POWERGEN changed over meter & charging me 2yrs price increase

Crazychik

Ive been with Powergen (company of e-on) for sometime now (approx 4-5yrs)

About 2 months ago, an engineer came to change over my pre-payment token meter to a key meter. He did explain at the time, that the token meter was set to the old price tarriff. And that I may find an increase in the amount I use each week from now on.

Last week I received a letter from them stating that my account is £333.00 in arrears, and that they have made adjustments to my meter, to allow £5 per week to be deducted, to pay off the balance, in addition to my current weekly usage. This will take approx 67 weeks to clear!

My meter is now set to the current correct prices and will be adjusted automatically if any further increases occur.

What I dont understand is, why haven't they picked upon this before?
Why haven't they changed the prices over when the increases happened at the time?
And can they bill me for the previous years usuage at the old rate, rather than the price tarriff it should have been?

Surely this is a mistake on their part for not updating my meter sooner, and why should I be the one to pay for their error! Dont get me wrong, Im happy to pay what I've used, but not for something which was out of my control!

Thanks in advance.

Mr_Hunt

Hi, i have had the same happen to me, only for £500+
I had loggers in at the time so it is a large amount, how can this bee seen as fair as i can't call them up and ask for 50% of the bill!!
I have spoke with energy watch and they told me the same as powergen,,,,, there is nothing i can do..
Well i am a student and have no income so there is no way i can afford this cost. I WOULD NOT GO TO A RESTAURANT AND EXPECT THE COST OF THE FOOD TO OF GONE UP BY THE END OF THE MEAL AND STILL PAY THE NEW BILL. There must be some thing i can do.

Cardew

The term pre-payment meter unfortunately does not mean you pay in full.

The agreement with you is to pay for your electricity at the going rate. It could have been the other way(like the recent price cuts) and you would be unhappy if you hadn't built up a credit.

So they technically are within their rights. That said it is a very poor system and there has been a lot of adverse publicity about people in your situation. I believe BG treat debt like yours more favourably.

I suspect if you kick up a fuss you may have some of it written off.

tripled

As Cardew stated, your contract is to pay them at their advertised tariff. The rate set on your meter doesn't make any difference I'm afraid. To use your analogy Mr Hunt, it is like going to a pub and seeing a meal advertised for a tenner, you order it and they only charge you 8 quid, then as you finish your meal they come back and say sorry, we undercharged you, please can we have the other 2 pounds.

Some companies have given in to pressure from eneregywatch and now write off debt accrued on an incorrectly set meter. Powergen isn't one of those I'm afraid.

Crazychik

tripled wrote: »

Some companies have given in to pressure from eneregywatch and now write off debt accrued on an incorrectly set meter. Powergen isn't one of those I'm afraid.

Totally see where your heading here, and it is sad to say the least, that - why they couldn't/didn't change their tarriffs over when they happened at the time, and just let the cost increase is beyond me. And I still cant see how they justify landing this extra debt on us! I know Im paying it back each week, by them deducting from what I put in the meter, but I still feel this has been taken out of my hands. I would have been happy to pay the increase cost when it happened. Not to pay for 2yrs worth of increses!

How do I get in touch with energy watch! is there a web site I can view.
Like you say, they may not help with Powergen, but it may put my mind at rest,

Thankyou

tripled

Energywatch website is http://www.energywatch.org.uk

You can read through their FAQ on this issue here:
http://energywatch-ext.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/energywatch_ext.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=4940&p_created=1169810762&p_sid=OcBatiIi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTYsMTYmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PWJhY2tiaWxsIHByZXBheW1lbnQ*&p_li=&p_topview=1

Cardew

With the older pre-payment meters it was obviously impossible to change the rates on 'x' million meters on the day the price change occurred. That said they should have made more effort to get them changed as soon as practically possible.

Don't forget that in many cases they simply would not be able to get access to the premises to change settings.

However it is to BG's credit that they have acted correctly on this matter, and a pity that others haven't followed their lead.

Crystaltipps_2

Tthe old token meters need to be physically reset by a meter man for them to start charging the new prices, and as Cardew says this is not physically possible to do on one day. That said, I agree that balances that have run up for years with no effort to come out to change the meter or reset it are not acceptable.

If Powergen have made no effort at all to recalibrate your meter, eg sent a letter asking you to ring to make an appointment, sending out a meter man, then you could try asking them to reduce the balance. I know that they are already withdrawing automatically any balance that was accrued from the wrong prices prior to April 2005 and any since April 2007 as 2 years should be more than enough time to reset the meters.

You will find that some companies are pursuing the debts more than others. It generally goes that if the company had more customers with token meters, therefore more that needed changing they are the ones that are pursuing the debts as they have more to loose by agreeing to wipe the balances. Powergen (unfortunately for you) have a large number of token meters as they were the meter of choice in the old east midlands electricity area (which they inherited), so are being harsher than some companies who have mainly key meters on their books.

Kimitatsu

No they cant do that!!!!

The agreement is from Ofgem (energywatch is their consumer arm) that if the company does not bill you for the electricity usage within a two year period prior to 1st July 2007 then they have to bear the loss and write the debt off. After 1st July 2007 they can only retrieve a years arrears and the rest must be written off.

As it is a pre payment meter they are supposed to under their own ruling have recalibrated the meter within 6 months so cannot expect you to bear the cost now.

Makes me so cross that they try it on! :mad:

Crystaltipps_2

You're thinking of the Backbilling Code - if a company doesn't charge at all for units used due to their error, this applies. It does not apply to prepayment meters in this circumstance.

Kimitatsu

But recently because of an initiative through Citizens Advice all power companies have agreed that they will update prepeyment meters within a maximum of 6 months (I think) but Ofgem has already got BG to agree to write off any backdated debts from 1st Dec 2006.

"This is very much in line with Ofgem’s recent pronouncement (19 December) on this subject in which they stated “Suppliers should probe to understand whether a customer is living on a low income or is otherwise vulnerable, and should be proactively offering additional help to the customer, including writing off debts from delayed recalibration where there is genuine hardship.”

Powergen, Npower and Scottish Power have also agreed to consider writing the debt off where the debt would unfairly punish people who cannot afford to pay this debt.

From the National Office at Citizens Advice:

For customers who find themselves in debt, suppliers have undertaken to write off debt in cases of genuine hardship and treat customers fairly. A number of bureaux have reported success in dealings with npower and Powergen on writing off debt, with Ofgem reporting that npower has looked at over 2,000 accounts and written off more than £170,000.

HTH the OP if you can show hardship then you may get the debt written off.