British Gas underbilling

YorkieDave

I was switched from Neon Reef to British Gas at the beginning of the year. I gave a correct meter reading at the transfer date. BG ignored this and divided the reading by 10 as they said it was too high. I called to correct it, but they still went with the lower reading. I continued to submit correct readings, all of which they divided by 10. I raised a complaint about it in June as I didn't want to fall thousands of pounds behind. They concluded my readings were wrong. Today, they finally accepted my readings were correct. I've gone from having paid all I owe to being £5000 in debt. BG have "raised a task" to consider compensation. Has anyone been through similar and has any advice? My start point is that I shouldn't have to pay for any of their errors and we should start afresh from today with me owing nothing from prior.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

£7000 since the beginning of the year is a massive £700 a month.

What are your actual meter readings for that period, no estimates, please.

[Deleted User]

continued to submit correct readings

I assume that we are talking about gas? What was the the reading that you gave: kWh; cubic metres or cubic feet? What is the conversion formula that BG is using: it should be on your statements?

BG has a year to correct your bills before BackBilling applies. You should have no expectation of a write off.

YorkieDave

Electricity only. I've just checked their calculations and it's actually £5000 in debt at this point. They've just then tried to add on extra to allow for the increase in rates per unit and upcoming winter. 

YorkieDave

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

£7000 since the beginning of the year is a massive £700 a month.

What are your actual meter readings for that period, no estimates, please.

I don't have the start of year reading. But it is correct. I guess I should have set money aside for it. It is a large amount per month and includes charging 2 cars. 

YorkieDave

[Deleted User] said:

continued to submit correct readings

I assume that we are talking about gas? What was the the reading that you gave: kWh; cubic metres or cubic feet? What is the conversion formula that BG is using: it should be on your statements?

BG has a year to correct your bills before BackBilling applies. You should have no expectation of a write off.

It's electric only. They insisted that my meter only had 5 digits but it has 7. Does this year to correct apply even if the customer has given the correct readings and raised a complaint about it? I wish I'd kept quiet if that's the case. 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

you should only provide the first 5 digits, anything after a decimal point or in red is ignored.

[Deleted User]

YorkieDave said:

Dolor said:

continued to submit correct readings

I assume that we are talking about gas? What was the the reading that you gave: kWh; cubic metres or cubic feet? What is the conversion formula that BG is using: it should be on your statements?

BG has a year to correct your bills before BackBilling applies. You should have no expectation of a write off.

It's electric only. They insisted that my meter only had 5 digits but it has 7. Does this year to correct apply even if the customer has given the correct readings and raised a complaint about it? I wish I'd kept quiet if that's the case. 

Yes, and "deciding to keep quiet about it" could exclude you from being covered by back billing anyway.

Am I understanding the situation correctly?  You are now being billed based on actual and correct readings - so being asked to pay the correct amount for the energy you have actually used - and your position is "they should write it off and I should only pay for what I will use in the future"?

Or to paraphrase - "I want the last ten months of electricity to be free".

diystarter7

OP
I think there has been a misread along the line unless you are running a business which I doubt you are.

A long while back I msread our elec meter as it has two readings as previous people were on Economy 7 and we are not and my eyes nearly popped out when I read the bill - it was my mistake soon sorted

Good luck

YorkieDave

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

you should only provide the first 5 digits, anything after a decimal point or in red is ignored.

There are 7 digits and then 1 after the decimal point. It's a smart meter, but an older one so BG claim they can't connect to it. 

YorkieDave

diystarter7 said:

OP
I think there has been a misread along the line unless you are running a business which I doubt you are.

A long while back I msread our elec meter as it has two readings as previous people were on Economy 7 and we are not and my eyes nearly popped out when I read the bill - it was my mistake soon sorted

Good luck

The start point I think is charging 2 cars overnight. So probably 30-35kW before anything else. So I am confident it's correct.