Phoenix Natural Gas - Check your bills!!!

julieb81

Sorry this is quite detailed/long, but please read on if you're a Phoenix customer, especially if paying by monthly DD!

I live in a 1-bedroom flat on my own and I have been a customer of Phoenix for over 2 years and I pay by monthly direct debit, at £20/month (they tried to increase this to £27 even though my monthly average was £11.40! I had to argue with them to reduce this, but that's another matter!). In normal circumstances only a yearly statement is meant to be issued, therefore capturing the minimum usage amount, which is 2000kWh (all customers have to pay for this amount per year). Due to the price increases in October 2005, January 2006 and October 2006, statements have been issued at irregular times.

My latest bill was issued in November 06, covering 15 March 06 to 1 November 06. I was charged based on 2000kWH on a pro-rata basis, i.e. 231 days @ 1,265kWh, when my actual usage was only 961kWh, due to the bill covering mainly the summer months. Their minimum usage states PER YEAR and not PER MONTH (i.e. 2000/12 = 167kWh per mth), therefore they should have looked back to March from the previous year, and they would have seen that I am well above the 2000kWh per year. I sent a letter explaining exactly how this should all be calculated, and that I was owed £16.73. Not much to most people, but it works out at 5-6 weeks of gas usage for me. They replied just over 2 weeks later, apologising, stating that they have credited my account by this amount, and thanked me for bringing this matter to their attention - I'm not sure if this means they are going to investigate other customers bills!

I understand that this situation may not apply to most people, i.e. you would use in great excess of 2000kWh per year. The next possible calculation error might apply to you, I have checked 3 colleague's bills, who have different usage levels, and they are all owed money, ranging from £13 to £22, just from one bill which was incorrectly calculated. Even if every Phoenix customer is owed £1, it is £1000's off their profits!!

Due to these statements being randomly generated due to price increases, some statements will show the costs broken down into 2 or 3 pricing periods. i.e. a bill in June 2006 which covers 12 August 2005 to 22 April 2006, 253 days @ 1252m @ 14,323kWh has been billed at £468.18, but I calculate it to be £447.00, resulting in an overcharge of £21.18.

The bill covers 3 different price costs per kWh by Phoenix, so it is split in 3. In my opinion, and unless Phoenix have some sort of logical reasoning for not doing so, the 14,323kWh should be equally proportioned over the 3 periods, i.e. 2831kWh for the first 50 days, 6454kWh for the next 114 days, and 5038kWh for the last 89 days. This was actually billed at 1167, 6292 and 6864kWh respectively, therefore putting less of the cost during the cheapest period, and most of the cost during the most expensive period!

My colleagues have sent letters this week to Phoenix explaining this, so have not yet had a reply or explanation.

Has anyone else noticed or questioned these errors? Please check your bills as I am sure everyone else has possibly been ripped off this way too.

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Another thing to check is to make sure you are receiving the direct debit discount, of 0.002625 pence per kWh (0.0025 pence excluding 5% VAT), for the first 8000kWh per year (£21 per year if you use at least 8000kWh).