T5OLF

iTrader: (4)

Got a letter this morning saying my monthly DD is going up from £75 to £132 until I clear my outstanding balance of £122, and then it will be reveiwed. I have owed this amount or about that for 5 years but they want the balance cleared.

I live in a 2 bed semi and both me and the wife are out at work and never use a dyer etc and have not had the heating on for months.

We cook by gas and have a shower that runs off a 5 year old combi boiler. I called powergen but due to the high number of calls they were getting I have been put on a waiting list for a call back. When I asked if it was busy due to the letters being sent out he said yes it was.

Just wondered if anyone else had one and what people are paying for a 2 bed semi on gas and lecy.

I owed £600 at one point not inc the 3 months I had paid at £75, when I quizzed them they said it was correct, After keeping them on the phone for over an hour they worked out that my metre reading was wrong and credited me £500 !!

I think it's time to switch.......

Dr Hu

yes - I had one this week - my DD is going from £74 to £92

That means its gosting me £1104 a year for gas & Electic......**** me!

corradoboy

uSwitch

Nigel H

I had one but mine is going down from £92 to £72. 4 bed detached with both gas and electricty

T5OLF

iTrader: (4)

Just been on Uswitch, cheers Corradoboy

Scottish power for me

corradoboy

Been through it all with Powergen, NPower and last year BG. All I wanted was a dual fuel account with online, quarterly, paperless billing and DD the amount owed. I'm now on a plan by Souther Elec called EbiCo and all is well. Powergen didn't bill me for almost a year after we moved, despite numerous calls to spur action. Finally I received 4 gas and 3 elec bills in 2 weeks, totalling over 1k BG knocked on the door that day. They were supposed to fix the price, along with discounts for all my preferences detailed above. They couldn't get a single bit of it right. Seperate accounts, paper bills, no DD set up, discounts were non-existent and the fixed price was a joke after 4 price rises in 6 months Why are they all so $h!t

***Nemesis***

Had a similar letter from them a couple of months ago - they wanted £210 pm from me! I said if you take that then it's the last DD you get from me... and it was.

Now with an alternative supplier.

Diesel

Sorry mate cant advise how much gas is likely to be used as I am thoroughly confused and p'd off with the lot of them!

My letter to Ofgen went off yesterday as Brit Gas are trying to rip me off. Essentially I have always paid monthly amounts by DD, and then I get DD's a whopping £600 on top in June.

Cut a long story short they are trying to charge me for (cheapish) gas used in winter 2005 at the latest March 2007 peak point of the price rises, and I can not get them to sort this out fairly. It's like filling up your car at a petrol station in 2005 at 55p a litre and then they try and charge you £1 a litre 18months later as they couldnt be arsed to get up and check the reading on the pump. I did read the 'pump' for them several times in 2006 and I expect charging to be apportioned and ADJUSTED according to this.

They also cant explain some £250 of carried over charges to me and indicate that in one winter quarter I used 800 units and in the next winter quarter 220 - something is up and its not hitting my wallet!!!

Anyone else had such a scrap?

D

ScoobyDoo555

yeh - with BG too. Just trying to pay off as much as possible, then I'm going to tell them to **** off.

Why am I paying, because, I *can't* guarrantee that I don't use as much as they state. However, I have noticed that despite being on a price fix , my bills have been going up.

They're all out to rob you - just with varying degrees of success

DAn

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

^^ Sounds like they are pretty successful to me!!

TX.

ScoobyDoo555

lol

OllyK

Powergen are a nightmare. We had both the gas meter changed (as it was moved outside) and the electic (as it broke and was stuck on day rate). As the both read from 0, the readings were lower than the last ones they had on record, so they kept estimating. I kept ringing them up to say I wanted it sorted as I knew the estimates were too low and I didn't want to get hit with a big bill when it got sorted. 14 months later, finally sorted, and we know owe them £1400. Got a demand saying they were putting the DD up to £300 per month from £80. I told them they weren't as it was their fault. They said nothing they could do. Send them a cheque for £1400 and moved to Atlantic. Powergen are an utter shower!

CooperS

Just moved to NPower from Powergen, they reckon it will save me £74 a year, plus i get £15 cashback

Taken advice from Gas & Electricity: Find the cheapest supplier and earn cashback ...

T5OLF

iTrader: (4)

We had our meter moved outside and they forgot to set the new one or something. They (powergen)said I owed and extra 600 quid for 3 months on top of the 75 quid a month I had payed. It took an hour on the phone before they admitted they had made a mistake and the bill went down to 200 quid.

It makes you wonder how many are paying more than they are using.

carbon

iv just got a £825 gas bill. We live in a 3 bed semi, me and the missus, work all day, heating on a timer etc, they have used estimated Reading for the last 3 years! mmm

Iv told them to sort it out, ring me back otherwise im going to cap off the meter. Lets see if they believe me. Im 100% serious. I will cap it off and use the electric for everything. seriously pisses me off.

Shark Man

BG have been doing this to me, albeit to a much lesser extent, the only reason I noticed was the property was empty throughout winter, so the only gas used was basically when the frost stat kicked in (not much). So I know exactly when I used the gas....strange how I suddenly used so much in the spring quarter when the heating was totally switched off (and no, there isn't a gas leak...I check the meter more than I check my car's fuel guage ).

One way I control my services is that I have stopped using Direct debits. Reason being is a while back I got myself into a cashflow muddle, and teh direct debits going up/down and taken out when they pleased just screwed up everything. Even though I have the money - just not when they wanted it. So, to cut a story short; I'm resorting to the 'ol cheque book: one less worry is wondering what next demand they decide to put on my DD

Diesel

They proudly told me on the phone that they are only legally obliged to read the meter once every two years and implied that any underestimation or absence of managing the gas account was therefore MY fault. Looks like you have them by the bllx mate and do let them know.

I too have them by the bllx as you are entitled to compensation if they fail to resolve the issue within 6 months, and I wrote to them last NOV. They think we are all thickoes to be milked!

D

Diesel

I'm sure its pure coincidence that this corresponds to the absolute highest peak of gas prices... Dont let the thieves get away with it mate. I have a note of all the dates of the price rises if you need it as ammo. (B'ds wasting my free time and efforts so much with this arguing and research, I truly am Mr Angry!!!)

D

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Why is it that the gas bill is so hard to understand?! You have to have a degree in nuclear physics for it to make any sense. I wouldn't have a clue whether the bill is right, wrong or whatever ie you can read the meter but then what ...

Why not just charge us per unit of the gas meter rather than converting it using some wierd formula? Ah, that'd be too easy wouldn't it.

TX.

Shark Man

I did query it but never got any correspondance back from them (nothing new there), currently the matter is at the bottom of my pending list, as I think it works out at under £20 difference, but I'm keeping a close eye on things.


Pity we can't ask our resident nuclear physicist PS Lewis to help us now he's banned

I don't think for one second that the bill's complexity was unintention.

What narks me is over a quarter where billing rates change (up or down) they esitmate the gas you used under the old rate and esitmate what you've used under the new rate. Now they don't what system they use, one would think it would be averaged and based upon seasonal use and climate, but its never that clear is it? And strange how it seem that more gas is used during the higher billing rate.....

I think either metre reading should be taken during every rate change or they only change rate after the bill is issued. That way we'd be far more clear on where and if pennies (or pounds) are being pinched.