Gas bill shocker..

[The Natural Philosopher]

reading..in case you get caught out.

[Davey]

I like the assuring comment at the bottom: "The spokesperson assured us that anyone receiving an outlandish bill as a result of this can just phone the company or use their online-help service and the bill will get fixed up immediately."

Ok, the online system screwed up enough to charge me thirteen grand, and you want me to use the same method to complain about it? Right.

Does anybody else find it odd when gas companies supply electricity, and vice versa?

[Andy Dingley]

I had a =A31500 electricity bill last year from Good Energy, a supplier I'm not with, for a supply that was disconnected ten years earlier. It took best part of four months to sort it out, including at least one attempt to debit the whole lot from my bank. In the midst of which, they also tried to bill me for an office opposite.

Any sort of screwup like this is likely to take ages to sort out, and you'll have to do all of it yourself. The supplier(sic) certainly won't be interested.

[Terry Fields]

Some seven or eight years ago we had the meter read by a meterperson, and the subsequent bill, instead of being say £60, was for just under £6000. When I checked the readings on the bill, the meterperson had transposed day and night on the E7 meter, and the billing software assumed that both dials had gone through zero and on to the numbers on the bill.

The resulting bunfight took a full two years to resolve, and it was only down to a young lady at the call centre who was willing to spend a complete afternoon going through the old system (systems having been changed in the interim, of course, and they couldn't talk to each other!). In the end, the final tally came up £250 on the light side, which I didn't raise a fuss about in order to avoid another two-year battle.

[Nick]

Very interesting. Especially as I have just today received an electricity bill for £22,379 from............ Southern Electric. Average quarterly bill is about £150. Nick.

[hugh]

In message , Davey writes

Not as odd as a water company supplying electricity!!!!

[Phil L]

So instead of them ripping you off for £5,940, you were happy for them to just rip you off for £190.

[PeterC]

Just had gas and leccy from SE on readings that I submitted[1] and they're both correct and I'm in credit. phew!

[1] A meter reader called on 27/9; by 3/10 there was no e-mail, the site still showed March. I'm a bit concerned about where these readings are going. Last time the readings for electricity were used, the chap said he'd read the gas but it was an estimated bill.

[Andy Champ]

The scary thing about this is I've heard the story before.

About 25 years ago the mother of one of my colleagues had an estimated bill, and paid it. The next quarter came, they read the meter, it wrapped, the bill was silly. So he phoned up to complain. "It's the computer" said the voice. "It's always causing trouble". So he asked her to phone back. On his office line. Which just happened to be the support number in ICL for the computer concerned.

Apparently she was quite apologetic for blaming our computer when it had no faults.

You'd think SE would have learned something from these ancient problems. But it seems 25 years is not enough for them to get it right. Yes, it was them!

Andy

[Alan]

In message , PeterC wrote

I provide my own meter readings on the BG web site and they do base the bills on these readings. However..

I'm on a dual fuel deal with a meter for each. Four or five years back the third party company (Siemens?) would read both meters at the same time. On more recent visits, despite being asked, they will only read the electric meter. They also seem to turn up more regularly to only read the electric meter. The electric meter readings do appear on my web based account .

I am waiting again for BG to send me the automated stroppy letter about the meter reader needing to undertake a "safety check" of gas meter and they have been unable to obtain access for more than 18 months. The letter often threatens legal actions and an implied threat of breaking down of doors if access is not granted on the day they state in the letter. I will again inform them that THEIR records show I have granted access to the meter reader twice in the last nine months :)

[Dave Liquorice]

Rule One: In any dispute with a company that has access to your bank account that hasn't been satisfactorally sorted out in the first phone call, cancel the direct debit approval for that company with your bank.

This invariably makes the company sit up and take notice very quickly indeed. You may get some "non-direct debit" charges but when ever you contact the company ensure you ask for them to be refunded.

Cutting of their access to your money works wonders.

[fred]

In article , Alan writes

Why not avoid confrontation by informing them in advance of their error?

[charles]

What's odd about that? Scottish & Southern produce most of their electricity from water.

[jgharston]

Why on earth don't these idiot code-bangers use smallest-difference when dealing with wrap-round? (ie 90 to 80 is either 80-90+100=3D90 or

80-90=3D-10, so it's -10).

Mindewe, the quality of coders nowadays...

[Terry Fields]

Sorry, the amount they worked out I owed them, minus the payments made, was £250 short by the figures I'd worked out. Perhaps the girl was doing me a favour, who knows? If I'd have known who she was, I'd have sent her some champagne and chocolates.

[The Other Mike]

Says who? Scottish & Southern would disagree! Just taking installed capacity rather than units generated:

's Generation portfolio comprised at 31 March 2011

4,470MW of gas- and oil-fired capacity 4,370MW of coal-fired capacity (with biomass co-firing capability) 2,450MW of renewable (hydro, wind and dedicated biomass) capacity

of wind generation

of biomass

So that's leaves just 13.5% from hydro (1530/11290)

[PeterC]

It does seem a bit daft, having a chap call just to read 1 meter when both are with the same company. Even dafter is him reading the meter and then those readings not being used. It makes me a bit suspicious - to the point where I look to see if there's some one else around and don't let the chap out of my sight.

He did mention that. I'd guess that it's more to check for fiddling, as what sort of check, plus reading the meter, can take place in ~15s?

[Alan]

And should someone who is not corgi registered be undertaking a safety check on the gas supply anyway.

Someone who is less cynical than me about the purpose of the threatening letter may actually believe that an official safety check has been performed.

[Reentrant]

Lots of good (ie bad) examples at

[<me9]

A lot of that will use steam turbines. Steam is water at high temprature.

All steam turbine. See above.

So a little over 1.5GW of hydro.

So nearer 85% using water. 8^)