Energy firms often fail to bill properly

That's the conclusion of a report from Energywatch, the gas and electricity consumer watchdog, which also found that half of all consumers do not check their bills.

It said it has heard of energy suppliers chasing the wrong customer for payment, of people being disconnected over "grossly over-estimated" bills and others being hassled by debt collection firms.

Energywatch is calling on utility companies to improve their billing procedures in order to prevent consumers getting a raw deal.

In particular, Energywatch would like to see utility companies reading customer meters on a more regular basis.

In addition, firms have been warned to keep a better record when customers phone with their own meter readings.

Bill blunders

Firms that do make mistakes with customers' bills should face sanctions according to Ann Robinson, the chair of Energywatch.

"We also want the energy companies to offer adequate compensation for the distress and inconvenience these billing blunders can cause," she said.

We fully support a new campaign to improve the transfer process Jeff Percival, Atlantic

The energy watchdog is publishing the 'Bad Bill Buster', a checklist to help consumers avoid pitfalls, such as debt, caused by the billing blunders of power companies.

Nearly half the 86,000 complaints received by Energywatch last year related to billing and accounts.

Changing supplier

Atlantic Electric and Gas, a relatively small supplier with 240,000 UK accounts, collected the highest proportion of complaints to Energywatch.

Jeff Percival, Atlantic's chief executive, said the number of complaints had been aggravated by the number of new customers signing up - and inherent problems surrounding the transfer process.

"Most of the complaints are not about estimated bills but when customers change supplier because there is always the possibility of errors occurring when transferring data," he said.

"The industry is aware of the problem and we fully support a new campaign to improve the transfer process."

Npower, which was one of the most complained about energy firms said in a statement: "We agree with Energywatch - accurate, timely bills are what everybody wants.

"We are looking at a number of ways to encourage people to contact us with accurate readings."

Have you been wrongly chased for payment, or received a "grossly over-estimated" bill? Do you think Energywatch is right to draw attention to the issue of billing? Tell us your experiences using the form above.

Your comments

I am the accountant of a firm in Birmingham, and for the past two years we have been getting bills from Npower for meters that do not exist. Two persons from Npower have been to our place to cut off the supply, but they could-not find the meters. Npower are now threatening to take us to Court!
D. Singh, England

In my case it was not a question of being over charged, but on the contrary under charged! Our energy bills were estimated on the consumption over two months in the summer when the flat was empty save for some builders. This went on for over a year - until an official reading was actually taken and then we were slapped with a bill for several hundreds of pounds retrospectively at Christmas! I suppose that in no small degree my own naivet� is to blame for the duration of this error; however, it does seem to me that British Gas need to review their system for setting estimates. I was infuriated by the stupidity of the original estimate! As it happens, we were able to pay off the extra - but what if this happens to the elderly? It could be very distressing.
Ros, UK

Thanks to an inaccurate meter reading, my mother-in-law's direct debit for her gas supply jumped from about �18 per month to �800, causing a great deal of concern. I am appalled that this huge discrepancy did not trigger some sort of alert within the accounts department. The overpayment was refunded but without any sort of compensation or proper apology.
Helen Robertson, UK

Dear old British Gas on the today programme acted like saints when they are the sinners. Apart from always over-estimating my usage and never using the accurate figures I ring through. They decided that when I bought a house and changed it from a card meter to direct debit I was not to be trusted and so had to pay a massive deposit - despite having been a customer for a year at my previous address. Well I have just been able to move from them and will never return. Very poor customer service at BG.
Simon, England

I agree with Atlantic, the handover process is appalling. I moved to my current property 8 June last year, and on 10 June advised British Gas I would like them to supply both Gas and Electric. It took until March this year to agree the Gas handover figures. As for the electric British Gas / Scottish Power still haven't agreed the final reading between themselves over a year later, resulting in threatening letters from Scottish Power for not paying a final bill. Which they can't confirm as correct. When they let me know they have both agreed a figure then I'll pay, until then I'm happy to go to court.
Phil Wright, UK

We thought we'd been paying an electricity bill for the last two years, and received a letter two months ago stating that we hadn't. We've been hassled by a debt collection agency and threatened with disconnection, even though we've provided Npower with all the information requested many times. One phone call we received even ended with them asking 'so who supplies your electricity?' even though the whole call had been about the fact that Npower was our supplier!
Gez Smith, UK

I think they like to overestimate bills, because then they can use our money as interest free credit. It certainly seems rare to have an underestimate.
Ivan Viehoff, UK

Utility billing is in chaos because the industry has been fragmented in the quest for competition, with multiple agencies involved in the production of a single bill, and each of the these agencies liable to change at any time. Coupled with this, manual meter reading is simply too labour intensive a task for our modern world, and suppliers have to cut meter reading services to the bone in order to offer the cheapest price. The answer is the widespread use of automatic meter reading systems under the control of the consumer, with utility suppliers able to accept readings automatically sent through the Internet into their billing systems. Automatic meter reading systems can also be a valuable tool for helping consumers to save energy and reduce global warming.
Julian Edmonds, UK

My gas and electric are always hugely overestimated they have increased my D/D by 35% for no apparent reason
James Bradley, UK

I pay a fixed monthly fee which is reconciled against estimated bills. I was recently advised to double my monthly payment despite not having my meter read in 18 months. I rejected this request and was advised I had no choice. When asked to clarify how they had a right to insist on this when they had no proof that my expenditure had not increased I was told that they had no obligation to read the meter only once every 2 years. This is scandalous. As a credit manager luckily I know my rights and advised them that I would cancel my direct debit if they insisted on increasing my bill without a meter reading, it was also possible for me to advise them of the figures (read it over the phone), but in the meantime I would continue to be charged at my usual fee. I can only imagine the extra revenue that would have been generated if a mere 50% of all DD customers had their monthly fee increased by 50% and did not stop to question their right to do this without checking the meters!
Barbara Boylan, England

My account was closed after 16 trouble free years ,without warning, by British Gas and the �60 I was in credit with them placed in a suspense account. I discovered they had opened a new account at my address and had not acted on the three bills I had returned to them (to an unknown foreign name) labelled "Not At This Address". Only when I opened the next one and found a disconnection warning did I realise there was something seriously wrong. The matter was resolved but no compensation was offered and the apology was feeble. They had not bothered to take the simple step of writing to or calling me to investigate. I never received an adequate explanation of what had gone wrong or any assurance it would not happen again. If it wasn't for the fact that all energy companies' billing systems appear to be in complete chaos I would have changed supplier. The moral of the story is :- Always check your bills thoroughly and open ANY mail addressed to your house.
Martin Shrimpton, UK

I agree with Atlantic that problems seem to start during transfer of supply. However, that is just the beginning. In my increasingly bitter experience of Atlantic the problems only grow with phantom help lines which are never answered, email helpdesks that do not reply to emails and extra direct debits occurring without any satisfactory explanation. Is it enough for Mr Percival to put his companies shortcomings down to higher than anticipated custom or is his business plan based on no custom whatsoever?
Michael Mayes, UK

My mother-in law recently received an estimated electricity account which was considerably over the correct reading. I was unable to contact npower on the day that I received the bill and in fact it was a few days later when I telephoned an amended meter reading. On receiving an amended account I was amazed to see that the bill had not been reduced by as much as I had expected. I again contacted the company and was told that as there had been a delay in sending them the amended account extra days had been added to the original account and so more units were charged at the higher rate. I had expected to receive an amended bill which covered the exact same time period as the original one but this was not the case. I am told the next bill will take this into account but I wonder if this will be the case. Brian Thompson, England

Another thing to watch out for when transferring gas suppliers is that they don't change your billing from metric to imperial. They did this to my mother in law and her gas use (and therefore her bills) leapt up. I finally noticed her gas was being measured in cubic meters but she was being charged in cubic feetx100 - in other words she was being charged more than 3.7 times what she should have! It took three protracted phone conversations and two visits from a meter reader before they finally cleared it up and reimbursed her.
Bob, UK

Since moving into my new house a year ago my gas account have been moved three times to British Gas from TXU Energi without my permission, before this in my flat I had to complain 5 times to British Gas for electric bills, I have had 3 years of stress with utility companies, they should be taken to court for fraud, why should your accounts be moved around without any permission from the account holder. Mr S Francis
Mr SC Francis, England

As my father's executor, I spent a very frustrating six months trying to clear up an apparent over billing by NPower. The overall impression was of grossly overworked call centre staff trying to deal with issues they did not understand and were powerless to resolve. Attempts to speak to NPower officials were invariably if politely evaded - on one occasion with the excuse that they didn't have a phone number for the main office!
J Munro, England