The power company say i owe £600 - do i?

[doodleboo]

2 years ago i had a letter saying that my gas meter needed changing. Nobody ever came to change it, but they did update all my details with the power company as if they had.

My meter has 4 digits, the new one would have had 5.

My bills went up massively and i contacted the power company saying the meter had only 4 digits. They told me to put a 0 in front of my meter reading which did in good faith, having told them it only had 4 digits and assuming they knew what they were doing.

Recently i tried to sort out the meter thing again - turns out they never changed my meter details to the correct ones and have been billing me wrongly for 2 years.

They have just sent me a bill for £622 which i don't think i should have to pay, as i tried to sort out the problem at the time and in good faith thought i had sorted it - it's not my fault if they gave me wrong advice and never changed their system surely?

Anyone been through something similar?

Thank you!

Unfortunately I think you will find that you do owe them the money if you have used the gas.

Had something similar - moved house, previous owners elderly couple us a young family + au pair. They estimated gas usage for 2 years based on elderly couple - then came and read the meter. Massive bill. Shock and outrage.

They were within their rights to bill us, but we negotiated a long payback period.

However, yours does sound a bit different. May be worth pushing back and/or contacting gas ombudsman for advice.

Sadly yes,much of it will be catch up fromthe rises anyway.

I would gosee the CAB tomorrow,ask their advice- they should be able to helpsort somekind of payment scheme or something

Thanks, the lady from the power company has vaguely mentioned them having things to deal with this sort of situation so i think they know this is not my fault. I didn't think of the CAB I will try that.

If it comes to it I know that if i've used the gas then i have to pay for it, but i will definitely negotiate a long payback period.

I will "push back" as you put it!

Get the power company to tell you what your monthly payments would be for just your consumption, then offer something low on top of that to pay back the debt.

When you are paying monthly for your gas they can keep rolling the debt on as long as the debt is reducing.

I used to work for npower, this was common, not your meter problem but estimating bills and being way out!

Thanks Fizzylemonade i think i will go for that.

No problem. Glad the old noggin still works I've been a sahm for nearly 5 years.