General Chat

I have not had an electricity bill for ages. I am not quite sure how long it has been now but I thought the time might have come to find out why, especially as somebody read the meter a couple of weeks ago so I rang Southern Electric.

Last year, when I was losing it, I paid the old account which was in Fred's name rather than the new one which is in mine, twice because I don't mess about!

This year they have changed my tarriff after the solar panels were fitted so they must know me.

Anyway, I rang and was answered by a young gentleman who evidently thought I was senile, and who am I to argue with that?

He took the details, left me on hold listening to some delightful music and then told me I wasn't their customer anyway. He even transferred me to Eon.

Having had a look on my bank statement, I was pretty sure I was with Southern Electric so I rang them again and was dealt with by another young man who sorted out my query very quickly and efficiently.

I would think the first was just a lazy little dirt box!

I had a long running dispute with an electricity supplier which I took up with the ombudsman.

To cut a long story short I persisted, eventually having to settle the case myself rather than through the ombudsman because although they found in my favour they couldn't actually do an awful lot.
The result was that the supplier credited my account by approximately £200 and sent me a cheque for over £500 to say "sorry".

I pay by direct debit and over paid by £2000 but Southern Electic would have kept it if I had not asked for it back

We changed our electricity supplier late last year. Bills come quarterly.

Got the bill a few weeks ago, nothing on it to say it would be paid by direct debit, even though I had set that up. Phoned them........ was assured they had my bank details and the bill would be paid by the due date (discount applies if paid before the due date).

Last week got a bill from them, printed in RED.......... your account is overdue blah blah

On the 'phone again............was told that the direct debit had not been activated.

You can imagine what I had to say about that!

Bill paid, and got the discount.

Meanwhile......... got a 'phone call from our previous supplier.......... with a deal we couldn't resist........ a 25% discount.

It pays to shop around.......... it also pays to wait for them to come to you. :-D

We pay our gas and electricity bills every month on a system where we pay the same amount every month of the year, no matter how much is due.

That means we build up a surplus with them in the summer months, and then gradually whittle the surplus down during the winter months.

It does mean that we always know how much is going out.

The gas meter is read every month, and the electricity one every 2 months with an "estimated amount" in the intervening month


it does not pay us to shop around ......... the only other companies offering to supply gas and electricity are the sort that suck you in by huge discount, get you to sign up for 5 years, then make it all but impossible for you to get out of it when they invariably hugely increase the charges.

The reason is that these other companies buy the gas or electricity from the two main companies, and so have to charge their customers more

We don't have gas mains here, we buy bottled gas. We only use it for heating.

That means we don't have to pay the ripoff supply charge.

A big bottle is about $120, we had one delivered yesterday, that will last all winter, with some left over for next year (hopefully).

Electricity companies here will charge a fee if you try to get out of the contract...... but the company who wants your business will pay the fee ... usually you don't have to ask.