Can I claim back my money?????

The_barber

Hi I have just been chatting to customer of mine about this site!!! He made a suggestion that I should contact some one about the matter as I was having a bit of a grumble about my shop electric bill, the basic's of it are that since Dec 2002 my brother and I till just recently have been paying POWERGEN £400.00 a month, part of this money was paying off a debt that POWERGEN had incurred due to not sending us bills, from day one, As we used to be with British gas and then all of a sudden we received a final bill from them, when we contacted British gas they told me that I moved to another electric company I tried to explain to them that I had not done this but they said it was to late that the other electric company were already supplying our electric, horrified I was left to try to discover who was our new electric supplier, I rang a company who supplied me with this information and they told me it was POWERGEN so then I got on the phone to POWERGEN they told me they did not supply our electric and so the story goes for around about 6 months, when eventually some one suggested to write to them all, British gas, POWERGEN, n power, all of them, so I did I wrote down all the serial numbers of the metre and the name and the address, when around about 2 weeks later I finally got a letter from POWERGEN saying yes they supply my electric and here is your first bill of around about average of just under £2000.00 with no choice but to pay this, as we didn't happen to have £2000.00 just sitting around!!! we asked to be put on a monthly payment scheme, it started of at £250.00 a month as the months went on we then received another letter from POWERGEN explaining that this was not enough to cover debts and electric being used so we must up our monthly payments to £300.00 a month so we did and then again another letter about year later we must up our monthly payments to £520.00 a month as this would now be enough to cover the debt incurred by POWERGEN and the electric used, well as you can imagine I said no and we came to arrangement of £400.00 a month. even though they still took the £520.00 for that month so I cancelled the direct debit as I got a bit angry by this stage and played the waiting game for some one to contact me when they finally did contact me from India to demand the final payment in full by this stage that did not only put us in debt with my business premises but they also did the exact same thing to my home electric we rang them for that on many occasions also but again they did nothing, till the point where we then owed them nearly £500.00 for home electric, I then got straight on the phone to my lawyer and he asked the same question as every one else, are we supplying my entire street with electric? He was as baffled as us. once we told POWERGEN we had made contact with my lawyer they couldn't do enough for me and they wiped my home debt clean, started again, the business on the hand they offered a £200.00 discount which at the time in the circumstances I took it, since then we have now finally paid our electric bill it took us 6 years and even now they say that there is a final bill of £388.00 to pay, I have moved to southern electric who we have just received our first bill from and believe it or not we are in credit by around about £187.00 and only paid £257.00 a month for the winter quarter so can any one explain why POWERGEN charged us £400.00 a month for nearly 6 years? Have I been well and truly stitched up by them? and is there any way to claim back some money from what I would call a very good scam, I still have all the bills (what ones they did send) as they only ever used to us a VAT statement we didn't get electric statements unless I made a complaint about not receiving them and then would get one about a week or two later. Even if there is nothing that can be done to reclaim even some of this money if it genuine, then fair enough, but it just seems a bit odd to have now only paid £257.00 a month for three months and then be in credit by £187.00 for what was also the winter months when POWERGEN used charge us £400.00 a month which according to them still wasn't enough!!!!
Please contact me even if it is to tell that what they charged is right!!!
Yours most gratefully

Crystaltipps_2

Have you contacted Powergen and asked them to send you a breakdown of how the bills and payments were calculated? This should help to explain how the bills were so large and took so long to clear.

Is your Southern Electric bill to an actual reading or has it been estimated? It is possible that your final account with Powergen was over estimated and your first bill was underestimated, if they underestimated the change of supplier reading.

The_barber

Hello, thank you for your response, yes I did get a breakdown of my bills but not of what money went where if you like, they just said that what ever the electric costs it would pay that first and then any money left over would pay towards the debt that they incurred. I even had to give POWERGEN a list of all the electrical items being used through out the businesses so as they could see what it might be that was using so much electric and even then it was no more than what was in an average house, at one stage we did have electric heaters, but we did not use them in the summer and yet our bill still never went down by much. Yes to Southern electric question also they have a reading from the start date and to today’s date they are actual readings, and yet we are in credit with them??? Do you personally think, then that we have been paying to much money for this electric then???? And if so what can I do about it???

Gal

I started to read it and the gave up - Everytime I saw the word powergen in Capital letters it made me lose concentration.

Can you not just do a summary so that myself and others know what your talking about?

MarkyMarkD

I think you need to set out the period of time you were with each supplier, and how much they charged you over the period, and then turn that into a cost per annum.

Comparing monthly payments when they are confused by debt catch-up and the like is just going to be confusing.

The_barber

Gal wrote: »

I started to read it and the gave up - Everytime I saw the word powergen in Capital letters it made me lose concentration.

Can you not just do a summary so that myself and others know what your talking about?

o.k. sorry to confuse every one with the long story above but it is bit confusing… ok the basic’s of it is that powergen never sent me bills for my shop or home address, I told them they supplied my electric but they insisted they didn't, in the end they finally relised they did and sent me a bill for around £2000.00, I couldn't afford to pay back that much in one go so got put on direct debit of £200.00 to start of with and they said it wasn't enough in the end it went up and up and up till I put a stop to it at £400.00 a month and they still said that wasn't enough but this had been happening since Dec 2002 till finally I have now paid them, kind of they are still saying I owe them £388.00 I moved to southern electric recently Nov 2007 (when i thought i had finished paying powergen,) sourthern ele are only charging me £257.00 a month, been with them for 3 months and I am in credit by £187.00 is the basics of my story. My question is how come powergen charged me a fortune each month and still wanted more and my 2nd question is does any one think it sounds about right for the figures and my 3rd question is if it does not sound right then how can I claim back my money ????? hope this is easier for every one

MarkyMarkD

Nope, it's not. Can you just answer my question?

It's impossible to tell if you are being asked for too much for the x years you were with powergen if we don't know how many years x was, and how much they've asked for in total!

The_barber

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Nope, it's not. Can you just answer my question?

It's impossible to tell if you are being asked for too much for the x years you were with powergen if we don't know how many years x was, and how much they've asked for in total!

sorry you want to know how many years i paid powergen for? from Dec 2002-Nov 2006 on average 5 years in the first year or so at £200.00 a month then went up to around £300.00 a month then in last 2yrs or so it was £400.00 a month this was for my shop bills only, the monthly payments went towards the debt as well as the electric used, i hope this helps i do not have the paper work to hand, but have kept every thing, could do more precise figures for you but would take a while!!!

Crystaltipps_2

Without the actual figures it is very hard to tell if you have been over charged or not. However - thanks for clarifying the Southern reading for me. You seem to be talking about 2 different accounts with Powergen - your business and your home account, and this is confusing things a lot.

This is what I think has happened:

In December 2002 you got your first business bill from Powergen, and this was for about 6 months usage and totalled £2000.

Naturally this came as a bit of a shock, so you made an arrangement with them to pay off the balance at £250 per month by Direct Debit.

Now - I'm unsure here whether this arrangement was meant just to clear the £2000 over 8 months and then pay any future bills when they come, or was mean to also include your usage too?

Maybe that is whole point, as quite clearly it didn't pay for the future usage, which is why Powergen asked for more money.

If we assume that the first bill was correct, then forgetting seasonal variation etc, your usage at the time was approx £333 per month.

So really, if you were only paying £250, this wouldn't have even cleared your current usage, never mind the debt over time.

Add to this the fact that electricity prices have gone up considerably since 2002, and then the £520 per month doesn't seem that excessive, even with a £200 reduction off the balance. You then cancelled your Direct Debit, and it is unclear what you did for payment after this.

I think that you then move on to your home electricity bills, where I don't think it's a case of not sending a bill, but just not reviewing the Direct Debit with the increasing cost of electricity (and maybe changing consumption). This resulted in a £500 balance, which Powergen agreed to wipe, although it's quite possible that they still did not actually review your payments regularly.

You then asked about paying £400 per month to Powergen for nearly 6 years - is this for you business or home account? And the £257 you are paying Southern now - is this for the business or home account?

Going back to your second post, you say you got a reply from Powergen giving the breakdown of the bills, but not "what money went where". I'm not sure what you are asking for here. Your bills have been explained (I assume) and your payments are all showing on your statements (no mention of payments going missing), and from your post you say that you were told that payments first went to clear usage, and then any left after that was meant to clear your debt. As I have already suggested earlier, I suspect that the payment wasn't enough for your usage in the first place, so there was nothing, and then when it was increased, only a small amount left for your debt.

The_barber

Crystaltipps wrote: »

Without the actual figures it is very hard to tell if you have been over charged or not. However - thanks for clarifying the Southern reading for me. You seem to be talking about 2 different accounts with Powergen - your business and your home account, and this is confusing things a lot.

This is what I think has happened:

In December 2002 you got your first business bill from Powergen, and this was for about 6 months usage and totalled £2000.

Naturally this came as a bit of a shock, so you made an arrangement with them to pay off the balance at £250 per month by Direct Debit.

Now - I'm unsure here whether this arrangement was meant just to clear the £2000 over 8 months and then pay any future bills when they come, or was mean to also include your usage too?

Maybe that is whole point, as quite clearly it didn't pay for the future usage, which is why Powergen asked for more money.

If we assume that the first bill was correct, then forgetting seasonal variation etc, your usage at the time was approx £333 per month.

So really, if you were only paying £250, this wouldn't have even cleared your current usage, never mind the debt over time.

Add to this the fact that electricity prices have gone up considerably since 2002, and then the £520 per month doesn't seem that excessive, even with a £200 reduction off the balance. You then cancelled your Direct Debit, and it is unclear what you did for payment after this.

I think that you then move on to your home electricity bills, where I don't think it's a case of not sending a bill, but just not reviewing the Direct Debit with the increasing cost of electricity (and maybe changing consumption). This resulted in a £500 balance, which Powergen agreed to wipe, although it's quite possible that they still did not actually review your payments regularly.

You then asked about paying £400 per month to Powergen for nearly 6 years - is this for you business or home account? And the £257 you are paying Southern now - is this for the business or home account?

Going back to your second post, you say you got a reply from Powergen giving the breakdown of the bills, but not "what money went where". I'm not sure what you are asking for here. Your bills have been explained (I assume) and your payments are all showing on your statements (no mention of payments going missing), and from your post you say that you were told that payments first went to clear usage, and then any left after that was meant to clear your debt. As I have already suggested earlier, I suspect that the payment wasn't enough for your usage in the first place, so there was nothing, and then when it was increased, only a small amount left for your debt.

i think the payments were meant to pay the electric used and the remainder to the debt.
i canncelled the direct debits because i felt like the debt never went down in comparison to what i was paying(the other reason i canlleced the d/d is below), so i wanted my lawyer to check it out for me of which when i told powergen this, they gave me £200.00 off my debt and then the direct debit was set up again,
the £400.00 a month was to powergen(business) that is the same payment that started at £250.00 a month in dec 2002 and ended at £400.00 a month in nov 2006. a new contract started with sourthern at £257.00 a month in nov 2006(business) and we are in credit by £187.00 so far!!
when i talk about my home bills it is this that pushed me to go to the lawyer and to cancel my direct debits at the shop i felt like they didn't send me bills on purpose, daft as that may sound and they persisted in saying to us that we were on a card meter when we wasn't and we told them that on many occasions, as i did not want what happened at my shop to happen at my home the excessive bills, we were very honest with them, there was a pre paid meter in my house when we moved in but we asked them to change it which was done, and from then it should have been qrtly bills but never they sent any,
by the way i read your post, i gather you are saying that all the payments for the shop account sound about right to you then?
hope this has not confussed things again!!!

Crystaltipps_2

The business account sounds about right, as far as I can tell. The problem really seems to have been caused by the original Direct Debit being set far too low to pay off your debt and your usage, so the higher Direct Debit went on for years.

You mention somewhere about having used electric heaters. I strongly suspect that these are what made the difference between your original usage (not the £400 as this was also clearing a debt. You should check your bills for unit price and units used for the same time period) and your recent bill from Southern.

For your home bill, it sounds as though they didn't get the update onto their system to say you no longer had a card meter, and that is why you didn't get the bills.