Atlantic Customers beware of over charging on April bills

robsoulsby

Existing customers be aware that Atlantic state that they have dropped gas prices from the 1st March 2007 on the information with the April bill.

But when I checked my bill they have charged me the old tariff to the 5th April (when this quaters bill is dated). Having made no amendment or the price drop form the 1st March.

I contacted Atlantic and got a credit on my account.

Have emailed their customer services to complain and will confirm their response.

tripled

They have dropped the prices from the first bill you have issued after 1st March onwards, ie if you are sent a bill on 12th March your prices drop then, if don't get one until May then bad luck. There is a thread or more on this already somewhere...

MarkyMarkD

The wording here: http://www.atlanticeg.com/home/Faq.aspx is pretty obvious about how it works.

The reduction affects bills for periods beginning from 1 March onwards for gas and 1 April onwards for electricity.

Both of those dates catch me out, as my last gas bill was dated 12 February and my last electricity bill was dated 27 March.

I am going to submit some meter readings online in the hope of triggering a bill - this seems to sometimes work and sometimes not.

giverny

My Atlantic Gas bill was due in March/April but I had to send two emails to get them to produce the latest bill which has just been produced, with all the Gas charged at the old higher rate. They seem to have no problem producing pro rata bills when the price goes up.

I phoned them to complain and without much argument they agreed to produce a new bill on a pro rata basis using the new lower Gas charge.

No doubt I will go through the same hassle again when my next Electricity bill is produced ?

mchu6am4

They are the worst gas/electric company i've ever used - can't wait to get our yearly bonus in august and leave them for good!!!!

I used to use Amerada - they were excellent before being taken over by bunch of robbers - atlantic !

MarkyMarkD

Giverny

To be fair to Atlantic, it's up to them when they change tariffs. And they've decided that the tariff change will affect different customers on different dates, determined by their billing date.

Whilst that isn't particularly fair, and it isn't an approach I've heard of another supplier using, it's not illegal IMHO.

giverny

It appears that Atlantic are now proposing to move to 6 monthly billing - if there was a future price reduction and Atlantic were to take the same approach then some customers could be paying the higher rates for up to 6 months later.

roddydogs

Puzzled-when you click the link theres nothing on it about a price drop..
Surley if the price goes down and u pay the samr, youll be in more credit?.(ive only just seen this due to new post)

Cardew

roddydogs wrote: »

Puzzled-when you click the link theres nothing on it about a price drop..
Surley if the price goes down and u pay the samr, youll be in more credit?.(ive only just seen this due to new post)

I think you have missed the point here.

Atlantic along with a couple of other companies decided that they wouldn't start charging the new reduced rate until after the new bill had been produced.

Their new reduced prices started(supposedly) on 01 March.

So if I got my quarterly bill on say 14 March I would be charged at the old higher rate until 14 March and the reduced rate from then.

If you got your quarterly bill on, say, 12 May you would pay the old higher rate until 12 May and then the reduced rate.

The point being made in the post above yours was that a 6 monthly bill could mean(in the event of another price cut) that yo could be paying at the old higher rate for up to 6 months after the date of that price cut.

espresso

giverny wrote: »

It appears that Atlantic are now proposing to move to 6 monthly billing - if there was a future price reduction and Atlantic were to take the same approach then some customers could be paying the higher rates for up to 6 months later.

Not true, there is nothing stopping customers providing meter readings when prices change as I did earlier in the year. New corrected bill are then sent out.

jaywak

Don't know if this has been mentioned already, but I just reviewed my G & E Atlantic bills and realised that my account was £400 in credit i.e. my money.
I dug out the bills for the last 12 months to see average consumption, and then did an estimate of what my DDs should be. Took meter readings for both as last bill was estimate. Upshot was that with one phonecall I got the £400 back and my DDs cut in total by £47/month. You need to be firm about the amount of DD you want as they'll try and talk it up. Also ask for a credit to your bank, before they say they're going to send you a cheque, takes longer and is more inconvenient.
One tip to bear in mind: Quote your actual meter reading to be the same or very near the estimate. If the actual reading is say £20 more,then when you phone up they'll take it straight away and rebill you, rather than putting it on the bill in 3 months time! Up to you of course!

JW