Estimated Bills

Nod

I have recently recieved an electric bill for £366 because EON have been estimating my bills since October 2006. I spoke to the complaints department and stated that i was unhappy because i'm now being charged for electricity at present prices rather than the prices i would have paid for it over the course of the past 18 months. They then took off all the estimated bills from their records and averaged it out which took £16 off my bill. They should do this automatically but they don't so if the same happens to you, make sure you ask for it!

They should read them out of office hours anyway and should be able to estimate bills better than they do (apparently my consumption has only gone up marginally from the previous year so how can they get it so wrong?!).

mute_posting

Welcome to the forums Nod.

Glad you managed to sort out your billing.

Is always good money saving practice to keep an eye on your bills and provide "actual" readings to utility suppliers whenever you are billed on estimates. Imagine if your credit card or bank account was billed on estimates! People should view their utility bills in the same frame of mind.

I'm also with Eon and have had all estimated bills since I bought my property (despite the meter being in the public access communal area and thus available for meter readers to read at any time). As I was not living at the property for the first few bills (was rennovating) these bills were grossly over estimated for my usage.

I never had a problem with them when I phoned the actual readings and they always re-apportioned usage accross different unit prices (after price changes) based on the average actual usage / day. (since last bill)

The last bill, I even sneaked slightly in my favour by over stating my readings thus paying for some of the next quarters electricity at the old prices.

Consumer revenge lol

Am also (now I've moved in) changing supplier and moving onto monthly DD to save money.

MP

SwanJon

mute's right - always give them an actual read if they estimate it.

If you don't challenge an estimated reading, how are they to know that it is inaccurate?

Meter readers are people like everyone else. They're not going to work antisocial (out of office) hours without being paid for it, and that means we (customers) would be paying for it. They'd also have less time to do it in, so they'd need to employ more people. How much extra would you pay for them to come round in the evenings?