estimated meter reading

kayebrown

I have received a call from british gas today saying I am overdue on my bill, I am not with british gas I am with sainsburys energy as from december. the guy on the phone just carried on talking saying I owe them £752.40 :eek: I gave him my meter reading over the phone which is how he came to this amount. When i started saying I cannot pay that and I cannot have used that much gas and electric in just 4 months as both myself and my husband work and are never in, he told me the meter reading they got from eon was an estimated one??? I don't understand how they can do this, I am so upset and have been crying for the past half hour because of this. I ended up loosing myself when the man on the other end of the phone said 'if you do not pay we will take action against you' I shouted at him saying 'F***ing take me to court then' and slammed the phone down. My husband has been watching the meters which have been going round so fast when he switches anything on the tv, the cooker and the boiler send the gas meter spinning so fast so he thinks the meters may be faulty so we have called our landlord who is coming to look at them first thing tomorrow but what if it isn't and they make me pay all this money. We work so hard for the little we get and we cannot afford it I have a little boy at home who relies on us and I just don't know what to do anymore. and I am off again

lizziebabe

kayebrown wrote: »

I have received a call from british gas today saying I am overdue on my bill, I am not with british gas I am with sainsburys energy as from december. the guy on the phone just carried on talking saying I owe them £752.40 :eek: I gave him my meter reading over the phone which is how he came to this amount. When i started saying I cannot pay that and I cannot have used that much gas and electric in just 4 months as both myself and my husband work and are never in, he told me the meter reading they got from eon was an estimated one??? I don't understand how they can do this, I am so upset and have been crying for the past half hour because of this. I ended up loosing myself when the man on the other end of the phone said 'if you do not pay we will take action against you' I shouted at him saying 'F***ing take me to court then' and slammed the phone down. My husband has been watching the meters which have been going round so fast when he switches anything on the tv, the cooker and the boiler send the gas meter spinning so fast so he thinks the meters may be faulty so we have called our landlord who is coming to look at them first thing tomorrow but what if it isn't and they make me pay all this money. We work so hard for the little we get and we cannot afford it I have a little boy at home who relies on us and I just don't know what to do anymore. and I am off again

This is very confusing . Is it a gas bill or electric bill. You don't have to speak to British Gas if they are not your supplier. Why don't you contact your supplier and explain this call to them. You say the gas meter spins when you put on the TV, is this run by gas?
Why did you give him your meter reading? Phone your supplier and they will help you sort this out.

paulsad

So you were with BG before December then? Did you give readings and get a final bill from them...that's what normally happens. Either someone is trying a scam(? doubtful) or there's something more to the story.

Nada666

Sainsbury's is British Gas.

kayebrown

sorry i was babbling. I was with eon when I switched to sainburys energy in december, I do not know what british gas has to do with sainsburys energy but it is them that called me. I didn't gave eon a meter reading when I left because they never asked for one and sainsburys energy never came to get one from the house. the electric meter is going up fast when all the elecrtic stuff is turned on but the only gas appliance in the house is the boiler and when this is on low the meter goes mad. they have both been in since we moved here 5 years ago so I don't know if they both need replacing. the £752.40 they gave me was for gas and electric for 4 months. the guy on the end of the phone just kept talking over me so didn't really get much from him when I asked constantly why british gas was calling and not sainsburys energy.

Nada666

So you switched from Eon to Sainsbury's Energy (which is resold British Gas which is why you are talking to BG representatives.) And you have a £750 catch-up bill.

What were your monthly payments (or quarterly) when with Eon? What are they now? Dig out old bills from Eon and find out what period the catch-up spans. It could be only one winter - six months of underpaying by £125 is very easy to do.

You should get a full year to repay the bill (£60 per month) on request. You will not have to repay it over a quarter. It is not that high. (Well, depending on how much you were already paying - if you were only paying £100 per month then pay up - if you were paying £250 per month but still receiving this top up bill then you are right to panic.)

Anyway, establish approx how long the period covers, find out how much your actual base usage is, and see how much that costs with £60 repayments added on. If this is too much you can request for arrears to be repaid at £15 or so per month.

kayebrown

we were only paying £85 a month for both, so reading what your saying makes sense. I think I just panicked because I have never been told I owe money before.
When they say I have to pay a percentage of the bill off before I set up a payment plan is this true also because he said I had to pay £190 now then £46 odd a month after on top of my gas and electric that I am using.

Nada666

Yes, it seems fair enough to ask for a (probably frighteningly) large instalment then small repayments - they have to establish that you are credit worthy and are not postponing the inevitable - you should be able to pay £190 at the end of this month then pay off £45 on top of your usage - if you can not do this then you will be asked to go on a prepayment meter.

Wail

If you are concerned about your meters, my advice would be that you try to test those meters, by knocking everything off.

cajef

kayebrown wrote: »

I didn't gave eon a meter reading when I left because they never asked for one and Salisburys energy never came to get one from the house.

It is your responsibility to supply meters readings to the old supplier and the new one from the date of switchover when you switch supplier, how would you expect them to know the readings.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Morning kayebrown,

There is already some good advice here, but just wanted to give a bit of info.

When you change supplier, your new supplier would normally ask for you to provide a meter reading, the new supplier would then send these electronically to your old supplier (E.ON) so they could produce the final bill.

This means the final readings and the start readings should be the same.

Have you checked the bills to ensure these readings match?

I agree with the others and advise you to go through your previous E.ON bills, were these charged to estimates? If so they could have been underestimated. Now you have given an up to date reading it has caused a catch up bill.

It is unlikely that both the gas and electricity meters would be faulty, to be honest, but you can take some regular readings to get an idea of your usage.

Hope this helps a little.

Helena