Utility Warehouse upset

System

Ruthieroo03 wrote: »

I just think it is dreadful that a company like this should allow this scale of difference to occur due to not taking actual readings more regularly, especially with a new customer in a new property. I now have to find £1448.81, which I could have been budgeting for during the past 9 months.

The onus is on the householder to read the meters, and pass the readings on to the supplier if you want accurate bills. Suppliers only have a licence obligation to read meters once every two years (primarily for safety reasons).

Robin9

I am sure someone will come up with an exact figure for your bill but a meter difference of approx 3600 units (assuming a metric meter) and converting to kwh does come to a charge of about £1400. Add the electric and you have total charges of £1700. Deducting the sums paid of about £1440 you should owe about £260

Ruthieroo03

Thank you Robin. I am going to investigate this further as I really don't believe we used the amount of gas they are charging for. Maybe there is a problem with the meter.


Hengus - I am aware of this now, but wasn't. The lure of the "budgeting direct debit" allows one to assume (yup, seems I am an !!!!) that payments are taken care of each month, give or take a few pounds,....in fact, they may not be. I wonder how many other people fail to carry out their own regular meter readings?


My water company keeps an eye on my usage and amends my payments accordingly each month - surely a much better way to provide customer service and satisfaction?

modsandmockers

Ruthieroo03 wrote: »

The lure of the "budgeting direct debit" allows one to assume (yup, seems I am an !!!!) that payments are taken care of each month, give or take a few pounds,....in fact, they may not be. I wonder how many other people fail to carry out their own regular meter readings?

Ruthie - read a few more of the active threads on here and you will discover that you are far from alone. Hopefully, you will be one of those who are capable of learning the lessons. It is really hard to understand why, in a so-called competitive marketplace, so many businesses are so relaxed about having so many !!!!ed-off customers and such a high level of customer debt.

System

Ruthieroo03 wrote: »

Hengus - I am aware of this now, but wasn't. The lure of the "budgeting direct debit" allows one to assume (yup, seems I am an !!!!) that payments are taken care of each month, give or take a few pounds,....in fact, they may not be. I wonder how many other people fail to carry out their own regular meter readings?

Sadly, too many people are seduced into thinking that monthly DD payments for energy are the same as those for an all inclusive mobile plan, or annual insurance paid monthly. All suppliers are required under their licence conditions to set DDs which are 'fair and reasonable'. They do this is 3 ways: firstly, they take with a degree of trust the projected usage figures given to them by a new customer; secondly, they have EAC (estimated annual consumption) and AQ (annual consumption) figures for electricity and gas ( a historical record of the energy used in the past), and they have a process of DD review. This system all falls apart when the customer doesn't read the meters. I am not trying to defend the system - just explain it. This problem will to a degree go away when properties get smart meters.

DandelionPatrol

Hengus wrote: »

The onus is on the householder to read the meters, and pass the readings on to the supplier if you want accurate bills. Suppliers only have a licence obligation to read meters once every two years (primarily for safety reasons).

Even this does not matter so much. If you do not do monthly readings, nothing much goes so wrong that it cannot be put right.

The important readings are

• On entry to property, opening reading
• On meter change, closing reading of old meter
• On meter change, opening reading of new meter
• On exit from property, closing reading

It is the opening reading which appears to be wrong here and no way of recovering apart from making a weak argument that the usage is ridiculous.


If people go away from this thread with anything, it should be the importance of the 4 reads listed above, foremost above monthly reads - although the monthly reads would help recover the situation.

System

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

Even this does not matter so much. If you do not do monthly readings, nothing much goes so wrong that it cannot be put right.

The important readings are

• On entry to property, opening reading
• On meter change, closing reading of old meter
• On meter change, opening reading of new meter
• On exit from property, closing reading

It is the opening reading which appears to be wrong here and no way of recovering apart from making a weak argument that the usage is ridiculous.


If people go away from this thread with anything, it should be the importance of the 4 reads listed above, foremost above monthly reads - although the monthly reads would help recover the situation.

I agree everything can be put right but no one wants an unexpected bill at the end of a tenancy.

Unless the meters are read on a regular basis - either by the supplier or customer - how is the supplier to know whether the monthly DD payment is correct? The supplier will have historical data based on many years of past usage for the property, but the supplier doesn't know when a property changes hands whether the new occupants are a family of 6 whereas the previous occupant was just one person. In other words, the usage patterns could change.

There are many complaints on this forum by consumers complaining about very high increases in monthly DD payments, or an unexpectedly large amount to pay when the final bill arrives. The ONE common denominator is that there was a failure to read the meters, and previous bills/DD adjustments were based on estimated readings.

The said, I do not disagree with what is in the quote above. All I am saying is that the OP might have saved herself a lot of worry had actual meter readings been provided to the supplier.

poppellerant

I'm afraid I too agree with the energy company's calculations for your gas - I put them in my own spreadsheet and got a little over £1,400 including standing charge.

I suspect you have a metric/imperial confusion. You can verify this by checking the meter (or photos of it) against your bill. More details from this link: Gas meter readings and bill calculation - Metric or imperial

DandelionPatrol

poppellerant wrote: »

I'm afraid I too agree with the energy company's calculations for your gas - I put them in my own spreadsheet and got a little over £1,400 including standing charge.

I suspect you have a metric/imperial confusion. You can verify this by checking the meter (or photos of it) against your bill. More details from this link: Gas meter readings and bill calculation - Metric or imperial

Good thought there! Meter reading in m^3, billed in 100 ft^3 means you pay 2,83 times the price, which would bring the bill down to a more sane £500.

OP, definitely follow this up! I know you have moved out, but get back there with the cooperation of the new tenant or the LL and get a good photo or 2 of the meter.