Thieves

molerat

backfoot wrote: »

You should present your documentary evidence immediately to Consumer Affairs at Ofgem.

Your allegation of systematic and obvious theft by several Suppliers, which must affect all Consumers, needs to be stopped with criminal prosecutions to follow.

Show us some examples of this theft by posting some example bills.

Then again, it could all be a basic misunderstanding or imaginary.

Systematic incompetence is more likely the real reason, something that is rife in the industry from meter readers, suppliers, the ombudsman, the regulator and probably all the way up to the minister.

molerat

HappyMJ wrote: »

"A" should mean Actual. You should get one of these every year.

"C" should mean Customer. This is the reading you supply. The more readings you supply the more accurate your billing will be.

"E" should mean Estimated. This is when they have no reading and have to guess. It could be way out.

Glad you used "should". My daughter had an "A" for electric. The meter is inside the house, no one was home, no card left so the meter reader must have invented a read to tick a must read box.

footyguy

molerat wrote: »

Glad you used "should". My daughter had an "A" for electric. The meter is inside the house, no one was home, no card left so the meter reader must have invented a read to tick a must read box.

Probably was done (if not in genuine error) to get paid for obtaining a meter read.
I hope your daughter complained.

footyguy

backfoot wrote: »

...
I cannot see that you would ever be presented with a bill/statement which said you owed £100 only for a direct debit of £200 to be taken. If you have just had this , please post the relevant bill and the experienced forum posters will advise you further.

Indeed, I would certainly like to see this as it is usually such a bill that also includes the appropriate advance notice.

In the unlikley event the advance notice the OP received (and so was aware of the intent to take the £200) was sent seperately then the OP should also post this relevent advance notice too.

fred246

I am quite capable of sorting out my own bills. I have never actually lost anything despite numerous attempts. I have been mugged but always got my property back. The perpetrators of the crime have never been brought to justice. I just wonder how many people have been mugged without knowing. In this day and age it should be possible to change suppliers easily with the click of a mouse. There should really be no need to trawl through your bills to work out how much has been stolen this time.

Pincher

This is probably fifteen years ago.

While I was out, two cold callers managed to get my mother to switch electricity, from TXU to some company I can't remember.

The next time the meter reader called, the reading cannot be entered into his device.

On investigation, TXU had over-estimated the leaving reading by £500 worth! I called TXU up, cancelled the switch, and resurrected the account with correct readings. The false readings are on record, so they were basically caught in an act of fraud, so they had to put it all back properly. TXU eventually exited the UK market, and we were allocated to E.On by whatever process OfGem had.

E.On is great, and their FixOnline tariffs were fabulous.
Alas, they stopped competing on price, and decided to be all John Lewis, so I had to leave. I am now with cheap and incompetent Scottish Power, but somehow I seem to have found the sweet spot of how to deal with SP. The online system keeps showing my mother's bank account, but takes money from my Santander 123 account by direct debit. The whole thing just works, despite appearance to the contrary. :eek:

What's the lesson?

If I wanted a decent company, I could have paid more and stayed with E.On. I have found a cheapskate company, and learned to live with it. You just need to find a cheapskate company that is YOUR KIND OF cheapskate.

backfoot

fred246 wrote: »

I am quite capable of sorting out my own bills. I have never actually lost anything despite numerous attempts. I have been mugged but always got my property back. The perpetrators of the crime have never been brought to justice. I just wonder how many people have been mugged without knowing. In this day and age it should be possible to change suppliers easily with the click of a mouse. There should really be no need to trawl through your bills to work out how much has been stolen this time.

Fred,

Many of the posters here have suffered from errors and incompetence by Energy Suppliers. Others have relevant Industry knowledge which they use to help or advise on matters of process or facts.

You may well have suffered similar genuine problems which may or may not have been explained by the replies on this thread.

Unfortunately, you seem incapable of clearly explaining the detail or of showing any real evidence of your allegations of theft.:eek:

While it may make you feel better to rant, it doesn't help get to the bottom of the issue and see if there is real problem.Readers will draw their own conclusions.

fred246

In order to benefit from the best rates you have to sign a direct debit form which basically gives energy companies access to take whatever they want from your bank account. I think people expect that the energy companies would have a duty to try and collect the right amount.
I have already stated exactly what happened here. The final bill said "you are in debit by £100". The amount of £200 will be taken from your bank account. No meter readings or any complex calculations are involved. I kept asking how it happened and was told they had no idea.
Do you work for Energy UK or a similar company backfoot? You only post on energy forums and you desperately seem to be protecting the interests of the industry.

backfoot

fred246 wrote: »

I have already stated exactly what happened here. The final bill said "you are in debit by £100". The amount of £200 will be taken from your bank account. No meter readings or any complex calculations are involved. I kept asking how it happened and was told they had no idea.
Do you work for Energy UK or a similar company backfoot? You only post on energy forums and you desperately seem to be protecting the interests of the industry.

As requested previously, could you please post a copy of the bill in question. Your allegation that this is a recurring event which cuts across various Suppliers strikes me as unfeasible.

I am happy to be proved wrong.

It is inaccurate to say that I have only posted on the Energy Forum. It is absurd to say that I 'desperately seem to be protecting the interests of the industry'.

Do a bit more research on my posting history before you make laughable comments. I don't think EDF, Scottish Power, Npower or Eon would tend to agree with you. :rotfl:

I think posters on this thread, including me, are trying to get to the bottom of the problem you describe. A copy of the bill may take us forward, but please redact any identifying detail such as name , address and account number.

fred246

Of course I won't post a copy of my bill with personal details on it. There is nothing more to add:
It just says You are in debt by approx £100. The amount of approx £200 will be taken from your bank account. Nothing else to say.
I have lost nothing. They say it was an error. Every time I change suppliers there has been an error. The error has never been in my favour.
The only change without a hiccup was when I changed from British Gas to Sainsburys who are the same company. I though surely they can't mess up this transfer and they didn't.