Extremely high electicity bills.

macman

So you have no DD in place, but are billed quarterly?
If they are phoning you for payment then you must now be heavily in arrears. Have they not asked you to set up a repayment plan based on a monthly DD?
They are not 'billing you' £900 in a month, that is presumably what they believe the debit balance on your account is. A very different matter.
Even if you were using 2,500kWh per month, that will 'only' cost about £300.
If that situation continues then they will insist on fitting a PPM, so it's in your interest to get this resolved soon. And the basis for resolution is an accurate statement of account.

dchurch24

No. They ARE billing me for £900 in a month. I'm not billed quarterly, I'm billed monthly.

June 01 - June 30: 7865.47 kWh = £918.27

Like I said, every three months it jumps up hugely. The month after this was less than 700kWh of usage.

I don't pay anything by DD. Especially not to BG. About 10 years ago, I had a DD set up to pay (I think) about 35 quid. One month my account was debited by 350 instead. I had a similar thing with BT. 40 quid became 400 which caused other DDs to bounce resulting in my being charged. It took me nearly a year to get it back from them, as they kept insisting that they simply reduce my monthly payments until it was all used up! They also refused to pay any of the bank charges. So, no. People get paid when I pay them these days, not automatically.

macman

IIRC, you submit a monthly reading online with Energy Smart and it bills you on actuals (or it should do). Presumably that billing for June is therefore based on an estimate, because it's rejected your own submitted reading? Do you have any billings recently based on your actual readings?
Somewhere back down the line it's started rejecting actuals, and submitting erroneous estimates. can you track back to see when? Did your ex g/f fail to submit readings maybe?
Which is why you need to have a conversation with a human being at BG, because even the densest CS rep could see that your (alleged) pattern of consumption is not feasible.
Meter error is I think a separate issue here. Your average consumption of 24kWh per day is high, but not impossible. But your billing is way over your metered usage.
Out of interest, what is your annual gas consumption in kWh-I'd expect around 16,500kWh.? The reason I ask is that high users of electricity tend to be high users of gas too.

Off topic somewhat, but why didn't you invoke the DD guarantee with your bank to recover the unauthorised DD withdrawals. The bank is obliged to reverse the transaction immediately.

dchurch24

I'm afraid not. Seemingly, despite submitting them through the website - usually with no trouble - I've consistently been sent estimated bills.
It was only this mornings submission that threw up an 'error' that made me look into it in more detail.

I've just downloaded the bill for that month and that's actually the only one that doesn't say 'estimated'.

Your electricity bill - actual
Please pay £1013.36 using SMS by 27 Jun

Strange thing is, this one also says:

Your previous bill £195.76
in debit
What you paid £388.69
Balance after your
last payment
£192.93
in credit

Balance brought
forward
£192.93
in credit
Electricity you’ve used
this period
£1126.95
Your Dual Fuel discount £6.67
credit

It's a wonder anyone knows where they are with bills like this.

macman

True, but the bills do all say 'estimated', and you've not queried that.
So, for the 'actual' bill, do the readings tally with what you submitted?
If so, you either read the meter wrong, or you do have a faulty meter.
But a faulty meter is not going to 'spike' your readings massively every quarter, it'll just consistently over or under-read. Which is why I suspect a gremlin deeper in your billing history.

dchurch24

All the other bills say 'Estimated' apart from a couple of others over three years. One is on a "high" month and one is on a month were less than 500kWh were used.

I can only go back 3 years, but the three-month spike is consistent throughout.

The meter readings are correct. Admittedly though, I can only vouch for the last 6 months as my ex-girlfriend used to handle this until then.

To be honest, I'm amazed at how bad it's got dealing with companies in the six years since I've had to do it. Even getting the council to give me the single-occupancy discount took 4 months, several phone calls, and tens of ignored emails. The TV licence people send me about 2 letters a week threatening me with a £1000 fine or imprisonment, despite me informing them regularly that I don't (can't) watch broadcast TV.
It seems this country has allowed the companies/agencies that operate here to simply harrass and cheat money from people in all directions.

macman

The 3 month spike has me baffled. Test the meter, if nothing untoward then you need a sparky!

dchurch24

I'll test the meter tonight (with the heater test you mentioned).

The drummer in my band used to be a sparky, I might ask him to have a look when he gets back from his holiday.

Thanks for your time, it's appreciated. I was having a panic this morning! I feel somewhat more relaxed about it now.

macman

If you've been getting bills for £1K a month and still paying enough to stop them fitting a PPM, then I'd be anything but relaxed, you appear to have grossly overpayed.
Whe did the supplier last read the meter? They have to do so at least every two years.

dchurch24

June 2011 was the last time according to their website.