Hello, I need some help please.

I moved into my previous (MOD) property in August 2007, and set up a Direct Debit with SWALEC to pay both the gas and Electricity. I gave the correct meter readings and thought nothing more of it.

I noticed in May this year that I hadnt recieved a quarterly bill for the electricity when my Gas bill arrived. I phoned SWALEC to enquire why, and they said I had a pay as go card metre. I corrected them, telling them I have a normal meter, and said that I have been paying £30 a month for the electricity. They said they had that money in the account, over £600 and would sort out the problem.

I gave to two meter readings 7 days apart as they requested. On 1st July I moved out of that property and down south. The MOD faxed the move out metre readings to SWALEC. I phoned at the beggining of August to find out how the final bills were going and to set up Gas and Electricity with them again for my new property.

They then said that they didnt have the metre reading for the electricity. I said it was faxed to them by the MOD, and it was strange as they had the Gas reading. Then they turned around and said the final reading was lower then the reading we gave when we first moved in. They suggested there was a problem with the metre. And would send an engineer.

I arranged twice for an engineer to get access to the property, which isnt easy as its MOD and currently empty. The first time to engineer failed to show. Then it gets interesting.

I phoned yesterday to find out what was happening. They said an engineer read the metre on 30th September, and we had a final bill. Which was in credit of over £600. I obviously was surprised. They told me to phone back today so they could double check and release a check to ourselfs. So today I rang..and surprise surprise, no engineer had been and read the metre..they had no reference of a move out reading for the metre. There must be a mistake.

So I rang the appropriate MOD officials who luckly had an inventory of the metre readings, and they said that they remember an engineer going to the property and looking at the meter. I phoned SWALEC to inform them this, and even after receving the final metre reading they STILL need an engineer to look at the meter. After more phone calls, the MOD are now arranging to met with the engineer so he can have access..but to also prove that he did visit.

Im absolutly pulling my hair out here. I feel ive dont nothing wrong, ive been paying the direct debit that I set up, I even let a man come in and read the meter for me so we didnt get estimate bills. I afraid that they will make a bill up, and that the money in the account wont cover the final bill. I feel its also unfair to be told that your going to recieve a check for £600 - £700 then told no. This problem has been going on for months, and its always me trying to chase them up. I also find it strange how theyre meter readings keep disapearing off the system.

Do I have any rights here? What would people suggest to do?

Kerensa

Hi Kerensa,

Its been a quiet day on this forumn today thanks for giving me something to get my teeth into.

After reading your message wow - its not going to be simple i'm afraid!

The first thing you need to do is make sure your complaint is registered correctly contact SWALEC's complaints team (not the general custoemr service centre - the number should be on their statements) and register your complaint in addition request a copy of the complaints procedure, ad you progress with this make sure to follow the procedure to the letter as eventually you'll be able to ask OFGem to intervene to help although I hope you have a solution prior to this being required.

I would imagine the engineer visit is required so the engineer cna pick up the current technical details of the meter (serial number, make model etc) and a card that should have been left when it was exchanged as they do not have the correct details. (the fact they have it registered as prepayment not credit for example). Once the meter operator has obtained this they will send electronic communication to the supplier. The supplier will then use this infoamtion to correct the metering issue on your account and provide you with an accurate statement. In theory this should take no more than 14 to 28 days. (This is because the meter reading agency in your area may need to be involved to estimate the final meter reaidngs of the prepayment meter that was removed as well as the reading the meter was installed on if no record is left at site.)

As for your readings - even if they didn't make sense with the readings your supplier had (which would make sense) there should be some record of them.

When you call to create the complaint ensure it is logged with an effective starting date of when you first raised the problem. (effectively back dating the complaint) this will out you further along the road than if they started it today. This will increase the pressure on your supplier to get the correct solution.

krens29:

They said they had that money in the account, over £600 and would sort out the problem.

Kerensa

I know it's dissapointing to be told you're due £600 and then not to get it. There are different ways of looking at this. One way is that £30/month might be "about right" for electricity so I would have expected the electricity account once/if properly billed to be roughly in balance. On a quick scan I didn't notice any reference to your gas payments. Are you happy with your gas account?

The "bible" on back billing (and hence whether or not you can legally be billed for electricity consumed more than 12 months ago) is the "Code of Practice for Accurate Billing". Unfortunately Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) of which SWALEC is a trading name are not signatories preferring their own code of practice. I'm not immediately familiar with the SSE code but I will research it. SSE pride (or trumpet) themselves as top for customer service. Follow their Code of Practice on complaints scrupulously and do not let them off the hook. Make sure they earn (or risk) their rating.

krens29:

Possibly my last post wasn't clear about one thing. Even though SSE are not signatories to the Code of Practice on Accurate Billing it is still not lawful in certain circumstances for SSE (SWALEC) to back bill more than 12 months.

Without knowing all the circumstances I cannot be certain that your situation qualifies, but on the face of it you have a strong case to present.

Maxsteam has provided some very relevent links in the recent "No bill for a year" thread.

I purposefully steered clear of the "back billing" issue as i'm currently in two minds wether or not this would apply, and given the admittedly limited infomation on a few important area's i'm leaning towards it not applying. Simply because at some point it is atrugable you should ahve been aware of not recieving an electricty statement.

Please remember that at this time I could well be wrong as well as correct. There's a lot of infoamtion we don't currently have to be able to give you a definitive answer. The important thing at this stage is to get the bill right first, once that's done we can then decide weather or not billing code applies.

Even if it did, the best case is that you may recieve a small refund but most likely will pay them no more money, the worse case you may have to pay upto a year's worth of under consumption.

Mynewt:

Even if it did, the best case is that you may recieve a small refund but most likely will pay them no more money, the worse case you may have to pay upto a year's worth of under consumption.

FWIW, my quick "back of an envelope" worst case would be about half refunded, or £300. However I recognise there is insufficient information to prove either the entitlement or the amount.

THANK YOU BOTH FOR REPLYING!

I will try and answer some questions. I do still have my Gas with the same company..never had any problems with that.

I realsied that I was recieving bills every 6 months..not quartly..and after I set up the Electricity account with them I did recieve one bill..and a letter confirming the electricity account and DD was set up. However I shredded the first bill. (I only keep one yr of bills)

I believe I must have missed 2 bills when it came to my attention that I wasnt recieving my Electricity bills at the beggining of this year. Gas and Elec used to come one after the other in the post. During this time my husband was serving in Afganistan...and I dont mean it as an excuse....but it really did slip my mind as I had many other things to think about. especially as I knew that the bills where covered by DD and I never missed a payment.

There is £690 in the account..and I do have a horrible feeling that this wont cover the 2 years of billing. I just cant understand how information goes missing...seems to me that they are trying to cover themselves.

If there is a problem with the meter..how would they work out the bill?

Thank you for your advice so far..I wont hold my breath on the 'only bill for one year' ! Although it seems fair.

Any questions please ask..and I will answer best I can!

Kerensa

Reciving bills on a 6-monthly isn't such an issue - in normal circumstances as long as you're reciving at least one bill in a year it begins to let suppliers off the hook. That said the fact that you recieved confirmation of the direct debit and the account creations puts them back on again.

I can definately understand how something as trival as bills can escape your attention when loved ones are off risking their lives, so please don't beat yourself up. You've done nothing different than anyone else would especailly with regards to beleive everything's ok becuase your making direct debit payments. I'm not saying the belief is correct just that its a pretty common perception.

How long ago did you recieve your last electrcity statement or any paperwork/communication relating directly to the electric. As far as you cna remember is there any possibility that your provider could have had an indication that the metering was incorrect earlier? Maybe you mentioned it in a letter or in a conversation with them?

Please don't fret even in a worst case sceanrio you will not have to pay back any excess immediately, payment arrangements can be negotiated to make the payments affordable for you.

The confirmation letter is dated 14th September 2007, and I moved into the property on the 8th August 2007. Im very certain I recieved a bill not too long after that...but as I only keep a yearly copy of bills I know I shredded it.

When I phoned SWALEC to query why I wasnt recieving bills, I mentioned that I had been having ALOT of problems with my post..holiday tickets going to a wrong address and letters/parcels not arriving at all...so I wondered if the bills too had been lost in the system. Thats when SWALEC said to me "you have a card meter". I had to actually agrue with the person on the phone that I had a normal meter! She said that I didnt..and a card meter was fitted in my property in Febuary 2009. I was gobsmacked..and told her there was a mistake...I have been living here..and would know if someone changed my meter!

After phoning back again..they then said a card meter was fitted in Febuary 2007....and was still in the property! Then after ANOTHER phone call, and a person reading the meter from the company..they said that the meter was changed FROM a card meter to a normal meter on Febuary 2007.

Its then that I did the 2 readings 7 days apart and thought it was all sorted out..till I told them I was moving. And its still ongoing now. Apparently an Engineer is going into the property next Monday and a Housing Officer from the MOD will witness this as well.

It seems to me that the mistake is on their side..If I never said anything they wouldnt even know that they wasnt billing me!

Do you think they are trying to cover their backs here? Just seems a bit fishy to me...

Thanks again for the advice..its good to talk to someone who understands this stuff!

Its posisble that the bills/statements/letters have gone to an alternate address, if Npower cna prove that these have been sent, then Npower are off the hook again if they can also prove that they were address correctly.

The metering discussion though is both confusing and annoying. It is possible that on your earlier conversations Npower did not have/were not provided the correct metering infoamtion, but this changed sometime before your most recent where they admitted the exchanged.

The two readings several days apart suggests they were monitoring your consumption, I assume to calculate the isntalled reading on the new meter, and possibly the removed meter on the old one.

It all seems to hinge on wether Npower cna prove they sent letters/statements/bills out and what address they sent them to. Its highly possible/likely that there are faults at Npower's side, although they'll argue these could have been mitigated by a little consumer responsibility (however they wish to word it) but as mentioned you' only have to pay for any unbilled consumption over the last 12 months only. Npower may or maynot make this deduction form the statement intially. You may have to specifically mention a billing code deduction.

For now, relax and wait for the results of the appointment, there's nothing much more we cna do at this stage. Please don't let it get to you, no matter what there'll be a relatively good ending.

krens29:

Do you think they are trying to cover their backs here? Just seems a bit fishy to me...

I think you are *probably* being told what the customer adviser can see on the Customer Information System. If so it has no bearing on the reason for the original scr*w-up, and the facts presented are certainly consistent with a meter or account registration problem, a qualifying reason for unbilled consumption more than 12 months prior to the present being waived under the regulations.

You need to make whatever case you wish to make. I would give the SWALEC customer adviser one more time limited opportunity to resolve the issue to your satisfaction. You might as well demand "the works". If you are not satisfied, submit a formal complaint strictly in accordance with the SWALEC code of practice on complaints. After 8 (or 12?) weeks if you remain dissatisfied you are entitled to refer the issue to to the Energy Ombudsman. You may wish to discuss the issue with Consumer Direct. A particular point about the Energy Ombudsman sceme is that it will be well versed in demanding documentation from SWALEC which descibes the chronology of the issue. Also it costs you nothing.

You might also consider making a £10 Subject Access Request of SWALEC requiring provison of all data they hold on you include copies of bills, correspondence, call logs and call transcripts or recordings. For £10 it's a no-brainer.

Jalexa:

You might also consider making a £10 Subject Access Request of SWALEC requiring provison of all data they hold on you include copies of bills, correspondence, call logs and call transcripts or recordings. For £10 it's a no-brainer.

Defiantely worth consideration, just take note it can take upto 40 days for the request to be process and will provide you with a lot of infomation that's mostly irrelevnat and some that'll be really helpful.Dpeneidng on Npower's stance and the outcome of the upcoming appointment though you cna find they may still chase for payment of the balance or at least na arrangment to pay the balance. (this is because while the consumer may have a dispute, they may not agree, theres another post on this subject on the forums regarding disputes and what it actually means). Hopefully though we'll be able to avoid all this.

Mynewt:

, if Npower .....

Had a really good liquid lunch, Mynewt?

Oh I wish - would hit the spot atm.

Sorry for the confusion, I'm attempting to help a different issue on another forum and temporarily muddled the two issues.

Hi Krens29,

Any news or updates regarding this problem, is it all sorted?