£1000 bill from Avro didnt expect

keithgawler

Strawberry26 said:

Hi thanks all. I submitted readings about 6 times throughout the year. 
I checked all the statements and they are all estimated despite submitting the readings. 
I plan to contact them but just cant afford to pay that bill. Do you think I have a leg to stand on with them reducing it because of their mistake? 

I have recently joined Avro and my first monthly bill is now a couple of days late in turning up according to their timetable. I have just found this FAQ on their website. It says you will get an accurate bill if you provide a meter read. If this is not the case for you, then you could play this back to Avro as part of your negotiations with them for a payment plan. https://support.avroenergy.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360006569498-Submitting-a-meter-reading

Robin9

@Strawberry96 I think you must take some responsibility for this.  

Regardless of whether or not Avro have used your readings or have estimated them every month you have been receiving a statement - on their dashboard or an attachment by email..   Did you look at them ?  After the first month it would have been obvious that the bottom line was telling you that you were not paying enough by DD and you could have changed it.

£1000 in 12 months - that's over £80 a month which suggests a badly estimated annual consumption - what did you give Avro when you joined them ?

I am surprised that Avro didn't block the transfer to your new supplier.

coffeehound

I wonder if their staff are struggling to stay on top of demand.  They took on a lot of new customers bailing out from BG in recent months and suddenly put their prices up to effectively halt new accounts.  Now they may be setting everything to automatic to reduce workload..

Strawberry26

Just wanted to let you know how it went. 

Just spoke to Avro and they were more than happy to set up a payment plan. We have managed to get over half the money in one payment and then to pay back monthly for a couple of months.

With regard to the meter readings they basically said it's my fault for not reading the statements every month to make sure. Fair comment but it's the first time  I have ever had to do that with a supplier. I could argue that I work almost full time with 2 small children etc etc and I shouldn't have to check up on the company but nobody cares so I won't.  At the end of the day I have learned a valuable lesson and will scrutinise my statements each month. 

Overall though Avro had no qualms about spreading the bill and I owe the money so I have no qualms about paying it. I just feel that if my meter readings were taken I wouldn't have had to raid my savings pot to pay but there we go. Many thanks to those who were kind and supportive with their comments.  

Tokmon

Strawberry26 said:

Just wanted to let you know how it went. 

Just spoke to Avro and they were more than happy to set up a payment plan. We have managed to get over half the money in one payment and then to pay back monthly for a couple of months.

With regard to the meter readings they basically said it's my fault for not reading the statements every month to make sure. Fair comment but it's the first time  I have ever had to do that with a supplier. I could argue that I work almost full time with 2 small children etc etc and I shouldn't have to check up on the company but nobody cares so I won't.  At the end of the day I have learned a valuable lesson and will scrutinise my statements each month. 

Overall though Avro had no qualms about spreading the bill and I owe the money so I have no qualms about paying it. I just feel that if my meter readings were taken I wouldn't have had to raid my savings pot to pay but there we go. Many thanks to those who were kind and supportive with their comments.  

So you don't check any bills or banks statements to make sure they are correct? If not then I would definitely start doing that because there can always be mistakes or fraud that are far easier to spot and sort out if you check regularly. 

You say you work full time and have 2 small children etc so your implying you don't have time but I can guarantee that's not the case. If so you must never watch TV, look at your phone, post online on forums  , never see any friends or speak to people on the phone never have any leisure time at all?... I'm sure you can spare an hour a month to review all your bills and statements nobody is that busy!

tempus_fugit

It never ceases to amaze me how people expect the energy companies to do their work for them. If people just did the very small admin task of checking their monthly statements to make sure they are paying for what they are actually using then things like this wouldn't happen. But instead they think the companies are going to check them for them. It's not going to happen and until people take responsibility for their own usage then these sort of things will keep on happening.

tempus_fugit

Tokmon said:

Strawberry26 said:

Just wanted to let you know how it went. 

Just spoke to Avro and they were more than happy to set up a payment plan. We have managed to get over half the money in one payment and then to pay back monthly for a couple of months.

With regard to the meter readings they basically said it's my fault for not reading the statements every month to make sure. Fair comment but it's the first time  I have ever had to do that with a supplier. I could argue that I work almost full time with 2 small children etc etc and I shouldn't have to check up on the company but nobody cares so I won't.  At the end of the day I have learned a valuable lesson and will scrutinise my statements each month. 

Overall though Avro had no qualms about spreading the bill and I owe the money so I have no qualms about paying it. I just feel that if my meter readings were taken I wouldn't have had to raid my savings pot to pay but there we go. Many thanks to those who were kind and supportive with their comments.  

So you don't check any bills or banks statements to make sure they are correct? If not then I would definitely start doing that because there can always be mistakes or fraud that are far easier to spot and sort out if you check regularly. 

You say you work full time and have 2 small children etc so your implying you don't have time but I can guarantee that's not the case. If so you must never watch TV, look at your phone, post online on forums  , never see any friends or speak to people on the phone never have any leisure time at all?... I'm sure you can spare an hour a month to review all your bills and statements nobody is that busy!

It doesn't even need to be an hour. I take my readings, 2 minutes, submit them, another 2 minutes, then the bill comes through usually within 24 hours and I check it. It takes me 5 minutes to do that, if that, so 10 minutes max once a month. 

Tokmon

tempus_fugit said:

Tokmon said:

Strawberry26 said:

Just wanted to let you know how it went. 

Just spoke to Avro and they were more than happy to set up a payment plan. We have managed to get over half the money in one payment and then to pay back monthly for a couple of months.

With regard to the meter readings they basically said it's my fault for not reading the statements every month to make sure. Fair comment but it's the first time  I have ever had to do that with a supplier. I could argue that I work almost full time with 2 small children etc etc and I shouldn't have to check up on the company but nobody cares so I won't.  At the end of the day I have learned a valuable lesson and will scrutinise my statements each month. 

Overall though Avro had no qualms about spreading the bill and I owe the money so I have no qualms about paying it. I just feel that if my meter readings were taken I wouldn't have had to raid my savings pot to pay but there we go. Many thanks to those who were kind and supportive with their comments.  

So you don't check any bills or banks statements to make sure they are correct? If not then I would definitely start doing that because there can always be mistakes or fraud that are far easier to spot and sort out if you check regularly. 

You say you work full time and have 2 small children etc so your implying you don't have time but I can guarantee that's not the case. If so you must never watch TV, look at your phone, post online on forums  , never see any friends or speak to people on the phone never have any leisure time at all?... I'm sure you can spare an hour a month to review all your bills and statements nobody is that busy!

It doesn't even need to be an hour. I take my readings, 2 minutes, submit them, another 2 minutes, then the bill comes through usually within 24 hours and I check it. It takes me 5 minutes to do that, if that, so 10 minutes max once a month. 

Yeah I agree; I should clarify when I said an hour I was also referring to any other bills and statements the OP receives and should also review each month.