A British Gas customer was ‘paranoid’ after receiving a £215 energy bill, despite being on a prepayment meter. Diane Frith explained she virtually stopped using gas and cancelled her broadband to save money when she received a £215 bill.
British Gas admitted there was a fault on her meter all along and has agreed to waive the bill.
A spokesperson said: “Whilst the bill was correct, we have cleared the outstanding balance on her account.”
In May 2021, Ms Firth received an unexpected bill from her energy provider, British Gas.
She was not expecting the bill as she had recently switched her energy to a prepayment because she felt she was not given enough time to pay her bills when they arrived from her credit meters.
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She thought this would also help her keep track of her energy use.
Ms Frith told Chronicle Live: “The crunch came when I received a bill on the Easter weekend with just four days before it fell due, which were all over a weekend or on a bank holiday.
“I thought enough was enough and at least with a prepayment meter, there would be no bills so things should be easier.
“I was wrong about that though.”
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After fitting the prepayment meter, the 55-year-old carer said that over the past year she had seen many errors faced since fitting the prepayment meter.
For example, she claimed there was a mix-up over a bill which was generated for 12 days of estimated usage before her prepayment meters were fitted.
This mix-up was written off by British Gas, however, the debt was loaded onto her prepayment meter three months later.
Her standing charges have also come out twice – once mid-morning each day, then seven days worth on a Friday, according to Ms Frith.
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British Gas offered Ms Frith a “goodwill payment” however she explained that there was no explanation as to what it refers to.
Ms Frith continued: “I was absolutely fed up and just felt I was getting nowhere with British Gas, so I decided to switch my account to Octopus just before Christmas.
“I had been told my account was clear and I had received a goodwill payment from British Gas, so I decided to start again with Octopus.
“Then I got a final bill from British Gas for £215.37 – even though I had been on a prepayment meter!
“This bill is now in debt collection with British Gas, and I am absolutely paranoid about it.
“There was a British Gas van sat outside my house for two hours the other day and I was panicking about it.
“British Gas collections has said that they will send bailiffs out to make me pay. But I can’t possibly owe this money.”
British Gas has since apologised to Ms Frith and said that the outstanding balance had been cleared from her account.
A spokesman said: “Ms Frith’s outstanding balance was accurate and was based on meter readings given to us by her new supplier.
“Her gas meter had developed a fault and no payments were received from May 23, 2022 to December 13, 2022.
“We’ve spoken with Ms Firth to say sorry for not fixing this sooner and confirmed that we’ve cleared the balance from her account.”
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