Pre-payment meters - getting a refund at the end?

Snakey

I think I ballsed up. I switched from British Gas to Npower (because it was the best way for me to get credit meters put in) and I only took advice from Npower about the mechanics of it all. They told me that after my supply was switched over I'd get a final bill from British Gas based on my final meter reading and on what I'd pre-paid to them, which would mean I would get a refund of the credit on my meter at the date of the switch. This seemed sensible to me and they sounded very certain about it and it didn't even occur to me to double-check with BG. D'oh.

Now I find (thanks to a letter I got yesterday with BG's revised terms and conditions backdated to 31 March) that if I wanted a refund of unused credit I was supposed to tell British Gas a few days before the switch date and do a little dance involving taking keys/cards to the shop and back etc. And that if I didn't do this, I may still be able to get a refund but they will charge an admin fee.

I had about sixteen quid on the gas meter. Not a massive amount but I want it back on principle, dammit! I'm at least partly at fault here (maybe "totally" depending on whether they ever sent me any T&C's and what those T&C's said if they did), but I do have meter readings from the day of the switch because I needed those for Npower so I'd have thought it would be quite straightforward for them to work it out.

Before I phone them up, does anyone have any experience of how straightforward the process is, or know what they might consider to be a "reasonable" admin fee? Clearly if it's more than a tenner it's barely worth my while to jump through the hoops.

Thanks!

lstar337

I had to push quite hard to get my refund of £123 off a prepay meter, including threatening complaints to various bodies.

In the end they tried to discourage me by saying I had to provide access to the meter so they could prove I wasn't lying.

I called their bluff by giving them a phone number for the new tenant and telling them to arrange it themselves. They never did, but I got a cheque within a few days.

Not the same situation as yours, but perseverance does work. As said by NPower, they have details of what you topped up, and what you used, so there is no reason they can't work it out. They are just being difficult to avoid paying.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Snakey wrote: »

I think I ballsed up. I switched from British Gas to Npower (because it was the best way for me to get credit meters put in) and I only took advice from Npower about the mechanics of it all. They told me that after my supply was switched over I'd get a final bill from British Gas based on my final meter reading and on what I'd pre-paid to them, which would mean I would get a refund of the credit on my meter at the date of the switch. This seemed sensible to me and they sounded very certain about it and it didn't even occur to me to double-check with BG. D'oh.

Now I find (thanks to a letter I got yesterday with BG's revised terms and conditions backdated to 31 March) that if I wanted a refund of unused credit I was supposed to tell British Gas a few days before the switch date and do a little dance involving taking keys/cards to the shop and back etc. And that if I didn't do this, I may still be able to get a refund but they will charge an admin fee.

I had about sixteen quid on the gas meter. Not a massive amount but I want it back on principle, dammit! I'm at least partly at fault here (maybe "totally" depending on whether they ever sent me any T&C's and what those T&C's said if they did), but I do have meter readings from the day of the switch because I needed those for Npower so I'd have thought it would be quite straightforward for them to work it out.

Before I phone them up, does anyone have any experience of how straightforward the process is, or know what they might consider to be a "reasonable" admin fee? Clearly if it's more than a tenner it's barely worth my while to jump through the hoops.

Thanks!

It'll be a pain, but you can do it. Front line staff won't be able to action it, it'll almost certainly be easier writing an old fashioned letter, headed complaint.

In my experience, BG are one of the easier companies with whom to switch a PPM to credit - they definitely don't charge, and npower are balls at the moment. Just a thought.

Snakey

British Gas, knowing I'd just moved house obviously, did a credit check and told me I'd failed it - "probably" because of not being on the electoral roll yet - and that I couldn't apply again for sixty days. So I called Npower, who were my old supplier, and they didn't need to do a credit check and said it would be the time it takes to switch to them plus the time it takes to get an appointment for the meter guys. I got my new meters on 9 June, whereas I would only just now be in a position to re-apply to BG if I'd stayed with them.

Needless to say there are all sorts of tales of woe which go with this story, the latest one being that it takes them "up to" 90 days to update their systems that I've got a new meter and so I have to stay on the PAYG tariff until then, but I suspect that would have been the same with BG.

I've no idea which will be the best provider for me long term, I'll have to sit through a winter to see what my usage is like. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I might have sorted out all the switchover/new meter troubles by then!

So far, after having made about eight calls to BG and about the same to Npower, I've been pleased with the customer service all round - the problems I've had seem to be with their systems which in many cases they have been able to get around one way or another. Just one exception, some guy from BG who was convinced that the reason my PAYG meter was taking extra money off me was that my boiler needed servicing (despite me telling him it was switched off) and getting really frustrated with me when I asked him to explain how that could be possible. (Turned out it's what happens when you have super-duper amounts of debt - it not only openly takes some for the debt each time you credit it, but it also waits till you're asleep and then takes some of your gas money away from you too. At one point it was costing me a tenner a day to have a five-minute shower every morning!)