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Who is the more stupid me or them?
I haven't checked my gas account for years. I haven't had paper bills for a couple of years. Its been estimated readings for a couple of years. In November the meter was read by Scottish gas.
Yesterday I got the reminder to input my meter reading and as a part of sorting out all my finances I thought I would actually do this and check the account. First thing I see I am apparently £2500 in credit! WTF! A few years ago we got behind on the bills and increased the standing order to pay it off and forgot about it. Then I inputted the current reading. 7050 kwhr since November - something odd when according to them I had only been using15 kwhr every month!
looking in a bit further after they had read the meter in november they had got the reading wrong - entered a 0 instead of a 6. They had then gone back for all the previous estimated readings and reduced them to fit in with the incorrect reading they had.
I have calculated what I actually owe at this point and unless i have done something else stupid its under £400 so even after correcting their wrong reading I will still be over £2000 in credit.
How naive was I to think they might actually tell me that I was in this huge credit? How stupid to carry on overpaying for years?
But then when they got the erroneous reading and calculated that my gas consumption had dropped by 95% and no one checked or thought anything of it?
Whats my odds on getting the money back without hassle?
I'm going to blame Julie for this seeing as she used to deal with the bills and is not around to defend herself 🙂
They are all spectacularly stupid/mismanaged/inept/overworked. I've never decided which.
It should be criminal how difficult it is to do ANYTHING with utilities companies. Wife has been on a drive to reduce our bills but I reckon it wasn't worth the saving in hours spent on the phone and associated stress.
Put the money towards a new bi.....hang on, forget it!
I would think that the credit figure would only be difficult to reclaim if you changed supplier and wanted it returned... best to negotiate a reduced bill and burn it down or consume it...
I'm sure the utilities overestimate the monthly charge as a business principal which would give them a tidy amount of cash to sit on.
I’m going to blame Julie for this seeing as she used to deal with the bills and is not around to defend herself
Harsh but fair! It's Johnson approved too! 😀
Its a standing order not a direct debit so i am just going to cancel it. I refuse to use direct debits as the energy co control them 🙂 Still its 3 years gas bills or so so i will attempt to get some if it back I think
I am just flabbergasted by it. having been at home for the past 18 months I assumed i would have been using much more gas and was dreading owing them a lot.
I’m sure the utilities overestimate the monthly charge as a business principal which would give them a tidy amount of cash to sit on.
I had that a number of years ago with SG (owed me about £350) phoned them up and asked them to send me out a cheque and the cheeky sod was questioning whether I needed it or not and he agreed to send it out whenever, asked to speak to his boss and asked if it was okay for the customers to just pay their bills whenever they got round to it and was told I would have the cheque that week (I didn't really need the cash but the year before the increased my payment by 50% although the price of gas hadn't went up much so I fully think that they were holding on to customers cash with the sole intention of getting the interest off it)
I'm at my wits end with Scottish Gas (& Power).
We moved into a new build in May of last year and Scottish Gas were the supplier. Phoned up to give them my details. A hair pulling conversation ensued with someone who simply could not understand a word I was saying but I finished the call with the understanding that I had setup an online account and a direct debit.
About 2 months later I get a text message from them demanding a payment straight away as I was in arrears.
Called up to enquire and it turns out they hadn't set the direct debit up. I tried to log on to my online account during the call but couldn't access it. Again a painful conversation ensued with a lack of understanding from the person on the phone, but eventually we got to a point where we discovered they've setup my online account username, which is my email address, with an address that is based on the comical level of misunderstanding that happened during the initial call. The email address is based on random parts of my actual email address being entered phonetically as I had to spell my email out about 20 times on the initial call and the guy has set it up as something like
BeeOhBee_EmILLehArr@
The person on the second call couldn't change it for me, and assured me she would get her manager to do it.
It's never been changed and I'm completely unable to access my online account.
Eventually I thought I'll just shift everything to Scottish Power. Did a dual fuel swap online, all going ok, until I got access to that online account and discovered they hadn't swapped my gas over. Reason being, the database for my electricity supply had my proper address as I'd entered it on the website, but the gas database has the developers plot number rather than the house number and street name. Scottish Power in their wisdom decided just to cancel the gas move instead of contacting me for information.
So I'm now stuck with gas at Scottish Gas, electricity at Scottish Power and if I try and do an online swap to another supplier, it looks as though Scottish Power are supplying both gas and electricity.
Utterly useless industry.
Put the money towards a new bi…..hang on, forget it!
Surely that should be an eBi...
Boarding Bob - I recognise that kafaesque nightmare! My rental flat has had no electricity bills for 3 years now. the prepayment meter is broken. I tried really hard to get it sorted. I have now given up. I do have an email stating as its their fault for not replacing the meter despite 3 appointments where no one turned up I have given up. Lucky tenants getting free eleccy!
You should get the overpayment back no problem.
I managed to reclaim £800 from Scottish Southern Electric when I moved house and meters were read first time in years.
Who is the more stupid me or them?
I would NOT use the word stupid at all. But, given you've had problems with billing at both yours and the rental flat, I think you should be more proactive at managing the account and send them at least quarterly or better monthly readings. I know it shouldn't have to be that way, but you want to do all you can to minimise the chances for balls ups for your own benefit and regular readings definitely help with that, it's easy to spot when things are going awry.
Sadly I am unsurprised!
You'll get it back but they may want photos of the meter and a bit of chasing.
I complained by live chat with then recently and it was sorted surprisingly quickly.