MERGED: Huge / crazy Utility Bills - Help & Advice

Roxycottam

It's a very long story but basically I am in dispute with Npower over my gas account with them. I believe I have been billed for far too much due to an incorrect reading I gave them when I moved into my property in December 2008. For about a year I payed 60 pounds a month but thinking this was too high an amount I finally got a proper reading done in January of this year. When the engineer did the reading I realised mine had been done incorrectly and subsequently my next bill showed I was massively in debt. For the past six months I have been going back and forth trying to get this sorted with them but they dont seem to understand or be willing to sort out the situation. The latest is they have looked at the account but still think I am in debt and should be paying 101 pounds a month to pay this off!!!

What I really want to know is: is 64 pounds a month (the latest estimate) a reasonable amount for my gas usage considering the following:
I live alone in a small 2 bed house, am home only evenings and weekends
I rarely ever cook or use my gas hob to even heat things up
I use my central heating very sparingly (ie winter only,only short periods then) and am sparing with hot water for washing up, showering etc.
The bill is for gas only, electricity is with Npower too but billed seperately

Any comments or opinions would be so appreciated! Thanks

Premier_2

Roxycottam wrote: »

...What I really want to know is: is 64 pounds a month (the latest estimate) a reasonable amount for my gas usage considering the following:...

The best way to assess whether that is reasonable is:
(a) look at the past year's annual consumption in kWh (you can get this detail from your supplier if necessary) and working out your annual cost of consumption. Your monthly payment should be 1/12 that amount
and
(b) comparing that annual cost with other suppliers/tariffs to ensure you are on the best deal. Using a comparison site will help you here.

dogshome

Hi roxycottam - From your post it appears that only when you observed the Meter Reader recording your meters reading, did you realise that you had incorrectly interpreted the dials when you moved in and had consequently given n'power an opening reading that was lower than than it actually was.

OK - Now you know how to read the dials, can you go back to your opening reading and calculate the correct reading? - If you can, you then have the job of convincing n'power that the mistake was made.
Firstly - Were n'power the existing provider to the house when you moved in ? If they were, and they will still have the records, what was the Closing Reading given by the previous occupiers when they moved out - Often there is only a very short period between Movers Out & Movers In, and the Closing reading for one is virtually the same as the Opening reading for the other.

As your contacts with the Customer Sevice Desk have been to no avail, WRITE a letter headed Complaint to n'power, tellling them how you came to make this error - A photo of the meter will help - and if n'power were the the supplier to the previous occupiers, ask them to search their records for their closing reading - Sending a Complaint letter puts the problem onto a different track that n'power must respond to. If any one from n'power phones to talk about this, politely tell them you wish to have a written reply

martin.b_5

Help!!!!!!!!!!
I run a small garage with 4 staff and have just had a EON letter that said THEY had been reading the meter wrong for 7 years!!!! and we owe £2908.38!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im amazed as i have just found out that the law is on there side even though this is all there doing i must pay them 6 years!!!! i have never been late with payments and pay as i should on time PLEASE HELP!!!!
:eek:

Terrylw1

martin.b wrote: »

Help!!!!!!!!!!
I run a small garage with 4 staff and have just had a EON letter that said THEY had been reading the meter wrong for 7 years!!!! and we owe £2908.38!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im amazed as i have just found out that the law is on there side even though this is all there doing i must pay them 6 years!!!! i have never been late with payments and pay as i should on time PLEASE HELP!!!!
:eek:

Sadly, Ofgem & Billing Code policies don't apply to businesses.

Check how their bill is made up and compare to yours to ensure they have captured all your payments first.

Also, check they haven't overcharged higher units if you have been changing contracts at any point i.e. they go for a cheap method of calculation rather than work out each period before price changes.

There is an Eon rep on this board so perhaps they can help?

Also, check the meters numbers, opening & current reads for all this. They could still be wrong.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

martin.b wrote: »

Help!!!!!!!!!!
I run a small garage with 4 staff and have just had a EON letter that said THEY had been reading the meter wrong for 7 years!!!! and we owe £2908.38!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im amazed as i have just found out that the law is on there side even though this is all there doing i must pay them 6 years!!!! i have never been late with payments and pay as i should on time PLEASE HELP!!!!
:eek:

Hi Martin

I'm sorry we've been reading the meter wrongly for all this time.

Has this been corrected and an explanation given?

If the energy has been used, we will ask for payment but will accept an arrangement to spread the balance over a more manageable period in cases where we are at fault.

I'm afraid the Billing Code doesn't apply to business accounts. However, if you are a small business, there is recourse to the Energy Ombudsman if you feel we have behaved unreasonably.

To qualify, your business needs to meet one of the following criteria.

Spending less than £5000 per annum per fuel.

Having less than 10 employees (or their full-time equivalent) and an annual turnover or annual balance sheet total not exceeding 2 million Euros.

Consumes less than 55,000 kWh per annum for electricity and less than 200,000 kWh per annum for gas.

If your business falls into any of these categories, ask for a complaint to be opened and follow this through the Ombudsman route if necessary.

Hope this helps point you in the right direction Martin. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

confusedsavergirl

Hi there, I'm in desperate need of some advice. I have recently been contacted and harassed constantly by debt collectors representing NPower for an outstanding bill at a property I lived at last year.

However, the bills were never in my name and I never had an agreement with the company directly as I was only a temporary resident, the bills were in my previous housemates name. Now the company is contacting me for an outstanding sum for a period which goes beyond the date I lived at the property anyway.

I am confused as to how I have been targeted with no prior agreement with the company to take responsibility for this bill. I have also had no previous correspondence with the company apart from the harassment I am now incurring for a three month gas bill that costs £363! My former landlord has given me a letter confirming my tenancy dates and the name the bills were in but they won't accept this and are saying that I am solely responsible.

It has been a year since I lived at the property they are trying to bill me for and I never had an agreement with them, I also don't know how they have tracked my down and feel that there is something really dodgy about the way this is being dealt with. Again, I've had absolutely no correspondence with the company in this time and I am suddenly being hounded by debt collectors - I have sufficient evidence and the support of my previous landlord in the matter but NPower and the debt collection company say they won't accept this and are threatening me. Can anyone please help?

alm721

Cardew wrote: »

When you get there you need to confirm he does indeed have an Imperial gas meter(it will have cubic feet or cu ft or Ft3 on the meter face)

A Metric meter will have cubic metre or M3 on the meter face. A gas unit on a metric meter is approx 11.2kWh instead of approx 33kWh for an Imperial meter. It is not unknown for Utility companies to charge for the wrong type of meter.

As you say it is far better for him to use that well known 'Parents Bank' to pay off a debt. Getting put on a pre-pay meter for being unable to pay his bill implies a lack of credit worthiness and can affect his credit rating.

I know this is an old thread but if you are still here cardew could I ask a question. My meter is an imperial meter. My gas bill states the unit is imperial in one place but then goes on to use the unit reading from the meter as a metric unit and multiplies it by 2.83 to covert to an imperial unit and then does more calcultions to arrive at a final figure for kwh.
Consequently my gas bills are massive (£175 for this month!). Please tell me they are doing this incorrectly!

Thanks

Cardew

alm721 wrote: »

I know this is an old thread but if you are still here cardew could I ask a question. My meter is an imperial meter. My gas bill states the unit is imperial in one place but then goes on to use the unit reading from the meter as a metric unit and multiplies it by 2.83 to covert to an imperial unit and then does more calcultions to arrive at a final figure for kwh.
Consequently my gas bills are massive (£175 for this month!). Please tell me they are doing this incorrectly!

Thanks

That sounds as if they are doing it correctly.

On a metric meter a gas unit is 1 cubic metre; on an Imperial meter a gas unit is 100 cubic feet which is 2.83 times bigger than a metric gas unit.

The easy way is to take a metric gas unit on your bill and multiply it by 32 and that should be the approx amount of kWh for which you are being billed. e.g 100 gas units = 3,200kWh

The factor of 32 is approx and can vary slightly from bill to bill. This is because the calorific value varies slightly(that is figure in the calculation that is normally between 39 and 40)

alm721

Thanks cardew, I was getting confused becuase I assumed an imperial meter measured in units of 1 cubic feet and a metric meter measured in units of 1 cubic metre. Therefore, I couldn't understand why you would x by 2.83 to go from imperial to metric if a cubic metre is bigger than a cubic foot, seemed like it should be the other way around if that makes sense.
I understand now that the imperial meter is measuring in units of 100 cubic feet, so I can see that it is correct. Just can't understand how our bills are so high?

Thanks for explaining though, at least I won't make an idiot of myself ringing BG.