Powergen - Bad Bills and Overcharging

[baldasacoot]

This started about 2002/2003.

 

When Powergen send an incorrect bill and you provide them with the correct reading and ask for a fresh, correct bill, is it lawful for them to ignore you, carry the old bill over on to the new one and present you with a second, incorrect bill for the second quarter?

 

When you write again and provide new readings and ask for the first bill to be corrected and sent to you so that you can pay it and also ask that the second bill then be corrected and sent to you so that you can pay that, is it lawful for them to ignore you, carry over the first two bills on to a third bill and present you with yet another incorrect bill for the third quarter?

 

When you write to them yet again and ask for the bill for the first quarter to be corrected so that you can pay it, and also that the bill for the second quarter be corrected so that you can pay that, and also that the bill for the third quarter be corrected so you can pay that, is it lawful for them to repeat this process for 18 months until the fiasco covers eight or nine quarters and the first incorrect bill is STILL wrong and nothing has been sorted out yet?

 

And then they send you copies of every incorrect bill since the problem first occurred?

 

Then, they take you to court for a warrant to fit a pre-payment meter as if you are some thieving, scrounging scalliwag. So you turn up and have it suspended, is it lawful for them to then charge you an extra 9.0% over their normal tarrifff for late payment?

 

Then, they come round and read the meter themselves and the next thing you know they have cancelled all the previous bills mentioned above and your account is now over £500.00 in credit. But they charge you £10.00 for reading the meter. Is that lawful?

 

Then, when your credit gets down to £100.00, you decide to register on-line and see for the first time that when they read the meter, they MIS-READ IT as 60,000 units rather than 69,000 units, so they've apparently under-charged you by 10,000 units, except that it's really only 1000 units, but there's that mysterious recredit of £500.00 followed by their own meter reading of 60,000 when the previous reading was 67,500 (no, I haven't had a new meter installed). That is, the estimates should come to about 73,000 while the actual is 74,000 but their estimate is 65,000 as they reset it to 60,000 when it was actually 69,000 or 70,000 (it's easier to believe they mis-read 69 as 60 than 70 as 60).

 

Is it lawful for them to charge you for 10,000 units at 2006 prices for electricity that they generated and sold between 2002 and 2005, when this mess is entirely their fault in the first place? Of course it's their fault, because even when I report over and under-charging and provide accuarte readings and ask for a corrected bill, they IGNORE ME.

 

By the way, when they abolished the standing charge and raised the basic rate, my quarterly bills increased by 30%.

 

You can see why I prefer to receive correct bills and to keep my records straight - in case something like this happens. I'm concerned that if I give them a new meter reading, they'll just add it on to the end of the next bill, all at today's prices which might be over £1000.00.

 

Also, they did this before in 1994/95 when they were Eastern Electricity and it took over a year of letters to sort out. They simply cannot scrap an incorrect bill and start afresh - they seem ensorcelled to simply add everything together on the next bill and try to sort it out from there, which is impossible for dim-witts with only a primary school education. They need to employ people with at least two "O" levels. I even gave them the figures and did the calculations for them!

 

Also, my meter seems inaccurate as it still spins (very slowly) even when everything is switched off and the fuses turned off. I have monitored my use for the last 13 weeks and I've been using about 30 units a week.

 

 

How do I get this sorted out?

 

 

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[ozzywizard]

grr I just typed a great response out for you and my internet froze so lost it. just my luck.

 

Anyway back to your problem, there is a lot of what you said that is wrong and unlawfull as you very well pointed out. I know this is just a small thing in your issues but the 10 pound for reading the meter is illegal as they are bound to manage your account and obtain reads from you FOC.

 

My best advise to you is to phone them, do not get into discussion with the CSA who answers but ask to speak to a manager, confirm to them they are a manager and make them aware if your not satisfied with them you will request to speak to the section manager.

 

Calmly explain to them all of the above and work together to manage your account correctly.

 

If not satisfied then ask for the section manager.

 

After this you have a clear case to go to the energy supply ombudsman.

 

 

Under what circumstances can a customer apply to the Energy Supply

Ombudsman for an independent review of a complaint?

The Energy Supply Ombudsman is there to resolve complaints which have not been

resolved to the customer’s satisfaction through the supplier’s own complaint handling

procedures.

Four criteria have been identified which need to be met before a customer complaint is

considered to have reached “deadlock” and the customer will be given access to the

Energy Supply Ombudsman Scheme. This is when a customer complaints has got to

the position where:

.there is no new information to be gained on the complaint from either the

customer or the supplier;

. the complaint escalation processes have been followed;

. the customer and the supplier still cannot agree to a resolution within the

supplier’s complaint procedures; and

. having more time will not improve this position

 

.

 

By following what I said you have followed the escalation process.

 

Good luck, keep me informed.

[baldasacoot]

Cheers, Ozzywizard (misty morning, clouds in the sky...)

 

I'll try that and see what happens.

 

 

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[ozzywizard]

Good luck and keep us informed.

[Surfer01]

Why on earth are you still registered with them? Change suplier at the earliest opportunity which is about now. I also strongly suggest you write to Energywatch and outlining your compliant. For info have a look at MoneySavingExpert.com ad-free, free to use, Consumer Revenge!

[sean27]

About 3 years ago I starting having some problems with Powergen.* At the time we had a system in the house called Heatwise. It’s as far as I know an old system which is now no longer installed, This system controls my storage heaters and hot water which charge using E7 they come on at 00.00 am and off at 07.00am therefore they use the cheaper night time electricity.

There are 5 readings on this meter and a boost button which can be used to recharge the storage heaters or hot water should it need a boost during the day. This system is also in my neuibours flat who lives next door. I , we do not use the boost buttons and on this system you still have to pay a standing charge for this type of meter. So I called PG to see if there was a cheaper alternative.* The person I spoke to said he could find me a better tariff and would arrange an electrician to change my meters which 3 weeks later was done.

 

We heard nothing for about 7 Months and there was no bill so I called PG, with readings from both mine and my nebulous meters. Some days later I received a bill for £3600 I nearly dropped dead on the spot also my neubour also received a bill for over £650 when hi usual bill was about £150 a quarter. It transpired that the meters that had been fitted were incorrect and should have never been fitted. I dually complained to PG and was promptly told that I it was my fault the meters were fitted because I requested the change and I would have to pay the bill. (Since when do I know what meter is for what) Anyway a few weeks later after many calls and letters of complaint which PG claimed they had ether lost or not received, they said there had been a mistake and there readings had been entered into the computer wrong and the bill was only £600.00 but they still blamed me for the meter error. We at this stage arranged for the original Heatwise meters to be refitted to correct the issue.

 

I then promptly changed electricity companies to NPower who at the time were more than happy to have me as a customer.

 

Over the Next 12 months or so I made more calls than I can remember to more people than I can remember asking why I did not have a account number. I was told that the meter serial n umbers from my meter had not been successfully transphered over to NPower by PG. I was told it was being looked into and would be sorted asap. This carried on until about 2 months ago when I received a letter address to the house with the occupier on it one for Flat B and Flat c

We do not have letters on the flat we have numbers 1 , 2 and 3 anyway the reference numbers on both letters referred to my meter flat 2. So I called PG and after spending 20 mins waiting the customer service rep found the details. I began to tell him the story as I have explained above and he said he would look into it is name was Mahesh I think. I had several calls from Mahesh and to a small degree he was on the correct road to helping me sort out this mess. He managed to find the correct serial numbers for my meter was looking into the problems, and stayed in regular contact letting me know what was going on. This was until about 2 months ago when the calls stopped and all fell silent. I need to stress at this point many times I have called Powergen and NPower and many times call backs were promised but they failed

 

My heath is poor and due to a growth defect when I was young I had extensive surgery to correct a spinal defect. I have metal thought my back into my hips and legs.* This means I suffer with chronic pain 24hours a day This has bought on a condition known as M.E or CFS.

This means I am always fatigued lack energy and there is little I can do to control it apart from rest when my body tells me to. I use Morphine and Valium to help me control the pain but a side effect of this is my memory is impaired and it takes me longer to do some basic tasks. So unless I write things down I do not remember them sometimes.

 

In the last 2 weeks I have spoken to everyone I can think of for help and I mean every right up to the ombudsman and even tried to get a lawyer to represent me in am a action against PG but without success. I am on Incapacity benefit so I would need legal aid so I think that’s why I cannot get legal help.

 

This week alone I have made 20 calls to various people for help and at one point the Ombudsman emailed PG and someone called me back but I was sleeping at the time and did not get the women’s name. She did say she would call me back on Monday morning she has not called.

 

 

I am very concerned I am going to get a huge bill* if and when PG finally sort themselves out and I will not be able to pay this bill. Having tried every course of action for help I* am at my wits end. This whole issue is making my heath worse due to worry.

 

 

So I write to you in the hope you can help me sort out this mess.* They is no more I can do even trading standards suggested I contact Watchdog .

[darke]

Give powergen / E.On one more chance. Since energywatch was disbanded earlier this year all the large energy companies have agreed to register customer complaints on an internal tracker system to prove they are taking all necassary steps to resolve customer queries as quickly as possible (this is monitored by consumer focus to ensure adhereance), and if your complaint is not resolved in 56 days they must send you a notification of your rights as to what you can do to get your complaint resoved (or you can ask for this at any time). Also the definition of a compalint being resolved is that the customer is happy / understands the outcome of the investigation and is aware of the reasons for actions taken in the past.

 

Please also remember you have the right to escalate your complaint (ask to speak to a manager) if you feel your query is not being taken seriously or resolved to your satisfaction. E.On in my experiance are one of the few suppliers where the managers are always happy to get on the phone straight away and speak to you if you are not happy and they do not try to get their agents to put you off by telling you no one is avaibale to take your call (as is all too often the case), but please do try to give the person you originally speak to the opportunity to resolve your compalint first, remember they are just trying to do a job and none of us would be too happy with someone coming into our place of work and yelling at us for something that was outside our control. You can find the numbers to call E.On i belive on any of the bills they have sent you. This should also include the complaints line number. When you speak to the person ask them for their name and a number they can be contacted on (this will usually be an extension number) so you have a record of the time and date and the person you have spoken to.

 

The complaint will remain open and no further action will be taken on your account until the account has been fully investigated and all necassary steps have been taken to ensure the billing of your account is correct. They will then inform you of this and explain the actions they have taken by any medium you wish (phone, email, letter). if you still do not belive the account is correct and they have done all they can to correct this for you and explain it the complaint on the account can be set to deadlock (meaning the company have taken all possible steps to resolve the complaint and the balance on the account is correct but you refuse to accept this)

 

If your complaint goes over 56 days to resolve or it goes to deadlock as mentioned you will also be able to go to the ombudsman to register your complaint and they will take over the enquiry for you, however you need to have given your supplier chance to rectify the issue first and if you havnt done this dont be surprised if the ombudsman direct you back to them before they take on your case.

 

When the account goes to the ombudsman they will be sent / ask to see evidence of everything that has been done to correct your account and any offer of compensation / payment arrangement (if necassary) they will then look at all of the available facts and make a decision at to wheather or not the offer made by the company is reasonable (which at this stage it usually is as it will have been reviewed by a few different departments and a manager before going to this stage) and they will either advise the company to take further steps to ensure the complaint is resolved or offer further compensation, or more often advise you either to take the settlement offer or if you still refuse this they will tell you that you have exhausted your right to the ombudsman service and you must take any further claim yourself to a court for further appeal (at your own cost) as there is nothing further they can do for you.

 

however you are a long way off this yet by the sounds of things. call E.On and start the compalints process today

 

Hope this helps

[baldasacoot]

This is an appaling story, you have my deepest sympathies. It's the mindless stupidity of these companies which is so frustrating, isn't it?

 

I would also suggest:

 

1. get an excercise book or note pad and keep a diary of all your phone calls with a note of what was said and agreed and the name of the person you spoke to;

 

2. don't rely on 'phone calls alone - also summarise things in a letter and put everything they agree to do on the 'phone in writing and keep a copy in a file. This will create a dosier you can pass a copy of to the Ombudsman (I'm assuming you have a PC and printer);

 

3. keep a note of your weekly electricity usage as well, the date, the meter reading and how many units you used - I do this in Excel on the computer but the back of the note book will do;

 

3. don't pay for last year's units at this year's prices - this is why accurate bills per quarter are so important - this is also, apart from the fact they are pig-poo stupid, probably why they insist on adding everything from their previous incorrect bills to the new bill, rather than re-issuing a correct bill from the beginning at the old price. They can charge you 25p per unit for 2000 units that cost 15p per unit, or whatever, when you used them. I know they haven't got this far with you yet as they haven't even sorted out your account and sent you a bill yet, but they will;

 

4. whatever happens, make sure that you regularly put the money aside, perhaps in a separate account, so that you can pay the bill when they finally send you one. Don't get caught out by pre-payment meters and all that nonsense;

 

5. and don't panic and don't worry yourself to death. You've done absolutely nothing wrong and you seem to be doing everything right. As long as their bill is correct when it does come and as long as you've got the cash, things will be fine. Even if you haven't got all the cash, you can work something out with them at that point. But get the accurate, correct, per quarter bills first. If you've kept a note of the readings, you can write and tell them what the bills should have been. It won't make the slightest bit of difference in my experience, but it shows you're doing the right thing.

 

 

All the best.

 

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