Bulb Final Bill 3 March at 3:14PM in Energy 10 replies 220 views

Spectroboy

My daughter got a final bill from Bulb in July 2022, which she paid in full when she moved out of the property. They have recently issued a revised final bill (the readings aren't different but the rates seem to be different) and however much we try, we can get anyone at Bulb to accept they shouldn't have issued a revised final bill 7 months after we paid the original final bill. Has anyone experienced this before or would have a recommendation on how to escalate this, as Bulb have just issued the pay within 7 days or we will pass it to our debt collection agency email and it is really upsetting her. Thanks

goater78

Why would they not have to pay the bill?  If the the first bill was incorrect then your daughter does owe the money

Dolor

Spectroboy said:

My daughter got a final bill from Bulb in July 2022, which she paid in full when she moved out of the property. They have recently issued a revised final bill (the readings aren't different but the rates seem to be different) and however much we try, we can get anyone at Bulb to accept they shouldn't have issued a revised final bill 7 months after we paid the original final bill. Has anyone experienced this before or would have a recommendation on how to escalate this, as Bulb have just issued the pay within 7 days or we will pass it to our debt collection agency email and it is really upsetting her. Thanks

Suppliers have the right to issue an amended Final Bill.

Source: Gas/Electricity Supply Licence Conditions.

I should add that we all have the right to make a complaint which can then be escalated after 8 weeks or deadlock to Energy Ombudsman Services. 

To get a favourable Decision, it would be necessary to show that the amended bill is incorrect. 

badmemory

Surely if the usage is the same then they have the right to know WHY the bill has been amended.

Dolor

badmemory said:

Surely if the usage is the same then they have the right to know WHY the bill has been amended.

I would have thought that a simple check of the new bill against the old bill would show what has changed. 

FWiW, I got a bill this morning for £0.55 to correct an error made on the 15th March last year. It took me all of 5 minutes to confirm that the supplier was correct. I could, of course, jump on the dreadful customer service/complaint/compensation - send £30 by return of post - bandwagon. 

Spectroboy

Just to clarify the usage on the two bills is identical, what they have done is applied different p/kWh rates to the original bills. The difference is because rather than use the original monthly bills to decide what rate to use each month they have changed how many kWh have been used when their rates have gone up hence having a new revised billed for £97 more than we original paid. The overall usage is identical to the original final bill issued last July 2022

My frustration is we can't get anyone at Bulb to understand the issue.

Dolor

Spectroboy said:

Just to clarify the usage on the two bills is identical, what they have done is applied different p/kWh rates to the original bills. The difference is because rather than use the original monthly bills to decide what rate to use each month they have changed how many kWh have been used when their rates have gone up hence having a new revised billed for £97 more than we original paid. The overall usage is identical to the original final bill issued last July 2022

My frustration is we can't get anyone at Bulb to understand the issue.

Suppliers are allowed to amend bills when more information comes to light. As this was a final bill it would have a closing reading: this reading would be the same as the opening reading on your new supplier account.

Were you providing Bulb with monthly readings prior to your switch? If estimates were bring used then it is more than possible that the estimate used when the tariff changed was wrong, and this what Bulb has revised.

Spectroboy

Dolor said:

Spectroboy said:

Just to clarify the usage on the two bills is identical, what they have done is applied different p/kWh rates to the original bills. The difference is because rather than use the original monthly bills to decide what rate to use each month they have changed how many kWh have been used when their rates have gone up hence having a new revised billed for £97 more than we original paid. The overall usage is identical to the original final bill issued last July 2022

My frustration is we can't get anyone at Bulb to understand the issue.

Suppliers are allowed to amend bills when more information comes to light. As this was a final bill it would have a closing reading: this reading would be the same as the opening reading on your new supplier account.

Were you providing Bulb with monthly readings prior to your switch? If estimates were bring used then it is more than possible that the estimate used when the tariff changed was wrong, and this what Bulb has revised.

Yes it was a smart meter so they took the readings automatically, I guess we are just shocked they can reissue a final bill nine months after we left the property having paid what we thought was the final bill. Just FYI I didn't change supplier we left the property and moved somewhere else

Qyburn

Spectroboy said:

They have recently issued a revised final bill (the readings aren't different but the rates seem to be different) 

Are you saying that the meter readings are unchanged on the revised bill, but the prices per day and/or per kWh have changed?  If that's the case then you should be able to check whether those prices are correct or not
.
Just really wanting to confirm, because your later comment is a bit unclear. Is this relating to a tariff change, so that part of the bill covers supply at an earlier (lower) price, and part is at the later and higher price?

If I recall correctly our price changed on 6th April 2022, and our supplier tried to charge the increased rate for the whole month of April.

Dolor

Spectroboy said:

Dolor said:

Spectroboy said:

Just to clarify the usage on the two bills is identical, what they have done is applied different p/kWh rates to the original bills. The difference is because rather than use the original monthly bills to decide what rate to use each month they have changed how many kWh have been used when their rates have gone up hence having a new revised billed for £97 more than we original paid. The overall usage is identical to the original final bill issued last July 2022

My frustration is we can't get anyone at Bulb to understand the issue.

Suppliers are allowed to amend bills when more information comes to light. As this was a final bill it would have a closing reading: this reading would be the same as the opening reading on your new supplier account.

Were you providing Bulb with monthly readings prior to your switch? If estimates were bring used then it is more than possible that the estimate used when the tariff changed was wrong, and this what Bulb has revised.

Yes it was a smart meter so they took the readings automatically, I guess we are just shocked they can reissue a final bill nine months after we left the property having paid what we thought was the final bill. Just FYI I didn't change supplier we left the property and moved somewhere else

What profile was your smart meter on? How do the tariff change readings align with the other smart meter readings used for billing?

Spectroboy

Thanks for the advice, I've discovered on the revised final bill they have set the opening electricity readings as 0.0, whereas it was 508.0 when we moved in (we have evidence signed by the landlord & this is the reading they used on our first bill). The difference at the per KwH rate is identical to the amount they are asking for. I'm off to speak to them online about it!