Credit balance refund and billing mistakes

luci

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81921880#Comment_81921880

I would go straight to the Ombudsman. If your supplier hasn't resolved the issue after all this time, what are the chances of them doing so if they are given more time?

I had an issue with So Energy. I allowed them to close my complaint, but they still didn't resolve it, so I raised another complaint. They said they would be doing xyz to resolve the issue, and asked if they could close the complaint. I told them I would only agree to it being closed once the issue was actually resolved. It still didn't happen, so I took it to the Ombudsman. My only regret was not doing that sooner.

Scot_39

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6651791/credit-balance-refund-and-billing-mistakes

From the date of the formal complaint - they have 8 weeks to resolve (seems unlikely) - before you can go to the Energy Ombudsman - to review the case - and hopefully force your supplier - to play ball.

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/complain-about-your-energy-supplier

https://www.energyombudsman.org/how-we-can-help/energy-suppliers/

If you are unsure - you could talk to say Citizens advice in the interim.

Wrap ?

You could work out the cost of the wrap - if you know the wrap point.

But at say 6p / kWh - £7000 - is 115,000 kWh - or just over 10,000 m3 or 3600(00) cubit feet - I think thats a factor of 10 out for many metric gas (new ones are 99,999 - five digit - so a wrap would give a 100,000 correction according to google - and the gas - well thats just not a 999… to 000… wrap type number). But it the meter wrapped at 9,999 to 0000 m3 - maybe so.

Seems a Pain

Old meters can be a pain - it's too easy sometimes to read a not quite fully flipped digit as the current from an angle even more so - and so add 10,100,1000 to reality. Its likely so common - it should be more easy to quickly resolve.

What is their current estimate - and what is your last reading.

I've known them to ask for photos and then send out a reader anyway.

Supplier - doesnt really matter

[But this sounds like what Scottish Gas did - they ignored real readings - and used in our case old lower use estimates - and once ignored the first - kept on going for 2.5 years.

We got all 5 sets of readings back - all logged on her account - none applied to bills - as part of the complaint process.

Leaving account a year in debit when corrected. Sadly long before backbilling came in.

Wouldnt be so bad if it was just us they mistrusted - but they even ignored 2 of the meter companies too (on PSR, so 12m then 6m reads)

]

luci

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81923213#Comment_81923213

The OP has said that the supplier has acknowledged that 8 weeks have passed and that they can now raise with the Ombudsman.

ElwoodBlues

I have escalated to ombudsman, hopefully they can encourage the supplier to fix things. How long does it usually take for the ombudsman to get going with a complaint? I've just sat down and worked through all the account history, and this is what I've got to:

I'm still none the wiser as to how they have calculated that I'm £7000 in debit. My last bill was Nov last year with their estimated reading that was 7500kwh higher than my actual meter reading at the time. That bill also said I was in credit to the tune of about £600, so that plus the 7500kwh worth of gas must total a credit balance of about £1100 at that point. Obviously there's recent usage since Nov to add on, but I've also continued making monthly dd payments so that should offset quite a bit of the recent usage.

And now on my online account there's the mysterious rewinding of the meter reading, so they've double charged me for 64,000kwh (£4200 at current unit rate). But they've also now accepted my recent meter readings in place of their own high estimates, and that works out to a refund of about £300. And I've paid about £350 by monthly dd since last bill too. So adding those figures together:

1100 -4200 +300 +350 would give a debit balance of about -£2500 on my account. I mean there's a quarters worth of electric and the gas standing charge to add in too, but it's still nowhere near the -£7000 debit balance they're showing. I think that, discounting the 42000, and including recent usage, my account should be about £1300 in credit. So there's about an £8000 discrepancy between my supplier's calculations and mine.

luci

The Ombudsman accepted my case the day after I submitted it. It did take a couple of months to be fully resolved, as there's a lot of toing and froing between the Ombudsman, the supplier and yourself.

t0rt0ise

It took the ombudsman ages to get going with my complaint. And it's now taking ages, 6 weeks and counting for a judgement. This even after the other side has agreed they were hopeless. It's not a fast process.

ElwoodBlues

Supplier has completely failed to make any progress with this issue. I opened a case with the ombudsman (who took nearly 3 weeks to accept it and start the ball rolling, so supplier would have been none the wiser until that point). Supplier now has 14 days to respond to my case. So I'm waiting to see if they can move any faster with the ombudsman up their !!!!!!.

t0rt0ise

My judgement is in. British Gas have to stop sending me bills for a meter that isn't mine, find out where it is and correct the national database and pay me £450. We shall see.

ElwoodBlues

I can see the supplier's response to my case on the ombudsman's website (but I can't see their evidence yet, only my own). This is what their response states:

DMEX/manual bill process was needed and completed.

The account has now been passed to backbilling to review.

Their proposed remedy is to "review for backbilling principles" and to offer "a repayment plan considering affordability" What does review for backbilling principles mean? I still confident that I'm significantly in credit, even with recent usage, yet they make no mention of returning any credit balance to me! They haven't billed me for 6 months, despite me providing several meter readings, as they requested. The last bill made available to me showed a substantial credit on it, and it also used estimated readings with about £400 worth of gas above my current reading right now. They say their manual bill process is complete, but I've no idea what these 'manually generated' bills look like.

So it's not clear whether they've accepted my meter readings or are still billing to estimates that are way over. If they're generated newer, up to date, corrected bills, then why aren't they showing on my account on their website? 

The supplier comments mention to see the attached bills and evidence, but not visible to me yet. Do I get to see the evidence that the supplier has provided to the ombudsman at some point?

ElwoodBlues

Well, my case has taken a bit of a strange turn. I submitted my evidence to the ombudsman - copies of bills received from the supplier, photo's of recent meter readings, screenshots of the insane figures on their portal (which have mysteriously disappeared since). My supplier has also uploaded their own evidence and I can now view their revised calculations.

I've been with them for 5 years, and they're now saying that the gas transfer reading was incorrect (presume that's the opening meter reading from when they took over the supply?) So they've thrown away 5 years of billing, and recalculated it all based on estimated readings that they've completely made up. They've estimated the opening reading as being 120,000 kwh lower than it actually was! The original opening reading they had was correct. So now they're double charging me for 120,000kwh of gas that I had already paid previous suppliers for (and we're going back 20 years to get to when this reading actually was), and they're double charging me for 15 years worth of gas.

According to their estimated readings, I've been using about 30,000kwh of gas a year for the last 5 years. Surely no ones going to think that's correct? (I live in a small 2 bed terrace in the SW, so mild winters, house is empty at weekends, I've got a smart thermostat, use a wood burner for additional heat in the winter, and I don't use any hot water - electric shower and dishwasher). I could turn my thermostat up to 30 degrees and open all the windows, and I still couldn't use that much gas.

Luckily I've got a record of my meter readings going back that far, and I've also kept most of the bills from my previous suppliers, so I can show that I've already paid for the gas used for these meter readings. I've now got 4 days to respond to the ombudsman with comments about the supplier's 'evidence'. But I can't upload more evidence myself (I never thought 20 years worth of old bills from previous suppliers would be in any way relevant so I didn't supply them already). So how do I counter that the current suppliers claims are completely fictitious?