Huge Gas bill! Something wrong??

fingerpuppet23

I am a student living in a 3 bed flat with 2 others and got a final gas and electricity bill of over £2000 for 10 months!

. I recently called scottish power to cancel my contract with them as I was moving out of the property. When I has signed up upon moving in I was quoted about £50 fixes duel fuel gas and electric. I was given login details to my online account so I can make payment and submit meter reading etc and told that my account was activated. I tried logging in and was not able to with a message saying 'error 500 sorry for the inconvenience'. I phoned back and was told by an advisor that in fact It was not activated and he would do it for me.

Again I couldn't sign in. I was Direct debuted the amount agreed every month so I aurally thought everything is going as usual. I was then asked to submit quarterly meter readings online and as I could not access the account and after phoning again and emailing with no success I asked if I could quote the readings over email. They noted the readings for electric but said the gas reading did not correspond with their records. What records?! Did not understand. I quoted again and did not hear back.

Again the same amount let my account every month and I assumed all was okay until I phoned to cancel where I was told that my outstanding balance for 10 months on electricity was around £150 (seamed reasonable) and gas was a WHOPPING £2000! This cannot be possible.

One advisor told me that there was a problem with bank payments out of an account at that address which could only be me and I said no as payments left my account every month! Then she said they no record whatsoever of any meter readings given! FALSR again! Was told otherwise by a different advisor.

Was told they sent me an invoice of £1600 gas into my online account which I couldn't access and I had no information or warning of this invoice through paper bill or email to notify me. I am completely shocked by the figure! I do not believe it Is possible to use £2000 of gas in 10 months and be paying the DD every month.

I feel that this bill is partly if not mostly their fault as I would have been aware of my electricity and gas usage and would have cut down had I even been able to access my online account in the first place or been notified another way.

Anyone else feel this amount is excessive?
They claim they received an initial reading from the previous tenent but I suspect foul play on their part. Never even asked me to submit readings when I moved in and even if they did I could not access my online account to do so.

I am a student so this is also the first time I have ever had to pay gas and electricity outwith my rent and when asking whether if I used more gas and electric than they charged me if my DD would rise they said no as it was fixed. I feel this is somewhat misleading seeing as their definition of fixed is very different from the average young person.

What can I do to resolve this?!

fingerpuppet23

Notes: gas heating in flat, was uses all the time but dial was never more than a quarter of the amount of heat permissable. Double glazing.

Nada666

Do you have a copy of the meter readings when you moved in? If so, work out how much you have used (hence spent.)