I'm with EDF and have been for some years.
I live in a communial private block of houses and all our meters are in one cupboard outside which are easily accessable and easy to find by anyone coming to read the meters.
More often than not (about 80% of the time I'd say), we are getting 'estimated' readings and in the past I have been as much as £300+ in credit with them, due to them having taken amounts way over actual usage.
They've done it again today, which means I have to go to all the trouble of reading the meter and phoning in the correct reading.
When I complained that the meters wern't being read often enough I was informed that legaly they are only obliged to read the meters once ...YES ONCE.. a year!
If you pay by direct debit (which you are of course encouraged like mad to do) this gives them cart blanche open house to estimate your bill to an extraordinary amount, take your money and sit on it earning vast amounts of interest from the thousands upon thousands(millions maybe?) of folk they have done this to.
They of course employ private companies to read the meters who in my experience do as little as they possibly can to get away with.......this is an outrageous rip off and the law concerning the reading of meters needs changing ............and pronto.
They put the onus on the end user to inform them of any disrepancies due to over payment of estimated readings........... outrageous!
How about folk that are unwell....in hospital....elderly...forgetful or abroad even...the reasons why one may not be in a position to read your meter are countless...but if you don't, then woe betide, they simply gain from it all ends up.
Quite apart from the fact that you have the inconvenience of having to do it yourself and contact them cap in hand, even if you are capable and in a position to do so.............RIP OFF!!!
Comments
Offer a discount.....well if that's what you want to call it.
How about saying they penalise you if you don't?
Has been going on for Donkey's years, though they at least used to read twice a year. Powerkeys are an even bigger rip-off.
Where are you based - Templar? I worked in Newington (IT) for 11 years
Not had your winter fuel allowance throught yet SoundAs?
:-)
I was looking online recently for a paraffin heater which we used all the time in our council flat when I was a kid. You used to go to a machine outside the local hardware shop and fill it up, and the heater was quite a tall, sort of triangular affair...I suppose they've developed somewhat since those days.
Intend to get my fireplace sorted out in the next week or two, and get me logs and some bags of fuel from the farm shop in Hayes lane, unless anybody knows a better place....hardward shops and garages are a total rip off for the solid fuel.
Haven't seen parafifn heaters used for many years now.
Anyone still use one?
Not advisable to have a paraffin heater - firstly they're dangerous, secondly they're expensive to run and finally they produce about two pints of water for every pint of paraffin you burn - condensation everywhere.
Best bet is to get an oil filled electric radiator - save, efficient and thermostatically controlled.
I have central heating, would an oil filled electric radiator be any cheaper? Was musing on paraffin heaters to cut down on the central heating.
BTW are electric blankets costing me a fortune, tend to leave them on at full for about three hours before bedtime....but I think I may be being very stupid, don't wan't a toasty bed to be costing the earth, and yes I know three hours is too long and I should become more precise.
If you just want to heat one room or give some extra heat to a room, then oil filled radiators are perfect - being thermostatically controlled they will turn off when your set temperature is reached and they can be put on timers.
I find them a great way to take the 'chill' off the room without having to fire up the central heating.
It seems that they've moved with the times - high tech, thermostats, no condensation, 59 hours heating for the price of 5 litres of paraffin ........ difficult to knock over, and anyway they will just cut out. So safe.
Made a change from Trainspottin'.
I'm with Eon. I reckon they read the meters at least a couple of times a year and the estimates are impressively accurate. Apart from the last quarter's gas reading but that was more to do with the house being empty for a while. Of course the charges are pretty much the same as the other big suppliers but at least they aren't hoarding my money.
BTW, Both Centrica (owners of British Gas) and Scottish & Southern Electricity - or SSE as they are now known - are listed on the London Stock Exchange, and are based in the UK. I know because I'm one of the SSE's "greedy shareholders". As are most of your pension funds and they'll hold shares in the "german and french" power companies too. If you bothered to look you'd see the dividends are not that brilliant considering its a regulated industry. The real greedy b***ards are oddly enough in the socialist state of Russia who are charging way over the top for their exported gas supplies. Still it's easier to blame capitalists for greed isn't it?
SoundAsa£, I'm also with EDF.
I'm on an internet tariff = cheaper.
I'm on the read your own meters scheme & post your figures online = cheaper
I pay by DDR = cheaper.
If you're in credit I ask for a refund & they do it straight away as well.
The choices are all there if you look into it.
;o)