AIBU to feel like I am being harassed by electricity company?... how much do you use?

[1Catherine1]

Today I received my electricity bill. Somehow they always manage to time it so that it arrives on a Saturday so I can't phone them and explain to them what a bunch of incompetent fools they all are.

I live in a 2 bed flat with my OH. The bill I received runs from 19th October to the 19th January. The bill for this period is £362.12 for 3826 units. Anyone else think that sounds a little much?

This is not the first time they have harassed me in this manner. In November they sent me a bill for £300+ for a property I used to live at, knowing I had paid it already I ignored it. At the end of the November they sent me a final demand and threat of a court summons from the previous address but this time only for £100, they then also sent me a notice of disconnection for my currant property if I didn't pay the £90 they claimed I owed them - I didn't owe them this as I was waiting for a revised bill since I wasn't paying 3 estimated bills in a row. Anyway, after hours on the phone calling their expensive 0845 number and being left on hold 20 minutes at a time I fixed it all. Without sending them a penny the demands for £390 turned into a cheque for me of £46. Looks like I was right after all. I still believe they owe me more than this but the bills and documentation I requested seem to have been lost in the post.

Unfortunately my meter is located in next doors property (I live in rented and we share a landlord). I don't know them and I don't feel comfortable invading their house to check my meter every time my bill arrives.

AIBU to expect the company to send me a reasonable bill? I'm sick of chasing them and paying for their mistakes via my phone bill.

Thanks for all your replies. I was ranting before, I'm 6 months pregnant so get overly hormonal and upset for little things

I know the bill is too much. My heating is gas and this bill is electricity only. I'm crazy about saving energy all the time. I don't leave a room without switching the lights off, I unplug my charger when I'm not using it and I go mad at the OH for leaving the radio on for my cats when we go out. I even do all my washing on the same day as to not give my dryer time to cool down between cycles. This only got me all upset because of the hassle I had last month arguing with them over who owed who money. It was very stressful as the woman insisted I owed them money and I had to explain to her like I would a 10 year old how if the amount paid is greater than the sum of all my bills then they owe me money. By the end I did get rather condescending but then she got my point and "found" the missing payments.

I have decided to go next door tomorrow and have a little chat with her. I haven't actually seen this meter anyway so I will be interested to find out where hers is if mine is there. I suppose it isn't a lot to ask to gain access 4 times a year just to read a meter, making a bigger deal out of it than I should.

Feeling a lot more relaxed and calm now. Am surprised at the variety of bills you all seem to have. Some of you seem to be paying ridiculous amounts for your electricity, I am stuck with SSE as its rented property and I can't change suppliers without consent from landlord and since he won't even give me permission to put up blinds or curtains in the bedroom or fix the leak in the roof he's unlikely to grant permission for this either.

Oh, finally... in reply to the comment about 0845 numbers not being more expensive than others, I would like to direct you to two separate campaigns from well known consumer protection groups campaigning against them

BBC: Watchdog
Which?

Have a read of the articles if you don't believe they are more expensive and a total rip off. I pay £5 a month on top of my line rental for free unlimited land-land calls to the UK and certain parts of Europe. My OH can spend an hour talking to his mum in Spain for nothing and I phone them and pay over £5 to be left on hold!! If they had a normal number (01 or 02) I could call them for nothing. It isn't fair to have to pay to complain. And that isn't the hormones talking.

Never underestimate the power of a letter in these sorts of situations.

It took me two years to try and get a correct bill out of severn trent.

I only made progress when I requested an address to send a complaint too and wrote a 3 page letter detailing what I had paid, what I thought I still owed, how many times I'd contacted them previously, dates of all the incorrect bills I'd received etc. I got about 80 pounds compensation at the end of it all. Far more productive than all the phone calls I'd made previously, I only wish I'd resorted to letter writing earlier.

Your bill seems ridiculously high..

Before you go next door tomorrow, can you switch off every Electrical item in your house at the plug(the fridge will be fine for 5 mins)..Then when you find your meter,check to see if the wheelie thing is still going around or units still increasing-if they are you're paying for someone elses electricity!..

Yes, 0845 numbers are expensive.

Add up the cost of the calls you have made, and ask them to refund this when you write to them.

^ my gas company refunded mine (took it off my bill) when I went through something similar!

I agree with Jellykat about turning off everything when you go to read the meter. My sister was getting surprisingly large water bills at her flat and turned out the meters in the communal cupboard were wrongly labelled so she was paying for someone else's water. I bet the meter is either for the other flat or more likely for both flats...

We live in a large 2 bedroom house and have those prepayement meters in for both gas and electric.

In winter we tend to put between 15-20 a week in each of them.

Summer can be around 10-15 in each of them

Hi i work for an energy company (not the one you mention) and i would say your bills are too high.

The way a bill works if they havent got a meter reading is the computer estimates how much you would use based on previous consumption. How long have you been in this property and have they had meter readings from you before? if they have then the computer should be getting it right, if they havent thats where the problem lies.
Also you do need to see the meter and you neighbours to be totaly sure that they have a meter too, if they do have a meter check yours to be sure that it hasnt been tampered with in any way as it is possible for them to tap into your electricity supply.
Are these flats houses that have been converted if so i would think as your landlord isnt very cooperative that you may be sharing a meter.
Also to save you this problem in future i would recommend noting the date the bill is due on your calender and getting the meter reading and ringing them with it so you get an accurate bill. It is unfortunalty your responsibility to make sure they have accurate metter readings. With electricity they only have to read the meter themselves once every 2 yrs.

hope this helps

please dont flame me for working for them i need the job.

also by law your landlord CANNOT stop you from changing suppliers

5th Oct to the 4th Jan 1300 kwh, three bed house, me and the kids in all day, laptop and tumble most days, elec oven. Came to about £120.
If ringing 0845 numbers use 'no to 0870' website, specially if you have free landline tariff on the home phone, it'll give you the landline number for the co.
It does sound like quite a lot of units, I would re check meter and also check the meter number on the bill to the actual meter nextdoor

Companies sometimes use estimated bills which are supposed to be based on previous consumption, but when they sent my (shockingly massive) bill they showed the previous consumption, and they had actually charged me for FOUR TIMES as much!!

No wonder their profits are so healthy.

I had to have a meter installed due to non payment of bills, my estimated bill for this time was about £900 (it's bad, I know but I didn't have the money to pay!). When the guy installed the meter, he got the actual bill which was closer to £1800 for about a year - 2 bed house with 2 adults 2 small children,gas heating, we did have a friend stay with us for a few weeks but I didnt't think it would make that much of a difference! I was fuming as I thought this was astronomical, even the engineer had to get them to check as he was shocked at the amount.

Our estimated bills for gas and electric were crazy, we always checked and it was always at least £100 in their favour - we now have gas and electric meters and we use about £10-15 a week electric and for the gas £50 a WEEK, it never ceases to dismay me the amount of money i have to feed into that fecking meter just to take the sodding chill off the house, which admitedly is an end terrace, but even so - someone is getting bloody rich off of my back . We rang them up to ask them to check the meter, to which they agreed but we would have to pay for it if it turns out to be non faulty - [fuckers] So we are basically at their mercy - i dont have the radiators on all day, just a couple of hours of a night. We have a wood burning stove and that is quite expensive to run but i would rather do that than line British gases pockets anymore than i absolutely have to.

Oh and they even sent me bills that purported to be meter read bills when i hadn't seen a meter reader for at least two years. Apparently some companies were just imputting the numbers if they coudlnt get access Such a fundamental service should be more regulated, im sure Mr Cameron will sort it all out though and make it fair for everyone