Charged £600 out of the blue for my Gas/Electric??

hannahjames85

Hi Grumpycrab. Ill take some pictures when I get home tonight and send you the pics

grumpycrab

hannahjames85 wrote: »

Hi Grumpycrab. Ill take some pictures when I get home tonight and send you the pics

One will do - provided we can read the numbers (and compare it to December's reading).

BooJewels

hannahjames85 wrote: »

Does that mean I'm using too much gas or they have it wrong do you think? They've come back to me and just duplicated the £600 bill I now owe

I'm sorry pet, but my quick calculations would suggest that you've been significantly underpaying your DD for the amount of fuel actually used. Very roughly extrapolating your earlier readings, I got to a monthly DD figure of around £125/month for both fuels, hence a potential shortfall. Your £47 certainly seems too low.

With the caveat that your information has been rather vague and we're having to guess at some of the details based on our own personal experiences. As grumpycrab said, we could do with seeing your actual meter readings so that we can see what units they're actually measuring in. If your gas meter reads kwh, then your usage seems much too low, but if it is in m3, then you've been mistakenly thinking that a unit on your meter costs you about 4p, when in reality it's over ten times that.

The gas meter measures the volume of gas passing through it (in m3), but then that has to be converted to the fuel value that generates the heat in your radiators, gas burners etc. - a calculation based on the calorific value of the gas supplied and the price of the gas, but this is usually explained or shown on the bill.

Give us some more details and we'll be happy to crunch some numbers for you.

hannahjames85

Hi BooJewels,

They sent me a new statement about 30 mins ago and found the summary of the new bill they sent me, it is seems to be this...

---

Your Energy Statement
For the Period 11 Apr 2017 - 26 Feb 2018
Balance At Your Last Bill
£651.18
Payment received - 29 Jan 2018 - thank you
CR £47.18
Offset Bill 01559438 - 27 Feb 2018
CR £878.85
Offset Bill 01823628 - 27 Feb 2018
CR £196.95
Balance Brought Forward
CR £471.80
New Charges Included In This Bill
£600.70
New Account Balance
£128.90

---

So seems its now £128.90. However they havent explained at all what has changed? Just added lots of credit?


I'll take a pic of meter tonight as planned. I need to speak to them tomorrow i think anyway, and get them to explain what they have done. Especially since this new bill must be based on an estimate up until today, since they havent taken a reading since December.

BooJewels

If you pay them £47.18 per month - that's what; 11 payments since April 2017 = £518.98 - yet that statement is showing credits of over twice that amount.

Something is awry. Take the readings/photos tonight when you're home and we'll work out some figures for you before you ring them tomorrow.

grumpycrab

hannahjames85 wrote: »

For the Period 11 Apr 2017 - 26 Feb 2018
Balance At Your Last Bill
£651.18
Payment received - 29 Jan 2018 - thank you
CR £47.18
Offset Bill 01559438 - 27 Feb 2018
CR £878.85
Offset Bill 01823628 - 27 Feb 2018
CR £196.95
Balance Brought Forward
CR £471.80
New Charges Included In This Bill
£600.70
New Account Balance
£128.90

That wins the "craziest bill of the year" award.

BooJewels

grumpycrab wrote: »

That wins the "craziest bill of the year" award.

Indeed. I think the same person worked out that does my husband's fortnightly tax code. We think they have a big dustbin in the middle of the tax office filled with ping pong balls with numbers written on and they just delve into it, give it a stir and pluck one out. It makes more sense than the actual explanations/calculations.

It would however explain why she said earlier there was a £471 credit showing on her account!

System

Strange term to use but I suspect what has happened here is that actual meter readings haven!!!8217;t been provided/used for billing. The supplier!!!8217;s estimates were well out so it has rolled back two billing periods to the previous actual meter reading, and then billed to the most recent actual meter reading. If I was the OP, I would forget about the offsets and do my own bill calculation based on the 2 actual meter readings.

OP - memo to oneself. To avoid bill shocks, provide the supplier with meter readings at least once a month.

grumpycrab

Hengus wrote: »

Strange term to use but I suspect what has happened here is that actual meter readings haven!!!8217;t been provided/used for billing. The supplier!!!8217;s estimates were well out so it has rolled back two billing periods to the previous actual meter reading, and then billed to the most recent actual meter reading.

I agree. And they're only included the gas charge so far (£600.70) Perhaps they'll add the electric tomorrow.

hannahjames1985

Hi all,

I have been locked out my account for some reason so had to create a new address.

FYI...I've sent Grumpycrab a picture of my metre readings so we can get to the bottom of this conundrum!