Powergen = useless billing muppets!

Sam_84

Got to vent as I am v. frustrated with Powergen :mad:. What a load of idiots - I can't believe I'm the only person that gets so many billing errors because of their mistakes - it must be costing them a fortune (and so costing me too!).

Do other moneysavers get lots of billing mistakes from Powergen?

Their bills are so poorly laid out that it's very hard work to check that you've been charged the right amount. It takes a good while especially when there have been unit charge / tariff / discount rate changes. And they don't give you all of the info you need on the bill, e.g the discount rate (it's not on their website either!). And don't get me started about the horrible presentation of revised bills ...

This time's story so far:

• Get email telling me they're about to create bill and inviting me to supply readings online. I do this.

• Get bill - they've used 2 of the 3 readings (I have gas and economy 7 elec) - OK, their estimate isn't very different from the actual reading so that's not a big issue.

• But they have ignored the price reduction effective 30 April (and the readings I put on their website on 2 May)

So I ring up and talk to very nice lady who arranges for me to have new bill (we agree the unit charges on the phone and the discount rate) and that they will use the 2 May readings to estimate the amount of energy used at the old rates.

As this is the umpteenth time that their bills are wrong, I decide to complain so write to complaints about attempt to overcharge me.

• New bill comes and has wrong discount rate :wall:

So I ring up again and speak to very nice man who apologises and says that I was on wrong tariff and the right tariff has higher discount rate and he will arrange for for me to have a new bill. (This bill hasn't come yet but I'm not holding my breath!). I didn't have the heart to tell him that the tariff as printed on my original bill is the tariff with the higher discount rate that he's just about to put me on - they must have messed that up themselves when they were trying to fix the first set of mistakes.

Get written reply (very prompt - only a week after date of my letter) from complaints person saying that they didn't try to overcharge me. What! That's a complete load of tosh. If I hadn't checked my bill, I wouldn't have known that they tried to rip me off to the tune of £40 (yes, rip me off is not too strong a phrase!). Also ignores completely other points I make.

Have gotten bit between my teeth now and am writing escalation letter to Customer Service Director. Load of idiots. It would save them a ton of money to get it right first time.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the post office we go ...

TTFN

Sam

BindiBahji

Sam_84 wrote: »

they have ignored the price reduction effective 30 April (and the readings I put on their website on 2 May)

Yup, just got my latest bill and they've done exactly the same with mine.

stewie_griffin

When you say they ignored the price reduction do you mean that on your original bill your prices did not decrease on 30 April or that the readings you provided on 2 May were not used to estimate the reading on the 30 April? If its the former then this suggests you were not on one of the tariffs that had a price change on that day. Do you know the name of the tariff your were on?

I would advise you to email rather than send a letter to the customer service director (directorofcustomerservice@powergen.co.uk) as the chances are it'll get picked up by the same people but you'll get a quicker response.

BindiBahji

stewie_griffin wrote: »

When you say they ignored the price reduction do you mean that on your original bill your prices did not decrease on 30 April or that the readings you provided on 2 May were not used to estimate the reading on the 30 April?

In my case, both. They used actual meter readings taken at the end of March and on 20th June and billed all the units used at the higher prices, ignoring the price reduction on 30th April and the meter readings I sent them on 30th April.

stewie_griffin wrote: »

If its the former then this suggests you were not on one of the tariffs that had a price change on that day. Do you know the name of the tariff your were on?

Well, they sent me a letter in April telling me my unit prices were coming down on 30th April. I'm on EnergyOnline Extra Saver (version 1 I think).

stewie_griffin

BindiBahji wrote: »

Well, they sent me a letter in April telling me my unit prices were coming down on 30th April. I'm on EnergyOnline Extra Saver (version 1 I think).

Looks like there's been a !!!! up on your account as neither versions of Energy Online Extra Saver were affected by the 30th April price decrease so you shouldn't have been sent a letter. Do you still have a copy of the letter?

Sam_84

Hope this doesn't confuse things further ... I'll try and catch up on all of the points raised.

BindiBahji -
My situation seems terribly similar to yours.

Stewie -
Powergen both ignored the intermediate meter readings I gave them and didn't charge the lower unit charges from the 30 April.

I had a letter from Powergen telling me that the unit charges were going down on 30 April and I must have phoned them then to check which tariff I was on because I've written on the letter Energy Online Extra Saver version 2.

(Thanks for the email address for the customer service director but I've already sent off my note in the post.)

What's this about no price reduction on Energy Online Extra Saver from 30 April then? :huh: My bills are a nightmare - they say Energy Online Extra Saver. Have I been ripped off again? The Powergen website is useless for finding out the complete details of the tariffs and the tariff history. Can you shed any light? (I am in the former Seeboard supply area if that helps at all.)

Bye for now

Sam

BindiBahji

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Looks like there's been a !!!! up on your account as neither versions of Energy Online Extra Saver were affected by the 30th April price decrease so you shouldn't have been sent a letter. Do you still have a copy of the letter?

Yes, reading the letter again carefully it's advising me of a price reduction on the Winter Saver tariff. In the letter the tariff is mentioned in passing but not stated prominently.

So you're absolutely right, Powergen sent the letter by mistake, because I'd already changed from Winter Saver to Extra Saver v1 back in February.

Is it the case that (for the moment at least) the unit prices on Winter Saver and Extra Saver v2 are identical, but the discount is slightly higher on Extra Saver v2 (although it varies by region)? Is there a list anywhere on the Powergen website of the discounts which apply in the different regions?

stewie_griffin

Sam_84 wrote: »

I had a letter from Powergen telling me that the unit charges were going down on 30 April and I must have phoned them then to check which tariff I was on because I've written on the letter Energy Online Extra Saver version 2.

What's this about no price reduction on Energy Online Extra Saver from 30 April then? :huh: My bills are a nightmare - they say Energy Online Extra Saver. Have I been ripped off again? The Powergen website is useless for finding out the complete details of the tariffs and the tariff history. Can you shed any light? (I am in the former Seeboard supply area if that helps at all.)

Bye for now

Sam

If you're on Energy Online Extra Saver version 2 like you've been told then you would have gone on to the lower unit prices straight away and not had to wait until 30 April like standard Energy Online customers. Version 1 prices have not decreased at all since it was launched in January.

To find out what tariff you're on and what unit prices log on to your online account and go to the switch your product page. It'll then give you details of your existing tariff at the top of the page. It doesn't tell you what your discount rate is though. For version 2 in the Seeboard region it's 19%.

stewie_griffin

BindiBahji wrote: »

Yes, reading the letter again carefully it's advising me of a price reduction on the Winter Saver tariff. In the letter the tariff is mentioned in passing but not stated prominently.

So you're absolutely right, Powergen sent the letter by mistake, because I'd already changed from Winter Saver to Extra Saver v1 back in February.

Is it the case that (for the moment at least) the unit prices on Winter Saver and Extra Saver v2 are identical, but the discount is slightly higher on Extra Saver v2 (although it varies by region)? Is there a list anywhere on the Powergen website of the discounts which apply in the different regions?

The unit prices are the same for Winter Saver and Extra Saver v2. The discount for Winter Saver is 16% for all customers, but the discount for Extra Saver v2 varies from 15-19%. It doesn't mention on the website the different discounts but if you let me know which region you're in I'll find out for you (if you live in either the old eastern, east midlands or norweb regions then it's 15%). The discounts for version 1 are I think higher than version 2 but the unit prices are higher so in the majority of cases you'd be better off on version 2.

Sam_84

Thanks for all of that info. I've got an email telling me that Powergen have created another bill so I'm going to have a look at that later on when I have a bit more time.

Stewie - Do you know when Energy Online Extra Saver version 2 was first available? (Note to self - will have to start making a log of calls to Powergen from now on!)

Cheers

Geoffo_M

Sam, I am also in the Seeboard area and electricity prices from 30th April dropped to 3.081p for 1st 1143kWh per qtr and 2.451p thereafter - excluding VAT. Gas prices are 15.71p on 1st 225kWh per qtr and 8.18p thereafter - again excluding VAT. The discount I am receiving totals 19%, so, as we are in the same area, yours should be the same. Hope this helps.