MERGED: Huge / crazy Utility Bills - Help & Advice

Cardew

Hopeless123 wrote: »

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help. This is a little difficult as it's my son with the problem and he doesn't have computer access and is miles away from me, but I'm trying to help him sort something out. Bear with me, I don't have the full facts or the paperwork here, but just want to get a general idea if we're right to question this.

Basically he moved into a house in Sept last year and gave British Gas the meter reading (0055) straight away. In Dec (I think) he was sent a gas bill for over £300. There was some considerable confusion at the time who he was even a customer of as he seemed to be getting npower bills as well. BG insisted my son was lying about the meter reading at the start (obv he wasn't, why the hell would he?). That was all eventually supposedly sorted out with BG (who he IS a customer of) and it was established that he owed £176, which he paid. He has just received a bill for nearly £400 and they will not listen to him at all that there's no way he could have spent that much and something must be wrong. They say the £176 he paid was only a part payment.

He can't remember the reading in Dec/Jan when it was originally 'sorted out', but his reading now is around 0480. So, from moving in in Sept 2009 up to April, he has used about 425 units. I've just got him to ring up and ask what he's being charged per unit and it's 6.619 per Kw/h

He lives on his own and the only thing on gas is central heating. Although he heats the water up for a bath each day, the heating is pretty much only on once a week when he has his son staying.

In contrast, my other son has a family, at home all day every day, has heating and cooking on gas, is on a prepayment meter and pays about half of what they're charging son no 1!

He's really not very good with this sort of thing. He's asked if he can arrange some sort of password so I can speak to them and maybe figure out the right questions to be asking, but they've refused. At the moment, BG have booked an engineer to visit the house next Weds and replace the meter with a pre-payment one and add £12 per week until the debt is paid. If he gives in to that, I don't think he'll ever manage to get it sorted!

Sorry this is so long, but I've not been a gas customer for about 30 years so don't really understand the pricing structure, etc. I've tried to get online help from various sites and one of them did confirm what an average quarterly bill should be with British Gas, in his circumstances. I just want to know from real people if we're right saying that from moving in Sept with reading of 0055 (start) to 0480 (now) would correctly result in a bill overall for over £500?

Thanks in anticipation

Well firstly he isn't paying 6.619p per kWh for the majority of his gas. That is the Tier 1 rate and he pays that amount for 2,680kWh per year. This is charge pro-rata @ 7.3kWh per day. The rest of his gas will be at around 3p for a kWh(this is Tier 2 rates)

He has used 425 gas units. He obviously has an Imperial gas meter(or is being charged for one!), so each gas unit is approx 33 kWh(that figure can vary a very small amount) so he has used approx 14,000kWh


So in 7 months he has used approx 1560 kWh at Tier 1 price = £103 and approx 12440 kWh at tier 2 price of approx 3p* = £373 total £476

* could be a little more.

14,000kWh(£500) for 7 months over one of the coldest winters in years is not particularly high; the average UK customer uses 20,500kWh and it is probable that by next Sept your son will have used less than this amount.

If at all possible he wants to avoid getting placed on a pre-pay meter. Whilst the charges are not as high as they used to be, it will prevent him getting some of the really cheap internet tariffs and once on a pre-pay meter it will be difficult to get rid of them.

So if there is a way of paying off what he owes BG it will pay in the long run.

Hopeless123

Thank you very much for your comprehensive reply, so BG are correct then. It doesn't explain why a rarely occupied house should be using so much, but if he has actually used that many units, they are basically charging him correctly then.

I think the best thing to do is for me to pay the bill for him and get myself up there and check his temp settings, etc. Then I'll try to get him on a cheaper tariff, which I hope I can do for him online. I also want to check he doesn't have a leak, is it easy to see on that type of meter if it's still 'going round' when everything is switched off? Is it likely to be like the old-style leccy ones?

I'd rather he was in debt to me than be struggling to keep up with a pre-payment meter loaded with debt!

Thanks again for your help.

Cardew

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.

Swimming_Geek

I've got a bit of an usual problem...I'm not sure if this should go in no bills or crazy bills bit on the forum!

We live in a shared house. We use Npower for gas and electricity. When the person who deals with the energy bills moved out she closed the accounts with them, so we could create a new account.

Then when we ring up to create the account they tell us that we still have an account open! News to us, as we thought she'd closed them all. It turns out that it was the electricity account. In over 2 years, we hadn't had a bill! So we gave them a meter reading, and it turned out to be lower than the one when we moved in! We were told that it would be unlikely that we would have to pay or if we did it wouldn't be for the full amount as it was their fault.

After things having been quiet for 6 months, we assumed that it had been sorted out. Then yesterday, a bill for £827 i.e. 2 years electricity based "wholly on our estimates" landed on our door mat.

Does anyone have any advice?

Cardew

We will need more details.

On what meter reading was the final bill for the old account holder based.

When did you give them the meter reading? 2 years ago or now? or both times.

On the face of things she would appear to be due a large rebate .

If it is 'only' £827 for 2 years, perhaps you are only being back-billed for 12 months.

Swimming_Geek

Sorry. Re-reading my post, I don't seem to have made it very clear.

um. the final bill that she paid was the gas bill, we (the rest of the house) naively thought that we were paying for the duel bill. This also reflects the situation across the two years. We thought that when we had been paying our energy bills during the two years that they were duel bills, it turns out that they were just gas bills.

We only discovered that it was just gas when we rang up to pay the outstanding amount on the gas account and to change the account payee. It was then drawn to our attention (and Npower's) that we hadn't received an electricity bill in two years. They then asked us to give an electricity meter reading, which somehow turned out to be lower than when the meter was read when we moved in. I gave the most recent electricity bill, and I'm not sure who did it when we moved in.

This puzzled Npower, and they said that it would be likely that we would only have to pay for a year at the most. However it was logged in the system as no electicity having been used over the two years, so they were unsure whether it would be picked up by the system. 6 months later it turns out the answer was yes it would be!

Looking at the bill they seem to have charged us for electricity used over the two years:

28/09/07- 04/01/08 833Kwh £94.9
04/01/08 - 28/08/08 1927 kwh £255.92
28/08/08- 30/03/09 1869 kWh£261.49
30/03/09-06/10/09 1349 kWh £175.43

Does that help?

Cardew

Swimming_Geek wrote: »

Sorry. Re-reading my post, I don't seem to have made it very clear.

um. the final bill that she paid was the gas bill, we (the rest of the house) naively thought that we were paying for the duel bill. This also reflects the situation across the two years. We thought that when we had been paying our energy bills during the two years that they were duel bills, it turns out that they were just gas bills.

We only discovered that it was just gas when we rang up to pay the outstanding amount on the gas account and to change the account payee. It was then drawn to our attention (and Npower's) that we hadn't received an electricity bill in two years. They then asked us to give an electricity meter reading, which somehow turned out to be lower than when the meter was read when we moved in. I gave the most recent electricity bill, and I'm not sure who did it when we moved in.

This puzzled Npower, and they said that it would be likely that we would only have to pay for a year at the most. However it was logged in the system as no electicity having been used over the two years, so they were unsure whether it would be picked up by the system. 6 months later it turns out the answer was yes it would be!

Looking at the bill they seem to have charged us for electricity used over the two years:

28/09/07- 04/01/08 833Kwh £94.9
04/01/08 - 28/08/08 1927 kwh £255.92
28/08/08- 30/03/09 1869 kWh£261.49
30/03/09-06/10/09 1349 kWh £175.43

Does that help?

The one note of caution is to query if you have indeed read the meter correctly. If it is a digital display there isn't a problem. However if it is the 'old fashioned' type meter with dials it is very easy to misread as the pointers on the dials turn clockwise and anti-clockwise on alternate dials and are not like a clock face. It is very easy to be thousands of units out in your reading.

However assuming you are satisfied with the reading, I would write to them and demand a full explanation in writing of how they have calculated the bill. The 'based wholly on your estimates' comment is patent nonsense and sounds like bluff so query that statement.

In particular stress that if the meter reading 2 years ago was higher than current reading on what basis are they charging you; as it appears they have been paid twice for the same electricity.

In any case under the billing code of conduct they can only back-bill for 12 months where they are at fault. In this case they were aware they supplied the house as they have a meter reading and were billing you for gas.

Be polite, but firm, in your letter and let them know that unless you get a satisfactory explanation you will pursue the matter with the Regulator.

P.S.

Do not be tempted to sort this out on the telephone!

Swimming_Geek

Thank you for your quick reply, and all the advice.

It's a digital reading, I think based on your description if it had been a dial type meter, I'd have left it to someone else to read it, as it sounds quite complicated.

I think my natural instinct would have been to ring them up, so thank you for reiterating that. This maybe a stupid question, is that so there is a written record of what has been said?

Cardew

Swimming_Geek wrote: »

I think my natural instinct would have been to ring them up, so thank you for reiterating that. This maybe a stupid question, is that so there is a written record of what has been said?

Mainly so there is a formal record of their explanation and you will not get unattributable bull***t

The call centre staff are encouraged to 'deal' with problems and not involve management, so will try to fob you off if possible.

'Put the ball back in their court' and you then can react to their response.

Swimming_Geek

:rotfl:Sounds about right! Thank you very much for all your help. I'd best get my best letter-writing hat on!