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Money Moral Dilemma: Should I tell my gas and electricity supplier I'm underpaying?

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MSE_Sarah
MSE_Sarah Posts: 329 MSE Staff
Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Photogenic I've been Money Tipped!
edited 1 August 2017 at 11:25AM in Energy
This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...
A few years ago, I changed my gas and electricity to a different supplier. However, I later realised it was only charging me for electricity. I phoned and explained the situation, and was told it would amend this. This was a while ago now, and I'm still only paying for the electricity. Should I phone it again?

Unfortunately the MSE team can't always answer money moral dilemma questions as contributions are often emailed in or suggested in person. They are intended to be enjoyed as a point of debate and discussed at face value.

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Comments

  • cjc178
    cjc178 Posts: 17 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    It depends do you want a large bill for several years worth of Gas to suddenly appear, and you will have to pay it. Or are you sensible and tell them now before the debt gets any bigger. The only other thing you could do would be to open an account and pay in the amount you would have to pay for the gas and Don't touch it. Then when they come looking which I'm pretty sure they will at least you will have the money to pay the bill. If they don't come looking then you had better leave the country as they will realise at some point it might not be this year or next but I would bet that eventually they will have to read the meter or fit a new smart meter and then they are going to ask you how would you like to pay!
    :Tcjc178:beer:
  • gaving7095
    gaving7095 Posts: 168 Forumite
    Yes, call them again. I'd also consider switching supplier as (based only on your description) their customer service stinks.
    I expect that you'll definitely be expected to pay in full once they fully appreciate the situation.
  • kazt2006
    kazt2006 Posts: 54 Forumite
    I would send an email explaining the situation and details of the previous telephone conversation including who you spoke to. I would state that unless they resolve the issue with 4 to 6 weeks - it'll take this long for the various departments to talk to each other and your previous supplier - you'll assume the Gas is free and that you owe them nothing.

    Other options include switching supplier but if this is what caused the under charge in the first place then it could happen again.


    Assuming you switched previously, are you sure your old supplier closed down the old gas account and are not expecting you to pay them instead?
  • AcerBen
    AcerBen Posts: 56 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 10 Posts Name Dropper
    I believe most suppliers will now only backdate 1 year's worth of bills but that's still quite a lot to pay in one go when they inevitably do realise they're not billing you. Unless they are completely useless, they will pick up on it eventually!

    I'd tell them, but raise a complaint in writing saying you expect a discount as you've already raised this and it isn't fair for you to pay a large bill when it isn't your fault. Also threatening to go to the ombudsman often does the trick.
  • qofb
    qofb Posts: 2 Newbie
    We had a similar issue with npower. I rang them when we first moved in to say that they'd got our electricity day and night rate meters the wrong way around. Waited, nothing happened. Rang again 6 months later, again nothing. This time they told me I was wrong though. 6 years later, we got a call from an extremely rude debt department worker to say that we hadn't paid for our electricity. When my partner questioned him he was very evasive but eventually admitted that the meters were the wrong way around. My partner got quite frustrated and said that we had told them this 6 years ago, the guy denied that we had. We were told to pay £680 within a month. This was either one year or two years (can't remember) of the difference as this was all the time period that they were allowed to backcharge for. We had been overpaying for electricity anyway as our rental agency told us not to switch (this was 2006-2012).

    Moral of the tale is to always be prepared to pay so your credit rating is safe. We were about to buy a house so this worried us. If you want to get through to companies, emailing or writing is more effective than ringing. I've also found that emailing people higher up in electricity companies, e.g. I've emailed the CEO for Europe for Npower when I'd had another problem, prompted instant resolution (and a £50 high street voucher :j ).
    Hope that helps.
  • Look up the back billing code.

    From the doc:

    "So, if your supplier is at fault and hasn’t sent you an accurate bill, when they do send a ‘catch-up’ bill, they won’t ask you to pay any extra for any energy used more than one year ago."
  • matty_art
    matty_art Posts: 219 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    If they really can't be bothered to listen you, I wouldn't waste my time trying to contact constantly but I'd probably have one more go - twitter is usually a good way to get them to notice. Make sure you document all contact attempts.

    Then I'd open a Tesco current account, and pay over the amount you think you'd owe for gas each month into it, so you have the money set aside for when they come calling plus a bit of interest.

    I'd probably switch sooner than later as well.
  • Frempt
    Frempt Posts: 31 Forumite
    As others have said, suppliers should only bill for a year of use. I got ~3 years of electricity for the cost of 1 year, due to Eon's incompetence.

    If you've tried to get them to fix and they haven't, I don't see this being a moral issue. It's more a question of whether you are willing to pay a lump sum at some point down the line.
    £2017 in 2017 challenge - £2020.06/£2017 (as of 27th September)
  • I'll tell you my experience with npower. Switched my gas to them and signed up to pay by monthly direct debit. My gas supply was switched into npower, but they only took the first direct debit twelve months later. Shortly afterwards I switched my gas to another supplier, as I was entitled to do. Npower billed me for one year's gas but I complained through Resolver and refused to pay anything because they were at fault for not taking the money each month even though I had made it available for them in my account. They phoned me back to discuss my complaint. After I refused several times more to pay anything, the advisor went to see a manager then came back and said they had written off the whole bill. I strongly recommend using Resolver for any disputes, as I have had a string of successes with it, and it keeps all your correspondence in one place and available for you to download.
  • dogshome
    dogshome Posts: 3,878 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It's a requirment for Debt to be cancelled under the Back-Billing agreement, that the customer made efforts with the supplier to get a bill, and be able to show that they did
    One phone call could be good enough,but only if the time and date can be quoted
This discussion has been closed.
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