Discrepancy in gas charged vs meter reading on prepayment or is it just my bad maths?

HeadingSouth

Also if I haven't been clear above - thank you to all who have contributed to this thread so far. I really appreciate the questions and the checks of things I may not have thought of as its all helping to get to the bottom of the issue. Although - until Utilita respond to me, I don't know that I'll have much joy.

QrizB

It's unlikely that your boiler has a pilot light; they went the way of the dinosaurs over 20 years ago.

The fact you used no gas at all overnight confirms this.

HeadingSouth

QrizB said:

It's unlikely that your boiler has a pilot light; they went the way of the dinosaurs over 20 years ago.

The fact you used no gas at all overnight confirms this.

Ah ok. Yes looking at it - it isn't lit at the moment so it must be more of an ignition thing. I know nothing about this stuff as you can tell. Hence coming here.

superkoopauk

Guessing here but does the 2 kWh per day allowance "build up" when you are not using gas?  I.e. you went away for two weeks so upon returning the next 28 kWh gas you used would be charged at the higher rate.  That would tie in with the £3.31 charge you saw.

HeadingSouth

superkoopauk said:

Guessing here but does the 2 kWh per day allowance "build up" when you are not using gas?  I.e. you went away for two weeks so upon returning the next 28 kWh gas you used would be charged at the higher rate.  That would tie in with the £3.31 charge you saw.

But then wouldn't explain the following day when I calculated it should be 86p not £1.27 which is what I was charged,

Also the whole point of the Utilita non-standing charge is for buildings that aren't occupied so that you only pay for what you use. Which to be fair is not applicable for our home but was the supplier when we moved in and we haven't moved to a new supplier yet as trying to work out how much we use with prepayment and who best to move to.

HeadingSouth

Utilita has completely fobbed me off. The only way I was able to reach them was via Direct Message on Twitter. I sent photos and the calculations. They said:

"I'm sorry you feel that you are being overcharged, however I am afraid with thee type of meter you have we can not remotely access your usage information to see what is happening. Thank You - Lauren" (Spelling/typos theirs)

Which as far as I can tell is them telling me to stuff it right? What do I do now?

wrf12345

tell them if they do not respond properly within seven days then you will report them to Ofgem - they will probably ignore you post Brexit (when you could threaten them with the EU's consumer bureau which tended to wake them up)... one of the downsides of prepayment you can only turn the gas off not refuse to pay the bill. The meters are owned by a separate company (details should be on the meter), if it is a meter rather than tariff problem may be able to contact them? Or maybe tell them the key has stopped working and you need a replacement?

HeadingSouth

wrf12345 said:

tell them if they do not respond properly within seven days then you will report them to Ofgem - they will probably ignore you post Brexit (when you could threaten them with the EU's consumer bureau which tended to wake them up)... one of the downsides of prepayment you can only turn the gas off not refuse to pay the bill. The meters are owned by a separate company (details should be on the meter), if it is a meter rather than tariff problem may be able to contact them? Or maybe tell them the key has stopped working and you need a replacement?

Thank you but there is well over a £100 on the meter and it's going down at a rate not in line with the tariff. We've already lost a lot of money and I don't know how long this has been going on for - perhaps since the key was updated on 31 March - perhaps since we moved in back in January.

I'm sending them an email now and will say I will report them to OfGem. The meter says EDF Energy on it so maybe I should reach out to them too.

Gerry1

No point in going to Ofgem: they don't deal with individual complaints.  You need the Ombudsman.

superkoopauk

 HeadingSouth said:

superkoopauk said:

Guessing here but does the 2 kWh per day allowance "build up" when you are not using gas?  I.e. you went away for two weeks so upon returning the next 28 kWh gas you used would be charged at the higher rate.  That would tie in with the £3.31 charge you saw.

But then wouldn't explain the following day when I calculated it should be 86p not £1.27 which is what I was charged,

Also the whole point of the Utilita non-standing charge is for buildings that aren't occupied so that you only pay for what you use. Which to be fair is not applicable for our home but was the supplier when we moved in and we haven't moved to a new supplier yet as trying to work out how much we use with prepayment and who best to move to.

It would explain it if you were then charged 4 kWh at the higher rate (to catch up for the day before when you used nothing).

I thought all companies scrapped their no standing charge tariffs when the price cap was introduced in 2019 (to avoid losing money as they cannot just up the unit rate to offset this).  Similarly Utilita would want this 2 kWh per day to build up otherwise it would lose money on very low users.  Again just a theory and if I am right Utilita definitely do not make this clear at all in their tariff information!

Also don't go to EDF - they won't be able to help you.  This is to do with how the tariff is configured on the meter not the meter itself.  As per Gerry1 the Ombudsman is the way to go.