Swalec have surprised us with a whopping bill!

Gemmz31

Hi there,

I came into work this morning and checked my emails to find Swalec had sent us our latest bill.

This bill is for £675.51

We pay quarterly, and our bills have never exceeded the £60 marker.

As you can imagine my jaw dropped. :eek:

I instantly headed to the online chat to query this and was told that as a no one has come to read the meter since March 2014 they have been estimating the bills and have suddenly realising they have been undercharging us. The meter guy has always come when me and my partner are both in work so there is no one in the property to let him in!

I have tried submitting meter readings in the past and they never usually work on the website.
They received a reading in January from me but 'it wasn't used for a bill'

They have offered a repayment plan of £87.00 a month over the next 18 months.

My concern with this is that we'll still be paying this if we decide to move out of our current property (Our contract is 6 months at a time) ontop of the charges in the new place.

The adviser made me feel like this is my fault and maybe it is, but I was hoping anyone who has suffered a similar experience may have some advice on this matter? I've heard Swalec are notorious for getting things wrong.

I am going to check the meter again when I get home and call them.

Just a little in shock at the moment. Have never had a problem like this with them in the last 3 properties we've lived in.

JJ_Egan

Do you have a record of your past meter readings ?

Nada666

It is (mainly) your fault.

£20 per month is pretty low (even for only electricity in a dual fuel household) so you really ought to have bothered to check how much you had been actually using and ought to have had an idea you were underpaying.

You have the quarterly bills - at any time you could have compared the reading used on a bill with what was actually on your meter.

The repayment terms are modest and generous - you have been offered the chance to repay the arrears interest-free at only £10 per week.

If you decide to move that is your choice - if you are wont to flit frequently it is even more expected that you would have the good sense to bother to monitor your usage yourself. Take the offer to pay only £10 per week but start saving up a lump sum to clear yourself as quickly as possible so that you are free.

vuvuzela

Gemmz31 wrote: »

Hi there,

I came into work this morning and checked my emails to find Swalec had sent us our latest bill.

This bill is for £675.51

We pay quarterly, and our bills have never exceeded the £60 marker.

As you can imagine my jaw dropped. :eek:

I instantly headed to the online chat to query this and was told that as a no one has come to read the meter since March 2014 they have been estimating the bills and have suddenly realising they have been undercharging us. The meter guy has always come when me and my partner are both in work so there is no one in the property to let him in!

I have tried submitting meter readings in the past and they never usually work on the website.
They received a reading in January from me but 'it wasn't used for a bill'

They have offered a repayment plan of £87.00 a month over the next 18 months.

My concern with this is that we'll still be paying this if we decide to move out of our current property (Our contract is 6 months at a time) ontop of the charges in the new place.

The adviser made me feel like this is my fault and maybe it is, but I was hoping anyone who has suffered a similar experience may have some advice on this matter? I've heard Swalec are notorious for getting things wrong.

I am going to check the meter again when I get home and call them.

Just a little in shock at the moment. Have never had a problem like this with them in the last 3 properties we've lived in.

Did you give them an accurate meter reading when you moved in ?
The card the meter reader left asking you to fuill in the details and leave it in the window for him to see the following day - did you do this at any point ?
As said, £20 is much too low to be paying, average would be much closer to £100/month.

[Deleted User]

Gemmz31 wrote: »

Hi there,

I came into work this morning and checked my emails to find Swalec had sent us our latest bill.

This bill is for £675.51

We pay quarterly, and our bills have never exceeded the £60 marker.

As you can imagine my jaw dropped. :eek:

I instantly headed to the online chat to query this and was told that as a no one has come to read the meter since March 2014 they have been estimating the bills and have suddenly realising they have been undercharging us. The meter guy has always come when me and my partner are both in work so there is no one in the property to let him in!

I have tried submitting meter readings in the past and they never usually work on the website.
They received a reading in January from me but 'it wasn't used for a bill'

They have offered a repayment plan of £87.00 a month over the next 18 months.

My concern with this is that we'll still be paying this if we decide to move out of our current property (Our contract is 6 months at a time) ontop of the charges in the new place.

The adviser made me feel like this is my fault and maybe it is, but I was hoping anyone who has suffered a similar experience may have some advice on this matter? I've heard Swalec are notorious for getting things wrong.

I am going to check the meter again when I get home and call them.

Just a little in shock at the moment. Have never had a problem like this with them in the last 3 properties we've lived in.

Its not Swalec getting things wrong its you.A low monthly payment of £20 is stupidly low and of course quite acceptable to you and you sat back happily doing nothing .No readings submitted to speak of and the suppliers dont have to visually check meters for up to two years. The advice is to bite the bullet and make good what you owe because the last thing you want is a prepayment meter fitted to collect the debt. when you get this sorted out submit at least 6 reads per year, or even monthly and dont accept a "wild guess " as to how much energy you have used.As Vuvuzela says, the best bet is to jot the reads down for the meter reader.i ts not needed to stick them in full view on the window ( where people can guess you are not in ) inside the window ledge or on the floor under a stone or something, we will spot the card. the meter reader enters the readings as a customer own reading to keep it correct.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.


Firstly the average annual bill in UK is around £1,200 even when gas is used for heating and hot water. With an all electric household it is considerably higher.


We don't know the size of your property, but as said above £60 a quarter would not cover a normal electricity bill without the cost of heating/hot water.


Your £60 quarterly bills would have shown the meter readings as 'estimated' denoted by an 'E'.


You should have contacted Swalec by phone or in writing and ensured that they had the correct reading.


There is technical reason - common to all companies - why your attempts to enter meter readings were unsuccessful. Essentially when your meter readings are entered if they are so far away from the readings the computer 'thinks' is possible it rejects them and enters an Estimated reading. This will continue until there is human! intervention.


It seems to me the terms you have been offered are reasonable.