Sure we're being conned by British Gas

Unhappyuser

Received our gas bill and shocked to see £303 for a summer quarter! Queried with the company to be told that "Your account has been moved from the old system to the new system. All bills were re-audited on movement and you owe us an extra £125". I protested that the heating hasn't even been used this quarter, only one ring of the gas hob has been used occasionally, and we've mostly been eating salads and barbequing our food in the garden. Gave an up to date meter reading but the revised bill is still well over £200.
My interpretation of this is - we've paid our bills on time and in good faith that the billing amount is correct. It would appear that BG's calculations have been wrong so how come we're responsible for their mistake?

MattMattMattUK

Unhappyuser said:

Received our gas bill and shocked to see £303 for a summer quarter! Queried with the company to be told that "Your account has been moved from the old system to the new system. All bills were re-audited on movement and you owe us an extra £125". I protested that the heating hasn't even been used this quarter, only one ring of the gas hob has been used occasionally, and we've mostly been eating salads and barbequing our food in the garden. Gave an up to date meter reading but the revised bill is still well over £200.
My interpretation of this is - we've paid our bills on time and in good faith that the billing amount is correct. It would appear that BG's calculations have been wrong so how come we're responsible for their mistake?

Suppliers can correct an incorrect bill for up to twelve months. If you had been overcharged would you expect the money back?

TheMilkmansDad

the billing amount will only be correct if its based on actual reads. from the above it would appear the bill was based on estimate meter reads - if that's the case then the simple solution is to provide regular meter reads. This would then give more accurate bills if they use the actual reads supplied and also give more information for them should they need to raise a bill on estimate reads in the future.