Hi, I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience.

In July last year we moved into our new house and took over the meter (pre-payment card) but stayed with BG. We asked to have the meter replaced with a normal one, BG said it may take a long time (>4 weeks, because "so many people were coming back"). They said they would send us a new card in the meantime.  We received nothing in the next 4 days, by which time the meter was almost at zero.  We decided to put a load of credit on the meter using the card the previous owner had left. We put £130 on it, because we suspected it would take them ages to change the meter.

Some contractors came and replaced the meter within a week and told us the credit on the meter would be transferred an that we didn't have to do anything. We weren't given any kind of receipt and being somewhat naive didn't ask for one. 

A month later we'd heard nothing so phoned them up to give them a reading.  They took it and said they would send us a bill (we'd decided not to go DD) but nothing appeared. 3 months later we called again and gave a reading and they said they'd send us a bill but they didn't.  2 months later the meter was read by a meter reader, another month passed and we called again to ask about the bill and give them another reading.  Each time they told us it was all fine but we never received a bill. We assumed for some time that the credit from the pre pay meter was covering our costs. We've had our meter read 4 times and given a reading twice since moving in but had not received a bill.

Then on the 1 year anniversary of moving in we received a letter congratulating us on our new house and asking for new details. We phoned up and this time they agreed that there was a problem and they would sort it out and send us a bill. 

We received nothing so phoned up again about 10days later and were told that the system had logged details of the problem and our complaint, but no action had been taken.  Nice!  The CS person said they would take action, the pre pay amount would be taken into account and everything was fine. 1 week later we received a letter saying our problem had been resolved, although it did not say how, why or actually provide any information about what they had 'resolved'. 

2 weeks ago we decided to switch and hey presto! today we received a red bill for £433 (apparently sent 7 days ago).

Upon phoning up to complain and give them a reading (only 4 weeks since the last reading we gave them), they now say we owe £531.54, and mysteriously have no record of the credit on our prepayment meter, nor the 6 meter readings which they've been given since July last year.

Any ideas what we can do?  I understand that we're legally obliged to pay for the last 12 months worth of electricity, but is there any likelihood of compensation or a reduction in the bill?  They've not even told us how they calculated the bill...

Cheers

Yap 

Hi Yap ---- After doing so much and receiving such little sensible help to your problem, it sounds like anything you now do will just go round and round in circles.

If I were you I would contact Energywatch, below, who are experienced in this type of common problem, give them all the details and let them deal with the complaint on your behalf until the problem is resolved.

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/

Hi there

Sadly i work for this company it's really disgraceful how this big company run their business, i'm a student and i've been working there part time for almost 2 years now and the best advice i could give you is to request to speak to a manager, if you've not recieved a bill for 12 moths you are entitled  10% of your bill, and you can also claim £50 compensation towards your phone bills and poor service, and enrgywatch as i've been told last week that you can actually set up an installment plan to pay it off over 12 month. Please when you do call stress it  to the Csa that you need a manager on the phone ASAP. You should also take the manager's name so if you have to callback they'll just transfer you or email her to give you a ringback, i hope this make any sense, it's 5.52 am and i cant sleep.

 all the best

Hi Tony,

Hate to corect you but they do not give £50 refund for phone calls, they do not knock 10% of the bills! It took me 14 months and hours if not days hanging on the phone. I have written to everyone there. Never a reply, just a bog standard letter. No one has ever been on a customer service course, or if they did they failed.... badly. I have never met such a rude bunch of people. I'm just glad I've got away.They have still not been able to work out a final bill. However, I calculated it and sent a cheque. That was cashed, surprise surprise. I will never ever again go back to them.