Electricity Billing Error

Cotta

Hi All,

I have a pay as you go electricity system and it uses on average £30 per month. With no changes in usage the system hasn't required a top up in four months. I've checked the balance interface and it gives a weird number in the thousands. What should I do?

naedanger

Cotta wrote: »

Hi All,

I have a pay as you go electricity system and it uses on average £30 per month. With no changes in usage the system hasn't required a top up in four months. I've checked the balance interface and it gives a weird number in the thousands. What should I do?

I suggest you email your supplier telling them about the problem. (That way you have evidence you told them about the problem.) Then try and keep money aside to pay them when they eventually get round to billing you. (If the eventual bill is based on an estimate be sure to challenge it if it seems too high. They should err in your favour if you have not contributed to the fault.)

[Deleted User]

Its in your terms and conditions of supply to report all faulty meters (ok for the pedants , thats if you are aware of the fault ). I ve seen this fault often enough on the prepay gas e6 meters but not on the electric meters. The supplier gets an update of the balance when you top up, but seeing as how you ve got thousands stored away you re not likely to need to top up.
So now its up to you to make that phone call to customer services.Some suppliers are that bad they will end up doing nothing at all.

Cotta

Am I likely to get into trouble?

naedanger

Cotta wrote: »

Am I likely to get into trouble?

No. The worst is that you get a bill for your uncharged usage (based on an estimate).

The sooner you tell them the better.

[Deleted User]

Cotta wrote: »

Am I likely to get into trouble?

The people I ve seen with £24,000 credit on the gas prepay certainly did not get into any trouble even though one of them was 100% fiddling it. BG RPU get informed and they say its a software fault so they can t pin anything on them.There is a way of helping the gas prepay to develop this fault.Back billing is a strong possibility though to at least a years worth of electricity and they will have your normal usage to hand. Once a new meter is installed they will probably add some debt onto screen "S " with a weekly repayment of between £4 to £16 depending on their total estimate. Suppliers usually err on the customers side and are very fair when rebilling .

Cotta

Just to update everyone, I have called my supplier several times now and they have voiced surprise at my honesty and have said they're quite busy but at some point someone will be sent to my house to replace the PAYG box which should correct the issue. They have advised that this is not a significant problem for them and that it will sort itself out.

Is it usual for companies to be so relaxed on this?

[Deleted User]

Cotta wrote: »

Just to update everyone, I have called my supplier several times now and they have voiced surprise at my honesty and have said they're quite busy but at some point someone will be sent to my house to replace the PAYG box which should correct the issue. They have advised that this is not a significant problem for them and that it will sort itself out.

Is it usual for companies to be so relaxed on this?

Yes ! hopefully they will just replace the meter and forget about your free usage. you would nt believe how lax they all are at missing energy either by faulty meters or people bypassing and nicking it ! Maybe only BG are the only supplier to be overly concerned about gas going astray (probably because its their actual gas they have piped through ). I see it with EDF who dont give a monkeys about gas but will try and sort faulty or fiddled electric because they produce it.

Cotta

sacsquacco wrote: »

Yes ! hopefully they will just replace the meter and forget about your free usage. you would nt believe how lax they all are at missing energy either by faulty meters or people bypassing and nicking it ! Maybe only BG are the only supplier to be overly concerned about gas going astray (probably because its their actual gas they have piped through ). I see it with EDF who dont give a monkeys about gas but will try and sort faulty or fiddled electric because they produce it.

Thanks for that response, from talking to the operator it didn't sound like the meter would be replaced in the near future, they really didn't care.