wrong estimate from uswitch now I am in debt

u751904

I saw a similar posting earlier about the accuracy of uswitch. Over 12 months ago I shopped around for the cheapest gas and electricity. I consider myself a fairly savvy IT user / well versed in using online services, have all my bills in spreadsheets, track my finances. How difficult can it be. Well two issues the one totally my fault the second not my fault.

I started with scottish power, I moved to powergen. When I closed my account with scottish power I was in deficit due to the fact that I hadn't noticed that my online estimated bill (online billing) was way out (too low). Its on a different web page! from the one I enter my account details on - they say customer should have check these things. So I payed that deficit off.

Second problem, I believe I honestly put in all the correct details but my power estimate for powergen was underestimated from the start and not picked up early enough. I had £450 deficit with them. I complained to offgen. I then got a call from a different branch of powergen. To arrange a monthly payment and appologise, apparently the call centre was in india at the time ???? and they had a few problems ??? Lame excuse.

How come when you get that friendly 'welcome to us call' from the customer services someone doesn't check to see that they have estimated your bill correctly. If I was in charge of that dept I wouldn't rely on customers data as a) they can be wrong b) their estimate from the last power co could be out and effect the overall estimate. They don't but I my mind I think I got poor customer service and would be reluctant to switch again.

For me I now phone up every 1/4 on the 20th of the month and provide a meter reading, so that the estimate doesn't go out. Was told today that they are only oblidged to do a physical reading once every two years. I won't do online billing now as I don't think they pass on enough benefit to me and there is too much reliance on the customer.

Am I alone here with the belief that the power companies should be a bit more proactive here and not expect customer to necessary understand /manage their accounts to this extent - there must be a lot of people out there getting underestimates / overestimates.

Zoe

masonic

u751904 wrote:

For me I now phone up every 1/4 on the 20th of the month and provide a meter reading, so that the estimate doesn't go out. Was told today that they are only oblidged to do a physical reading once every two years. I won't do online billing now as I don't think they pass on enough benefit to me and there is too much reliance on the customer.

But is that going to change anything other than the fact you will get a paper bill based on the same estimates?

Cardew

u751904 wrote:

Am I alone here with the belief that the power companies should be a bit more proactive here and not expect customer to necessary understand /manage their accounts to this extent - there must be a lot of people out there getting underestimates / overestimates.

Zoe

Welcome to the forum.

I certainly agree that they would nip a lot of problems in the bud if they made contact with the customer at the start of the account period; assuming they had a telephone number - and the people either end of the line could understand each other;)

Meter reading is sub-contracted out, and cost cutting measures mean the meters are not read often enough. There is also anecdotal evidence that some meter readers simply do not attempt to read meters - entering 'cannot gain access' on their records.

Estimated readings weren't a problem when everyone stayed with the same utility firms(invariably BG) as a pattern of usage was built up. With people changing suppliers all the time there are bound be problems.

u751904

The amount that powergen were passing onto the customer for the priviledge of their service was so small, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle and I would rather have to comfort of getting a piece of paper through the post where I was reminded to check what they estimate / quote against what my meter was saying.

As I say the best thing I can do is phone up once a qtr and provide an estimate over the phone after my experiance I would recommend that to everyone so they don't stray - estimates just don't seem to work if you want to swich suppliers. I do feel that these problems are down to cost cutting.

anniecave

welcome to MSE u751904

I shop around for the cheapest supplier and take readings every month or so to make sure I know what I'm using, and also check them against the bills.

I switched via uswitch to Atlantic, and the fixed direct debit amount that Atlantic put my DD payment at was way too low. I left it for a few months, as we were also still paying off our old supplier, but then I phoned them up and asked them to increase the DD payment. They then sent me a letter saying "We have reviewed your account and think your payments will not cover your electricity used, so we will increase your DD payment". Ha ha.
I wonder how long they'd have left it for before they noticed, probably a year when the annual direct debit discount was due!