v high elec bill

[gr00vy]

I posted this on the wrong thread before, hopefully this is the right one... I'm told there are some lawyer mums who read this forum and was told to post here to get some adivce.

Basically, I live with my son in a two bedroom flat. A couple of months ago I got an electricity bill for almost £900. Thinking it was obviously a mistake a rang them up to sort it out but they are maintaining it is a true estimate.

They are saying for most of last year my electricity meter wasnt working correctly so they have done an estimate based on when they fitted the new meter in august and took a reading in November. They are saying I have made no payments in the past year, which is not strictly true.

I made two payments of about £75 per quarter but for the following two months they told me I had nothing to pay as they had overcharged me by half. It was after this I then got the almost £900 bill.

Even if I had made no payments and it was over a year, £900 seems a lot of money? We do run solely on electricity (no gas) and do have storage heating and emmersion heating but even so, as far as I know it runs on economy 7. I tried to argue with them that during august-november I would have had the heating on thus boosting my reading but I wouldnt have had it on all year around, and if my bill is estimated on those months then it is wrong. But they wont accept it, they keep trying to fob me off without giving me a real reason why.

I am due to have a pre-payment meter fitted in now so they can begin to recover this money from me because to set up a payment plan they were insisting on about £60 per week payback, which I cannot afford.

Can someone give me some advice on what to do? Do I need to just accept the bill or is there something I can do about this? I have spoken to the electricity company (southern electric) a number of times and I get no joy.

Have you tried the CAB? And this page gives the number of Consumerdirect who should be able to help you if you're getting no joy from the electricity company.

Id fight them on the pre pay meter. It will end up costing you a lot more than £60 a week.

Mine uses roughly £50 per week and thats with no debt. We are all electric also, bar one gas fire.

The bill could be right you know. But I'd still see CAB about setting up a better repayment plan.

So is the 900 and 2 lots of 75 (making 1050)for the whole year?
If i have got that right you are using on averge 20 aweek.It sounds about right to be honest.

I have a pre-payment meter and put about 20 aweek in.HTH

I think I would argue with them that you will not accept the estimated bill based on one quarter but you will accept it over a year of use and that you will pay extra per month to repay the debt. In the mean time ensure you get your electricity bill as low as possible!!!!

This is cut & paste from moneysavingexpert.com, I would contact the ombudsman asap for their advice

HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT

Step 1: Try to resolve it with the supplier first

Before you can refer your complaint to the Energy Supply Ombudsman you need to go through the supplier?s complaints procedure.

Gather all bills and call its helpline. Keep a log of calls; see example here.

NB. For extra MoneySaving, if its number is an 0870 number, you can try and cut the cost of calling it by finding an alternative, read Say No To 0870

Step 2: Check you qualify for help

The Energy Supply Ombudsman will fight your case when either of the following happens:

You reach ?deadlock? ie. get a letter from the supplier which says that it will no longer be handling your complaint and this is its final position.

Or: If after three months your supplier hasn't sorted out the problem.

Step 3: Contact the Ombudsman

The next step is to call the ombudsman on 01925 530263, it?ll then send you a complaints form to fill in. It has six weeks to sort out your dispute. Good luck!

thank you!!

they said they will take 10 pounds a week in debt from the pre-payment meter and they will not charge any more for the electricity than if i was paying quarterly.

I used to work for npower so firstly take a daily meter reading if possible.

Then you can see for yourself what you are using. I agree that basing an entire year on readings taken august - november is wrong (if they have used this as a daily amount) and it should be apportioned properly.

Also I think £10 a week is steep for payback considering this is no fault of yours.

If you can negotiate a payment arrangement rather than the prepayment meter then do.

They have no right to insist on fitting a meter because they haven't given you the opportunity to pay the debt back. Npower's policy used to be 2 goes on the "budget scheme" (either just paying for what you use monthly/weekly or paying monthly/weekly for your consumption and some extra for the debt) and then a prepayment meter.

I will have a look back on here to see if you want any more help.

I do hope this helps.