To think this bill cannot be correct?

[MotherOfBleach]

I recieved a letter from my gas company telling me they owe me £500.

Which is excellent.

I'm beyond skint. I've already spent every penny and was looking forward to have a coat, more than one pair of pants etc.

They asked for an updated meter reading as they estimated my last one.

Their estimated reading was 1439.

My actual reading was 1435.

I filled in their online form and sat back and waited for my money.

They say I owe them £700

They've put my gas bill upto £76 per month which is almost three times what I was paying.

I feel sick. I cannot afford this. At all.

If is this correct I will need them to turn the gas supply off.

They haven't got your meter down as imperial on their system when it's actually metric, have they? This happened to friends of mine and they got a bill for thousands, then looked into it and it turned out they had been overcharged for years and years.

Here's an article from the guardian explaining: www.theguardian.com/money/2016/aug/15/gas-meter-blunder-consumers-out-of-pocket-eon-compensation

Ahh I see,
I think I was being hopeful based upon making up my own interpretation of the numbers you'd given (thought previous actual 1344, estimated 1349 - when refund due, and 1435 your new actual with catch up) in which case it probably would have been a mis read of meter.

But given the info on the bills as youve presented them that really doesn't seem to make sense - sorry to add to any confusion!

You corrected it DOWN so this has to be a mistake.

I'm sure there is an error on their side. Speak to CAB tomorrow and get them to work it through.

Utilities are notoriously bad. We once got a bit for £130000 as they had put slightly too many 0's on the end of the reading. I nearly had a heart attack!!

Go to the CAB and once you have a corrected bill if you are still struggling contact these people , they may be able to help.

www.eonenergy.com/for-your-home/saving-energy/need-little-extra-help/energy-fund

Thanks for that link Dolores.

I'm a bit more sure that it's a mistake now so feeling a touch less sick.

But if it's not I'll need all the help I can get.

People keep coming asking me about government smart meters that they swear blind will save me money and are not pre-payment meters (I've been stung before on pre-payment so really didn't want to go down that path) does anyone know what these are?

Smart meters won't affect your tariff. They just show your energy consumption

They will only save you money if you adjust your energy usage behaviour when prompted by seeing the current running costs.

Does the catch up bill or the later email have the same breakdown of the standing charge/useage and VAT? It looks to me that that is where the error's made

Smart meters mean you pay for exactly your usage ... so no more estimated bills or utilities putting you on direct debits which over pay or undre pay your bill.

Who are you with Op? Scottish power recently screwed us but we are lucky enough to have the spare cash. Their service was appalling though.

I haven't had the corrected bill yet, I only got the email this evening and span into a full on panic.

I feel much more hopeful after the link from Dolores. If it's not a mistake, there might still be hope. I was fully prepared to do away with gas completely, live on toasties and shower at my sisters.

I cannot afford gas if that's whats it's going to cost me. It would have to be cut off.

Herschellmum - that's what the doorsteppers told me, which sounded appealing but then they started rabbiting about apps and 'topping up on my phone' whilst simultaneously promising me they weren't offering a pre-payment meter (yet I wouldn't need a direct debit because I'd pay via the app I sent them away)

That sounds mad!! PP have given you good advice. It sounds like they've made an error. Btw I frequently debate with my electric and gas company who keep.putting my monthly DD up each quarter when I'm already in credit

Talk to them again, maybe CAB will let you use their phone or advocate on your behalf. Raise a complaint with gas company if you need to as it's a £1200 difference on a tiny actual reading change.
Poor you to have this stress

That bill makes no sense at all. You can't possibly have spent £1200 more on gas than they thought when you've used less gas than they'd estimated. There must be a mistake somewhere.

I've had unexpectedly large utility bills before as a result of someone at the utility company putting the wrong meter reading in.

Our cupboard is dark and difficult to read the meter in, I took a photo with my phone which helped me to get it right (may be helpful).

Also just had a strong conversation with our supplier wanting to increase the DD even though they owe us money!

You don't need to phone. Try live chat instead and get a transcript of the conversation for your records.

Good luck, I really hope they made a mistake

It's horrible living like this, so stressed all the time about money

Call them. Use someone else's phone, just call them. The CAB will help. Many years ago, EDF were sending me estimated bills and when they sent a someone round to do a meter reading, there was a lot of confusion about the numbers. I called them and it turned out they owed me £800. They couldn't understand how I'd used such little gas, and had presumed the meter had gone round again. I was just absolutely skint and was very frugal.

Hope you get this sorted.

SSE are so expensive, you should definitely switch to another supplier! Even on their cheapest tariff you'll be paying considerably more than you would with the likes of NPower. It's really easy to work out the cheapest supplier using comparison websites and the process to switch is very straightforward.

I used to work for them and know they throw money at complaints so my advice would be to complain and keep complaining until you understand what's happened and get an outcome you're happy with.

If it turns out you do owe them they'll let you repay over a longer time period to reduce the monthly payments.

Have a look on their website and see if live chat is available- they switch it off during busy periods but if it's available it'll save you a phone call.

Hope you manage to get it all sorted today.

This might not be any help OP but you mentioned not being able to log in to your account due to your email not being recognised. I had that problem with my previous supplier, and it was just that either when registering or logging in (I can't remember which way round it was) the initial letter of my email address had become capitalised (due to entering it on my phone). Try capitalising the first letter of your email address (or uncapitalising it) and see if that helps.

Just to add to the voices do go to CAB. And once it's all sorted do make sure you're on the best tariff. Energy companies standard tariff are hideously priced. The money saving expert energy club is a great comparison site and you can often get £30 cash back for switching

I work in the industry and this is unfortunatly something we see all too oftern. If an account has been estimated for some time and those estimations are lower than the actual consumption, when an actual reading is recieved a larger catch up bill is created.

If your reading has gone from 1349 estimated and is now 1439 that shouldn't be causing a bill of £600+ if your account was in credit.

I would recommended speaking to CAB, they are great at helping in these situations. They will be able to help you call the energy provider and get to the bottom of it.

If It is a correct catch up bill and you do owe them that money, there are so many things they should be able to offer to help with this including spreading the cost to make payments affordable or even offering a grant (depending on supplier and you financial situation) to pay off all or a portion of the bill.

I would highly recommend looking into a smart meter to prevent estimated reads in future or provide your meter readings to your supplier at least twice a year.

Your welcome to PM me if you would like more advice.

I hope you get to the bottom of it soon.