Help With My Billing Query Please!!!

TEENY

I havent posted on here before so i dunno if im doing it right so i apologise in advance if this is wrong. I switched over to British Gas ages ago and now i have just recieved a bill from my previous supplier sayin that i owe them money.:eek: The most confusing part is that i am on a prepayment meter !!! Does anyone know what i can do about this ? Thanks

loobylou2

Hi

I work for BG and first of all can I say that I"m sorry you are having problems, hope you get them sorted out soon. I"m not an expert in prepayment metering as I deal mainly with credit queries but my understanding is that if you have a prepayment meter and change suppliers and there is an outstanding debt on the account then you get a bill. Also it may be that your previous supplier has billed to an incorrect final reading. Did you take a note of the reading when you switched and also have you kept receipts for payments because its possible that the payments haven't been posted correctly and could have been misdirected for example if you paid for your BG Gas using an N Power payment card then N power would receive your payments and not BG. A lot of confusion often arises out of this kind of situation but can usually be sorted out pretty quickly.

I would contact your previous supplier and BG to check Supply start and End dates and take it from there because the dates and readings that both companies are using should match and if not you would need to request that a dispute be raised. Be warned though because of the processes involved it can take about 60 working days to get this kind of thing resolved but your old company should put a block on your account with them to prevent you from getting reminders/follow up letters etc.


Hope this helps and that you get it sorted soon.

Ken68

Hi Teeny, if the prepayment meter is not set up to the current rates, you could possibly owe them money. However, tis their fault for not keeping on top of things, so you may well not have to pay, or at least be given time to pay.
If you feel things are not right you may go to Energywatch and record a complaint. Depending on how much the debt is, your supplier may well abandon the recovery.

TEENY

tHE MOST CONFUSING THING IS THAT bg said that they would sort out the change over and they read my meter and said that they would pass the details on to southern elec and i didnt use new card til the new supply start date and there was no debt on the meter (How many times did i use and then !!!) I cannot see what more i could have done. Thankyou for your useful info tho i will ring BG and SE tomorrow and see what they have to say. Thanks again

Ken68

Put it into writing as well, TEENY, if it ever gets to Energywatch ruling this confirms you are trying yourself to clear up a mess not of your doing. Bunny points.

hpsaucey

I have been on prepayment meters for over 10 years and have changed suppliers twice i that time both for the following reasons: unless you already owe money on a previous bill and you carnt afford to pay it back they wll give you a prepayment meter ad take so much off you a week[it depends on circustaces but if u r on benefits its about £2.70 per week] after that you should be only pying for what u use. The reason I changed from BG was every 3 months I would get a bill for £60-80 that I supposidly owed BG.[no outstanding debt on my meter either] Customer servises was terrible held on for 20-30mins at cost to me only to be told 2 wait for next bill all will be sorted out and lo and behold next bill would be for £100+ until i threatened them with energywatch. eventually it was sorted out and i owed them nothing so changed to powergen only for the same to appen. HOW DO U GET THRU TO PEOPLE IF YOU DONT OWE THEM MONEY WHEN YOU lst change over you only pay for what ypu use on prepayment meters. anyway powergen were exactly the same as BG so I am now with EDF which up to now[touch wod] are wonderful. I get a statement every 3 months only telling me how much gas/electri i use every day. no demands and necter points which up to now has been worth 12.50 a year. as long as this continues i will stay with them. A lot of these prepayments suppliers hope everyone will just pay and not question the bills they received so keep checking your meter readings and bills.

SwanJon

TEENY wrote: »

I switched over to British Gas ages ago and now i have just recieved a bill from my previous supplier sayin that i owe them money.:eek: The most confusing part is that i am on a prepayment meter !!! Does anyone know what i can do about this ? Thanks

Do you have a meter that takes paper tokens?
These were the ones that needed someone to change the prices manually, and if they came round when you weren't in, theyt didn't neccesarily come back for another 3 months (etc).

If your meter was programmed with old (cheaper) prices then you weren't paying enough.

3 of the big 6 will write off this difference (for now), the others won't - good luck.