Five million utility bills wrong

FIVE million customers may have had wildly inaccurate gas and electricity bills, Energywatch claimed today. But the consumer watchdog found bills go unchecked in almost 50% of homes.

Energywatch chairman Ann Robinson said: 'Consumers trust companies to get bills right. It appears this trust is misplaced.'

Nearly half of 86,000 complaints last year were about inaccurate bills, and 21% of householders have had wrong estimates.

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Customer Victoria Kinney was used to receiving estimated bills of about £112-£152 from Southern Electric. When she moved house, however, she was stunned to receive a final bill for £1,733.99 and discovered that all her estimated bills had been wrong.

'We assumed that when the bills came in they were accurate and we just paid them and thought no more about it,' she told GMTV. 'We thought we were the only ones in this position but there are hundreds like us.' Southern Electric said: 'Issues with inaccurate bills should not arise if customers check their meters.'

Energywatch said many people may pay too much if they do not challenge utility firm estimates. It urged customers to take their own meter readings if they suspect estimated bills are wrong.

Atlantic Electric and Gas had most complaints per 1,000 customers followed by Npower and Scottish Power.

Atlantic said its dismal record was due to the large number of customers it has managed to lure from rivals. Chief executive Jeff Percival said: 'Most of the complaints are when customers change supplier because of errors occurring when transferring data.'

Npower said: 'We agree with Energywatch - accurate, timely bills are what everybody wants. Estimated readings are fine as a temporary measure but it's not wise to repeatedly have estimated bills - if your energy consumption changes it means you could end up being charged too much or too little.

'We are looking at a number of ways to encourage people to contact us with accurate readings.'

British Gas said more than two thirds of its quarterly bills are based on actual meter readings and of the estimated bills, 80% are accurate to within 10%.

'It's not always possible to access meters but we're always trying to reduce the number of estimated bills,' it added. 'We've doubled the meter read visits we carry out.' British Gas customers who receive estimates can now enter their own meter reading on the internet.

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