Undercharged Electricity Bills

[Johnamill]

Just had a phone call from our Electricity supplier saying that they have undercharged us by �165,000 over the past 6 years. They will issue a bill then "negotiate"!! The problem is that they apparently should have been charging us for a "times 10" meter rather than a "times 1" meter. In other words, we were apparently using 10 times more than we were billed for....but to discover this now is shocking!! We will obviously seek legal advice once the bill actually arrives, but does anyone have any similar experiences and if so, what happened? A small part of me thinks fair enough we've used the service so should pay, but at the same time they made a blunder. Anywhere else, you wouldn't ask the customer to cough up for a mistake that has went for so long...and someone's head would roll at the supplier's. Any info would be great, thanks.

[devilspawn]

When I worked for a telecoms company I discovered one very large London-based business had not been charged for any calls for 4 years....this was on a 120 line business. It is slightly different to your case as they must have been aware of the situation but chose not to query it. I sent a bill for the uncharged calls and their legal adviser recommended payment.

[redcrx]

i take it this is business use rather than residential then.

so youre saying you didnt realise that you shouldve been paying over �2000 a month instead of the �200 you were paying? Thats a lot of electricity for you to be unaware of using.

[factor-fiction]

I take it this is a business premises. How big is it? Did it seem odd at the time that your bills were so low?

You could ask to spread the amount due - perhaps repaying over a 6 year period in line with their error.
You could try offering to pay 50% of the shortfall- unlikely they'll accept but there's no harm in trying.

Or go to your local paper and see if they'll run a story - say you might have to lay people off etc to pay this bill.

[devilspawn]

I'm sure the electricity supplier will agree any reasonable period of time in which to pay the bill so as to alleviate any cash flow problems. However, they may point out that you have accrued substantial interest on the amount owed.

[Nosha123]

Residential property so may not be same. Our bills were all estimated - based on previous owners bills. Even tho I sent them readings. Then got a bill one quarter for �1900.
Called them in tears - they reduced it to �1100 and gave us 2 years interest free to pay it off at �38 per month
Does this help?

[Embalmer]

Try taking it up with Make It Cheaper (http://www.makeitcheaper.com) they are in the Express newspaper as being the No1 for business electricity bills.