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Utility bill question



B

Brian Fantana

Well-known member
Oct 8, 2006
7,240
In the field
Afternoon all,

I moved into a new house in September, supplied by Scottish Power for both gas and electricity. Opened my account and chose a tariff which included gas and electricity (plus boiler cover), paid by direct debit each month.

I've been going back through my bank statements since we moved in, and noticed that the direct debit amount that has been taken each month by SP is about half the amount that I was told.

I phoned them today to query this and was told that they'd not set the gas direct debit up properly, so my gas account has now slipped into a couple of hundred pounds worth of debit.

Is the fault here that I've been a bit of an idiot to not notice this, or that they've not set the DD up properly? I also don't know how long this would have gone on unless I'd have spotted it.

Do I have any other options other than accepting the big bill coming my way?

Cheers,

BF.
 




Triggaaar

Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
50,171
Goldstone
Brian Fantana said:
Do I have any other options other than accepting the big bill coming my way?
Click to expand...
Maybe tell them of the problem and ask if you can have the payment spread out a bit. You'll obviously have to pay it.
 






father_and_son

father_and_son

Well-known member
Jan 23, 2012
4,646
Under the Police Box
Triggaaar said:
Maybe tell them of the problem and ask if you can have the payment spread out a bit. You'll obviously have to pay it.
Click to expand...

This.... no different to if the original estimate of usage was wrong and your first bill comes in much higher than the dd has built up your credit against... monthly bill goes up (considerably) until you are back in credit and then you can have it set at the proper level.

(Better half works for one of the other ones!)
 




B

Brian Fantana

Well-known member
Oct 8, 2006
7,240
In the field
father_and_son said:
This.... no different to if the original estimate of usage was wrong and your first bill comes in much higher than the dd has built up your credit against... monthly bill goes up (considerably) until you are back in credit and then you can have it set at the proper level.

(Better half works for one of the other ones!)
Click to expand...

Triggaaar said:
Maybe tell them of the problem and ask if you can have the payment spread out a bit. You'll obviously have to pay it.
Click to expand...

Thanks, chaps.

I suspected as much. I'll give them a call.
 


R

Rogero

Well-known member
Aug 4, 2010
5,713
Shoreham
Just increase your payments per month. Moving in Septemeber means that you are coming into the winter months so you use more energy. You catch up in the summer months. I can increase or decrease on line, With OVO you get 3% interest if you are in credit with them.
 


spongy

spongy

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2011
2,764
Burgess Hill
Npower did the same to us and we ended up with a hefty bill.

It has to be paid so we offered to up our payment every month which they agreed to. But it didn't stop them sending threatening letters even though we had a payment plan.

Our tariff was really expensive and they as a company were terrible so we ditched them as soon as we could.

Best thing we ever did and now our energy bills have been halved.
 




M

mwrpoole

Well-known member
Sep 10, 2010
1,506
Sevenoaks
There is a rule which the big suppliers have signed up to, that if you don't get billed for X months due to their error, then they can't back charge you. I don't know how many months that has to be, have a feeling it may be 12+.

I would also read the T & C's of your boiler cover very carefully. I had that from Scottish Power last year and it ended badly. Our boiler broke down, they came out and took a look for 10 minutes and concluded it was 'uneconomical to repair'. That clause was in my T & C's but had no further details about it, i.e. Cost of repair vs value of boiler. After many calls I was told anything over £400 regardless of size of boiler was deemed 'uneconomical to repair', but they couldn't or wouldn't tell me what parts they thought needed replacing. I ended up getting the manufacturers to send an engineer out, fixed in an hour and needed 2 new parts which cost £200. After many more calls eventually got a refund of sorts but the whole episode was depressing to say the least. As it happened the manufacturer offered a breakdown service cheaper than Scottish Power.
 


edna krabappel

edna krabappel

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,221
Had a similar thing happen to me when I was much younger and had just moved out of home for the first time.

I'd been getting a water bill through regularly from either Southern Water or South East Water, I forget which, and had been paying the direct debit with no issues. After about three years, I got a letter from whichever company wasn't already sending me a bill, telling me they had no record of any occupant, and asking me to confirm I was living there.

Turns out I was one of those people who was supposed to get two water bills, one for supply & one for wastewater, and- not having the first clue this was the case- had been clocking up the bill for the waste water, unpaid (and un-invoiced) for the previous three years. I had no idea.

Rang the supplier, they confirmed I owed them about three years worth of bills. I had to pay it, obviously, but I think they knocked off a bit by way of apology for their incompetence in sorting it out, and let me pay by reasonable instalments.
 


C

crabtree seagull

Active member
Nov 7, 2007
237
Brian Fantana said:
Afternoon all,

I moved into a new house in September, supplied by Scottish Power for both gas and electricity. Opened my account and chose a tariff which included gas and electricity (plus boiler cover), paid by direct debit each month.

I've been going back through my bank statements since we moved in, and noticed that the direct debit amount that has been taken each month by SP is about half the amount that I was told.

I phoned them today to query this and was told that they'd not set the gas direct debit up properly, so my gas account has now slipped into a couple of hundred pounds worth of debit.

Is the fault here that I've been a bit of an idiot to not notice this, or that they've not set the DD up properly? I also don't know how long this would have gone on unless I'd have spotted it.

Do I have any other options other than accepting the big bill coming my way?

Cheers,

BF.
Click to expand...


Ditch SP as soon as you can. Terrible company to deal with along with Talk Talk
 








Gullflyinghigh

Gullflyinghigh

Registered User
Apr 23, 2012
4,279
mwrpoole said:
There is a rule which the big suppliers have signed up to, that if you don't get billed for X months due to their error, then they can't back charge you. I don't know how many months that has to be, have a feeling it may be 12+.
Click to expand...

It's 12 months, however, you're missing a fairly important part out here (sadly);

The company cannot charge you if it goes over 12 months without a bill and the customer has made a reasonable effort to help get one produced. For example, if you're asked for a reading, provide it and nothing happens then it applies. If you refuse to provide a reading, or access for someone else to do it, or just hide and ignore everything, then it doesn't.

This is also a voluntary thing that the (big) companies all signed up to that OFGEM, whilst approving of it, don't or can't enforce. Unless they're providing a judgement over the case of a deadlocked complaint when they can. Sort of.
 












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