Unexpected charge in energy supplier final bill

edf_bill

Could you help me understand an unexpected final bill amount, please?

I recently switched to a new supplier and received a final bill from the old supplier. I was expecting a charge for the difference between the final reading and the last bill which I settled, but the old supplier has replaced a number of old bills going back past that, to the last supplied reading. I haven't supplied a reading for a couple of years (my fault). There is now an additional charge of just under £400 which is being demanded by the supplier.

So, the last bill that I settled was 25 May 2019 - 21 August 2019, on which no credit/debit was brought forward.

They've now given me a 'bill replac[ing] all bills dated between 07 February 2017 and 06 October 2019', which now puts me hundreds of pounds in debit.

I do understand that an estimate is just that, but I cannot understand why the correction isn't the difference between the last, final, supplied reading and the last estimate figure of units which I've paid for.

Thanks

G_M

They won't base the final reading on an estimated bill! You are leaving, so if the estimate is wrong, how can they then bill you correctly?

They will look at the last accurate reading, and the reading on date you leave, and calculate the real cost.
Then they will deduct whatever you've actually paid in the interim and charge you the difference.

you are simply being charged for the actual energy you've used, whereas till now you been paying for energy consumption that might or might not be accurate.

That's why giving regular readings is sensible. If you rely on estimates over a period of time, sure, you might over-pay and get a refund. Or you might under-pay and get a nasty surprise bill!

btr30

It appears that your old supplier have re-allocated readings across the 2.5 year period to ensure charges are correctly applied on your bill.
E.g. if your fixed tariff ended, they will then rerun billing to a point to reflect that pricing change point rather than lump all the end charges at the out of contract rate, so it might work in your favour
As long as the tariff rate and details are correct and all your payments are shown on the revised statement I think you will be being billed correctly

EnergyRookie

edf_bill wrote: »

Could you help me understand an unexpected final bill amount, please?

I recently switched to a new supplier and received a final bill from the old supplier. I was expecting a charge for the difference between the final reading and the last bill which I settled, but the old supplier has replaced a number of old bills going back past that, to the last supplied reading. I haven't supplied a reading for a couple of years (my fault). There is now an additional charge of just under £400 which is being demanded by the supplier.

So, the last bill that I settled was 25 May 2019 - 21 August 2019, on which no credit/debit was brought forward.

They've now given me a 'bill replac[ing] all bills dated between 07 February 2017 and 06 October 2019', which now puts me hundreds of pounds in debit.

I do understand that an estimate is just that, but I cannot understand why the correction isn't the difference between the last, final, supplied reading and the last estimate figure of units which I've paid for.

Thanks

It's difficult to understand why you would be charged an additional £400, just beacuse they have revised the estimates used at varying billing points over the last couple of years. You still pay for the same amount of energy; the only diffrence would be the relatively small price change applicable.

Furthermore, as you have not provided any meter readings for the last couple of years, presumably you were on the suppliers standard default tariff when you left, and that benefitted from a reduced price cap since October, but would still be higher than when the fisrt price cap came in at the begiining of the year.

Please post a full copy of your final bill, and someone will be able to take a look for you and explain what exactly is going on
(Because at a time of generally increasing prices, rebilling you at previous rates going back to early 2017 should actually save you money, not cost you more, let alone £400 more)

G_M

EnergyRookie wrote: »

It's difficult to understand why you would be charged an additional £400, just beacuse they have revised the estimates used at varying billing points over the last couple of years. You still pay for the same amount of energy;

No - previous bills were based on estimated usage. The final bill will be based on actual usage. So "the same amount of energy" will not have been used. It could be that usage was considerably higher than had been estimated.

Cardew

This is fairly standard practice where estimated bills have been used for an extended period; and, importantly, not been corrected by the customer.

If they produced a final bill using the last estimate on 21 August 2019 to the actual supplied reading on the date of switching it would show that thousands of kWh had been used in that 3 month period. Also importantly they would have to be priced at 2019 prices.

So they go back to the last actual meter reading(7 Feb 2017) and use an algorithm to calculate a more realistic estimated meter reading for each bill. That way you will be charged at the correct prices for 2017/2018/2019 etc.

edf_bill

G_M wrote: »

They won't base the final reading on an estimated bill! You are leaving, so if the estimate is wrong, how can they then bill you correctly?

They will look at the last accurate reading, and the reading on date you leave, and calculate the real cost.
Then they will deduct whatever you've actually paid in the interim and charge you the difference.

you are simply being charged for the actual energy you've used, whereas till now you been paying for energy consumption that might or might not be accurate.

That's why giving regular readings is sensible. If you rely on estimates over a period of time, sure, you might over-pay and get a refund. Or you might under-pay and get a nasty surprise bill!

btr30 wrote: »

It appears that your old supplier have re-allocated readings across the 2.5 year period to ensure charges are correctly applied on your bill.
E.g. if your fixed tariff ended, they will then rerun billing to a point to reflect that pricing change point rather than lump all the end charges at the out of contract rate, so it might work in your favour
As long as the tariff rate and details are correct and all your payments are shown on the revised statement I think you will be being billed correctly

I've managed to upload the final bill, and the one before that (August 19) - which I've paid off, so that would be what I've paid in the interim. What I'm querying the supplier about, is why I am being charged what seems far more than the difference between that and the final reading.

First two screenshots are Aug 19 bill, screenshots 3,4 & 5 are of final bill
(sorry for formatting, new user prevented from posting links)

imgur.com/a/D5TAKwA

EnergyRookie

edf_bill wrote: »

I've managed to upload the final bill, and the one before that (August 19) - which I've paid off, so that would be what I've paid in the interim. What I'm querying the supplier about, is why I am being charged what seems far more than the difference between that and the final reading.

First two screenshots are Aug 19 bill, screenshots 3,4 & 5 are of final bill
(sorry for formatting, new user prevented from posting links)

imgur.com/a/D5TAKwA

The bill you received ending Aug 21st was not a final bill, but appears to be a regular quarterly bill, and it clearly states it is an estimate.

It seems the supplier has been estimating readings for quite a while, and the last estimated reading was 62827 up to 21/08 which you paid on 09/09.

Now you have a later bill, it is based on an actual read of 64881 up to 24/08

So that's about 2000 kWh difference.
You obviously didn't use 2000 kWh in 3 days, so that is why the previous estimates were then revised too.
But as you were paying about 18p/kWh (+VAT?), then that is why you now owe £376.74. i.e the cost of the 2000+ kWh.