Scottish Hydro - Are they mad?

[alex]

I got my first bill today - estimated of course but the first reading from the Landlord was taken as true. They reckon I've managed to consume £331 worth of power in the fifteen days from 16 April when I moved in to 1 May when they estimated my consumption.

I shall, of course call them tomorrow for an explanation, when I've picked myself up and calmed down.

Has anyone else come across this sort of complete insanity by the utilities?

[lister]

I got my first bill today - estimated of course but the first reading from the Landlord was taken as true. They reckon I've managed to consume £331 worth of power in the fifteen days from 16 April when I moved in to 1 May when they estimated my consumption.

I shall, of course call them tomorrow for an explanation, when I've picked myself up and calmed down.

Has anyone else come across this sort of complete insanity by the utilities?

Just think on all them who have a DD set up and dont check the bill.
It seem wrong though that we have to check everything cos of the inscrutible nature of these companies.
They will collect the money and use it to gain interest for themselves.
Why cant they have a system of exact charging?
Maybe they do but as is always the case,keep us like mushrooms!

[cuthill]

Last year we had 3 electric radiators and all the usual household bits and bobs and got a bill for £1040.00 for 4 months so the radiators went to the dump,we now have a super ser and the coal fire in the livingroom and a water bottle in the bed and our bill came in at £340 still to big and we have a gas cooker,i just dont know how its so expensive.

[Vistravi]

Its madness. I had the same thing in my previous flat. Had a estimated bill for £250 per quarter phoned them told them the actual readings and the real bill was £32 and odd pence[lol](For gas only as the electric was on a key system)
They're out for more money. Scottish hydro electric is the one company i would never have a direct debit with. They never get an estimated bill paid by me. Its the real thing all the way.

[daviddd]

This company seem to be a law unto themselves - they came and read my 2 meters a few weeks ago and raised my direct debit by 25% after ESTIMATING one of these two readings - yes, even though they were supposed to have read the meters they still estimated one of them. This estimate was grossly in excess of what I had actually used - did they do it on purpose just to up the payments I wonder?

I really ought to report to the ombudsman -....http://www.energy-ombudsman.org.uk/links/4-12-council.php

[alex]

But they've offered me a discount of seven pounds and ninety pence if pay them an whopping premium of over two hundred pounds by 21st May. I read my own meters and did the math.

So that's ok then... actually I can't earn that much interest on £200 right now so maybe it's an investment :confused Are they turning into an investment company.

I shall confuse the call centre clerk with this dilemma tomorrow - after all they need to be registered as deposit takers under the FSA.

[ShelleyCowie]

Me and my OH pay by key for electric, we put in £20 for 2 weeks.

Then our gas comes out via DD, which is £36 per month. :confused

We are well in credit already because we dont use the heating through the summer, then in the winter we use that credit. Its like a wee pretty circle.

How comes some people are so much more pricey? We constantly have tv's, computer, laptop, games consols, fridges and freezers running! And more.....

I really dont get it!

[elamanya]

shelly we were over £600 for our gas and lekkie for the last 3 months , and thats watching what were doing i cant understand it either ..

[stixie]

Some time ago i lived in a rented house. An electrician advised me becuase the landlord can chose what rate to run the property on for electricity (providing it is above minimum cost ofcourse) then they can offset their own electricity on what the tenant pays.

I was on key/card meter but for example if i put £20 it would last maybe 10 days. But the rate was far higher so in real time it was costing me say £15 and £5 would be in credit in the landlords account which he could then use against his own electricity bill.

This may also be applicable for monthly bills.

Its just an idea but its worth checking with your landlords you pay for what you use and not a premium over and above.!!

[dietcokegirl]

Scottish gas/ British Gas are not much better. Me and OH moved away for a while due to OH work commitments, but we obviously kept the house in caithness as we knew it would not be permenate.
So i get an email one day saying my electricity bill was due for the house in caithness, i log on and check it out..they were trying to say i had used over £600 electricity in 3 months! Nobody was even living in the house! We had been living down south for 6 months at that point!
The meter had not been read, it was an estimate. Needless to say i was on the phone straight away and asked them how they got that amount when nobody had even been living in the house for 6 months!

I dont know how they thought they could pull that off. I was livid. Every bill before that had been around the £170 mark for a quarter! I got my mum to nip to the house and get a proper reading, when i passed this reading on to scottish gas i was in credit by alot.

I'll never understand how they managed to jump from £170 average to £600 per quarter.

[Margaret M.]

Has anyone else come across this sort of complete insanity by the utilities?

I have direct debit with EDF for the house over there and I usually call a reading in once a year. Recently, they debited my account for £1,000 in addition to the normal monthly debit. I've been with them for a number of years so they know how much the annual consumption usually is -- the normal monthly debit is more than enough. They said they would refund the full amount when a reading is called in. Seemingly now they need a quarterly reading to avoid an outrageous lump sum debit.

[porshiepoo]

We're on a pre payment meter so that we don't get any ridiculous one off bills but we're currently putting in over £40 a week. It's gone down slightly from the winter when it was over £50 a week but it's still ridiculous!
We decided at one point to get rid of the meter and our first bill was over £1000 for 3 months. Hydro agreed to drop a couple of hundred for some reason I can't remember but we went straight back onto the meter. Very expensive but at least we can monitor it and control it.

Another thing I've noticed is that we get no paperwork at all to tell us what we've used, what we're being charged etc. Not a thing, not ever!

[alex]

Have to say the call centre assistant was very polite and promised to send out a new bill no problem. So credit to them for their call centre staff.

[annthracks]

shelly we were over £600 for our gas and lekkie for the last 3 months , and thats watching what were doing i cant understand it either ..

You need to get your meter checked ASAP, and make sure somebody has not tapped into your supply