HELP! BG want to disconnect me!!

Cardew

Debz1966 wrote: »

not sure how this will post but its from my online billing

Meter reads 09 Oct 2012 - estimated 2199 Estimated 15 Nov 2012 - estimated 2746 Estimated Units converted = 547 metric units over 38 days (estimated) = 6106.6 kWh used over 38 daysGas ChargeFirst 279.00 kWh x 8.262p £23.05 Next 5827.60 kWh x 3.767p £219.53 Charge this period £242.58
How we work out your gas usage
Meter reads 16 Nov 2012 - estimated 2746 Estimated at price change 27 Dec 2012 - estimated 3611 Estimated Units converted = 865 metric units over 42 days (estimated) = 9656.71 kWh used over 42 daysGas ChargeFirst 308.00 kWh x 7.606p £23.43 Next 9348.71 kWh x 4.234p £395.82 Charge this period £419.25 Meter reads 28 Dec 2012 - estimated 3611 Estimated when your tariff changed 02 Jan 2013 - actual 3722 We read your meter Units converted = 111 metric units over 6 days (actual) = 1239.18 kWh used over 6 daysGas ChargeFirst 44.00 kWh x 7.606p £3.35 Next 1195.18 kWh x 4.234p £50.60 Charge this period £53.95

Here are the meter readings12 Feb 2013 04551 Meter Reader 9278.00
02 Jan 2013 03722 Meter Reader 17046.00
08 Oct 2012 02199 Estimated 6080.00
20 Jun 2012 01653 Meter Reader 2568.00
16 May 2012 01423 Customer read 6975.00
20 Mar 2012 00795 Meter Reader 8296.00
14 Mar 2012 00050 Customer read 22.00
13 Mar 2012 00048 Estimated .00

You are correctly being charged for a Metric meter.

In 11 months you have used over 50,000kWh and look on track to have used 60,000kWh in a year. This is unbelievable for a 3 bed house - the UK average is 16,500pa so less than a third of your consumption.

There are two aspects; firstly why did you carry on paying £31 a month - or even start off at £31 - when it was obvious that your bills were £Hundreds a month.

Secondly, there is no way that you could have used that amount of gas with a modern system, if you have the heating as you say(18C and some radiators switched off)

As it is a rented house, I assume that the boiler is serviced? An annual safety check is mandatory.

So you should get the meter checked and risk the fee, as either the meter is wrong, or you are wrong.

tinktinktinkerbell

this really annoys me because i am now having to pay money for using no gas at all because if people like this underpaying

the supplier im on (npower) are moving to a daily standing charge instead of 2 tariffs for different usage

which now means that low/no users will be funding those that use a lot of gas

basically if youve used it and you know you have, lets face it, if you put the heating on all day every day you will use more than 33 quid a month

my bills used to be 80-150 quid a quarter for only having the hot water on low for 30 minutes a day, no heating or anything just hot water

to let you know what kind of money you will be paying my OHs parents pay 200 quid a month and they have their heating on full belt all day every day, its like 80-90f sit in your undies weather in their house lol

BobQ

OP Ignore this unnecessary nastiness

[Deleted User]

They wont disconnect you, thats extremely rare nowadays when a prepay meter can recover the debts.

Fire_Fox

I think it's possible you have used this much energy, heating is the biggest energy guzzler followed by hot water, you are putting your heating on for way more hours than the average working household - two to three times. It was also a wet summer followed by a long cold winter, not the same as previous years.

The direct debit was clearly set far too low and you have not been able to read the meters regularly so got into debt. You've also got a three bedroom house, haven't said how well insulated it is (windows, cavity walls, roof). Whilst 20C is not boiling hot it's a lot of work for a heating system to maintain in the weather we have had this winter, every 1C makes a noticable difference to bills.

IMO write a letter to the British Gas Complaints Team.

Debz1966

keith1950 wrote: »

You know that in the past you have used up to £200/month for gas yet are happy to get away with paying only £33/month direct debit.

You then let time tick by with only estimated readings and seem surprised when you find out you owe a lot of money.

Your post is one long list of excuses, BG customer service must really look forward to hearing from you, they will probably play back tapes as a training exercise.

At the end of the day you owe the money, face up to your responsibilities and stop making excuses.

You are racist for even mentioning they are Asians, at least they are working and aren't a drain on society.

Who are you to judge me??? I asked them for a figure they gave me one, I paid my PAYG each week and when I said it was low to them she said she was going by what i had paid the previous year on PAYG. So not an excuse actually.

As for my racist comments its not racist to have an opinion and if the guy on the end of the phone was english and I couldnt understand him I would of said, bottom line is they didnt understand me and I didnt understand them due to a language barrier.

If your not going to be productive on my post and help I would rather you not post at all.

Debz1966

ess0two wrote: »

Your well in arrears,needs paying up regardless.

Tell me something I dont know. If you read my first post I'm trying to clear it with the help of Energy Trust. I am also paying them what I can each month.

I have no issue in paying my bills. My issue is the amount and to me it seems wrong.

Debz1966

Cardew wrote: »

You are correctly being charged for a Metric meter.

In 11 months you have used over 50,000kWh and look on track to have used 60,000kWh in a year. This is unbelievable for a 3 bed house - the UK average is 16,500pa so less than a third of your consumption.

There are two aspects; firstly why did you carry on paying £31 a month - or even start off at £31 - when it was obvious that your bills were £Hundreds a month.

Secondly, there is no way that you could have used that amount of gas with a modern system, if you have the heating as you say(18C and some radiators switched off)

As it is a rented house, I assume that the boiler is serviced? An annual safety check is mandatory.

So you should get the meter checked and risk the fee, as either the meter is wrong, or you are wrong.

Cardew - Even if I had all rads going and the temp up (which I did when I was putting £200 a month in on payg) it didnt come to those figures. The £200 a month was last year when temps where -13 here. During the summer months my heating was off so only paid for hot water and I have always been reluctant to put my heating on too soon in Autumn and turn it off as soon as possible in spring/summer, so in a way due to that fact I went with what the woman said without doing the figures, which i should of done.

As for the service on the boiler and heating yes its done very year, in January where the bill was 400 it broke down twice.

SwanJon

Not got much to add to what's above.

Keep making payments of some sort - what you think it should be - it shows willing.
Take regular readings - daily to begin with. Without this you don't know how much you are using.

A few other questions though - were you on the essentials tariff before it was withdrawn? Moving from that to standard would make some difference, as would moving away from the pay as you go, but it still seems a big jump. You could ask for meter readings for the last year on the PP meter to conmpare with your first year on DD.

Debz1966 wrote: »

They wanted to take the money out of my benefit at £36 per week for gas and then £10 for the debt.

This sounds like fuel direct - in which case the debt/week is fixed by DWP and It's around £3.65, not £10.

You mention the energy trust - for other readers look here: http://www.charisgrants.com/

You need to take control here - write letters (even if you email the same thing). Raise it as a complaint.

I take it you've been putting money aside for the electricity bill when it arrives?

Cardew

Debz1966 wrote: »

Cardew - Even if I had all rads going and the temp up (which I did when I was putting £200 a month in on payg) it didnt come to those figures. The £200 a month was last year when temps where -13 here. During the summer months my heating was off so only paid for hot water and I have always been reluctant to put my heating on too soon in Autumn and turn it off as soon as possible in spring/summer, so in a way due to that fact I went with what the woman said without doing the figures, which i should of done.

As for the service on the boiler and heating yes its done very year, in January where the bill was 400 it broke down twice.

You haven't stated what type of house - particularly how well insulated.

Given how you run your heating, to repeat, I cannot see how it is possible to have consumption approaching 60,000kWh a year with a modern boiler and CH system(4 years old) and serviced regularly.

Everything IMO points toward a faulty meter - and I am the first to concede that meters very rarely go faulty.