From: Gordon H 
Newsgroups: uk.finance
Subject: Re: _can_I_avoid_a_£70_for_having_my_gas_meter_checked?
Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2007 10:40:18 +0100
Bytes: 4032

J L Williams  writes
>The message <1183732237.437557.55250@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com>
>from Kev  contains these words:
>
>> Happened to me, B Gas had to go back several years into their archives
>> and I got a £1400 refund. I currently have a dispute over the
>> estimated readings at the price reduction points. The quarterly bill
>> is for £200, the dim idiots have said that my bill is estimated on my
>> annual consumption of £170.
>> These idiots shouldn't be licenced to run a piss up in a brewery let
>> alone supply gas.
>
>My interest is being tweaked here as we have had estimates that have
>been way off beam in the last few quarters. I always check the reading
>myself and phone it in for an updated reading. The previous quarter
>needed a hundred pounds more and this quarter just gone was equally
>incorrect. On querying this the 'help' line said it would settle down at
>the end of the year? We have been here long enough for that to have
>happened a long time ago :) Any way, the meter was read by somebody
>within the last month.
>
>Following this thread I've checked my meter and it's an ancient cubic
>feet one. The bill is calculated by metricising it by multiplying the
>reading by 2.83, then by a correction factor then by it's calorific
>value. Finally it's divided by the kilowatt/hour conversion factor of
>3.6
>It now appears at the end of the winter (it was colder for a lot longer
>this year than last) they owe me £43.39.... we near always owe them at
>this point in time.
>Yes organisations,breweries and 'shelebrashuns' spring to mind ...
>jim

You guys could always switch to PowerGen.    When my g/friend received a 
gas bill which was about 3 times what my spreadsheet had forecast, it 
took me only a few minutes to realise that the (recently contracted) 
meter reader had treated it as an imperial meter rather than a metric 
one.

I rang them and explained the error, but had to (pretend to) go out to 
the meter and say "yes, it's got M3 on the dial!" before the female op 
believed me.      The amended bill arrived, still 2.83 times too much.

After several fruitless calls to different operators each time, who were 
incapable of working other than to a script, I wrote to EnergyWatch, who 
at least found me a Mr Big to speak to.     This guy was some kind of 
supervisor, and promised to sort it all out, but before we got a correct 
bill another red one arrived!

It took me 5 months of letters and persistent phone calls to Mr Big, and 
hints about charters and compensation before he finally said that they 
would waive the charges for the five months of worry he had caused an 
elderly lady.
-- 
Gordon H
(Remove invalid to email)