southern electric pre-payment meter removal

[angnnig]

Hi ,I have finaly had a response from southern electric and they have basicaly said that it was a mistake by them due to a smart card error,they explained that on november 2008 the balance from the credit meter was £628 and the meter was set to collect the debt ,following an investigation into our account they found that an emergency appointment took place and shortly after our meter was reset and a new smart card was issued to us, as the first card had stopped working ,this resulted in the meter being reset which then caused the meter to clear the debt,therefore the balance is payable .We saw that the debt was being taken every week so how can they say we owe this.Can anyone advise on this thanks,regards angnnig

Edited May 28, 2011 by angnnig

[angnnig]

bump

[silverfox1961]

Not absolutely sure about this but- maybe the billing code comes into play here. They have admitted it is their error so they shouldn't be claiming for any more than 12 months BUT This is an existing debt, not a billing error so I'm not sure where you stand.

Can you not get an up to date statement of account to show when the debt stopped being collected.

 

Does your meter not show up this debt?

[angnnig]

Hi silverfox,thanks for your reply.We have just recently changed to ebico and they have just taken our old meter out and replaced it with a keymeter one and that is how southern electric said they found out that the debt wasn,t being taken as they looked at our old meter ,but we saw it was being taken £10 every week .kind regards angnnig

[silverfox1961]

I take it your old meter was a card meter (where you buy top up cards from a shop) If so, for the meter to collect a debt, it has to be manually set. it's only the new key meters than can be programmed with the key. You say you were paying £10 per week off the debt? There should be some record of it. Did they ever send you statements?

[angnnig]

Hi silver,yes the old meter was a card meter and southern electric never sent us any statements,i just thought that because it shows all the data on the meter that we were n,t entitled to any statements so i did n,t bother to ask them for one,kind regards angnnig

[silverfox1961]

I think they should have sent you an annual statement at the very least. How else are you meant to work out what is owed.

 

I would still query this, possibly sending a Subject Access Request. I appreciate a card meter can go wrong but as you say, you were paying £10 per week towards this debt and I assume your payments never went down

[angnnig]

Thanks for your advice silver,kind regards angnnig

[tania86]

Hi I've had a similar problem I had a meter installed 4 yrs ago with £4 to be taken toward debt a week.I rung them today to see if debt was cleared where they informed me that the debt was never taken and can they come round and put it on my meter this week! I am so angry as I felt i was coming to the end of a long tunnel .I have refused untill they look into this matter I have had no statements from the company on 4 years and just assume dthis was normal practice .Tania

[angnnig]

Southern electric have now put the £10m debt on our key meter,even though we have objected to this, as we know we dont owe £795.I have looked at the meter and it doesn,t even show how much the debt is, all it does show is that they are taking £10 a week of us for debt .Can anyone advise on what we can do about this please ,regards angnnig

[davehsug]

I'm just puzzled. If Southern are now longer your supplier, how on earth can they set debt on a meter they don't supply?

[Davemuss]

If you were with southern electric, and you are now with Ebico, the only thing which will have changed is the pricing structure and your customer reference number with them as i done this as ebico are a very competitive company. this means the fact that you got the key meter changed was due to a general RECERTIFICATION of your meter, nothing to do with your supplier as this hasnt TECHNICALLY changed.

If you were to call them they will be able to prompt you to which codes on the meter means what, and they will be able to look to see what you have paid and what debt was applied, if any to the meter,. the debt sometimes is not applied to the meter, either this or the debt was applied to the meter, but where you changed for a billing meter to a key meter it may not have been transferred on their accounts. I used to work for powergen before they were brought out many years ago and this is what would sometimes happen.

What to do, Call them, if the person cant help, go to a manager.

hope this helps

[angnnig]

Hi I have asked for a copy of the payments that have been made through the card meter since it was put in, its just a lot of dates and figures to me and does n,t show me anything really.I have also asked for a copy of the original bill which they put on the card prepayment meter back in 2008.I received a copy of this by email ,if I post these on here someone else may pick up on something i,ve missed.Southern electric are still saying i owe the money but have offered to knock off 10% of the £628 they say we owe due to the way ive been treated.They said that i couldn,t have seen the debt going down as the pre card meter doesn,t show the balance and the debt reducing.I definatly did notice that the meter was taking £10 though spread over the week.Does anyone think I should now complain to the energy ombudsman.kind regards angnnig

[Davemuss]

if you go to the ombinsmun he will look at the account, and if everything has been billed ocrrectly and that debt is there, he will just refer you back to the supplier.

If SE have knocked off 10% that is still better than anything the ombidsmun will offer.

I would suggest if you have the bill and it states that you havent paid this, but you 100% know you have been paying the debt off at £10 or whatever a week then i would ask SE for a statement to see if your account is in CREDIT. although it is a PPM, the account will still bill like a 1/4 billing meter but all of the bills will be filed.

This means if the debt hasnt been applied to your account, there should be a 0 balance on your account.

If the account doesnt show the debt applied then you wont have paid anything towards it.

Have you just spoken to call centre staff or has this matter been passed to manager or higher as most companies now have an escalation process or complaints process they need to adhere by.

Id call them, on an 0800 number, make sure the debt has not been applied to a meter and try and take this further. its clearly a pain in at *** for you and they are paid to help.

please contact me if any other assistance needed

davetoni Mussilli

[angnnig]

Thankyou for your reply dave,its there word against mine at the end of the day,they could just make up those breakdowns and just make it look like nothing has come off the debt.Even if i did owe the money,I think it is totally out of order to make me pay for a 3 year old debt that was so called wiped by a mistake from themselves.regards angnnig

Edited July 29, 2011 by angnnig

[angnnig]

Hi All ,

I recently noticed that Southern electric have been taking a couple of pence for debt on our prepayment meter ,

 

I complained to them and i gave them all the readings from the meter ,

They then admited that they owed us £28 as the meter was set to take a debt we didn,t owe.

 

We had paid our debt up about 18 months ago now and the meter has been taking pence for debt each time we topped up our gas card.

 

I,m wondering if because the meter has been set to take a debt,

has the meter been set to a higher tarrif than what it should have been on ,

the reason I am asking this is, the engineer from sse came out to reset the meter and said its back to standard tarrif again and shouldn,t be costing as much as it was before .

 

I know prices have gone up ,but its been taking £5 a day from us for long time now and we only live in a bedroomed terrace house .

 

If the meter has been set to high all this time would we be entitled to any compensation for the meter being set to high?

 

Kind regards angnnig

[dx100uk]

yes you certainly will be entitled to compensation

 

its a shame he reset it

as thats the evidence you need out the windows

 

you can check every setting by following simple key press guides on the net.

 

have you not has a bill

you should get one every 12mts

even if you are on a key.

 

but if you've been paying £5 a day! thats almost £2k a year or 40 a week

thats alot of lekky.

 

dx

[angnnig]

Thanks for your reply DX,They have never sent us a bill since having the meters put in .If we ask for a breakdown of all the payments that we,ve made over the past 18 months , hopefully this might give us the tarriff rate.kind regards angnnig

[dx100uk]

if they have never sent bills

then they can only ever get 12mts past back

unless its a new build

 

 

notts lad is your boy

send him a pm

 

dx

[angnnig]

Will do ,Thanks for the tip DX

[angnnig]

Just pmd notts lad and his pm box is full and i clicked the wrong button to save the long msg:roll:.regards angnnig

[angnnig]

I,ve tried to find notts lad on here to send a msg to him but struggling.Can anyone help please?regards angnnig

[dx100uk]

try

ScottishPower Company Rep

 

might be able to answer the questions for us

 

dx

[angnnig]

Thanks dx ,will do ,regards angnnig