Have we been ripped off? What now?

GSXR

Hi all, been a browser for ages but decided to ask a question, for about seven years we have lived in this house and every year the utility bills rise but the Electric is ridiculous especially in the last two years.

We were paying via direct debit £180 - £200 a month electric. We got so fed up with other people saying its way too much even people with key meters, so we told NPower we wanted a prepay meter that we can see just how much is being spent and kw's used.

Since having the key meter put in our monthly bill is about £80 never any more....This is ridiculous and such a drop compared to what we were paying. We complained to NPower and asked why and to check the bills and refund us, they stated that we are on a different rate now and owe us nothing lol....

Any advice/suggestions appreciated....

spiro

Assuming your bills used actual readings they you will have paid for what you have used. Your drop in spending could be down to 3 things:
1) Old meter was inaccurate - too late to have this checked.
2) You are now being less wasteful of elec and you have to top the meter up so its obvious what you are using.
3) Your house is all elec and currently your consumption is currently lower because of the weather.

mattcanary

Or the OP was billed wrongly. Have you looked through all your old bills. Was the correct start reading used on the first bill you received after moving in/ changing to your current supplier?

If you had a day and night meter were the readings being billed the right way round?

Easy for me to say now but really you should have found out why the bills were so high before having your meter changed. It just means you now have a lot more difficulty in proving anything. Doesn;t mean you shouldn;t try to prove the bills were wrong though, if they were?!

spiro

mattcanary wrote: »

Or the OP was billed wrongly. Have you looked through all your old bills. Was the correct start reading used on the first bill you received after moving in/ changing to your current supplier?

If you had a day and night meter were the readings being billed the right way round?

Hence my 1st sentence. We have to assume the poster eliminated any billing issues before taking this step

mcac

It's probably a silly question, but when you had the Npower credit meter were you on an Economy 7 tariff?
My friend had huge electric bills, and when she contacted her supplier, it turned out she had picked up the previous house owner's tariff which was Economy 7.