British Gas credit use (cost + debt), had enough for 4 years so considering court action.

tifo

The default meter reading was set to 99999 and from this the kWh is generated, taking into account usage. At the moment it shows as 1,117,049 kWh use from which a future bill will be generated, I know it'll change when a meter reading is submitted, i'll have to do this because the meter is not connected to the hub and so is running as a dumb meter. See image below.

tifo

Qyburn said:

tifo said:

It's a gas account, now credit, but previously prepay for 4 years 4 months until this May.

I didn't start looking at or note meter readings until this year, from this thread, as didn't know how to. I only ever used to check credit balance and manually top up when needed.

It's not a matter of my readings corresponding with BG meter readings, there's no reason for usage to have increased x4 in any month. My gas use was the same though credit use was fairly consistent but high. It's posted here that this was one of the issues I was having.

Same applies. If you don't look at meter readings you're never going to get anywhere.

I've not got the meter readings going further back than June 2022 in the online account but BG will have them.

I see from the transactions list that BG generated 5 bills on the same day in December 2020, i can see no reason for this. This was 6 months after the previous bill but is 5 times the amount, so in June 2020 for 3 months they billed me £120 and 6 months later in December 2020 they billed nearly £600. A few weeks still later in December 2020 they billed £125. In March 2020 they'd billed me £135 and in January 2020 £195. I'll need to ask BG for the meter readings. So in December 2020 my top ups were £120 which paid for gas use and towards debt but BG billed me nearly £600 hence increasing my debt by £480.

I was on a prepayment meter from January 2020 and topping up a lot. This carried on until this year when it's changed to a credit meter. But during this period BG still generated bills. How these match credit use I don't know but I didn't think it's possible to go into more than £10 emergency credit debt on prepay meters.

tifo

Just received letter from BG that they'll pass the account to BW Legal as they've recently contacted me about paying my bill and (seems) i've not replied. I've not had any letters.

This is a month after the account changed to credit from prepayment through the executive office, who are still dealing with the matter as it's not fully resolved. The account is on quarterly billing so, technically, I shouldn't get any bill until august and gas use from before the change has been paid for with prepayment credit.

I did say to the executive office person that I hope BG don't start chasing the debt after it's changed to credit account and here we go  .....

tifo

tifo said:

Qyburn said:

tifo said:

It's a gas account, now credit, but previously prepay for 4 years 4 months until this May.

I didn't start looking at or note meter readings until this year, from this thread, as didn't know how to. I only ever used to check credit balance and manually top up when needed.

It's not a matter of my readings corresponding with BG meter readings, there's no reason for usage to have increased x4 in any month. My gas use was the same though credit use was fairly consistent but high. It's posted here that this was one of the issues I was having.

Same applies. If you don't look at meter readings you're never going to get anywhere.

I've not got the meter readings going further back than June 2022 in the online account but BG will have them.

I see from the transactions list that BG generated 5 bills on the same day in December 2020, i can see no reason for this. This was 6 months after the previous bill but is 5 times the amount, so in June 2020 for 3 months they billed me £120 and 6 months later in December 2020 they billed nearly £600. A few weeks still later in December 2020 they billed £125. In March 2020 they'd billed me £135 and in January 2020 £195. I'll need to ask BG for the meter readings. So in December 2020 my top ups were £120 which paid for gas use and towards debt but BG billed me nearly £600 hence increasing my debt by £480.

I was on a prepayment meter from January 2020 and topping up a lot. This carried on until this year when it's changed to a credit meter. But during this period BG still generated bills. How these match credit use I don't know but I didn't think it's possible to go into more than £10 emergency credit debt on prepay meters.

I asked BG (DSAR team) for the bills generated during the prepayment period and i'm told they're not available as they are for internal use only for 'account maintenance'. However, these bills are used for my final balance (currently debt) and this is the amount BG chase. The final balance is bills minus top ups. No figures from the prepayment meter, i.e. the debt deductions. I'd have thought the final balance (debt) would have been the figure started with in January 2020 minus the debt deductions from the prepayment meter but this is not the case. It seems BG don't know how much debt the meters deducted and rely on the bills. I can't see how they came to the bill amount.

FreeBear

tifo said:

The default meter reading was set to 99999 and from this the kWh is generated, taking into account usage. At the moment it shows as 1,117,049 kWh use from which a future bill will be generated,

You are getting these kWh readings from the meter (or IHD) - Stop. You need to use the m³ readings and use the current current calorific value (CV) - This changes daily, and BG will use an average to calculate your bill (the calculation should appear on each bill). The CV the meter uses to show kWh & £cost will be an estimation and may not be the same as used for the final bill.

I do hope you are using the m³ readings when submitting readings to BG and not the kWh numbers.

tifo

FreeBear said:

tifo said:

The default meter reading was set to 99999 and from this the kWh is generated, taking into account usage. At the moment it shows as 1,117,049 kWh use from which a future bill will be generated,

You are getting these kWh readings from the meter (or IHD) - Stop. You need to use the m³ readings and use the current current calorific value (CV) - This changes daily, and BG will use an average to calculate your bill (the calculation should appear on each bill). The CV the meter uses to show kWh & £cost will be an estimation and may not be the same as used for the final bill.

I do hope you are using the m³ readings when submitting readings to BG and not the kWh numbers.

Hi, I don't use a IHD, what i said is that the new meter was set to 00000 at my home but is set to 99999 in the online account hence showing 1,117,049 kWh from this (and increasing).

Of course, i'll need to submit the m3 meter reading for the next (first) bill which is not until end of this month. I don't expect them to bill me for millions of kWh.

The new meter didn't connect to the hub and so is running as dumb credit meter.

tifo

tifo said:

tifo said:

Qyburn said:

tifo said:

It's a gas account, now credit, but previously prepay for 4 years 4 months until this May.

I didn't start looking at or note meter readings until this year, from this thread, as didn't know how to. I only ever used to check credit balance and manually top up when needed.

It's not a matter of my readings corresponding with BG meter readings, there's no reason for usage to have increased x4 in any month. My gas use was the same though credit use was fairly consistent but high. It's posted here that this was one of the issues I was having.

Same applies. If you don't look at meter readings you're never going to get anywhere.

I've not got the meter readings going further back than June 2022 in the online account but BG will have them.

I see from the transactions list that BG generated 5 bills on the same day in December 2020, i can see no reason for this. This was 6 months after the previous bill but is 5 times the amount, so in June 2020 for 3 months they billed me £120 and 6 months later in December 2020 they billed nearly £600. A few weeks still later in December 2020 they billed £125. In March 2020 they'd billed me £135 and in January 2020 £195. I'll need to ask BG for the meter readings. So in December 2020 my top ups were £120 which paid for gas use and towards debt but BG billed me nearly £600 hence increasing my debt by £480.

I was on a prepayment meter from January 2020 and topping up a lot. This carried on until this year when it's changed to a credit meter. But during this period BG still generated bills. How these match credit use I don't know but I didn't think it's possible to go into more than £10 emergency credit debt on prepay meters.

I asked BG (DSAR team) for the bills generated during the prepayment period and i'm told they're not available as they are for internal use only for 'account maintenance'. However, these bills are used for my final balance (currently debt) and this is the amount BG chase. The final balance is bills minus top ups. No figures from the prepayment meter, i.e. the debt deductions. I'd have thought the final balance (debt) would have been the figure started with in January 2020 minus the debt deductions from the prepayment meter but this is not the case. It seems BG don't know how much debt the meters deducted and rely on the bills. I can't see how they came to the bill amount.

The issue I have with this is that BG expect me to blindly accept what they say with no proof, i.e. the background bills and no figures for the amounts paid from prepayment meter. Yet they want me to pay the debt figures they give which I don't know how they've come to. It's a different amount in 3 places, the first including credits from BG (lowest), the second not including these credits (higher) and the third from executive office (highest).

So, they say we can't send you the bills we've debited to the account balance, generated when you were on a prepayment meter, and we can't tell you how much money we took from the prepayment credit over the past 4 years and 5 months for debt repayments but here's the amount of debt you need to pay us.

I only saw the bills etc in the credit account online and not before in prepayment account so realised last month what they are doing.

tifo

Hi

By way of an update if it helps anyone else and for advice from other members.

A new case handler has taken over my complaint as the previous person has left, this person offered to change the prepayment meter to credit which happened in a roundabout way, add various credits towards future bills and some credits towards the debt. This was fine. All offers are documented in their emails to me.

The new case handler wants to credit all amounts except the compensation towards the debt and says this is what was agreed, I corrected them by sending copies of previous emails but they choose to ignore the previous offers and say this is what's on offer now. They also tried to reduce the compensation.

I cannot accept the current offers as the case handler is prioritising the debt over money coming to me. This means they're getting a lot more than the £3.75 a week they agreed and have been taking over the past 4 and half years.

They said if I don't accept then they'll credit the account anyway and send me a Deadlock letter for Ombudsman.

So, this complaint has gone from being almost resolved to more disputed. All because the case handlers changed which is not my fault but i'm being severely disadvantaged.

I don't want to take it to the Ombudsman as they're biased towards the energy supplier so, back to the start of this thread, i'm considering court action for the money i'm losing access to.

Any advice?