General Chat

High bill warning............!!!


Now I knew that something wasn't quite right as I haven't received a gas bill for rather a long time..........they come and read the meters , electric and gas........the electric bill arrives a few days later but never a sign of the gas bill ?..........I looked on the Internet and found out that apparently if a utility company neglects to bill a customer ( for however long ) they can only claim back a years worth of fuel charge.

I phoned up the company in question........seems they have decided that my meter hasn't been working properly for several years ( ie .....always the same reading )......one has to wonder why they haven't acted on this sooner ???.........and God only knows where they pulled the sum of £5042.59 from.

Anyway a new meter is being fitted on 24th October and I'll see what happens from that point onwards.

I feel like laughing like a lunatic.............lolololollol

ur not with edf are you?

there known for big bills n silly prices

I'm with e-on Stray...........the company has changed hands more times than I've had hot dinners since I've been with them........lol

they will more than likely put a prepayment meter in and set it at a rate where you will have to pay so much a week off the debt so say for example you put £15 of gas in you will probably pay over half of that off the debt leaving the rest for gas

OMG Amanda, get some legal advice asap. They surely can't expect you to pay all that at once, especially if its only estimated.

How long do they say they have been getting the same readings?

They might try Ann.......but I won't have a prepayment meter.........I always pay my bills the day I get them ........this is there mistake.

Teresa........it would be like getting blood out of a stone.........I live on benefits ( due to incapacity ) I have no money saved.

I am not worried.....this is their mistake not mine.

They have been getting the same reading since 16th March 2006 !!!

i'm speaking from experiance as a similar thing happened to me and if you're on benefits i think they can take it from source

forgot to say it took me about 8yrs to pay it off gas people did'nt care that half the time i could'nt afford to have any heat on as my money was being taken to pay off debt

Ann .....it isn't actually a bill yet.

I've received a letter saying HIGH BILL WARNING

that says if I don't ring them up immediately this will result in a bill for approx. £ 5042.59 being sent to me.

I have phoned....they are sending someone to change the meter..........then I guess battle might commence.........lol

No way could / have I used that amount of gas.
Its bloomin' ridiculous .

i said the same ,i realy hope your outcome is differant to mine what worries me is the" change the meter bit"
good luck with it any way

Thank you Ann.............as if life isn't difficult enough we have to deal with cock ups like this grrrrr.

Our local newspaper have an action desk and it's not that long since I remember someone having a similar sort of situation, think it was british gas though. Anyway, a pensioner (I'm sure it was) had this huge bill and got in touch with the action desk... they gas company ended up apologising and wiping out the debt. I dunno if your local paper has something similar but it's worth looking into, because you obviously won't have paid anything over the last two years and even if they can only demand the one year back, that's still an awful lot of money. Get some advice from somewhere. Why didn't they notice sooner, as you said.

Thank you SS.........I'll certainly be looking into getting help if they try to push for such a ridiculous amount of money .

Obviously I must owe something but I'm not going to be lumbered with that cost !!

Well, since the meter remains unchanged you obviously don't owe them anything LOL. They've no way of proving how much gas you have used. It's about time they started learning that their incompetencies cost only themselves.

Indeed SS...........I hope that is the decision that they reach too...........lol

Getting the letter did make my hair stand on end for a moment or two.........lol

Hi

Your right the back-billing rule is 12 months....so long as you can prove that you wasnt at fault, i.e you was getting no bills etc but they had your correct details.

Contact consumerfocus I believe there the new merged energy watch.

http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/

Oh and before they take the meter, take a photo of the meter, when I had a problem with my meter I just took a reading but the energy company conviently said the meter had gone missing so couldnt confirm my reading!

Thats a good idea Willow......thank you....I'll do that in the morning.

A local business has just received an Electric bill for over £38,000. They claim he has been charged at the wrong rate since 2003, even though they have changed his meter several times since then.