Lawyer suggestions or advice on compensation from British Gas after massive overpayment

QrizB

Allan_luxous said:

As you can see here theres nothing to suggest its an estimated reading. only when i called them did they tell me

There should be another bit to your bill showing the opening and closing meter readings for the period.
What does that say?

Robin9

pochase said:

The E would not be next to the used KWh, it will be next to the meter readings.

@Allan_luxous -  the page you have copied is a summary --  can you post the page with the readings on it please

Robin9

@Allan_Luxous

You seem to be on a very old style type of tariff - you have one that has a "Capacity" (Maximum Demand) tariff.and doesn't seem to be the most appropriate for your premises.
(Removed by Forum Team)

pochase

QrizB said:

Allan_luxous said:

As you can see here theres nothing to suggest its an estimated reading. only when i called them did they tell me

There should be another bit to your bill showing the opening and closing meter readings for the period.
What does that say?

I think there will be no meter reads on the bill. OP says he is on half-hourly-meter tariff, which seems to be a special tariff for big customers, matching what he said about the company before on the premises having a huge energy use.

Regarding meter reads the tariff says

3. Your energy usage
Your half-hourly meter captures your energy consumption every half an hour and transmits this data automatically to your energy supplier. So you won’t find any meter readings on your bill, but you can view and track your half-hourly energy data through your online account at any time. Log in or register for an online account .

You can find more about the tariff here

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/business/help-and-support/billing-and-payments/how-to-read-my-bill

Allan_luxous

@pochase is correct, there are no readings at all on the bill. just the ones ive shown. it gets better though, you can log in to the half hourly readings from my account with British gas and download it in form of an excel spreadsheet. it just gives you values such as 5.2  for each half hour period showing the demand in kwh for that time.

however when i asked them about this, they told me that the data is inacurate as the data is not my actual readings as the meter isnt sending data and they filled the boxes in with hisorical readings that they were receiving. thus the numbers are useless as they are not mines

given the fact our annual consumption should be around 8k (ish) and theyve charged me in excess of £40k id say i have good grounds for an argument. if i were owe them money, they would chase via debt collectors, adding a percentage to the money im owe them annually. so if they overcharged me by over 60k in a 2 year contract surely they cant offer £200 as a good will gesture ?

Mstty

Allan_luxous said:

@pochase is correct, there are no readings at all on the bill. just the ones ive shown. it gets better though, you can log in to the half hourly readings from my account with British gas and download it in form of an excel spreadsheet. it just gives you values such as 5.2  for each half hour period showing the demand in kwh for that time.

however when i asked them about this, they told me that the data is inacurate as the data is not my actual readings as the meter isnt sending data and they filled the boxes in with hisorical readings that they were receiving. thus the numbers are useless as they are not mines

given the fact our annual consumption should be around 8k (ish) and theyve charged me in excess of £40k id say i have good grounds for an argument. if i were owe them money, they would chase via debt collectors, adding a percentage to the money im owe them annually. so if they overcharged me by over 60k in a 2 year contract surely they cant offer £200 as a good will gesture ?

I would suggest you are owed interest plus compensation. Mention interest to them on the money they have had from you interest free over the past 2 years.

QrizB

Allan_luxous said:

given the fact our annual consumption should be around 8k (ish) and theyve charged me in excess of £40k id say i have good grounds for an argument. if i were owe them money, they would chase via debt collectors, adding a percentage to the money im owe them annually. so if they overcharged me by over 60k in a 2 year contract surely they cant offer £200 as a good will gesture ?

Let's go back to your original post.

i asked them for compensation and they refused, so now i want to take it to the next stage

Have BG accepted that they've been overcharging you?

If they have accepted this, what exactly have they offered?

Robin9

Do we know when the Smart stopped sending readings back ?  I am wondering how accurate your opening read was - or did you do it yourself.

Not with BG Business myself but my supplier was very quick of the mark when there were communication problems.

SAC2334

Max demand meters are complex with as many as up to 12 registers  on them usually in a code of letters . You can find the kwh reading on them if you look online with the make and model of the meter. We used to get a booklet supplied with few of the common ones but there s quite a few different meters.
 N Power were the best at these because they had a training room set up showing exactly how to read them and in which order .
 I used to read quite a few of these when the regular s who knew all the codes used to go on holidays so its quite possible to find the total kwh from the meter starting  from when  you as the new occupier and also total kwh from when the meter was installed . 
The outgoing tenant would have had an end reading which BG should be able to supply you , then you can work out exactly how much you owe .
I was sent out quite often to get a manual read from complex meters but only for small SME s  when the meters stopped sending the reads off so its not an  uncommon event 

wittynamegoeshere

They sent you a bill, you paid it.  They owe you the amount you overpaid, I can't see what is complicated about this situation.

Get your refund and forget it, check bills and meters more thoroughly in future.

You could ask for interest, I don't know whether they'd offer it or whether you'd be entitled.

What additional amount do you think they owe you, and for what?

If they had been undercharging then would you be demanding that they let you pay extra on top of what you owe them?