Gas bills too high!

cusimar9

Just had our gas bill and its for £275 for the last quarter. That's £92 a month and I've been told there's definitely a problem somewhere.

That's for 787 units or 8802 kilowatt hours, and we're with British Gas.

We're in a normal sized 2 bed semi, have our heating on for a couple of hours in the morning and about 4 hours in the evening. Cooker is gas too, but that's it.

As far as I know we have a fairly new combi boiler, but we haven't had it serviced since we moved in over a year ago.

Any alarm bells ringing?

How do I find out what's wrong?

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

If you have a look through this forum you will find that for heating and hot water, without cooking, many people pay far more for a winter quarter.

I wouldn't have thought there was a problem, in fact I would think that you will probably be below average for someone cooking as well.

You would appear to be on BG's standard tariff which for Gas is the most expensive you can get. It will be reducing by 17% this month, or there are cheaper tariffs from other companies.

cusimar9

Thanks for your help

The reason I'm concerned is I've asked around and most of my friends pay between 1/4 and 1/2 of what we seem to be paying. Even in the summer I don't remember it going down that much.

Is there anything you could recommend we do/check to ensure everything is working correctly?

Cardew

Most people pay by Direct Debit so are your friends doing the same comparison?

It is not easy to check the accuracy of a gas meter. However there is very little to go wrong with the meter to make it over-read. It is simply a vane that is turned by the gas flow; if anything a meter will under-read.

According to the Regulator the average household uses 20,500kWh of gas(and 3,300kWh Electricity) but most people seem to use more. So you don't appear to be heading for a great deal higher consumption.

The main purpose of 'servicing' a combi boiler is a safety check. There is not much 'adjusting' to do on most boilers I understand. If your property was rented it would be mandatory to carry out safety checks on all gas appliances. If you are not going to get the checks done, may I suggest fitting Carbon Monoxide detectors.

Paul1sh

Just got my gas bill from Atlantic and according to them I've used 35,849 Kwh in the last 3 months (All my readings are actual not estimates).Electric cooker , combi boiler for heating & water .We live in a 2 bed terraced .Out all day with average on 9 hours heating on per week.My bill £882.30 this quarter.Why is it so high I hear you ask.Well 12 months ago we had a new metric meter installed by Transco replacing the old imperial meter - Atlantic were informed and meter readings given.Since then my bill has rose from £19 per month to £96 a month and finally this last one which works out at nearly £300 a month.The reason why is that they're still converting my meter readings into metric even though I the meter is a new metric one.I began complaining to them last October when I finally realised what was going on and still nearly 6 months on they have not rectified the problem.It's the weekend now so I've got until monday the 5th march to get all my paperwork together work out what to do.
Do I stop my monthly direct debits to Atlantic while they sort this situation out? Atlantic have known about this problem for 6 months now and I can work out what my actual bill in less than 1 hour with a calculator so why can't they work it out in 6 months ? At the moment they owe me nearly £600 in overpayments (working on actual calculations not what their bills say!) .If I switch suppliers will I still be able to claim the overpayments back or will they still persue me for the £157.47 they claim I still owe them? Help and good advice urgently required.
Thanking you all in anticipation ,
Paul

Cardew

Pail1sh,
Just write to Ofgem (with a copy by recorded delivery to Atlantic) outlining events as you have done above) and request their immediate intervention.

Don't bother ringing again.

Gal

Agree with cardew - However my suggestion would be to keep making payments just incase there is an issue at a later date. You can always get a refund from your supplier or at last resort make a claim through you bank for payments that they have taken.

You have done as much as you possibly could have done - Although I would involve Energywatch and not Ofgem. Atlantic will get fined for each complaint and they give the supplier a kick up the backside.

You will get your money refunded and a call and a letter apologising as well

Paul1sh

Thanks for the above responses Cardew & Gal .I've just checked through Atlantic's responses to my complaints last year.They acknowledged I'd had my meter changed to a metric rather than imperial( 3rd November 2006 the last e-mail from them was on 23rd January 2007 saying they were still recalculating my bill).When the first bill after meter changed arrived that was correct but that was for 191 cubic meters.My meter is now on 1318 so for the last 1127 cubic meters I have been billed incorrectly .(please note that they are still putting the serial number to my old meter on the bill even though I've spent over a hour on the phone providing my new meter's serial number and pointed out that last summer they actually billed me on my new meter before switching back to my old meter's serial number.) .
Here's a break down of my new bill dated 2nd March:
1127 units converted into cubic meters = 3261.61 cubic meters Actually it is still only 1127 cubic meters so I'm being charged for 2134.61 cubic meters I haven't used yet.
They then multiply the 3261.61 by 39.5686 and divide the total by 3.6 = 35849.32 kWh In reality it should be (1127 x 39.5686) / 3.6 = 12387.17 kWh
Here's Atlantic's billing anyway:
' 3rd Nov '06 - 31 Dec '06
22991 kWh @ 2.220 pence = £510.40
standing charge for 59 days @ 10.100 pence = £5.96
1st Jan '07 to 2nd Feb '07
12858.32 kWh @ 2.490 pence = £ 320.17
standing charge for 33 days @ 11.400 pence = £3.76
Total charges before VAT = £840.29
VAT @ 5% on 840.29 = £42.10
Total charges for this bill including VAT = £882.30'
My calculation is as follows:
' 3/11/06 - 31/12/06
7944 kWh @ 2.220 pence = £ 176.36
standing charge £5.96
1/1/07 - 2/2/07
4443.17 kWh @ 2.490 pence = £110.63
standing charge = £3.76
Total before VAT = £296.71
VAT @ 5% on £296.71 = £14.84
Total charges for this bill including VAT should be £311.55

Total overcharged this bill = £570.75 which doesn't include what they've overcharged on the November bill last year or the bill prior to that.
I've had a look at the Energwatch website as recommended by Gal and they seem to be ones that will fight my case for me .I'll phone them up at 8.30 a.m. monday when they open. I've also had a look at Atlantic's website and they've got an e-mail link to the head of customer services who claim to resolve the matter in 10 days .I'll e-mail them too but Energywatch is still looking my best bet.Thanks again for your help.

Cardew

Calculating the bill for an Imperial meter(when a metric meter is fitted) is unfortunately a fairly common mistake and there have been several cases on this forum.

I would still write rather than ring - then you can prove exactly what you said, and it will bring a response.

Gal

If you mean calling energywatch then thats fine - Although you can submit a complaint through there site. But once you have called energywatch don't bother ringing atlantic just let them deal with it on your behalf.

Any correspondance you have with atlantic until resolved from now on put in writing so you have a copy of everything

Paul1sh

quick update,
I phoned Energywatch first thing monday morning.Got a case number from them and was assured by them that they'd freeze my gas account with Atlantic until Atlantic can sort this matter out.I then e-mailed copies of my bills to Energywatch along with letters from Transco stating when the meter was exchanged etc. .I then sat down for a hour and calculated how much I've paid Atlantic since August 2005 and what my actual bill should be (There's a £1200 overpayment in all) .I then e-mailed a letter to the head of Atlantic's customer services outlining my six previous complaints to their customer sevices regarding billing which since last summer have not been sorted .Submitted to them my calculations and demanded all my over payment back with interest and expenses to cover the hassle I've had sorting out this problem with them .Then just for my own amusement I phoned up the customer service advisor who has so called been dealing with my complaint for the past 6 months (it was a freephone number) and asked to speak to his manager - His manager came on the phone and tried telling me I'd only had my meter changed last August not 2005 and that they were still waiting for a meter reading from me for last September.I pointed out that I submitted a meter reading on the last day of every month and keep copies myself.I got them to the point where they could no longer give me an answer and then pointed out that this telephone conversation has been recorded by myself and will be sent as evidence for my case.