British Gas credit error

twobears

Hi i moved into my property 2 years ago. I transfered all my bills from prev address to new address. I noticed i was using alot of gas so i rang BG to enquire. They told me i was paying the prev tennants £1200 gas bill off on prepay meter. They sent a guy out to wipe the debt clear and start afresh. Prior to him coming they issused a new card, this didnt work so the guy who cleared meter debt said to use the old card. I did and i put £20 on card. Put the card in the meter and somehow BG credited me £1200 gas. I rang up straight away and told them of their error. They told me they were sending a message to the paypoint machine so when i topped up the card would recieve the message and when i put card in meter it would remove the credit. It didnt! I rang again and they told me to do the same thing again. It still didnt remove the whopping credit. Ive had bills from BG each time saying i owe 0.00 and ive not used no gas. Ive had no one come out and read my meters. I'm down to the last £35. Will I have to pay this back when i top up? I did tell them twice to take the credit off. (no bashing please)

dogshome

A strange One

What is particularly worrying is that BG are billing the meter as 'No Gas Used'
In your own interests, WRITE to BG setting out the detail of this saga, as it's important than when BG wake up to the problem, that you have a cast iron umbrella covering you from the fall-out

footyguy

twobears wrote: »

Hi i moved into my property 2 years ago. I transfered all my bills from prev address to new address. I noticed i was using alot of gas so i rang BG to enquire. They told me i was paying the prev tennants £1200 gas bill off on prepay meter. They sent a guy out to wipe the debt clear and start afresh. Prior to him coming they issused a new card, this didnt work so the guy who cleared meter debt said to use the old card. I did and i put £20 on card. Put the card in the meter and somehow BG credited me £1200 gas. I rang up straight away and told them of their error. They told me they were sending a message to the paypoint machine so when i topped up the card would recieve the message and when i put card in meter it would remove the credit. It didnt! I rang again and they told me to do the same thing again. It still didnt remove the whopping credit. Ive had bills from BG each time saying i owe 0.00 and ive not used no gas. Ive had no one come out and read my meters. I'm down to the last £35. Will I have to pay this back when i top up? I did tell them twice to take the credit off. (no bashing please)

Pre-payment meters are simply an alternative way of paying for your energy.

When you moved, that is why you need to tell the existing suppliers you now the occupier. You can't just bring your old suppliers with you. The existing suppliers should have given you new keys/cards. (otherwise you are crediting the previous owner's account everytimne you buy top up, and as you found, could be paying off a debt on the meter that isn't yours)

This can all be sorted out later, but it's easier to get it right first time.

When you contacted the existing supplier (or even if you contacted your old suppliers) you would have given a meter reading. You can take a meter reading today and from that difference it can be calculated how much energy you have used.
As long as you have some proof of purchase (e.g. receipts) then you can prove how much top ups you have purchased.

Take one from the otrher and that is the balance.

[Deleted User]

Just as a check that the G4S employee who came to your house and missed a bypassed meter when he cleared the whopping £1200 debt..does the meter say "off " when gas is flowing ok ?.. If it does, most likely the debtor has done what many do when faced with a £16 a week repayment..he s busted the valve flap and got free gas from the meter..The debt on the meter is on screen 27..standing charge debt would also build up on the first screen. These meters have software issues. I ve found one with over £24,000 credit on it. Small White Siemens e6 meter

twobears

i was with BG at my prev address and knew the new property i was moving into was also BG but I told BG i was moving and wanted to take my existing bill with me. As far as i was aware when i moved in it was under my name. it wasnt until i was tiopping up that i noticed it was eating the credit i was putting in, thats when i rang and enquired and they gave me step by step instructions on getting details up on meter, it than that we noticed the debt.

weekly standing charge has been comming off the credited money every week as ive kept an eye on it over two years. It comes off on a monday.

twobears

I checked the meter, it says

£0.00 On
owed

twobears

sacsquacco wrote: »

Just as a check that the G4S employee who came to your house and missed a bypassed meter when he cleared the whopping £1200 debt..does the meter say "off " when gas is flowing ok ?.. If it does, most likely the debtor has done what many do when faced with a £16 a week repayment..he s busted the valve flap and got free gas from the meter..The debt on the meter is on screen 27..standing charge debt would also build up on the first screen. These meters have software issues. I ve found one with over £24,000 credit on it. Small White Siemens e6 meter

Checked the screen 27 and it says £0.00 debt owed

Wolf3

I'm presuming from what you have said that the engineer cleared the previous tenants debt of the meter and somehow BG have sent a message through paypoint to add £1200 credit to the meter to also clear the debt.

Can I clarify if you have been topping up the meter since the engineer cleared the debt or have used the £1200 credit to run down from 2 years ago??

[Deleted User]

Wolf3 wrote: »

I'm presuming from what you have said that the engineer cleared the previous tenants debt of the meter and somehow BG have sent a message through paypoint to add £1200 credit to the meter to also clear the debt.

Can I clarify if you have been topping up the meter since the engineer cleared the debt or have used the £1200 credit to run down from 2 years ago??

Looks like the OP is down to only £35 before he joins the real world and start to actually pay something for a change .£600 a year is about right for free cooking and central heating to the max.
OP, if this the scenario, ( no bashing,) in the suppliers T and Cs there is a clause about reporting a meter fault which you don t appear to have had a good stab at, so they could back bill you for the usage. ..thats if they find out.. My guess is , they wont. The meter I found with £24000 credit on it, the thieving flat dweller had been in the flat for years then left nicking all the copper pipes etc. BG did nt do much about it .RPU gave up on it.
Roll on smart prepayment meters, we come out around the two year mark on prepayment meters when the meter reader will probably miss the fault.He will just go to the second screen "meter index " and depart non the wiser.

Wolf3

tbf, i may be completely wrong, i'm only presuming as the statements he has had are marked as no gas used, if the OP isnt vending, BG will have no reads to use and just estimating zero consumption.

afaik prepayment meters aren't subject to billing code rules, as the "bills" that are sent aren't bills, just statements of consumption. so the £1200 would more than likely be added to the meter as a debt to pay.

twobears

sacsquacco wrote: »

Looks like the OP is down to only £35 before he joins the real world and start to actually pay something for a change .£600 a year is about right for free cooking and central heating to the max.
OP, if this the scenario, ( no bashing,) in the suppliers T and Cs there is a clause about reporting a meter fault which you don t appear to have had a good stab at, so they could back bill you for the usage. ..thats if they find out.. My guess is , they wont. The meter I found with £24000 credit on it, the thieving flat dweller had been in the flat for years then left nicking all the copper pipes etc. BG did nt do much about it .RPU gave up on it.
Roll on smart prepayment meters, we come out around the two year mark on prepayment meters when the meter reader will probably miss the fault.He will just go to the second screen "meter index " and depart non the wiser.

I contacted em twice to tell them, twice they said they they would send message to paypaoint and they didnt.

just cos someone got something for free you assume they have maxed it out. Ive used it no different than if i was paying for it. it was on a timer for 2 hours on a morning and thermo temp on a evening when we got in from work. On days off the central heating wasnt used during day, we'd sit under duvet to keep warm. please dont assume ive maxed it as i didnt.