Gas Prepay Meter Help

daisiboo

Hi.

I would really like some advice if anyone can possibly help based on their knowledge and past experiences.

I have lived in the same house for 9 years. It is a 2 bedroom house with 6 radiators.
My gas bills have always been high in comparison to neighbours and friends.

My last direct debit bill was for £238 in Dec 2006. This was for 697 units used over 64 days. I have the heating on for 1 hour in the morning and 5 in the evening during the winter.

Due to personal circumstances I was unable to meet this and the previous bill and so in Jan 2007 I had a pre payment meter installed. My debt at this time was £465.

It was mutually understood that £7 would be taken as a time based repayment from the meter towards the debt.

I had always had the British Gas homecare cover plan so I arranged an engineer inspection as to why my bills were so expensive. He said it was the old inefficient boiler. On this advice, in April 2007 I paid £1300 for a top of the range Worcester combi condensing boiler. I expected on the engineers at BG and Worcester Bosch advice between 20-25% reduction on my gas bills. Even on an earlier British Gas bill is printed "Your bill could be up to 40% less with our new energy boilers".

Later the same month in April 2007 there was a gas leak and the engineer replaced the meter. I was never told until recently the debt was not transferred onto the replacement meter.

On average, today, I put £75-£80 on the meter a month at present. I have been under the impression I was paying my debt off as I was never told otherwise.

February 2008, I called BG to enquire about my debt current status. The operator said it was clear. So why was my bill so high? Then they said hold on, there was another debt on my account for...... £28,000!

They never got back to me within the 28 days. I experienced a month of absolute worry and panic

I chased them up, got passed from pillar to post, had a Worcester Bosch engineer and a Transco engineer visit. My system has no leaks, the boiler is good and the gas pressure is fine.

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Any ideas why my gas bills are so high?

Also, I was suspicious the meter was taking money even though BG operator told me the replacement meter from April 2007 wasn't set up to. When I did find out I hadn't been contributing to my debt since April 2007 I was shocked and the operator wanted to put the current outstanding debt of £400.06 onto this new meter. I honestly feel I have been paying for this! I feel helpless.

In another phone call the operator told me there were strange signals coming from my gas meter!!!

In an experiment, for the last few nights I shut off the gas supply to the house and turned off all gas appliances. I took the meter readings before bed and again in the morning. The readings from the previous night and the next morning were as expected exactly the same! (I hadn't used any gas!)

But the meter had taken 34 pence both nights.

I am deeply concerned for 2 reasons.

1. My gas bills are almost double every person I speak to. I have gone to every length I possibly can to ensure the gas system in the house is efficient. Nobody at BG can tell me why I am paying so much gas but EVERY operator/manager agrees my bills seem exceedingly high.

2. Why is the meter taking money every night when the readings haven't even gone up because no gas has been used. Once again nobody at BG can answer my question.

I am in the process of formulating a letter to go through energy watch, trading standards and the press.

I am deeply unhappy with the 28 day period clause added every time I call up and speak with an operator. Nobody wants to help me.

I am a single parent and want to pay my debt and switch, have a very tight budget, am spending far too much time trying to get some answers, but the problem is, especially after the 28K incident is that I have no faith in their billing systems or technical competence.

Aside, this current meter is marked as m3.

Regards,
All responses gladly appreciated.

EnergyMan_3

Hello

The reason your meter would have taken 34p over night, even though the meter readings didn't advance is because there is a standing charge on the meter. British Gas should have been able to tell you that. All pre-payment meters have standing charge and they work out more expensive than standard meters.

If British Gas have confirmed that all the settings on your meter are correct and that it is collecting the right amount of money, then it will be down to your gas usage.

Do you notice an increase in the amount of money you put in the meter in the winter? Or is it always high, even in months like May and June?

daisiboo

Thanks for your advice. My bills have always been high since I moved to this property nearly 10 years ago. I understand the 34p charge thingy but I still feel there is something wrong as I am very careful when/how long I put my central heating on. Is it the prepayment meter running away with the gas? Does anyone know the charges on a meter before you even get started using some gas? Is there a huge monetary advantage to being DD instead of the Prepayment meter per month? thank you.

onlymee_2

hi dasiboo, i have similar problems with my british gas prepay meter. I've stopped using any gas as I can't afford to use it, except for 1 hour when I treat myself to a bath each week :rolleyes: if I smell blame BG !

I dont use the meter but still each day it is 34p extra in debt even though the emergency credit is used up. so when the time comes to add my weekly bath treat credit of £5.00, most of it is taken by this phantom charge.

I received an updated T&C covering the new energy charges the other day (effective from Jan 2008) and there was no mention about a standing charge for prepay meters or 'pay as you go energy' as it is now termed.

why should the meter use credit if it is not being used, this is wrong. if any charges are being applied to cover collection of these charges by retailers then you should not have to pay any charges if you are not crediting the meter.

maybe the consumers should charge british gas each step they take to open the door for their meter readers, lets say £0.175 per cm for the first meter then £0.050 for each further cm. sorry for the sarcasim, I'd much rather be laughing at the situation than crying.

Scousebird_2

I think that British Gas are incompitent and have a complete lack of empathy for anyones circumstances. I had a complaint that went on for an entire year and I was passed from pillar to post, until in the end, I wrote to them with my intentions of legal action and they soon moved their backsides.

I really feel for your situation, it's completely out of order and is unexcusable the way you have been treated!!!!

SwanJon

I'll start with an apoplogy - the agent(s) should always be willing to try and find out what is going on.

As the the 34p thing, I only discovered this in the last few months, and I've worked with these meters (on and off) for about 5 years. I don't know if something changed at a recent price change, but it does sound like some (all?) of the meters are doing it.
They shouldn't have a standing charge - the billing system doesn't, and if you look at the screens on the meter it has the two prices for first & rest (screens 9 & 10). The difference between them x the daily threshold is 34p I think. I'm hoping it can be put back/resolved as it makes everything easier.
If you are being charged by the meter when not using gas, you should get the money back as you will be building up a credit on the billing system. They can send this back to your meter for you to use. Phone/email with a reading, when you last bought gas, and if you can screens, 00, 01, 02,03, 09, 10, 25, 26,27 (there's another one I can't remember - should say somethiing like 7.42(the daily threshold). (The more information you give, the easier it is to see what's going on.) Explain what is happening and what you want - don't come on shouting the odds but be firm.

Daisiboo - the £28 grand is obviously a mistake, probably from when the meter was swapped. The meters load info onto your card, and this gets passed back to the suppliers via the shop. This includes readings. No idea why the agent said these messages were strange, but they are nothing to worry about.
Your meter does not use any gas, only records it and charges based on the information programmed onto it.
As to the debt recovery - the old system had no way of checking if your meter didn't have the debt on it, but you'd have seen that the meter was giving you all you bought to use as gas. You could ask them to reduce the weekly recovery to help you out.
As your gas use has always been high I think you'd be better looking at insulation to cut back on what you use. How hot do you set the system, and does it ever get that warm? It might be that the boiler is working to heat up air that is being lost to outside, so it never switches off.
Sorry to ramble...

piglet29

Hello, sorry for the problems you are having, no advice to give really but just like to add there is something funny going on with these meters, we have had one for gas for the last two or three years now, last week i went to buy gas and the women in the shop could not put any money on the gas card as the machine was telling her i was £64,299 in credit!!!! (OMG i wish!!) and i had gone above my credit threshold!!!! She said she had never known this happen before, and tried it in a different machine and it worked ok!!!! I wish i had been that much in credit, but knowing my luck ( and BG:mad: ) they would say I owed them!!!

onlymee_2

thanks for that info swanjon, I will be checking those screen codes asap.