General Chat

Don't trust them

hi i am on a meter for gas and electric pay as i go, saves the worry of big bills coming in, before i had quarterly estimated bills, i would always read my meter and send it back. sandra

Last week I received a gas bill from Powergen. It looked a bit high for us -- £118, so I had a look at the gas meter reading to compare with their estimate. The actual reading was considerably lower than the estimated so I rang Customer Services. I outlined my grievance to the Powergen woman, and said to her "don't you read meters any more, mine hasn't been read for a good many quarters, all my past bills are estimates or customer readings". Her reply was "By law, we only are obliged to read them every two years, yours was last read in October 2002". She then asked me to tell her my reading, which I gave her. "OK, Sir" she said "we'll send you out an amended bill". I got it this morning....£28 ! Quite a difference don't you think ? So, be alert, Brian

They read our meter quite regularly but we still get an estimated bill. When I rang to complain they said it's because the meter readers are self employed and unless they get the reading in on time they dont go through the system........what a waste of time!

Lucky you all! We live in the wilds, so miles away from mains gas. We've got LPG, delivered by tanker, which isn't too bad, but the main problem is over ensuring top up deliveries before you run out! The contact point is in Glasgow (!), while the tanker comes from a depot in Cornwall. Re your estimates and real readings, we have fun & games with our electricity supplier. We pay a regular amount monthly by direct debit, then find after a few months that we're massively in credit. They do an annual balance review. When I last contacted them, they suggested that we might leave the balance on our account, to which I replied that I'd prefer it to be helping our bank account rather than oiling their profit margin. The resulting cheque was for over £400! Keep rattling 'em! Philip

We haven't seen a meter reader for a good many months either. We get our gas from Southern Electric (with Argos points!) and our electric from British Gas. And I know that's the wrong way round! LOL We paid British Gas £32 a month direct debit. When the last estimated bill came in, hubby decided to read the meter and use their special phone number to give them the correct reading which was more than their estimate. The result was a letter from British Gas putting our direct debit up to £82 a month! We decided to change suppliers and opted for Scottish Power online for both. (Please don't tell me your horror stories about Scottish Power!) Discount for no paper bills etc. E-mail came yesterday telling me to go online and imput my current meter readings as a new customer. Well I tried, only to be told I had too many meters and had to telephone them with the readings. I was just about to do this when a letter came from Scottish Power asking me to ring a different number and give them my account opening readings which I then did. I await their next move and expect an enormous bill from BG to reconcile the account :o(( Maybe we should install a generator in the back garden and use LPG! Sue

we had a bill come in from powergen which said we owed them £69.00 for a miscaulculation on british gas's part.we were not very happy as they never get your bill right.then our bill said that we were in credit which my husband rang up and asked whether we could lower our bill only to be told we were in the red.can do these firms really know what they are doing?

i'm with scottish power for both elec and gas they are brill i've just helped my son switch over to them as his been having problems with his old companys.