British gas have misquoted me and now demand 1300 payment

gem1978_2

hello money saving peeps,

I have been paying 38 a month for electricity and 30 for gas for the past couple of years on the advice of British gas. They have not sent out any meter readers in the last couple of years and now I have switched suppliers they are demanding 1300 for underpayment in the final bill.

can they get away with this? surely they are at fault for not sending out any readers and for giving me a low estimate on my bill?

shop-to-drop

Were you not able to read the meter yourself and send in the correct reading, rather than just pay the estimated amount? Thought that was quite normal these days. If you've used the energy think you're going to have to just pay up.

matelodave

On what basis did they quote you, on your previous consumption or on previous payments - if you didn't give them an accurate estimate of your use then all they can do is estimate (guess) how much you might use.

If you haven't been checking your bills and making sure they actually reflected your consumption then it's your own fault and it's hard to have much sympathy.

You have to take responsibility to check your bills and make sure they are correct - every time you get a bill, you should check it against the meter and if it is wrong, then phone or e-mail the correct reading through to the supplier - if you haven't done that then you've now got a big bill that's got to be paid. You might get the opportunity to pay it back in instalments but you can't blame British Gas

macman

They're only required to read your meter once every two years-other reads are down to you. As are the resulting bills if you don't bother to correct it when you get an estimated bill (or about 8 bills in your case).
An 'estimate' is just that-an estimate. The supplier has no idea what you are actually using unless you tell them.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

How can British Gas intuit what you are using? As stated, they only have to send out meter readers every 2 years, so it is entirely possible they haven't been in the "last couple of years".
Did you not for a second think that with all the news of energy price rises and fuel poverty, that £68 wouldn't be near enough to cover you?

BG haven't covered themselves in glory here admittedly, but you need to take some responsibility yourself. Ultimately, if you've used the stuff, you have to pay for it.

Fortunately you should be able to agree a payment plan with BG to pay off the debt in the same period it took to accrue it. This will, of course, be on top of your actual usage.

MillicentBystander

Which reminds me, where did Wywth go?

macman

OP, you say 'now I have switched suppliers'. Have you actually completed your switch through? If not, it will almost certainly be blocked by BG due to the high level of debt on the account.
If you have somehow left them, you certainly won't be given 2 years to pay.

[Deleted User]

OP its the METER which says how much you are going to pay per month/year or whatever , not some dreamed up guestimate of useage. I notice that if you use a switching company and just bung in a guess at how much a year you normally pay, thats the ammount the new company will bill you per month until someone sends in reads. British Gas, in their wisdom, and greed for greater profits have done the ludicrous thing and have changed the minimum inspection period to 5 whole years ! British Gas are implementing this soon but guaranteed the others will all follow. Ofgem, for some unknown reason accepted this ...so for people like you who sit back on some dreamed up monthly payment , can be expecting 5 k catch up bills in the future
I wonder if Wywth has changed his moniker, I enjoyed his caustic comments

Cardew

I think there is pretty unanimous view here, with which I agree.

Also that BG would normally block any switch of supplier.

As a matter of interest why were you intending to switch supplier when you were only paying BG little more than half the UK average for gas and electricity?

If you have run up a deficit of £1,300 in 2 years, your payments should have averaged £122 a month over the 2 years; and as prices have increased considerably in those 2 years, £140 would be a realistic payment at present.

FOREVER21

macman wrote: »

They're only required to read your meter once every two years-other reads are down to you. As are the resulting bills if you don't bother to correct it when you get an estimated bill (or about 8 bills in your case).
An 'estimate' is just that-an estimate. The supplier has no idea what you are actually using unless you tell them.

Slightly off post but I am wondering if the utility company only read meters every 2years what would be the position of someone who changed supplier every year? When would they get an actual visit to read/check a meter.
Could they carry on giving self readings, or is there some central register, which would flag up the lengh of time between actual reads.

[Deleted User]

FOREVER21 wrote: »

Slightly off post but I am wondering if the utility company only read meters every 2years what would be the position of someone who changed supplier every year? When would they get an actual visit to read/check a meter.
Could they carry on giving self readings, or is there some central register, which would flag up the lengh of time between actual reads.

apparantly if its a gas account the 2 year minimum inspection period has to transfer to the new supplier, but with electric it starts again with the new supplier. By this strange quirk of legislation then, a serial electricity bypasser could just keep switching every now and then and never get anyone too concerned as to actually come in and check the meter. this an absolute travesty which allows cannabis farms and energy thieves to get away with it without ever having the meter checked, and once people start to get free electricity they can then heat and hot water without even the need for a gas supply. This is just yet another ridiculous situation that Ofgem have allowed to happen