Glide utility bills overcharging and difficult to resolve

hboogz

We are a group of 3 students. We have been using Glide to split our water, electricity and gas bills and pay £49 a month, each. In February this year we were contacted by Glide informing us that our bill would be rising to £105 p/month for the remaining months until July when our tenancy ends. Bemused, we contacted back to ask why, which led to them backtracking and saying it was a mistake and that we wouldn't be charged. No longer than 30 minutes later we were contacted again saying that now, instead of a £105 p/month bill we would be charged a lump sum of £1331 (£443 each) for overconsumption for the months between Feb 2019 and December 2019. We requested a breakdown, which we received a few days later.

 

The bill breakdown showed that they were using false meter readings that they had ‘estimated’ even though I had entered them on a quarterly basis. This was one of the reasons for the extortionate bill, the electricity overcharge contributed to £652 of the bill. Because of this ‘overconsumption’, there has been a ‘usage correction’ on gas too, of £519. The water price also shot up with a charge of £160, despite us not having a water meter. We disputed the bill with Glide and have been doing so for over two months now. I have even sent video evidence of our meter readings for the last few months which contradicts their readings. Every other week we have had to call them and every time we talk to them, they just put our account on hold and give us the same excuse that Spark Energy (gas + electricity supplier) need to investigate this.

 

With this issue now in its third month, I decided to contact Spark Energy myself and I asked which meter readings they have on their system. For electricity, their readings matched the correct ones that I entered. For gas, they haven’t received any readings from Glide since February 2019. Shock. I also took the liberty of contacting Severn Trent Water who supply our water, they told us that there was no chance that our water bill would have risen by more than 7% (it rose from £341 to £501 over the space of 10 months). Glide told us that Severn Trent have risen their prices, yet they won’t provide evidence of Severn Trent stating this.

 

We feel that we are being exploited by Glide Student Bills. They have been trying to hold us off until we finally give up. They give the same excuse that Spark Energy are investigating our case when this most likely isn’t true or isn’t going to happen, the problem is on their behalf, but they don’t want to resolve it because they want the money from us. Last month, they also withdrew collectively almost £1000 from our accounts last month with no notice, this even put me in overdraft (they refunded this after we told them). The company is severely mismanaged and the support from its staff has been appalling and we have been lied to continuously. I called yesterday and the same lady who usually deals with my issue recognised who I was and I was put on hold for ten minutes, then she hung up. They have even blamed the COVID pandemic for this being prolonged despite it being an issue since February. We’re not sure how to resolve this.

Gerry1

Welcome to the forum.  Unfortunately you're all learning the very hard way that you need to take control of your life and organise things for yourself.  If you get someone to hold your hands and do it for you, it's likely to be expensive and they will look after their interests, not yours.  If you can organise a kitty to look after tea and coffee you can do the same for utilities.

Each week you need to read all the meters, do the sums and all pay your shares into the relevant accounts.    You'll need to put each bill in one person's name and that person will have to trust the others not to refuse to pay or do a runner.  The named person can then check online that all payments have been received and that everything is up to date.  You can spread the risk by having one person responsible for gas, another for electricity, the third for water, etc.

If you can't organise yourselves in this way then you really shouldn't be sharing a household; if you mutually distrust each other so much that you have to resort to a third party to keep the peace then you will pay dearly for the privilege, and it may be a bumpy ride.

Yes, that's a bit blunt, but it's the harsh reality of life.

The exit strategy is to leave Glide (read the Ts &Cs very carefully) and to do some whole of the market energy comparisons starting with Citizens Advice and 'Switch with Which?'.  Other sites are available, but beware that they may not show the full market (e.g. omitting cheap suppliers such as Neon Reef) and defaulting to showing only the expensive suppliers that pay commission.  Ignore all claimed savings and projections, just compare annual costs based on actual meter readings, never estimated readings or monthly direct debit amounts.

Don't forget to come back and tell us how it went; many posters don't bother !

hboogz

@Gerry1 Thanks for the welcome.
Re: your point about distrust:  we went with Glide as it was recommended at a student fair, at the time we were being charged a lot by Eon in the first month of our tenancy. It's not an excuse, but we're students, and this was the first time paying utility bills.  yes, we have now learned the lesson that it's best not to use a third party but that doesn't resolve our issue. 
Re: exit strategy: I'm not sure you read the entire post (I know it's quite lengthy). Our tenancy ends at the beginning of July 2020, so this wouldn't be a wise option

Gerry1

Fair enough about leaving this July, I was thinking of the general case: there were similar posts a while ago.  Did the person who recommended you get a commission?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6088991/4100-kwh-of-gas-in-5-weeks-1-month

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6106012/glide-asking-me-to-pay-an-outstanding-bill

macman

Even if Glide were honest, which this story suggests they maybe are not, then they wouldn't be offering their services for free: you are paying them for doing the legwork that you now have to redo anyway.
They come under the remit of the Energy Ombudsman, so the resolution for gas and electricity is: a formal letter of complaint, then wait 8 weeks for a reply or deadlock letter, then you can escalate it to the Ombudsman. Don't engage any more with them by phone/messaging/email.