Powergen Bill Shocker

octygone

I would have thought the secondary unit reading would follow on from the end of the first ............ring the company you are with and ask what is going on

izoomzoom

If I was you I would very quickly find out where your meter is and take a reading. You can give this to Powergen and they will recalculate the bill.

When we moved into our house, we were on a prepaid meter with British Gas and we were feeding £20 into it on a weekly basis. We asked for it to be changed to Powergen (whom we have been with before) and that was done, but it still continued to chew money. Finally Powergen came in and changed it to a normal meter, and we finally thought we could breathe a sigh of relief.

Two months later, we got a bill for £700. And I cried and cried. Admittedly it was our gas bill, but the reason for telling you is that when I looked at the opening meter reading for Powergen and the closing meter reading for British Gas, they were very different (and these were the reading I apparently gave). Phoned up Powergen and told them on the discrepancy and they amended our bill, knocking £500 off it.

Check your lease agreeement and see if the opening meter readings correspond with your bill. This won't help if the agent misread it, hence my opening statement of finding out where it is.

paulbruk07

Thanks for that Izoom, Good Luck with the baby too...

Asked my letting agent to check what they had recorded as starting readings..

Paul

stewie_griffin

It looks like even though you've got a two rate meter, your being charged on standard prices not economy 7. Once you've checked your start readings call in with your up to date readings and get them to rebill you on the e7 tariff.

The reason your readings were estimated on 30 April as that this is the date the prices decreased, there should be some actual readings on the bill from 4th may since the bill says your meter was read.

paulbruk07

Yes there is an actual Meter reading for the 4th of may 2007. But there seams to be 2 readings one for primary and 1 for secondary. On the Primary the reading is as it was read by them on 9th Feb (Actually States 0 kWh used??) Although it states under that that 57 Primary kWh were used? along with 130 secondary units... Yoy yoy yoy!! how confusing..

kate2510

Hi again - are there tenants in any of the other flats yet?
Perhaps they'll know where the meters are - maybe they've had a bill you can compare with yours.
It looks pretty fishy to me - 130 kwh for 27 days - 7th April to 4th May and 4119 kwh 31st Jan to 30th April (?) - 89 days
You're paying a hefty price per kwh too. I'd ask to change to another tariff or change your supplier asap.
The advice about taking weekly readings is good but in the meantime I'd ring Powergen and say you want manual readings to check your bill as it appears to be unreasonable, otherwise they'll start pressing for payment.
Let us know how you get on - good luck!

stewie_griffin

Primary and secondary rates aren't the same as day and night rates. If you were on an E7 tariff (which I think you should be) you would see on your bills; day primary, day secondary and night rates.

Is the meter inside your flat, if not check that the serial number on your bill matches the one on your meter.

paulbruk07

I have had a response from powergen, They have reported a problem with the reading they took, and have therefore stated they did not use them? what exactly they did use is a mystery. I have also just got my starting readings through from the Letting Agent.. and the reading 00110 should have been 00774. So there is some money gained back there..

Powergen have asked me to take 2 readings 1 hour apart so they can see which reading is day and which reading is night.. Which as today is my day off im about to do hopefully.. There are no meters in my flat, and as was the 1st tennant in this block so im the only one with a bill so far..

There is a Sales office underneath me which opens at 11am so i will seek advice from them about reading my meter..

Thanks Paul.

dmcguire275

A couple of years ago i changed from powergen to southern electric on a promise of cheaper bills. (this was not the case in the end) anyhoo powergen sent me a final bill of over £700 pounds. i called them and told them this was wrong, gave them meter readings and they agreed, yet they still tried to withdraw £700 from my account just before xmas. (Not enough funds to cover so just incurred bank charges to boot).
i called powergen again, they apologised. a few weeks later i received a cheque from them for £700. (even though they had not managed to withdraw it from my bank). so I called them SEVERAL times asking if this was correct, they assured me it was and that i could go ahead and cash the cheque.

6 months or so later i received a bill from them asking for £700 i called them they said I had to pay i disagreed. this went on for a few weeks when i eventually agreed to pay back £500 @ £16 a month as this is all i can afford.
I spoke to citizans advice and they said morally powergen were in the wrong but legally they could ask for their money back. so i paid.

I had been paying for over a year £36 a month @ £20 for utility service and £16 to reduce the £500 they think I owed them.
They now want me to pay £74 a month to clear debt (i no longer use them as a service provider as i have moved house). I argued that it was agreed that i would £16 a month for as long as it took because it was their error, they telelady disagreed and is now sending my account to a debt recovery agency. ( they still dont know my new address and never asked for it even though i told them I have moved). i offered to pay £20 a month as this is all i can afford but thats not good enough.

Who is right me or them?
any advice from anyone would be gratefully received.

SwanJon

dcmcguire - What happened to the cheque? It sounds like you knew it was fishy - best bet would have been into the savings until they asked for it.

Technically they can ask for it. It sounds like you did quite well to knock them down to £500. Get the details of the collection agnecy and see if you can make an agreement with them to spread it over a longer period.

Start making payments of what you can now - shows willing.

Sorry.