To ask you to check my maths? Bloody Gas Bill

[AudTheDeepMinded]

I cannot work this out. We are disputing an enormous gas bill based on an inflated estimated reading. I am trying to work out exactly what we do owe (actually how much we have overpaid and what we are due back!). The bill period was for 33 days. The imperial meter readings were 0558 on day one and 0570 on day 33. The kWh rate is 0.18p, the daily standing charge is 50p. I think we owe £16.50 in standing charge and £69.50 consumption, a total of £86. Am I correct? (for clarification the invoice was for in excess of £400 quid). Trying to reach resolution through the ombudsman for various reasons and want to get my facts straight.

can you screenshot the actual bill with personal info removed?

The imperial meter readings were 0558 on day one and 0570 on day 33 0570 - 0558 is 12. The kWh rate is 0.18p so 12 x £0.18 = £2.16
the daily standing charge is 50p 33 x £0.50 = £16.5

What units does your meter read in? Maybe read in cubic meters. So you will need to convert the usage into kWh.

Yes, from what I have looked up online, you are right. The gas meter consumption is 12, but that 12 cubic metres of gas. I followed that instructions about converting to kWh and got the same as you.

Having done a rough calculation yes I agree with your estimate. You have already converted I see.

Does the bill show the readings used and the unit rates. It seem very out of kilter.

You shouldn't be paying 18 p per unit for gas, the price cap is around 10 p. Even if you signed up to an expensive fix, you should have been moved to the price cap rate on 1 October.

What you've worked out so far is roughly correct based on those reads. You'll also need to add 5% VAT. Could you show a photo or screenshot of your bill, removing the personal info? Are the reads in the bills the same as this or is there a brought forward balance from a previous bill?

Tell me about it. OFGEM are involved. We moved into a property that had been an airbnb and were charged out of contract commercial rates (the first bill was £1700!!). These rates are part of the resolution offer and not on an invoice. It's been a living nightmare. Cheeky buggers started sending us letters threatening debt collection because of their estimated bonkers billing.

we were only with them for 33 days in total after moving into a new property. Rates are not from a bill but from a resolution offer via OFGEM.

How long have you been in the property and what was the reading when you moved in?

Exactly as stated in the OP.

Ok so you were only there for 33 days? Have they given you any sort of breakdown as to how the invoice has been calculated? Did they have an incorrect move in read?

I saw that you mentioned the bill period but I didn't realised you had only been in the property for 33 days.

33 days covers the day we moved in and the day they finally removed their objection to our new supplier. They have both meter readings but invoiced us using estimated readings ate an out of contract commercial rate. I have challenged this via OFGEM and they have responded with a proposed resolution. It is unclear and so i am trying to work out exactly what we owe so that I can get them to confirm what overpayment they will refund us.

I'd be telling them to stuff their 'resolution offer' and offer to pay the domestic price cap rate per unit, and not a penny more.

It's not hard. You moved in on X date and the meter reading on that date was Y. You will pay for all units used from that day forward at the domestic price cap rates and anything that happened before then is nothing to do with you.

@BarbaraofSeville they have also offered extra credit which they claim takes us under the price cap, which is why i am trying to understand if this is the case. BTW it is not as simple as you would think trying to communicate with the fuckers. Their call centre is based abroad, no-one has oversight, if computer says no they cannot help. It has only been through getting OFGEM involved that we have got this far. It has been a nightmare.

I agree with your standing charge.
I disagree slightly with unit charge, but assume you are using an acurate calorific value, rather than an industy average, so will defer to your values. (I got 69.12).
Don't forget to factor in VAT (Multiply the whole lot by 1.05).

FWIW, if you were on current price cap, the usage charge would drop too around £38. If you are already at ombudsman, it is probably a lower kWh cap, but possibly nor worth the head and heart ache of arguing it down further when it has already dropped from 1000s to around £100.

Good luck

@ChristmasCakeAndStilton thank you. Do you charge the total for vat or just the gas usage?

VAT (on a domestic account - just realised you might still be subject to commercial rules, and I don't know what they are) would be 5% on the entire lot.

So I work out that we owe them, on their rates, £90. We paid them £405 so they owe us £315. They also offered us £80 credit. Which means that they actually owe is £395 pounds. Which is not a bad result if that is what they mean.

@SleepingStandingUp needs converting to kwh first

Commercial would also be 5% VAT added to the whole bill (as long as usage is below 145kwh per day). They must have had an incorrect read history prior to you moving in to have such incorrect estimates. It really should be quite simple for the supplier to resolve.
Do you already have a complaint logged with the supplier so hopefully someone UK based can investigate?

or they are a bunch of crooks with quite the reputation for issuing fraudulent invoices and have recently featured on a TV programme because of some of their dodgy practices...
mentioning no names

Finally got them to acknowledge i was making a complaint when OFGEM got involved. They would not prior to this despite several clearly titled emails and a registered letter to their UK head office to that effect.

Your calculation seems about right though the unit price seems a bit low compared to current cap.

To get from meter units to kwh multiply by about 11.2 (does depend on calorific value but it always ends up about 11). For old imperial meters multiply again by about 2.8.