Unexpected Enormous Electricity Bill - British Gas

QrizB

AmyK said:

Our bills did say estimate on them but we had no reason to believe that they were estimated incorrectly - we had not been asked for meter readings, we were in huge credit with plenty of option for British Gas to raise the issue with us.

If your bills said estimate, and not actual, then they've clearly been estimated and are unreliable.

Estimated bills should be seen as a prompt for the customer to read the meter and submit an actual reading.

AmyK said:

Please do not assume that we have been stupid or irresponsible and read what has been written - it's very clear that we haven't been trying to skew anything. 

Not stupid, not irresponsible, but naive?

There's at least one regular poster on this board (see @Robin9 who has replied above) with a signature which reads "Never pay on an estimated bill". Estimated bills are a clear sign that your billing is wrong.

badmemory

Unfortunately you have fallen victim to the "smart meters are all knowing" scenario.  They are not & often seem not to work properly.  No matter what they say never ever stop reading your own meters.  They can stop working at the drop of a hat & the only one who has a problem with that is you.

EssexHebridean

It certainly sounds like your supplier have mislead you by telling you that a) you have smart meters and b) that they were getting readings from those meters. I’d say regardless of anything else, a complaint about that might be worth a shot - after all any form of goodwill payment you might get by way of an apology is going to help.  If you have notes of the meter readings you did give, then make sure to check those against the bills too and see if they have been used - and if you have given readings when promoted and they have NOT been used, then that is another aspect to the complaint.

While all the comments about checking bills etc are factually correct, they’re probably not particularly helpful right now - it’s something that I’m sure you will realise for the future now, but I’m sure we’ve all made mistakes of this type in the past.

BoGoF

EssexHebridean said:

It certainly sounds like your supplier have mislead you by telling you that a) you have smart meters and b) that they were getting readings from those meters. I’d say regardless of anything else, a complaint about that might be worth a shot - after all any form of goodwill payment you might get by way of an apology is going to help.  If you have notes of the meter readings you did give, then make sure to check those against the bills too and see if they have been used - and if you have given readings when promoted and they have NOT been used, then that is another aspect to the complaint.

While all the comments about checking bills etc are factually correct, they’re probably not particularly helpful right now - it’s something that I’m sure you will realise for the future now, but I’m sure we’ve all made mistakes of this type in the past.

My reading is that apart from the opening readings they gave no further meter readings and assumed that the 'smart' readings were going through despite the fact that the bills received saying they were in fact estimated.

MWT

MeteredOut said:

OP, read up on back billing rules. You *might* be able to get away with usage more than a year old. 

Unlikely that will be much help as they say they were initially 'overpaying' to build up credit, and the supplier is allowed to use that credit to cover the actual use in those early months that precede the last 12 months...

The most useful advice at this point is to check the meter readings that have been used and make sure the very high bill is actually accurate...

dunstonh

Just to be very clear - we reduced our direct debit because we had built up significant credit by paying more than we needed in the beginning,

But that was based on estimates rather than actual readings.     Estimates are more likely to be wrong than right.

Please do not assume that we have been stupid or irresponsible and read what has been written - it's very clear that we haven't been trying to skew anything. 

No-one is suggesting that.  However, naivety is probably a fairer thing to suggest.   Think of this as a learning exercise.

you are in control of your energy use.  You should aim to know what it is and why it is like that.  BG may have used estimates based on the previous tenant who didn't use much.   There is absolutely no way BG or any energy company can estimate YOUR usage when they have no history on you.  Often it takes 3-4 years before an energy company actually starts getting estimates in the reasonable ballpark. 

We categorically cannot afford this bill, and we now have absolutely no credit to cushion any further billing.

Then you need to arrange a budget plan with them to pay it back over a period.

It is not our fault that BG have underestimated our usage, 

It isn't their fault, either.   

You say you gave readings but the bills were based on estimates.  Did any of the readings actually get used on any bills?  
Is the current bill an estimate or actual reading?

AmyK

Why would we have had any cause to doubt the estimates? BG told us from the start that we did not need to take further meter readings, that our smart meter was reading correctly and that it was safe to take our direct debit down, the bills matched our previous residence in terms of energy usage costs (which considering we have no new equipment makes sense), and we did the responsible thing of building up as much credit as we could. It would be one thing if it were a couple of hundred quid - we could chalk that up to experience, but £2000 is a heavy punishment for something we had no reason to be hyper-vigilant about.
We are not energy-greedy, we take a lot of care with the output that we require for our jobs and home lives, and had we been made aware of this as a situation, we would have made further sacrifices - we believed our usage to be within our budget. Again - what would possibly have given us cause prior to this  to treat this with the caution being suggested here? The most that can be suggested is that we shouldn't have done as we were told.
Even the customer service representative on the phone described it as 'appalling' and has lodged a complaint on our behalf.
In terms of the 'estimate' on our bill, we were told when we checked at the start that this meant that the company was estimating what the bill would be for that period, but that the payment we would be charged soon after would be reflective of the true amount. 
If we should have been taking meter readings monthly and comparing them - it's clear that we haven't been party to that knowledge. This wasn't made clear to us, by the energy company or otherwise. It's not like we would have just ignored that kind of information - we didn't want this. I would much rather have known, and sacrificed more of our usage to avoid it happening. 
I appreciate everyone who has responded with kindness and helpful information - it's very kind of you to give up your time. We are currently away from the house but we will be checking all meter readings that we can once we're back and will let you know how it turns out. 

AmyK

PS. 2 posts in 10 years on MSE is good going, though hopefully you'll come back and give others an update this time - threads like this are great not just for those getting the support, but also for others who might be going through the same situation, and letting them know the outcome is a way of paying back that help.

Of course - once we've managed to work it out I'll come back and let others know how it has resolved. 

Spoonie_Turtle

AmyK said:

In terms of the 'estimate' on our bill, we were told when we checked at the start that this meant that the company was estimating what the bill would be for that period, but that the payment we would be charged soon after would be reflective of the true amount. 

This was the main mistake.  What exactly did you do to 'check', was this information from BG?

Estimates are inherently 'dubious' - the reason to doubt them is they cannot possibly be accurate.  They are calculated based on assumptions.  The only accurate bills use meter readings (or actual half-hourly usage information from the meter, still a kind of reading, in a way).

Unfortunately we live in a world where you do have to check everything you're told.  Customer service reps aren't always properly trained so even though they may not be deliberately lying, they can still be giving wrong information.

A bit painful to learn that lesson this way, but now you know better for the future.

NorfolkCanary

A couple of Q's in addition to earlier members comments,

Does the additional bill cover the full ~18 months of ownership, or a proportion of?

How long were high Direct Debits going out for, to build up £800 credit?

Given you mention a build up of credit, I'm assuming you were on a fix, do you have a tariff name from a bill?

AmyK said:

We gave a meter reading, and set our direct debit as suggested by British Gas.

As part of this, did you provide B.G. an estimate of your expected yearly usage in kWh for them to calculate the monthly DD amount, or was that based on a BG estimate based on property size, occupancy & heating type?

Going through the complaints procedure with BG could ultimately provide a goodwill gesture deducted from the bill amount, though as mentioned it seems probable that the outstanding amount would need to be repaid either through raised DDs for an agreed period or through lump sum.