To think an estimated energy bill should not be 15 times your average monthly useage

[Boldclams]

Spark Energy thought it perfectly reasonable to suddenly hoik my electricity bill from 20 to 317 quid a month. Apparently they were working to an "industry standard" when estimating the bill. I called them and they agreed 20 was still adequate but were super rude and condescending when I attempted to question them on where they got their figure from!

you only use £20 a month?

15 times your usage! Where the hell did they get that from? Surely it can't be industry standard to try to charge people 15 times what they use? They were having a bloody laugh.

Yeah I'm a bit surprised how low it is too! Not too many appliances though and just a tiny flat I guess.
I asked them how come previous energy suppliers didn't estimate to this crazy standard and they got a but flustered but still persisted with it! They accused me of shouting too - I really wasn't, just expressing incredulity!

Spark what more do you need to know. Leave them. I did. Refuse to pay but give correct readings until correct bill. If renting do you know if you paying bill you legally can leave! Talk to cab

You use less than £5 worth of electricity a week?

Do you not have any electrical appliances?

Just been reading the reviews online and they are truly awful.
I am renting but will definitely be switching. If they had at least been apologetic when I rang it wouldn't have been so bad. But they were hostile, evasive, and downright patronising. I'm shocked and furious about how they spoke to me. They are horrors!

Yep around five quid. Not in the flat full time. So mostly just bit of TV and a few lights, the odd hair dryer and phone charge. They've checked the latest reading I gave and 20 quid is right. Don't know where on earth they suddenly got 300 from.

We're having the same issue with Scottish power. They've just told us to contact debt advice
We've been paying them £55 per month and they've sent us an estimated bill for £1400 ?!???
I don't get it!

So give them the proper reading jazz.

I've been reading loads of billing horror stories Jazz. There seems to be no sense checking with these things on the part of the energy companies.

Just had an email back from them after complaining on Twitter "The main reason for the high estimated bill was due to an incorrect reading from a coffee shop".

No further explanation offered of why a coffee shop has anything to do with the electricity bill for my flat!

Also just noticed that the payment of 20 pounds that left my bank only appears as 12 pounds on the bill. Apparently this is a green levy rebate of 12 to me. No it ISN'T its a an 8 quid loss to me somewhere along the way!!

Weirdos!

We used to have dreadful and wholly unreasonable estimated bills.

However, we had a device installed by British Gas (we buy electricity from them) and now we can see exactly how much we are using each day and know that our monthly standing order more than covers it.

That sounds good. I'm thinking of switching to British Gas on the back of this billing nonsense.

ripped off by Spark -now there's a surprise... there is an open Ofgem case against them.

Regardless of what your tenancy agreement says, you can and should switch. Spark (I discovered when setting up as a landlord) are well in with quite a few of the big agencies, but a lot of what I was initially told turned out not to be true. So I worked hard not to have the property put on to Spark energy, leaving the supplies with those used by the previous owner. The tenancy agreement does (now..) stress that tenants can use whoever they like.

I don't know who the tenant does use, that's his business.

BTW any meter tells you how much you use a day!

Eon have just done the same to me, my bill is 4 x what it was last month! When I checked my account I was £20 in credit

Noooo!!!! Don't change to British Gas!!!!! They're the worst energy company I've ever dealt with.

I recommend EDF, on the very odd occasion that they do mess up it only takes a couple of minutes to ring them up and they sort it out with no fuss first time.

I recently switched, British Gas were pretty pricy IIRC. Use a comparison site like USwitch to get an idea of who will be cheapest for you. ANd just check out several suppliers online for good measure.

As a tenant you can NOT be forced to use a particular supplier. You just need to make sure you take your contract with you, when moving out or if possible, terminate it completely.

quietbatperson you nicked my nickname!

Spark are particularly popular with letting agents as they pay a commission for every account signed up to them. The bill-payer gets to decide which supplier they want to use despite whatever weasel, unenforceable clauses an agent decides to include in their dodgy rental agreements.

I believe that the ten-times usual usage estimated bills are an inducement to the occupant to give a correct reading, most especially those paying by monthly direct-debit with no recent reading and winter coming up. Few people would welcome paying by DD, finding that it hasn't covered their usage and then having to face paying a bloody great bill.

It's one of the many reasons utility suppliers are so fond of smart-meters.

Yes, any meter will tell you how much you use but for me that would involving crawling to the back of a cupboard to find out.

This device sits on the kitchen worktop, is small and tells you in pounds shilling and pence how much you have used at any point in the day.

It is easy for me to use and it has made a big difference to my bill, in that now I can see exactly how much it costs to leave all the lights on in the kitchen or how much that extra ten minutes of having the tumble drier on is costing.

It may not be for everyone but for me, it is a quick and easy way to see exactly how much electricity has been used every day which means that there are no more nasty estimates or wondering if the monthly amount is covering it.

As an aside, British gas (for electricity at least) doesn't seem any more expensive than the other suppliers.

Whatever you do, do not under any circumstances go with First Utility.

They kept hoiking my bill too, then when I switched they tried to get me to pay a balance of over £200 based on entirely fictional readings. I didn't pay and said I'd wait to get an accurate bill, they passed my case onto a debt collection company! That was actually a good thing, as the debt collection company were great and when I told them what was going on they gave FU (very apt initials!) a kick up the arse. The upshot of it all was that they owe me over £200 so if I had paid that fictional bill they would owe me nearly £500! We're supposed to get a refund of that £200 but it's been months and nothing yet.

Avoid Npower too, as they're a different level of shit!

First Utility have been OK for me so far, but I'm not sure I'll stay with them when the contract is up.

I was with EDF. They didn't read my meter for 4 years, nor did they send me a bill (even when I called them with the readings). I moved out and received a bill 6 months later in my new address for the old one for only 6 months, which was mostly for the period after I'd moved out They denied knowledge of all of the meter readings for the previous 4 years so I ended up paying £20 for 4 years worth of gas and electricity. Muppets!

npower do have problems - their direct debit system doesn't work properly (IT fault somewhere) so the direct debits keep failing.

Has been a bit of hassle - but I'm now on £100 poor service compensation, nearly 1/3 of my annual bill! Expect it isn't over yet...