Help!!

sweetiesarahjaneuk

Hiya,

Hope someone can help me Im so scared!! I switched to swalec in 2006 through Uswitch. Somefrom from swalec came and took my meter readings and went from there.

I noticed that every bill I had the readings were something like 7000 when they were actually 3000 odd so I kept ringing with actual meter reading and they said they'd sort it.

Anyway today I received a new bill saying I owed them £750 :eek: odd but it only showed 2 payments over the 14 or so months when I'd been paying every month. I just rang and they said oh those payments are on previous bills but the new bill shows payments from late 07 and early 08 and none in between so I was a bit confused?

I've told them I would complain because they said it was my fault as I'd given them the wrong meter reading when I moved in but it was their swalec meter reading guy who did it so would I have a leg to stand on? I know the answer is probably no but I just feel that it was their person who came and did the reading and I've paid faithfully every month without fail and provided them with actual readings every time I've had a bill.

Sorry for the rant just wondering if anyone had any advice on how to go about it? I've been given a complaint address but Im not sure what to say!!

Thanks,

Sarah x

Premier_2

Don't worry too much.

From what I can understand, you have 2 issues.

1. The initial meter reading. You would have hoped an official meter reader would read & record the meter correctly wouldn't you. But I guess like all of us, even they can make the odd mistake now and again. From the readings you have regularly supplied, swalec should be able to estimate quite accurately what the correct meter reading should have been when you switched.

2. Swalec appear to have lost or somehow mis-appropriated your payments. As you have been paying monthly, I assume you've done so by Direct Debit and hence have proof payments have been made (your bank can supply old statements if necessary).

sweetiesarahjaneuk

Hi Premier,

Thanks for replying - they've said they do have a record of my payments on their system but it doesnt show on the new bill but the £750 owed still stands?

They also don't seem to have a record of my meter readings supplied over this time except the last one and have made up their own estimation on what they think I've recently used from my last reading - which is over the winter period!

I currently pay £54 a month on a tiny 2 bed house so they must think I spend over £200 a quarter on gas alone? Seeing as I only use it for central heating which is on timed and have an electric cooker I find it a bit excessive? I never paid that much even with British gas which was about £60 something a month so I may as well never had switched if it cost me more!!

Sarah x

Premier_2

To be honest, £54.00 per month for even a very small 2 bed house is not much for gas & electric. I'm sure you probably use more than £162 per quarter in gas & electricity.

The only way you can really resolve this is to start from the beginning, but you really need copies of all the bills to do this.

Ignore what you have paid and just look at what you have consumed.
(if the initial reading is clearly wrong, you may need to make your own estimate for now at what it probably was)

Then you need to calculate the cost of all the power you have used. This is where the bills are necessary because there would have been some price changes over the 2 years. Also you need the gas conversion factors from each bill, but these are probably negligible in the whole scheme of things.

Once done, you'll have a price for how much power you have consumed since changing to Swalec.

Now what you all to do is add up all the payments made.

Finally, deduct the total of the payments made from the cost of power consumed and that will tell you whether you owe any money.

If the answer you come up with does not suggest you have underpaid by £750 or thereabouts, you need to get Swalec to prove you owe them any money, hopefully based on the similar calculation laid out in full so that you can comapre any differences.

sweetiesarahjaneuk

Hi Premier,

Sorry if unclear but the £54 a month is for gas only - I pay £40 a month on electricity on top of this so we're talking about £300 per quarter for both! Im even £100 in credit with the electric as there's nobody home to use it most of the time!!

I think I'll be spending my weekend digging out all the bills and trying to work out something! I've kept the bills but not my actual meter readings as I suppose I trusted them to have a note of them on their system like they said they did (lesson learnt for future!).

Thanks for replying again!!

Sarah x