 59148 and 60257 using 12381 kwh of gas and costing £340.35 which I just cannot see is possible in 93 days with our circumstances, infact unlikely even in the depths of winter. If they add on any extra from the eon final bill it will go up which is fine as the estimate was incorrect but it is this usage I'm querying.

CAN1976

Are you incorrectly including the decimal? Your last EOn was 5889 - 4 digits. You then jump to 59148 - maybe this should just be 5914? and 6025 instead of 60257?

charleyplackett

OK, have just relooked at all of this, could it be as simple as I have given them too many digits when taking the meter reading? as the eon estimate was 5889 perhaps my first reading should have been 5914 and my second 6025? Would this make any difference? Have now requested 4 call backs as the que is 1 hour 31 mins long and every time they call back they cut me straight off, joy!

eurmalian

Just adding to CAN1976's comment. The reading you quote is 060257. Most residential meters have either 4 or 5 digit readings. 6 digit meters are usually only inserted in large commercial premises...

charleyplackett

Woohoo! Thanks so much guys. I have now managed to speak to them having sat on hold for 1 hour 53 minutes and they have amended and I owe them £7.41 instead of over £300! All because of that pesky decimal, I will be a lot more careful in future!

CAN1976

charleyplackett wrote: »

Woohoo! Thanks so much guys. I have now managed to speak to them having sat on hold for 1 hour 53 minutes and they have amended and I owe them £7.41 instead of over £300! All because of that pesky decimal, I will be a lot more careful in future!

Result! Now you can relax for the weekend.