General Chat

Energy suppliers??? I have (another) saga!

My provider was one that disappeared, and British Gas was, once again, foisted upon me. However, I DO know, I was over £200 in credit with the previous supplier.
I tried to log in to my online account, only to be constantly informed there were ‘technical issues’. This meant I couldn’t set up a direct debit, or see my bill - or even my account number.

Then I received a phone call informing me I owed £89, and had to pay it immediately. I pointed out that I couldn’t see y account etc etc – ‘Oh was the reply, yes, we are having problems, but you need to pay your bill’. ‘Okay’, says I. ‘So I pay my bill without knowing how it was worked out, or even knowing my account number?’ Apparently so. ‘What about my credit – can’t the bill be taken out of that?’ Apparently not, as it hasn’t been ‘processed’ yet.

Well, against my better judgement, I phone back and pay the bill, but demand a paper copy of ALL bills, including the one where BG took over, and my money back.

When I heard nothing, I went into their ‘chat’ room where I was informed I couldn’t have another account using the same email address! She also offered to set up a direct debit – which I refused. When I mentioned the credit – I was timed out. I waited for another ‘bot’, who also ‘timed out’ when I mentioned the credit, so I sent off an official complaint, which directed me t their ‘help’ page.

Then I received notice of my direct debit. I phoned about this, as I’d said I hadn’t wanted one set up, but decided what the heck, but wanted the date monies were to be taken out changed. They wanted £80 a month - £20 more than I had been paying. I phoned, she checked the details – it had been set up with another person’s account – it wasn’t even my bank!,

Then, despite saying I wanted to be contacted by email, I received texts about my complaint – which suddenly stopped when I mentioned the credit owed.

Last week, I received my revised direct debit details. The date had been changed, as had the amount – now it was £137 – but STILL from the wrong account!
For some unknown reason. I asked for the direct debit to be stopped.
I also received a paper bill – BG had (of course) underestimated my last ‘reading’ so the bill was more than it should have been! Oh yes, I DO have a smart ,meter – put in for the last tenant - but no handset, but BG have never managed the ‘automatic’ reading lark.

I just want to change providers, but while BG are playing silly b*ggers, it isn’t too easy.
I had a phone call 10 days ago from BG about all this, The lady gave me her email address to contact her, which I did, last Sunday, pointing out all the failures.
I received an automatic reply, saying they would reply within 3 days. I'm still waiting......

I have not been overly concerned about our monthly payment because I read our meters and I knew that we were £190 in credit as at 1 January, which I left as I knew bills were rising and we still had two colder months to come (if March was fine).

However, now I’ve read up, I expect our bill to rise by about the same amount as Belle’s as the energy price cap has risen to a max of 54% - and it could rise again around October.

There are calls for our government to reduce or abolish VAT on our bills which would mean a reduction in our monthly payments - but I am not holding out much hope of that happening!

Maddie, the sum of £1981 the energy company wants from you amounts to around £82 per month if your meter was read just before lockdown in March 2030. Does this seem to be an excessive amount for energy use when added to the monthly payments you have made?

For example, if I had been paying around £20 per month I would have expected a big bill. If I had been paying £60 per month I would query that £1981 was a too-high figure - unless you have the heating on all the time.

One final thought, if you feel that all other ducks are in a row - has anyone tapped into your electricity supply?

Maggie!!!! What a saga. Good grief, I would be tearing my hair out by now. Although eventually after moving last May, Im now with Utilita, i checked my old a/c with SSE and there are still 2 dormant accounts from my last 2 addresses despite me asking many times to close them...they are at zero but still remain open.

It is a nightmare when you move house isn't it? You can just cancel the d/d if you wish through your on line banking or tel your bank to do it. This would stop them taking any more money until its sorted. have you gone to the Ombudsman? i did this and they were very helpful its just the procedure takes weeks.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Florence in the hebrides

Not much solace for Maggie but she is not alone:

/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10584497/Thousands-customers-let-switching-energy-suppliers-British-Gas-survey-suggests.html

Florence, the main problem is, the direct debit isn't set up to MY bank account, it's someone elses!

Names - I'm not surprised :-|
I want to change to Octopus.

Well it would seem that they are going to want an extra £951 a year from me. :-0

Is that what you thought the figure might be Gwyn?
What new units prices have you been given? Because these figure are based on you using the same amount of electric just at the higher unit price. So if you are able to reduce your daily usage by just say 2 units, that will bring it down.

Given that we are almost in Spring, you will use less for heating up until the Autumn so that will keep the bills down and those savings will help next winter.

My company does not have a daily standing charge, but slightly higher unit prices but its still cheaper than SSE who I was with for over 25 years.

Maggie, are you saying someone else will be paying money to your BG account from their bank account? Oh my goodness, what a shambles!! Really how difficult is it to set up! You give your bank details over the phone and it should only take a few minutes

I have come to the conclusion that moving house in regards to electricity accounts and telephone are the most stressful things to sort out. I have moved twice in 5 years and both times I had problems.

Florence in the hebrides

The biggest chunk of my proposed increase is for Gas ( we cook by gas and have hot water and central heating)
Standing charges for both electricity and Gas are increasing too.

For electricity, I have what used to be called Economy 7.and usually do all the washing at off-peak rate.
I'm always awake early enough to boil the kettle ( not too much water !) on the night rate too for my morning hot drink.
I think I am already mindful about keeping costs down, but will sit down with daughter and decide whether or not we need to change tarriffs / supplier.

Martin Lewis is suggesting that the October rise will be the same size. But I couldn’t find any reference to changing tariffs.

However, he does say if you are on a DD then you should give in a meter reading on 31st and state this needs to be charged on the rate of that date not the first of April.

Yes my dad has gas the same as you but he thankfully capped his rate until next year so lucky for him the rise wont affect him yet.

Difficult one deciding what to do given that switching over to a different supplier is supposed to be painless and quick etc but it would seem thats not quite the case reading other people's experiences including my own!

Florence in the hebrides

well my saga still goes on, no explaination
this what i got

I am so sorry for the delay in sending this email. The reason for the elec deficit of over £1000 is because of what the elec meter reader gave us on the 15th of Feb of 42330. Last read we got on 30th of Sept was 39202. Which means that we have underestimated your usage and this is a catch up bill between those dates.

We are aware that you are ona budget plan, so your budget plan went up to £345+ per month. If you are questioning about the usage, I have sent a link to you about energy efficiency advice about electricity appliances. https://uw.co.uk/legal/energy-information/efficiency-advice

what year are they talking about
checked december bills
estimate december 2020 - 27684
december 2021 - 31012
neither are near the last reading of 39202 in september

still waiting for their calculations

sent another e-mail today but i wonder if the person dealing with this has any more idea than i have as to how these figurews are reached

Was the December 2021 an estimate or was it read by the meter person?

both estimates
but if it is 2021 they must have their estimate wrong so how can i accept what they say without some proof

Surely an estimate is just that. A guess at how much they think you have used. Now you appear to have had the meter read twice. So why didn’t they chase you after the September reading.

Have your circumstances changed so that you now need much more heating than you used to and have you asked them to add you to the over 65 list? If you now need that extra heating you need to make sure you are their vulnerable register.

thank you didnt know about the vunerable register
heating cost should have gone down as ci has a new biler fitted oct 2020

I have just been looking at the avergae elctricity usage on various sites and the average for a flat seems to be no more than 3000KWH. (if I've read it right).

I wonder if something went wrong when your new boiler was put in. Or are you paying for other flats as well?

just the one

Maddie, try the Energy Ombudsman,.

You could give your supplier notice of your intention and ask whether he'd like to read the meter again and check whether anyone has tapped into your supply.

Unless you have been paying a ridiculously small amount (say £10 per month), I don't see how you can now owe £1981 without something or someone going wrong somewhere.

We've just moved into a house with solar panels and the theory is that we get paid for any electricity which we feed back into the grid. Unfortunately we do not have a battery storage system so our panels only produce direct power power, but we are not big power users anyway.

The gas is by Direct debit taken monthly from our account with the amount being adjusted after each reading of the meter

Just got the notice of increase due to the raising of the price cap and the annual dual fuel estimate is about £4,100.
Not long ago the annual cost was about £1,800.
Shame my pension increase will be nowhere near £150 a month.