£832 British gas bill

System

Suppliers don t give a monkeys about OFGEMs stupid rules and they just make their own up and completely ignore their edicts and orders. As a meter reader for 18 years now I can tell you that only BG take any notice, the rest go their own way.The worst are the foreigners EDF and Scot Power. The French and Spanish play it their way, that is they do not inspect meters at all to any time scale.They hardly ever escalate a property to a "must read " status. A property ( like one I found yesterday ) could have been bypassing electricity for years and years but EDF. Scot Power, Utility Warehouse, Spark Energy etc etc dont give a damn. Its a diabolical liberty that these suppliers are not prosecuted and strung up to dry and made to repay every penny back to the National Grid that their mismanagement has caused. They do this because it costs them to escalate a property to a "must read " status when they have to pay up to ten times the costs of a normal cyclic reading.Also if they do locate properties that are bypassing meters and thieving, obviously the occupiers are not keen on opening their grubby front doors without a warrant of entry and a locksmith, which all can cost another £250 which they will probably not recoup.
No wonder BG cannot offer such cheap tariffs as the foreigners, they are playing the game whilst EDF and Scot Power are fiddling it along with many of their customers.At the end of the day all these thieves end up not paying back a penny, we pay it back on their behalf in the form of higher tariffs.

Cardew

The problem is that if 'poor' people, or even cannabis farmers, are proscecuted for energy theft, they are likely to get little more than a telling off by many magistrates.

System

They mostly never reach the Magistrates Cardew, the Police issue cautions for smaller growers ( who still thieve electric ) suppliers are not interested in engaging Lawyers at £120 per hour or whatever then trying to recoup money from urchins who laugh at the system.That is why virtually every street in the inner towns and cities have several home grown cannabis rigs on the go.Shops are opening to facilitate these urban farmers. I m afraid nothing less than a Donald Trump type of business brain politician in the UK would stop this wholesale theft which is escalating week by week in the UK.
Only 700 prosecutions in the whole of the UK in 2015 for gas/electric fraud speaks volumes, and they would be on the backs of a cannabis farm prosecutions. Of course Liverpool topped the list with 250 ! followed by closely by Manchester .Meantime we all continue in sponsoring not only the cannabis growers but the hundreds of thousands in the UK tapping into free energy. I m afraid it makes my blood boil seeing thieves getting away with nicking thousands and not even getting a telling off and behind it all is OFGEM and the suppliers..
p.s. BG have now started, after a ten year stoppage I might add, of giving meter readers brave enough to report thieving , a £10 voucher on electricity theft. Previously they were just concerned with gas ( something they produce ) and turned a blind eye to electricity theft. My colleagues in the main, do NOT report gas/electricity theft for fear of comebacks next time they have to visit the dumps !
I would like to remind suppliers that gas/electric theft is a criminal offence.They should report every case to the Police for prosecutions and the Police should drag them to the Magistrates courts

[Deleted User]

House_Martin wrote: »

Suppliers don t give a monkeys about OFGEMs stupid rules and they just make their own up and completely ignore their edicts and orders. As a meter reader for 18 years now I can tell you that only BG take any notice, the rest go their own way.The worst are the foreigners EDF and Scot Power. The French and Spanish play it their way, that is they do not inspect meters at all to any time scale.They hardly ever escalate a property to a "must read " status. A property ( like one I found yesterday ) could have been bypassing electricity for years and years but EDF. Scot Power, Utility Warehouse, Spark Energy etc etc dont give a damn. Its a diabolical liberty that these suppliers are not prosecuted and strung up to dry and made to repay every penny back to the National Grid that their mismanagement has caused. They do this because it costs them to escalate a property to a "must read " status when they have to pay up to five times the costs of a normal cyclic reading.Also if they do locate properties that are bypassing meters and thieving, obviously the occupiers are not keen on opening their grubby front doors without a warrant of entry and a locksmith, which all can cost another £250 which they will probably not recoup.
No wonder BG cannot offer such cheap tariffs as the foreigners, they are playing the game whilst EDF and Scot Power are fiddling it along with many of their customers.At the end of the day all these thieves end up not paying back a penny, we pay it back on their behalf in the form of higher tariffs.

Why does it cost them more to escalate a 'must read'? Is that OFGEM rules? Then we should be looking at OFGEM why they need to charge suppliers more to escalate a reading.

It's like how Network Rail get fined for delays on the track. That's all well and good but it's us the public who ultimately pay these fines in higher fares.

System

Deleted_User wrote: »

Why does it cost them more to escalate a 'must read'? Is that OFGEM rules? Then we should be looking at OFGEM why they need to charge suppliers more to escalate a reading.

It's like how Network Rail get fined for delays on the track. That's all well and good but it's us the public who ultimately pay these fines in higher fares.

Because Lee, getting into a "must read " property is a harder affair .Many visits in anti social hours could be needed. When they refuse point blank ( they have a camera on the door ) to open the door no matter how hard or often I knock then that is the end of it. I can not report that they are fiddling to escalate it to warrant status without evidence so the suppliers like EDF/Scot Power sit back for years and years and allow it to continue. If I went out now on a Saturday and got into a must read property , my company would pay me a fiver a go , they will be collecting £10 a read. A normal cyclic reading is less than a quid.
They dont push it to warrant because they lose money. They will not, in most cases recoup a penny.
Would nt it be great telly to see all these thieving electric and gas people face High Court debt collectors on the doorstep raiding their 60 inch smart tvs and white 4 by 4 BMW s to recoup the 5k stolen energy. It would keep channel 4 in prime T.V entertainment for years relieving these dopey headed drug growers of their illegal gains. It could be done if the suppliers started prosecuting heavily .
I ll send Mr Littlejohn at the Daily Mail another email imploring him to start digging the dark depths of the energy supply business.He will have a story to make millions of readers absolutely livid !

[Deleted User]

If you're raking in 10s of £1000s tax free from supplying cannabis, I don't understand why they don't just pay the bills for an easy life without drawing extra attention to themselves.

But on the other hand I don't usually answer the door to unknowns either. I've had weirdo leccy meter readers turn up at 7pm before, others turn up during a storm and trail mud in etc. I've had gas meter readers knock on my back door wanting to come through my house to read the external meter at the front of the house because there is no road there and they are too lazy to walk around. I don't need to deal with that kind of nonsense.

sitesafe

So glad I'm not with British Gas any more, switching suppliers was the best thing I ever did....Received a bill for over £600 once and I'd been providing readings - can't remember what happened but they reduced it but I still had to pay some back £300 ish...yet my gas usage hadn't increased and I live alone and only had a gas fire/ch no gas cooker. Hope you get it sorted. Can you switch supplier? I think you can if you rent....?

System

Deleted_User wrote: »

If you're raking in 10s of £1000s tax free from supplying cannabis, I don't understand why they don't just pay the bills for an easy life without drawing extra attention to themselves.

But on the other hand I don't usually answer the door to unknowns either. I've had weirdo leccy meter readers turn up at 7pm before, others turn up during a storm and trail mud in etc. I've had gas meter readers knock on my back door wanting to come through my house to read the external meter at the front of the house because there is no road there and they are too lazy to walk around. I don't need to deal with that kind of nonsense.

because Lee , the bills for growing cannabis are huge.A senior revenue protection officer has told me that the average grower in a domestic property consumes £800 quid s worth of electric in the 12 weeks growing period of a crop in the interior tents they string up.Multiply that by 4 for a years growing and its £3200 a year.
p.s. we are not allowed to knock on doors till 8 am, up to 8 pm at night.I remove my slip on shoes instantly without prompting from occupiers.I have respect for their carpets. Allowing a meter reader into your property once a year is no hardship to anyone is it ? Its in everyones terms and conditions that a meter reader from the supplier must be admitted. The trouble is that the suppliers are scared of upsetting joe public nowadays.We need Donald in charge ! and some of the public should learn a bit of respect for the law.

[Deleted User]

House_Martin wrote: »

p.s. we are not allowed to knock on doors till 8 am, up to 8 pm at night.I remove my slip on shoes instantly without prompting from occupiers.I have respect for their carpets. Allowing a meter reader into your property once a year is no hardship to anyone is it ? Its in everyones terms and conditions that a meter reader from the supplier must be admitted. The trouble is that the suppliers are scared of upsetting joe public nowadays.We need Donald in charge ! and some of the public should learn a bit of respect for the law.

7pm it's dark and cold so why should I be opening my door to strangers, especially old people living on their own shouldn't be either. And what terms and conditions am I breaking? They want to read the meter they can make an appointment to come at a sensible time to read the meter with clean shoes. The terms and conditions do not state that I have to allow them 24/7 access when they see fit.

Respect the law? you have already stated how the suppliers themselves don't respect the law. Practice what you preach.

Cardew

Deleted_User wrote: »

If you're raking in 10s of £1000s tax free from supplying cannabis, I don't understand why they don't just pay the bills for an easy life without drawing extra attention to themselves.

.

Perhaps paying huge bills would bring attention to themselves?