Electricity bill for £2,127.71!!!

yorkshire_grafter

Hi
My sister has just received a bill from her electricity supplier for £2127.71. Monthly direct debit increasing to £298 per month.

A little background history – Start of contract 17/10/12 and the direct debit was set at £65.66 per month (3 adults in the property). New metre installed on 27/12/12 and when her direct debit reduced to £27 on 1/2/13 she assumed it was because she was in credit.

Direct debit increased on 1/8/13 to £34 per month.

Metre read in mid March 2014 and bill arrived with a balance of £1996.38 which stated monthly payment increasing from £34 to £1778 per month. I kid you not the direct debit was for £1778 starting on 1/5/14

In April I rang the company on her behalf and they said it would be investigated but it would take up to 3 months. Just received a bill for £2127.71. I have rung again and they acknowledge that when the metre was changed the database was not updated. Offered £10 for any upset caused. Advised if we clear the balance outstanding future direct debits will be £76 per month.

There isn't much of a paper trail from my sister. The final bill they have sent covers the period 18/4/14 - 20/5/2014 but has the arrears on it so it is very difficult to understand.

Any advice on what to do? Thank you for taking the time to read this. x

MoneyMate

Wow what on earth could she be using for a bill of this size ?
Is it all electric

yorkshire_grafter

Hi
They also have oil central heating. When I rang the company they asked whether she had a swimming pool.
Thanks

MoneyMate

Wow I'm frightened to ask about the Oil bills, do they live in a big house ?

naedanger

The first thing I would try to do is to find the dates the meter reading has been read (as opposed to estimated) since the start of the contract. If your sister has kept the previous bills I would expect these to show which readings were estimated and which were actual. (If she has not got this information I would then ask the supplier.)

Once she has the dates of actual readings she can calculate the average daily usage between each actual reading. If the usage rate has shot up then I would next try to work out why e.g. is it because the usage has changed (e.g. more people in house, due to oil heating not working and electricity being used instead etc). If the usage has shot up with no obvious explanation I would then try to work out if there was a problem with the meter (by seeing if the meter still moves when all electricity is off, or by trying to calculate an upper bound for actual usage etc).

Nada666

As the meter was changed Dec 2012 but you did not receive a corrected bill until now you should cite the back-billing rule and this should knock about six months off the debt.

(Although if they have only paid £780 of a £2,900 usage then this should have been blindingly obvious - you cannot use that amount over 21 months without knowing. That's £140 per month. If they do have oil heating and no electric heaters then more investigation is needed to check the usage.)

dogshome

From what appears to be their own admiission, the supplier, ( n'power ?), lost the plot when the meter was changed.

When a meter is changed, the fitter should leave behind a card which gives the reading of the Old meter as it was removed, and the reading on the New meter as it was installed - Ask sister to have a careful look in and around the meter cupboard.

yorkshire_grafter

Dogshome - impressed that you guessed who the supplier was. A little miffed with sister that she wasn't on the 'ball' more - but don't want to fall out with her over this.
Will go round tomorrow and have a nosey about.
Many thanks

naedanger

Npower would have been my guess too, but I thought I was probably prejudiced being an extremely dissatisfied customer.

Npower's service is very, very bad. However if you look at this forum you will see there is an npower rep who seems to sort things out for most of those people who publicise their complaints on this forum. I therefore suggest you (or your sister) contacts them with the details of your complaint. Their contact details are here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.html?u=799997

Three months to investigate seems like a very long time to me, but based on my experience they will probably take much, much longer in practice (unless you contact their forum rep).