Gassy and grumbling

[bugshaw]

I tend to wait a while before trusting the gas and electric companies with a direct debit instead of bills, as they often go a bit bonkers. EDF had been okay for a year, so I graced them with a direct debit. They promptly went bonkers and billed me based on an "Actual" reading of 6235, which is quite a bit above the meter's current reading of 5108. Plz to be refunding me £330. Grr.

Comments

[whollyrandom.livejournal.com]

They sent me a bill for £1300 in February, having transposed a 5 and a 6 in, naturally, the worst place possible. Once they'd recalculated, they owed me £40 but I'm sufficiently sure that they'd not have batted a single reptilian eyelid if I'd just paid that I've been keeping one of my own, human eyes closely upon them ever since.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Eon, meanwhile, have noticed my electricity direct debit was set too high, have recalculated and dropped it by a tenner a month, and given me a refund :-)

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Would that be a commercial account, or am I misinterpreting that your bill was actually 1260 pounds for a month's usage?. As an ordinary residential customer in the U.S., my monthly electricity bill is on the order of $30 per month (with the gas, and water, bills being, respectively, somewhere around 4 to 5 times that much, depending on the season.

[whollyrandom.livejournal.com]

This was a charge for a quarter's gas usage. In a notional average quarter, I'd expect to pay in the region of £180 - winter usage is obviously higher, but the charges average out over the year.

[leeky.livejournal.com]

EDF decided I owned them £400 last year and put my monthly payment up to £75/month. As soon as Spring appeared and the heating went off, I've had negative bills!

I just think Direct Debit is a sneaky way for these companies to have our money sat in their bank accounts earning THEM interest whenever they feel like it.

The problem is, I'm too disorganised to pay manually.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

When Wednesday and I moved in 2001, EDF (er, maybe someone they took over) presented us with a neatly itemised bill from 0 in 1995 to the current meter reading for two thousand pounds. It took about six months to get this sorted out.