It looks as if you have found out what is happenning if not yet why.

FWIW in spite of my initial criticism of BG customer service, your alleged "slamming" apart, I wouldn't be too critical of the customer service awareness so far. However the test now begins.

I think its clear there has been at least a mistake. I think you need tell BG you think there has been a mistake when supplies were switched. See what they say. They can either agree and sort this out or produce paperwork in support of a customer application for a single rate tariff. Can't anticipate. Deal with their response.

Meanwhile make it clear the bill is in dispute. Can't see any reason for not offering to pay the low rate charges "on account".

As to motives, it wouldn't necessarily be clear to BG that you wanted to retain Economy 7. They are not mind readers, you could have been changing your form of heating. If you have been "canvassed" and the canvasser didn't identify existing Economy 7 and installed storage heating then I would think that would definately be negligent.

At this stage my advice is to keep cool.

Ok, this gets curioser and curiouser...

I was checking out prices from British Gas and others and discovered our bills since last march (and possibly earlier) have been charged at the single reading flat rate, rather than the dual.

Now I know from going over an old bill when we had a different supplier that we did have the dual rate system with them, so I have asked my parents if they have had anyone from BG 'canvass' them into changing this when they switched (now any rep who can see or is told we have an economy 7 heating system would be flat out lying if they said the single rate would be cheaper but I asked all the same) or were they told of this change when they switched.

As far as they know, no: When they switched supplier to BG they were not informed of any such change.

So from the looks of it the tariff system BG have put on our home is indeed the single reading one, despite the fact our central heating system is not designed to benefit from that at all (quite the reverse is true), and my parents have no knowledge of ever agreeing to this in the first place (why would they agree?)

This raises a couple of questions: 1) Could this be behind one of the dials stopping? - 2) Would BG have changed us from dual to single automatically if they thought they were getting just the one reading? and 3) why did the representative I reported the problem too, and the one I spoke to today, not inform me of the single tariff when I querried the bill explicitly citing our economy 7 system as a reason why it should have been cheaper?

Whatever the answers, I think once we get the meter fixed I will be looking elsewhere on my parents behalf.

One other thing, co-incidently or not, BG sent us a letter a few weeks back informing us they would be coming sometime up to May to replace our meter. Maybe they knew something we didn't...

Just to clarify the readings: The 'low' rate dial is the only one that is moving (and it is doing so during the day as well as night so all our usage is going on that dial), and BG have incorrectly listed that reading on their bill as the 'normal' one and charged us the daytime rate for it. BG have told me the 'normal' dial has been frozen for over a year, and they have that reading incorrectly listed as the 'low' one on our bill, so naturally we have not been charged anything on that.

This means that the economy 7 timer switch apparently failed to switch between the 2 dials last March, so all electricity used since then has all gone onto the 'low' reading dial throughout the day and night. The meter readers they have sent round have failed to spot this and have either decided themselves to read the 'low' as 'normal' or BG have decided/assumed this when issuing the bill.

Bottom line: It is not a case of us not being charged at all for the daytime rates, as BG tried to suggest when asking me to accept an even higher bill, it looks like a case of us being charged the daytime rate all of the time: With our water heated overnight, and our storage heaters designed to charge overnight through winter, that £1000 figure might make more sense if they have indeed been charging us the full daytime rates for it all.

For comparison I do have a bill from the summer months last year, when none of our storage heaters were in use: From July 30 to Sept 22 (3 months) our bill was £161. According to BG's winter months bill (if it were correct) we have allegedly used close to 75% more power (roughly £30 p/week more) in winter than in summer.

MSKelly:

I think you are more on top of this than most people who post here. Search out something on Google called the Code of Practice for Accurate Bills. BG are signatories. Follow the dispute section scrupulously.

As well as (probably) the timeswitch issue which is BG's responsibility in the first instance, the BG bill seems to be totally wrong. Until the issue is sorted they have no grounds for billing other than low rate units because that is what the meter reads. (well you did say that in your first post, but differently in your second post). So multiple BG failures. Demand generous compensation.

Some other tips. I hope your parents are well but make sure BG are aware if there is any frailty whatsover, because that affects the ability of the householder to read the meter and to deal with any hassle.

Also it has been a VERY COLD winter so the storage heaters would have consumed loads of power. Do not allow BG to argue retrospectively that day consumption would be significant. Quite the reverse.

In fact, standby items, lights and electronics consume peanuts and the occasional washing or dishwashing is not great compared with storage heating.

BTW I do not know what process can be used to calculate a revised bill based on assumed readings. You really need good consumer advice to answer that if its not mentioned in the Code of Practice.

Thanks for the reply.

I did not think it was right they wanted my father to agree to a revised bill before we even know exactly what the problem is and therefore do not know just what we should be paying. I can only hope the intent was something other than to get an agreement leaving us no other option but to pay, whether the charge is legitimate or not (would we have been able to still dispute the bill later if we had agreed?)

I'm also a little bemused how none of the men they sent to read out meter have not noticed this problem, and how they evidently took it upon themselves to read our 'low' dial as if it were our 'normal' (it's not like they are hard to read!!).

Whatever the case there this much is apparent: Since last March, that's a whole year, we have been paying the full 'normal' daytime rate on all electricity used: Our water that is heated at night, our heaters that draw their charge at night, basically everything our 'economy 7' is supposed to ensure we pay less for that nightly use, we have been charged the full daytime rate.

And when queried on this they wanted us to agree to an even higher bill? I think not...When they call again I will ask they find out what the problem is first before trying to guestimate a figure that might well be very wrong.

Regarding other peoples usage: Yes, I agree that what someone else is paying likely won't have much mileage, but for my trying to figure out what we should be paying that's the only real gauge I have atm. Looking at what my brother spends, what he uses etc. the maths for our bill do not add up in comparison. Even allowing for our storage heaters, which have only been in use for around 4 months of the 6 we have been billed on, I can't see how it can be so much.

MSKelly:

I sympathise with your predicament.

Partly because its British Gas who do not have a good record for customer service I would urge you to seek advice from Consumer Direct particularly regarding agreeing a revised bill. I think it is unreasonable for anybody to be asked to agree that in the course of a phone call.

You describe what seems to be a serious issue with the meter and/or timer or the tariff setup for your supply. That's for your parents supplier British Gas to address.

One final suggestion. There is little mileage in the "other people are paying less" argument. In fact £40/week energy use for an electrically heated house is unfortunately not necessarily excessive. Focus on the meter issue and why it is not working. You already seem to have an admission that BG knew it stopped registering in March 2008 and have not taken any action.

Hello all,

I don't normally have to deal with my parents utility bills but they asked me to look at their electricity bill (supplied by British Gas) as they thought it seemed wrong. On looking I agreed: They had been charged over £1000 for the last 6 months use. Now I know our electricity wont be low as we have storage heaters and water drawing power during the night (our oven is Gas), but even so, nearly £40 per week on average (bear in mind the heaters are not on all the time in those 6 months) does not seem right, especially when my brothers family, with an electric oven and children playing on computers, video games, etc through much of the day and evening peak hours, pays around £15 a week.

So I looked at the readings on the meter and checked them against the those on the bill and found that only one of the two readings was actually moving. The dial listed as 'low' was moving but the one listed as 'normal' had not changed since the previous bill. Now the 'low' reading should be the night-time economy 7 rate, but on the bill this was being charged at the normal rate with nothing charged on the frozen reading.

So I phoned BG a couple of days ago to lodge this problem and dispute the bill. They said they would call back and today a lady did phone, booked a day for someone to come look at the meter and asked for agreement on a revised bill....Which comes to MORE than the one we were disputing!! They also confirmed the 'normal' reading had stopped some time in March of 2008 and stated we had not been paying at all for our 'day rate' electricity since then, so the new bill would be high. I did not agree to this revised bill and told them the 'low' reading is rolling during the day as well - I have just confirmed this is the case to make doubly sure, though I would have thought this was obvious as the economy 7 rate clocking up over £1000 on it's own if the dial were only rolling at night (as the lady suggested) seems rather ridiculous.

On being informed of this the lady stated there must be a problem with the timer switch, and that was a different department, so someone else will be contacting me about it....

Now what concerns me here is that the inquiry was lodged in the first place because our bill is too high, but BG's first response to this was to try and have me accept an even higher bill.

Could this somehow wind up being correct? I have looked around the house making a note of what is plugged in, what is on and what is not etc, and I cannot fathom how the things we generally use on a day to day basis could rack up so much. As I've noted above, we are apparently using more than twice as much as my brother, who has far more things turned on for a lot longer. He also uses a pay key thing, which I understand are supposed to work out as more expensive in the long run as well. Unfortunately, my parents did not keep older bills so I cannot compare with readings when both dials were both working (nor guess just how long our meter may have been mis-reading things) but I can see from their direct debit payments the agreed amount (derived from an older bill) does suggest past bills were somewhat lower (still £125 a month, but that's better than over £160!!).

My thanks in advance for any help and information on this, especially suggestions on how I should procede with British Gas regarding asking me to accept any revised bills that I do not trust.