Carbon footprint - EEK!
Discussion
So, this is very embarrassing and I am clearly a feckwit. However, I am looking for some helpful advice rather than a roasting for my idiocy.
Years ago when I bought my current house, I signed a direct debit for my electricity. I noticed the payments going out occasionally but essentially I ignored them in my bank statements.
Now, I got a letter from E-On saying that my direct debit was going up to £650.
Per MONTH!
So, assuming this to be an obvious error, I phone up and ask what they think they are playing at. They assure me, that I am using 49,000 units of electricity a year compared to the usual consumption per household of 4,500 - 6,000. This has gone on for a number of years.
Eh? Where's all this electrickery going? We are a family of five and have someone else who lives in part-time. We don't as a rule leave all the lights burning. The house is heated on gas and the cooking is gas.
Ok, I run a swimming pool pump 24/7 and have driveway and garden lighting that must burn quite a bit but 10x a normal house? The swimming pool is heated on oil. I am not running a mahoosive mary-ju-wana hydroponics factory either (slightly surprised that the BiB haven't popped round to check on that...)
This can't be right. But I can't get E-On interested in investigating.
The Sparky is round as I type, isolating different circuits to find out what is drawing all this current.
Suggestions (other than stop being so stupid in paying bills)?
Oh and to get it out of the way, this is the worst I've got a big house and am too rich to notice huge bills post ever.
Years ago when I bought my current house, I signed a direct debit for my electricity. I noticed the payments going out occasionally but essentially I ignored them in my bank statements.
Now, I got a letter from E-On saying that my direct debit was going up to £650.
Per MONTH!
So, assuming this to be an obvious error, I phone up and ask what they think they are playing at. They assure me, that I am using 49,000 units of electricity a year compared to the usual consumption per household of 4,500 - 6,000. This has gone on for a number of years.
Eh? Where's all this electrickery going? We are a family of five and have someone else who lives in part-time. We don't as a rule leave all the lights burning. The house is heated on gas and the cooking is gas.
Ok, I run a swimming pool pump 24/7 and have driveway and garden lighting that must burn quite a bit but 10x a normal house? The swimming pool is heated on oil. I am not running a mahoosive mary-ju-wana hydroponics factory either (slightly surprised that the BiB haven't popped round to check on that...)
This can't be right. But I can't get E-On interested in investigating.
The Sparky is round as I type, isolating different circuits to find out what is drawing all this current.
Suggestions (other than stop being so stupid in paying bills)?
Oh and to get it out of the way, this is the worst I've got a big house and am too rich to notice huge bills post ever.
Even though its going to cost a couple of quid more (which is being challenged in court), I am going to change from DD's to cheque payment for my energy.
I am sick an tired of the constant random bills that I get. I had one electricity bill that jumped from 50 quid a month to 250 with NO explanation. 10 calls to their call centre later and I eventually get hold of someone who has a brain and can sort out the situation. Gas has randomly jumped too...
As has been reported - the energy companies make more money from the excess payments and the interest they make of this, than on the actual resale of energy in the first place. Therefore it is in their interest to overcharge (a lot) as it makes more money. I fully expect this to get worse now that the money markets are tougher....
Gits, the lot of them.
I am sick an tired of the constant random bills that I get. I had one electricity bill that jumped from 50 quid a month to 250 with NO explanation. 10 calls to their call centre later and I eventually get hold of someone who has a brain and can sort out the situation. Gas has randomly jumped too...
As has been reported - the energy companies make more money from the excess payments and the interest they make of this, than on the actual resale of energy in the first place. Therefore it is in their interest to overcharge (a lot) as it makes more money. I fully expect this to get worse now that the money markets are tougher....
Gits, the lot of them.
off_again said:
Even though its going to cost a couple of quid more (which is being challenged in court), I am going to change from DD's to cheque payment for my energy.
I am sick an tired of the constant random bills that I get. I had one electricity bill that jumped from 50 quid a month to 250 with NO explanation. 10 calls to their call centre later and I eventually get hold of someone who has a brain and can sort out the situation. Gas has randomly jumped too...
As has been reported - the energy companies make more money from the excess payments and the interest they make of this, than on the actual resale of energy in the first place. Therefore it is in their interest to overcharge (a lot) as it makes more money. I fully expect this to get worse now that the money markets are tougher....
Gits, the lot of them.
A certain British company supplying gas kept taking the direct debit from my account twice. When I picked it up they said they would credit my account, err no you can refund my money, "it's not our policy to do that Sir" "I couldn't care less what your policy is, refund it or I shall consider it stolen" eventually they did refund. I now pay by cheque.I am sick an tired of the constant random bills that I get. I had one electricity bill that jumped from 50 quid a month to 250 with NO explanation. 10 calls to their call centre later and I eventually get hold of someone who has a brain and can sort out the situation. Gas has randomly jumped too...
As has been reported - the energy companies make more money from the excess payments and the interest they make of this, than on the actual resale of energy in the first place. Therefore it is in their interest to overcharge (a lot) as it makes more money. I fully expect this to get worse now that the money markets are tougher....
Gits, the lot of them.
Best "considerably richer than YOWWWW!, er before the DD goes up!" post ever!
Are you sure the readings when you took the house on were right? Have you had proper periodic meter readings?
How much are you actually in arrears according to EON. ?
Eon are truly stupid. In July I moved supply to another after 6 years with EON and gave the new supplier readings from my dual economy 7 meter on the day of the move. They sent the readings to EON.
Imagine my surspise when i got a letter from EON saying they needed to investigate me and my meter as it "appeared to be running backwards" as the reading had dropped over 3000 units since the last reading.......this was in the same post delivery as another EON letter saying my DD would be increasing from £45 a month to £135 a month (even though I was moving from them) as one of my meter readings showed massive increase in use since my last reading......
Of course, an EON plank had put the night reading in the day reading box and vice versa....!
But that was July and it still is not sorted. They are truly thick SOBs!
Are you sure the readings when you took the house on were right? Have you had proper periodic meter readings?
How much are you actually in arrears according to EON. ?
Eon are truly stupid. In July I moved supply to another after 6 years with EON and gave the new supplier readings from my dual economy 7 meter on the day of the move. They sent the readings to EON.
Imagine my surspise when i got a letter from EON saying they needed to investigate me and my meter as it "appeared to be running backwards" as the reading had dropped over 3000 units since the last reading.......this was in the same post delivery as another EON letter saying my DD would be increasing from £45 a month to £135 a month (even though I was moving from them) as one of my meter readings showed massive increase in use since my last reading......
Of course, an EON plank had put the night reading in the day reading box and vice versa....!
But that was July and it still is not sorted. They are truly thick SOBs!
I had a call from British Gas along the same lines last year. Apparently they had been taking out about £8.00 per month for gas by direct debit. They phoned to kindly tell me that due to their stupidity and incompetence I now owe them over £1000. They then asked if I wanted to amend my direct debit! 
When questioned why this wasn't picked up sooner, or why meter readings were not taken they told me that there was never anyone home to allow the readings to take place. I work from home ffsake and have never seen anyone come to read the gas meter!
When questioned why this wasn't picked up sooner, or why meter readings were not taken they told me that there was never anyone home to allow the readings to take place. I work from home ffsake and have never seen anyone come to read the gas meter!
Edited by [AJ] on Thursday 11th December 15:02
[AJ] said:
I had a call from British Gas along the same lines last year. Apparently they had been taking out about £8.00 per month for gas by direct debit. They phoned to kindly tell me that due to their stupidity and incompetence I now owe them over £1000. They then asked if I wanted to amend my direct debit!
When questioned why this wasn't picked up sooner, or why meter readings were not taken they told me that there was never anyone home to allow the readings to take place. I work from home ffsake and have never seen anyone come to read the gas meter!
Do you never check bank statements or make sure your utility bill is at least nearly correct?You can read your own meter and send this into BG....as much your fault as their's in my opinion...When questioned why this wasn't picked up sooner, or why meter readings were not taken they told me that there was never anyone home to allow the readings to take place. I work from home ffsake and have never seen anyone come to read the gas meter!
Edited by [AJ] on Thursday 11th December 15:02
s3fella said:
Simpo Two said:
Following a bill from EON that was three times more than it should have been, after much stonewalling and red bils etc, they finally admitted they'd got the Economy 7 and normal numbers the wrong way round...
So it is not just me they did that to? What f witts! esselte said:
Do you never check bank statements or make sure your utility bill is at least nearly correct?You can read your own meter and send this into BG....as much your fault as their's in my opinion...
Personally, I do look at my bank statements but assume that the DD is roughly correct and rather assumed (stupidly) that it was a quarterly payment that I was looking at, not a monthly one. The wife files the bills away.andy-xr said:
Faulty meter
I had mine replaced as Powergen couldnt work out why my readings were always the same. They were still happy to bill me a guesstimate though. Gas meter ended up needing replacement for something similar as well, I think that was batteries or power to the LCD screen
Any idea how I can prove it is faulty?I had mine replaced as Powergen couldnt work out why my readings were always the same. They were still happy to bill me a guesstimate though. Gas meter ended up needing replacement for something similar as well, I think that was batteries or power to the LCD screen
Keep on at them. My old man used to work for one of the utility companies (not EON unfortunatley else I'd get him to have a shufti) in a department that specifically dealt with accounts where for whatever reason a bill has been generated that is stupidly huge compared to a typical house (normally old dears running the immersion 24 hours a day). Unfortunatley the bills get spat out by computer and yours has been unlucky & slipped throught the net
The hard part is getting the call centre clone to refer your query to this team. Sounds like you're doing the right thing getting a spark to check things out tho.
The hard part is getting the call centre clone to refer your query to this team. Sounds like you're doing the right thing getting a spark to check things out tho.
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