BG huge bill due to estimated readings

sesi74

I have just been landed with a huge electricity bill from British Gas, over £1500!! The main reason is that they have completely under estimated my bill, and continued to do so for the past several years. It appears that every time I have rung up with the correct reading it was disregarded due to it being so far from the estimated reading! I wasn't even aware that this happened. It also appears this wasn't flagged up or checked, even though it happened about 4 times! I understand that it is my fault for not following up sooner, but wanted to know if anybody else has had a similar experience. They have offered me a 10% discount as a goodwill gesture and the chance to pay it off over 18 months. Any comments greatly received!:o

SwanJon

£150 off, and 18 months interest free isn't too bad - if you look at the ombudsman's website it seems to be about normal.
How long has this been going on? If it was more than 18 months, get them to give you as long to pay it back as it was since your last accurate read.
As you've been trying to give them readings it makes it better for you.

arnie&caseysma!

Contact them - even if you have to go through the complaints procedure and explain that you have contacted them on several occasions the the correct readings over the months and hopefully these will have been recoreded on the system each time even though they have been disregarded by the company. I recently had to do this and they put the correct readings into place and gave me the correct bill.

The thing that I would be concerned most about is if they are now charging you at todays rates for electricity and gas that was actually used when the service may have been at a lower price if you see what I mean. If this is the case and you have contacted them on so many occasions and they have failed to send out an amended bill and altered DD payments (if you pay by DD) at the time then I would be insisting that the services received are calculated at the correct rates in place at the time used as per the readings you previously gave them.

In my case I helped lower my bill as they had even failed to set up my DD and take the money despite me asking for it to be done and I would have received a discount for this (another 3% is quite a lot of money!).

Failing to above, speak to energy watch.......

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

It is refreshing that you at least admit that you should have followed it up - the normal reaction on this forum is "I am blameless, it is BG/PGen/Etc's fault"

This happens quite a lot;(and there have been threads on this subject) the 'computer' rejects a reading and uses an estimate. Next time there is an even bigger discrepancy at again it is rejected etc etc. Obviously BG should pick up the problem, but their system has been a joke for the last year or two.

10% and an interest free loan is about par for the course - you might be able to 'negotiate' a bigger discount if you make a bit of a fuss.

The point made above about the extant prices over the period the debt built up is valid - but don't forget that current prices are lower now than they were last year, so it is a 'double edged sword'.

mynameisthehulk

You may be covered by the code of practice for accurate billing. BG should not be able to collect any debt over ayear old as a result of their error. You should let them know you are making a complaint, they have 12 weeks to resolve this or you can refer it to the ESO (Energy Supply Ombudsman). BG may send you a deadlock letter if you cannot reach agreement, which will allow you to take your issue to the ESO before the 12 week deadline. Make it clear that because you have submitted meter readings and they have been ignored that you feel it falls under the code of practice for accurate bills. Ask them to send you a copy, that should help.

stimpo

mynameisthehulk wrote: »

You may be covered by the code of practice for accurate billing. BG should not be able to collect any debt over ayear old as a result of their error. You should let them know you are making a complaint, they have 12 weeks to resolve this or you can refer it to the ESO (Energy Supply Ombudsman). BG may send you a deadlock letter if you cannot reach agreement, which will allow you to take your issue to the ESO before the 12 week deadline. Make it clear that because you have submitted meter readings and they have been ignored that you feel it falls under the code of practice for accurate bills. Ask them to send you a copy, that should help.

No No and No.

Any debt is only written off if its a result of not being billed for over 12 months. If they supplier has sent a bill, recieved or not then the debt stands.

The debt can be sorted by speaking to an advisor with half a brain. a 10% discount and 18 month repayment period is a very good offer and I would advise taking it.

At the end of the day the power and has been used and must be paid for. My advice is take whats on offer and keep to it. If any pay arrangement is not stuck to BG are one of the worst for speed in refering the account to collections agents.

coppins999

I'm in almost the same boat as the original poster. However I've left things a little longer still. I knew that I was in arrears by quite some margin and was fully expecting to have to pay the outstanding charges eventually, but in the beginning a "deferred payment plan" was quite handy at a time when money was a little short.

My situation is estimated bills from EDF Energy/SWEB for over 6 years and an outstanding bill of £4229 initially.

However, this backdated bill was based on spreading the costs back over the last two years. After checking rates for the last six years, I contacted EDF and requested that the usage be correctly spread over the last six years which has brought the bill down to £3609 (however I believe it is still slightly incorrect in the spread of usage).

In tandem, I contacted Energywatch and the first thing I have to say is what absolutely fantastic service and really switched on telephone people they have got. If anyone reading this thread gains no more advice than to contact these people, then it will serve you well.

Energywatch pointed out that if they had not billed in the last two years then EDF lose. However the area of estimated billing is a greyer area and there is disagreement between Energywatch and the power companies (no surprise there!). The chap at energywatch said it was worth taking the case up with EDF to "see what the position was" and whilst I was on-hold, contacted EDF on my behalf. I was then put through to an EDF representative entitled "Energywatch Liaison" who clearly stated their position, but did admit failings on their behalf. This I thought was fair. He then offered a 30% reduction plus repayment over 12 months.

I asked for the information to be sent in writing, which he has done and now that Christmas is over I shall discuss the case further with Energywatch. (as they requested I do).

However a few questions:-

1. Does the 30% figure sound good ?
2. What offers have other people in similar circumstances been offered ?
3.. Has anyone else in a similar circumstance negotiated at this point ?

Any other advice on proceeding further would be greatly appreciated too.


James

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

A couple of points.

Your very frank post demonstrates why Utility companies are in a lose/lose position in these situations.

By your own admission you were aware that your bills were based on underestimated readings for several years; yet you took no action to rectify the situation - for the reasons you have stated i.e. a "deferred payment scheme."(nice phrase!!)

You have gained a 6 years interest free loan, a 30% reduction for goods received and a further year interest to look forward to next year.

So you have given an excellent reason why everyone should prevent their meters being read!!!

Personally I think the 30% offer is more than generous and I doubt if perusal through this site will produce any cases of better offers.

It would be interesting to know on what grounds you feel an improved offer is in any way justified.

Or is it just that any Utility company are fair game to be 'screwed'?

darich

Cardew wrote: »

Your very frank post demonstrates why Utility companies are in a lose/lose position in these situations.

You have gained a 6 years interest free loan, a 30% reduction for goods received and a further year interest to look forward to next year.

So you have given an excellent reason why everyone should prevent their meters being read!!!

I'm not having a go at the poster but this sort of thing also pushes the prices up since the companies are now not making as much income from their service/product as they budgeted for.

coppins999

Cardew,

Whilst I do accept most of the responsibility, the electric company is also partly at fault in their actions. However, I was reasonably aware of the situation, though I'm sure many people in my position may not have been.

To expand a little, over the six year period I did at first give my own readings, but these were ignored. I was told by EDF that using the automated telephone service was a waste of time! Also the meter was also read twice in the last two years, but these readings were not used either. I received one letter that asked for a reading as I was only receiving estimated bills, however this was sent about a month after having had the meter read and so I assumed it to be incorrect. It made no reference to the reading that had been made being wrong. At this time I was expecting the large bill to arrive!

I agree that it looks like I will gain from the situation and my initial reaction is that the offer was fair to generous following the advice I received from Energywatch. I don't know of any grounds on which I could ask for an improved offer, other than I enjoy a bit of a haggle!!

However, the fact that the offer was made quite quickly (first phone call to decision maker rather than my only other previous call to general billing number) made me question if the offer they made was similar to other peoples experiences. Also it made me wonder why they are making the offer - do they think there is a worse possible outcome for themselves? Maybe I've just become too cynical about big businesses over the years to believe that they could do anything out of the kindness of their heart.

I have perused as many posts as I could find prior to posting here and found few people listing actual offers they received in this circumstance, hence my questions.


Darich, the extra money they receive from me now will be on top of what they budgeted for (estimated) so it could be considered a bonus to themselves too. However I suspect cases such as this are a mere drop in the ocean compared to their overall billings.

Thankyou all so far for the advice and discussion, please keep it coming.

darich

coppins999 wrote: »

Darich, the extra money they receive from me now will be on top of what they budgeted for (estimated) so it could be considered a bonus to themselves too. However I suspect cases such as this are a mere drop in the ocean compared to their overall billings.

Once again, I'm not having a go but if you negotiate a discount and an interest free repayment plan then what extra money are they receiving?
They're 10% down on the amount owed and it could be argued that they're down on what you're paying back due to inflation.

I was in a similar position with Scottish Power for a bill of over £500. A few estimates and eventually they got an exact reading. I argued the case and they installed a check meter to run in conjunction with my existing meter. Eventually it turns out they were right. Luckily i was in a position to simply pay it and move on.

Good luck in sorting it out.