Powergen = useless billing muppets!

stewie_griffin

Sam_84 wrote: »

Stewie - Do you know when Energy Online Extra Saver version 2 was first available?
Cheers

27th February

stewie_griffin

Geoffo_M wrote: »

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.

You got your gas and electricity prices the wrong way round

Sam_84

I've started looking at the bill - oh dear - I think I am losing the will to live.

They have now used my readings from Feb as if they were my readings for June so haven't charged me anything for the energy used from Feb to June. Also they haven't used the right tariff as they've gone back to revise the bills from Dec 2006 and haven't reflected the period when I was on Winter Saver.

Stewie -
I'm sorry to ask but do you know of a place on the web that details when the various tariffs over the past few months were launched and the details of the tariffs? I found a timeline on the TescoEnergy website http://www.tescoenergy.com/tesco/UtilityResources/price_change_calendar.html but not with the details. I don't know if this timeline is right though as I don't have another to check it with. I think that since December 2006 I have been on Energy Online Economy 7, then EO Winter Saver E7, then EO Extra Saver E7 v1 and finally (and currently) EO Extra Saver v2. All terribly confusing.

Thanks very much for the pointer to where my tariff is on the my customer part of the website. Dead handy. But I don't understand why Powergen (i) don't show the prices ex-VAT on that page when it's the ex-VAT price they show on the bills, (ii) do show the threshold as an annual figure (rather than quarterly as they show on their prices letters), (iii) show the discount rate and (iv) show the date that you started on that tariff. I think I must have to adjust the way I think when dealing with them - into a twilight zone?


Geoffo -
Thanks for the info. The gas charges are the same but not the electricity - this might be because I have economy 7.

Elec - Day - primary units - 15.28 (excl VAT) - 16.044 (inc VAT)
Elec - Day - secondary uts - 9.10 (excl VAT) - 9.555 (inc VAT)
Elec - Night - 4.64 (excl VAT) - 4.872 (inc VAT)

and these are the charges shown in my customer part of the website.

I've got to say that, it would be very hard to make this billing thing more complicated ... but they keep trying! Confusion marketing at it's worst.

I don't think I can face it any more tonight - I think a nice drink would be in order (and to catch up on Rome on the Tivo).

Cheers :beer:

Sam

Geoffo_M

stewie_griffin wrote: »

You got your gas and electricity prices the wrong way round

Oops! So I did - thanks for spotting that Stewie. The figures are correct though - I've just double-checked them. Hope I haven't confused you Sam.

BindiBahji

Sam_84 wrote: »

I've started looking at the bill - oh dear - I think I am losing the will to live.

Sorry to hear that, Sam. I've had better luck sorting out my problem.

Because of the confusion with tariffs (hint to Powergen: if your tariffs are too confusing for your staff who deal with them all day every day, they're way too confusing for your customers), Powergen offered to recalculate my latest bill according to the tariff of my choice. After crunching the numbers (thanks, Stewie) I worked out that Extra Saver 2 was best for me.

I've now got an amended bill with the correct meter readings, the correct unit prices and as far as I can tell the correct discount (working backwards from the bill it looks like approx 17.3% which I think is what they quoted for North Yorks, former Northern Electric region).

Sam_84

Interestingly I got a phone call out of the blue from Powergen on Saturday morning. I wasn't sufficiently on the ball to get the lady's name and contact information (d'oh!) and, as I wasn't expecting the call, I didn't have all of my thoughts in order. She sounded like she's going to try to help but she didn't seem very well prepared for the call.

The very annoying thing is that, even though Powergen have sent me two revised bills with lower unit charges than the first bill, she wasn't even prepared to admit that the prices on the first bill that they issued me were wrong! (She told me that she hadn't looked at the second revised bill!) She's going to write to me to tell me which tariffs Powergen think I was on since Dec '06 and the details of those tariffs. If I can get those details agreed (which I accept might take a bit) then I think we're on to a solid footing to take things forward.

I think that I might start adopting a modified Bridget Jones-style scoring system for my hope level! In which case, as a starting level, let's go for 4/10 for a resolution by the end of July and see where we go from there ...

TTFN
Sam

Sam_84

Sorry for the lack of update - life got in the way !

Powergen sent another bill. But got it horrendously wrong and used my readings for Feb as if they were the readings for June so they hadn't billed me for all of that energy usage. At almost the same time, they've increased my DD (which is sort of OK by me as I know - in reality, even if not in the mysterious world of their billing system - that I do owe them some extra money).

Wrote to them again. They sent back letter saying here's a revised elec bill but the gas is OK. Sorry guys, the gas is very much NOT OK as you've used the Feb readings for elec and gas as if they were those for June. And, whilst the new elec bill is OK before considering the the discount, the discount rate that they've used for the recalculated elec bill is wrong (too low).

Ugh. Spoke to someone else at Powergen and she has referred it to a manager so hopefully (everything crossed) it will be sorted out before my next bill at the end of August/beginning of Sept - not far away now!!!! (Must remember to put meter readings into their website around then)

Sam_84

Just to tidy up the final loose ends ...

After much to-ing and fro-ing, Powergen and I have sorted this out. They have got the right meter readings for the right dates and also we've agreed the balance on the account as of 29 June.

I was very keen to sort this out before the next bill came and so was very pleased that this was all sorted before the end of August as my next bill was 31 August.

So, on 31 August, I took meter readings and put them into the website (I also wrote to Powergen as a belt-and-braces) and I'm so pleased with the bill that's just come. It's perfect! The meter readings, dates, unit charges and discount are all spot on. I feel like I've won the jackpot! (On re-reading the previous sentences, it looks like I am such a saddo - pleased about billing indeed, pah!)

Hopefully, no more probs now that I've the bill for the next quarter and it's fine.

So, in summary, if you're having problems with Powergen, just keep plugging away. You may go round the houses a bit but I've eventually got it all sorted out fine so hopefully you will too.

Cheers and good luck