British Gas - Pay your incorrect bill or get a black mark on your credit record!

trumpeter_2

Dual bill, gas correct
electricity estimate wrong - there was a number after a decimal point, which my meter doesn't have (ignoring correct reading submitted on time).
I paid the gas part of the bill and asked for a corrected electricity bill.
Months later (I had transferred to UW) still no corrected bill, still showing incorrect reading on my account; but unpaid bill marked on my credit history.
Was I being unreasonable in my demand for a correct bill before paying? 

DE_612183

no, but ignoring subsequent reminders to pay is not the way to go.

Swipe

I would not have switched supplier until it had been resolved. Sounds like a nightmare situation now.

MeteredOut

You were not unreasonable in asking for a correct bill, but leaving for another provider whilst still in debit to the previous company is what has caused the issue. Rather than waiting months, you should have contacted the energy ombudsman after 8 weeks.

I'm surprised you were allowed to transfer suppliers whilst in debit though.

trumpeter_2

Thanks very much for your comments.

It's a longer story that I wasn't going to bore you all with:
I had switched to BG but cancelled the switch (within a week). But BG refused to cancel and instead insisted on switching me away. The amount of inaccuracy in the bill was trivial, so I was only trying to get things tidied up by waiting for the correct bill.

DE_612183 I responded to every reminder with a request for the correct bill. I've still not seen one, though I've now cleared the amount BG said was outstanding. Hopefully that will show on my credit history in due course.

All the best

t0rt0ise

As long as the meter reading on leaving BG and the start reading at the new supplier are the same there's no problem. Were they?

CouldntResist

I hope the trivial discrepancy you mention is more than just having a decimal place figure on an otherwise correct meter reading else you have created a load of hassle for yourself for no good reason.

How many units of error are we talking about in the estimate that was being used?

trumpeter_2

t0rt0ise said:

As long as the meter reading on leaving BG and the start reading at the new supplier are the same there's no problem. Were they?

Nope, and BG never did get around to correcting it!

trumpeter_2

CouldntResist said:

I hope the trivial discrepancy you mention is more than just having a decimal place figure on an otherwise correct meter reading else you have created a load of hassle for yourself for no good reason.

How many units of error are we talking about in the estimate that was being used?

The meter reading was out by around 10% of the total. I mentioned the number after the decimal point because that provided incontrovertible evidence that the BG number wasn't even a proper estimate.

I don't think you can accuse me of creating the hassle when it BG failed to provide an accurate bill and then registered a black mark on my credit record for not paying the inaccurate one! Remember that I DID pay the gas part of the bill, so BG already had a part-payment on my account. But rather than produce an accurate bill, BG registered an inaccurate, part-paid bill as unpaid. I really don't think I'm in any way in the wrong here!

CouldntResist

My meter doesn't have any decimal digits but if I were to calculate a mid-month average from a month start and end reading it will almost certainly have a decimal place in it as would a projection to the next month. So saying there was a decimal place in BGs figure in no way is 'incontrovertible evidence' that it wasn't a proper estimate 

You said 'the amount of inaccuracy in the bill was trivial', now it was 10% of reading (which could still be trivial) but you still haven't said how many units it was out by.

t0rt0ise

A decimal point in an estimated reading is usual so that's not an issue. It's really up to the new supplier to ensure that the starting read is the same as the final reading from the previous supplier. What does the new supplier say?