Horrendous final bill from First Utility

TollyR

I left First Utility at the end of April and have had trouble getting my final bill. They sent me one for over 300 pounds which I queried. This was for 7-26 April when I moved to another supplier. I had been paying by monthly by direct debit (an agreed fee) and submitted monthly meter readings (as their rules ask you to do). My usual monthly bill was between 155-167 pounds.
They now say I owe them 336 pounds for my final bill because they have "recalculated" my usage from 7 Feb to 26 April. When I said my monthly bills were based on meter readings I submitted every month they said the readings had been sent either too early or too late and so were wrong. They give no indication of this at the time.
Can they do this? Has anyone else had this experience? I thought there were legal rules governing final energy bills and it seems very dodgy that they could go back to a random date and "recalculate" my use in order to justify a higher bill.

Nada666

Of course they can do this. Surely you received a statement (or had one you could access online) which would have explicitly stated the readings used each time they calculated a balance? It is up to you to compare these statements with your meter reads to check what read is used.

Nada666

(And, of course, there is obviously something wrong with their systems - no such thing as a customer reading being too late or too early as it should still be used as a base for the next estimate. Doubly something wrong as your customer reads would have been higher than estimates so no reason to reject them.

Still doesn't mean you shouldn't have to check readings actually used on statements.)

macman

Perefectly 'legal' to back bill you from February 1014. Your main concern should be if the calcualtions are correct. If they are, the bill is valid. As above, do your own calculations from your reads and check.

matelodave

I have been struggling to get my meter readings and bills sorted out with FU since last November and thought that they'd had cracked it when they opened a new account because they couldn't get the original one working.

They managed to get the original reading into it as well as two more and even transferred the £600 that I've already paid from my non-working account into the new one. They also managed to get the sums right as well

However I now notice that my last reading has been rejected and I don't why?. I shall give them my next one when it becomes due and see what happens.

Throughout this sad and sorry saga I've been recording my own meter readings as well as sending them to FU (by e-mail), checking that my direct debits have been going out and sending them an e-mail every month (with the original complaint reference) to let them know where I stand. I'm also checking my account on the website to see what is going on.

The only way to keep on top of your bills is to put some effort into checking yourself. You should never allow the situation to get out of hand insofar as you don't know what you've used, what you've paid for and what you (or they) owe. You should also never accept an estimated bill, get it corrected immediately.