British Gas Payments

Richyread

Rather than hijack the simimlar thread from Ollie06, I have started a new thread as mine is slightly more extreme...(and a little long winded sorry)

I am currently living in a 4 bed semi detached cottage, after moving out of a previous rental home some 18mths ago.

We followed the standard process for changing suppliers and (similar to Ollie06 experience) BG advised that we had a small amount of credit on the account and if we stay with them they can transfer it all across and keep the payments going etc.

We agreed and have been happily paying £56p/m ever since.

In September of last year, we received an out of the blue statement from BG that the system believed there was actually a shortfall on our account.

My wife and I thought "well it's an older property, our 3 boys aren't the most energy efficient and my partial disability often means I'm active during the night, so perhaps we need to pay a little more each month"

Expecting to have to increase our monthly spend by £10's or so we were absolutley staggered to find that the system showed a shortfall of £1,800, even after making our payments by DD each month without fail.

Over the next few months (including Boxing Day) my wife and I have been backwards and forwards to the Customer Care team and of late the complaints team, to try and understand this humongus leap in the bill.

After much wrangling I was able in January to arrange for BG to dispatch an engineer to review the meter (it's one from the late 60's I believe)

Check meter installed by a very polite & helpful chap - 2 weeks later another engineer arrives and without 2 words and a blink of an eye the check meter is removed and he's off into the night.

3 weeks passed and other than a call from the complaints team (to see if their own engineer had left any form of report as they didn't have one??!) no further contact.

Monday of this week and I receive an email which broadly outlines that "our meter is working within expected industry guidlines - if anything it is actually slightly under reporting usage." The signoff from this mail was along the lines of that this now resolves my complaint and they will close the case off on March 1st.

Shocked by the email I penned a response, to ask for a copy of the report, what the expectation was in terms of the perceived shortfall and are there any escalation routes.

Haven't had a response as yet.

My wife received a prompt at lunch time today to say that our online energy account had been updated and to check to confirm our payment plan from 1st April 2013.

Logged in...

We were in credit before Christmas by £70.

Since end of Jan we are now in debt by -£1,789.75.

Further more our monthly payments from 1st April will be increasing to a whopping £355 p/m or £4,260 for the year, which with my rough maths is nearly 100 units of power a day.

Long story short, there doesn't seem to be any inclination from BG to investigate the bills for the property; having been through the mill of; "are you running any form of industry, do you have a swimming pool/football pitch, are there other unknown people livining in the property etc. etc." I'm lost as to where to turn next.

I absolutley don't believe we are using this power and I certainly don't have the funds to settle the bill (above continuning my standard monthly payments)

Genuinely anxious that they may cut off the power supply as the bill is so astronomical.

Any help/advice appreciated.

Richyread.

dogshome

Though you don't say so, the implication is that it is the Elec meter that is the problem

Unless there something very special about this 4 Bed cottage with 2 adults and 3 children living in it, your £56 a month, (£672 a year), D/D's are hardly enough to cover an Elec supply for Lights, W/Machine, TV's and the Xboxes - If your Heating & Hot water is Electric you talking around £1200 a year

Do you have a Standard meter or an ECO7 meter and how do you heat the house & hot water ?

Fire_Fox

Have you been reading the meter regularly and submitting readings? That is your responsibility as householder and bill payer, the energy supplier only needs to read the meter every two years. You clearly were not in credit before Xmas, that must have been based on an estimated reading.

What does the meter say your usage in units is over the period in question, the very first actual reading when you moved in and an actual one from today for example? Not what you were in credit or debt by according to estimated readings and adjustments, not pounds that is meaningless because it depends on the tariff and price fluctuations.

£56 a month for a four bedroom semi seems a gross underestimate, especially if you are all electric. Plenty of people pay that and more for a one bedroom flat. An older property could well be very poorly insulated to boot. Energy guzzlers are: heating, hot water, power showers, washing machine at high temps, tumble dryer. Your lighting and media gadgets will contribute very little to your power use in the grand scheme of things.

They should not cut you off if you continue to communicate and to pay each month, more likely they will put you on a prepayment meter. Cutting you off really is a last resort, it's accepted that water and energy are essential services. If you have a disability have you let BG know? Sometimes there are extra concessions/ considerations.

Richyread

Thanks for the quick feedback - your right I should have added that we are only now taking electricty supplied by BG.

Our heating and hot water is provided by a very dodgy Oil fired boiler (£1k per 1/4 -this is another issue but I'll not go into that now)

I accept that the property we have now is somewhat older than the one we moved from (1950's semi) However in size, appliances and overall usage nothing has dramatically changed since our move.

In fact if anything we have become more concious of power usage and have fitted low energy bulbs, switched the washing machine out for a low-energy 30min wash etc, etc.

Our previous rates for the 4bed semi we moved from where £48p/m elec and £62p/m for gas off the top of my head - I can't access the old accounts right now but this is broadly correct. We lived there for over 2 years and had no issue with payments etc and at the point of moving out (in the summer) had some £100 or so pounds in credit.

Maybe it was a little nieve of us to think our payments would stay broadly the same (for electric) but still a 633% price hike can't be right surely?

Richy.

Fire_Fox

Richyread wrote: »

Thanks for the quick feedback - your right I should have added that we are only now taking electricty supplied by BG.

Our heating and hot water is provided by a very dodgy Oil fired boiler (£1k per 1/4 -this is another issue but I'll not go into that now)

I accept that the property we have now is somewhat older than the one we moved from (1950's semi) However in size, appliances and overall usage nothing has dramatically changed since our move.

In fact if anything we have become more concious of power usage and have fitted low energy bulbs, switched the washing machine out for a low-energy 30min wash etc, etc.

Our previous rates for the 4bed semi we moved from where £48p/m elec and £62p/m for gas off the top of my head - I can't access the old accounts right now but this is broadly correct. We lived there for over 2 years and had no issue with payments etc and at the point of moving out (in the summer) had some £100 or so pounds in credit.

Maybe it was a little nieve of us to think our payments would stay broadly the same (for electric) but still a 633% price hike can't be right surely?

Richy.

You are not answering the questions. Do you have a Standard meter or an economy 7 meter? Power shower being used enthusiastically/ at length, electric immersion heater than is accidentally being left on/ broken timer or thermostat? Are you reading the meter regularly and submitting readings? What does the meter say your usage in units not pounds is over the period in question, the very first actual reading when you moved in and an actual one from today for example? How does that compare to your usage at the old house in units not pounds?

Many energy savings measures are not the ones that save much money because things like lights are not power guzzlers.

Wywth

Richyread wrote: »

Rather than hijack the simimlar thread from Ollie06, I have started a new thread as mine is slightly more extreme...(and a little long winded sorry)

I am currently living in a 4 bed semi detached cottage, after moving out of a previous rental home some 18mths ago.

We followed the standard process for changing suppliers and (similar to Ollie06 experience) BG advised that we had a small amount of credit on the account and if we stay with them they can transfer it all across and keep the payments going etc.

We agreed and have been happily paying £56p/m ever since.

In September of last year, we received an out of the blue statement from BG that the system believed there was actually a shortfall on our account.

My wife and I thought "well it's an older property, our 3 boys aren't the most energy efficient and my partial disability often means I'm active during the night, so perhaps we need to pay a little more each month"

Expecting to have to increase our monthly spend by £10's or so we were absolutley staggered to find that the system showed a shortfall of £1,800, even after making our payments by DD each month without fail.

Over the next few months (including Boxing Day) my wife and I have been backwards and forwards to the Customer Care team and of late the complaints team, to try and understand this humongus leap in the bill.

After much wrangling I was able in January to arrange for BG to dispatch an engineer to review the meter (it's one from the late 60's I believe)

Check meter installed by a very polite & helpful chap - 2 weeks later another engineer arrives and without 2 words and a blink of an eye the check meter is removed and he's off into the night.

3 weeks passed and other than a call from the complaints team (to see if their own engineer had left any form of report as they didn't have one??!) no further contact.

Monday of this week and I receive an email which broadly outlines that "our meter is working within expected industry guidlines - if anything it is actually slightly under reporting usage." The signoff from this mail was along the lines of that this now resolves my complaint and they will close the case off on March 1st.

Shocked by the email I penned a response, to ask for a copy of the report, what the expectation was in terms of the perceived shortfall and are there any escalation routes.

Haven't had a response as yet.

My wife received a prompt at lunch time today to say that our online energy account had been updated and to check to confirm our payment plan from 1st April 2013.

Logged in...

We were in credit before Christmas by £70.

Since end of Jan we are now in debt by -£1,789.75.

Further more our monthly payments from 1st April will be increasing to a whopping £355 p/m or £4,260 for the year, which with my rough maths is nearly 100 units of power a day.

Long story short, there doesn't seem to be any inclination from BG to investigate the bills for the property; having been through the mill of; "are you running any form of industry, do you have a swimming pool/football pitch, are there other unknown people livining in the property etc. etc." I'm lost as to where to turn next.

I absolutley don't believe we are using this power and I certainly don't have the funds to settle the bill (above continuning my standard monthly payments)

Genuinely anxious that they may cut off the power supply as the bill is so astronomical.

Any help/advice appreciated.

Richyread.

You've had your meter checked and it has come back as accurate.

If you don't believe it, get yourself an OWL type monitor.
They are by no means as accurate as your meter, but would certainly show up a 600% variation you are suggesting.
More likely is it will help you understand (with a little effort) where and when you are using the electricity

SwanJon

Along with all of the above, I always recommend a consumption diary.
This can be a pad of A4, or a spreadsheet etc.
Take regular readings (daily or more often), with a note of what has been happening since the last read - e.g 1234 - Mon 6PM - washing machine, tumble drier.

This will give you more information to challenge anything, and as they've run the check meter they're going to need something more.

Might also be worth checking your appliances - you can get plug in monitors or an OWL, and even turn off some trip switches to see if this affects your consumption.

Good luck.