I’ve taken a utility company on and won!

Roy 26 days ago

We bought our new home last November, the electric meter didn’t work, I notified the supplier and in January a new meter was fitted. For the two months the meter wasn’t working the usage was estimated at £350 of electricity , this is bearing in mind that the house is unoccupied. The company said that they would monitor are usage for two months with the new meter and then adjust it.

I’ve been emailing and explaining that the invoice hasn’t been adjusted, it now stands at £477. The company finally emailed back and said that the invoice is too high and offered £72 off and as a good Will gesture make it up to £100. Their computer had formulated a spreadsheet and it was attached.

My instinct was the person had gone to their supervisor and been told to offer us £100. I looked at at the spreadsheet and could see it was incorrect, the pattern in the numbers wasn’t right. They had purposefully made the spreadsheet look complicated when it wasn’t.

I emailed again and explained that their calculations were incorrect, no reply. I then sent my working out of the spreadsheet and pointed out that they had the day and night readings in the wrong columns. My other point was that in the first two months we had apparently used £350 of electricity and for the two months with the new smart meter we had used £54.
No reply for a week, a rather ‘sheepish’ reply finally came, “ We are extremely sorry and seem to have made a genuine mistake with your account. We have now calculated that we have overestimated your account by £300. Please accept our sincere apology.” I had calculated it at £298 but there had been a price increase within the period.

I have decided to gracefully accept their apology and refund, I know I’ve still used a lot of my time for nothing but I have enjoyed the ‘sweet smell of success.’

Parents

Robert124 25 days ago

Congratulations.

I will share my experience of a water bill and the ridiculous billing and arguments I had to go through.

I live alone in a flat and my annual water bill based on ratable values rose to £540. So I decided to have a water meter fitted because the water company advertised that a single person with a water meter would pay in the range £250 to £350 depending on the usage. After the meter was fitted I received an estimated bill for £895 for the following year. I phoned them to query the bill and was told that after six months they would read the meter and adjust the bill based on my usage. In the meantime they recommended I set a direct debit. I paid them nothing for ten months, waiting for a more reasonable bill.

Ten months later I received nasty letters demanding that £895 be paid immediately or else legal action would follow. Then the phone calls began, demanding to know why I wasn't paying.

I explained that I was expecting to pay £300 with a water meter and they were asking for £900 a year. They wanted to know how many people were living here, I explained I lived alone. They wanted to know why I was using so much water, did I have some medical condition, did I take several baths a day, did I have a very large garden. I explained that the £900 was an estimated bill and I was waiting for them to take an actual meter reading before paying. They explained that they only take a meter reading 6 months after a meter is fitted, I explained it's been 10 months and there still hadn't been a reading. I asked for a full itemised bill because so far they had only sent a demand for payment.

I finally received a detailed bill and I compared it to the charges they advertised on their website. My estimated usage was for a single person. But my standing charge was from a unmetered tariff and they added cost of estimated usage.

So instead of changing my tariff from unmetred to metered. They added the two tarrifs together.

My £895 charge was £560 unmetred tariff plus £335 estimated metered tariff.

When this was finally sorted our and they actually read the meter, my annual bill fell to £240 for that year.

Reply

Robert124 25 days ago

Congratulations.

I will share my experience of a water bill and the ridiculous billing and arguments I had to go through.

I live alone in a flat and my annual water bill based on ratable values rose to £540. So I decided to have a water meter fitted because the water company advertised that a single person with a water meter would pay in the range £250 to £350 depending on the usage. After the meter was fitted I received an estimated bill for £895 for the following year. I phoned them to query the bill and was told that after six months they would read the meter and adjust the bill based on my usage. In the meantime they recommended I set a direct debit. I paid them nothing for ten months, waiting for a more reasonable bill.

Ten months later I received nasty letters demanding that £895 be paid immediately or else legal action would follow. Then the phone calls began, demanding to know why I wasn't paying.

I explained that I was expecting to pay £300 with a water meter and they were asking for £900 a year. They wanted to know how many people were living here, I explained I lived alone. They wanted to know why I was using so much water, did I have some medical condition, did I take several baths a day, did I have a very large garden. I explained that the £900 was an estimated bill and I was waiting for them to take an actual meter reading before paying. They explained that they only take a meter reading 6 months after a meter is fitted, I explained it's been 10 months and there still hadn't been a reading. I asked for a full itemised bill because so far they had only sent a demand for payment.

I finally received a detailed bill and I compared it to the charges they advertised on their website. My estimated usage was for a single person. But my standing charge was from a unmetered tariff and they added cost of estimated usage.

So instead of changing my tariff from unmetred to metered. They added the two tarrifs together.

My £895 charge was £560 unmetred tariff plus £335 estimated metered tariff.

When this was finally sorted our and they actually read the meter, my annual bill fell to £240 for that year.

Children

Roy 25 days ago in reply to Robert124

Well done, sounds like a very similar scenario. The same as you, I just wanted a correct bill, I wasn’t after something for nothing. It’s frustrating when the computer says no.

I was getting similar messages, “we note your account is in debt, please pay immediately.”