Gas Prepayment Meters

[Yoshi]

Does anyone on here have any knowledge of these?  I am slightly concerned with mine as the only things that are gas in my house are the gas fire in the living room and the cooker.  The cooker doesnt get used often and if it does then for short periods of time, the  gas fire gets used for about 4 hours of an evening on about half of its maximum.

Now the problem is the meter has charged me £15 since last Monday, £10 of which was used from Friday until last night.  After speaking to someone it would appear this isnt right, just want to get some more information before i go ape at British Gas.

Cheers

[Sider]

I'd double check you haven't got any leaks between the meter and the appliances, and then, go ape. That amount of gas is ridiculously high, even if you have had the fire and the cooker running at full blast.

[Yoshi]

Indeed, this was my thought, its definately something to do with the gas fire, as when i just use the cooker it took me 3 months to go through a tenners worth of credit!

[tomarse]

get the gas fire tested for leaks.
I'll have a gander at my meter and see how many units mine uses tonight as it seems cold enough that i will have it on.

could it be that they have taken a standing charge off it? the prepay 'leccy meter in my last house used to do that every so often.

When i was keeping track of my gas usage i read the meter everyday. Using just the cooker in the summer it took me months to even use a single unit! (the discount they applied to my bill for paying online made it so that they owed me money! :lol:)

[Mudlark]

There is a possibility that the meter is clawing back an underpayment for the slack months when you only used a tenners worth it doesn't look like the standing charges were taking and it is now - with a vengence

[Yoshi]

Well after spending 40 mins just now on hold waiting for first contact with them i have given up, i was supposed to have a gas engineer out today to look at the fire for something else but he never turned up, landlord is going ape at him this evening when he goes round for dinner, so will have to find out later this evening, only problem is this leaves me with no heating as i doubt british gas will class it as an emergency with it just being a meter fault.

[Yoshi]

Forgot to add, last i checked they werent charging me a standing charge for the gas, or at least thats what they told me over the phone, apparently british gas dont do standing charges

[marjan]

Unfortunately this is the most expensive way of paying for gas as you also pay a rental charge for the meter. Get someone to do a gas tightness test for you to make sure that you have no leaks.

Also depends which fire you have as some of the Living Flame Effect fires eat loads of gas.

Mark (Corgi Reg Gas Fitter).

[Mudlark]

The other thing is taking back the emergency payment but that's usually only a couple of quid anyway

[Yoshi]

The emergency paypment gets taken back straight away, hence putting £15 on the card to put onto the meter.

[Pete5844 as was]

Think it maybe your fire mate we run all the rads,hot water,shower etc on less gas that it used to cost just to run the gas fire.Pete

[Yoshi]

Worked it out just now, and at the rate its going its going to cost me £65 a month, for a single bloke who lives in a 1 bedroomed terraced house with his dog then there is something wrong lol

[Evilgoat]

Worked it out just now, and at the rate its going its going to cost me £65 a month, for a single bloke who lives in a 1 bedroomed terraced house with his dog then there is something wrong lol

I pay that a quarter for combi boiler. heating etc.

[Yoshi]

Will see what happens when the gas engineer has finally gotten himself round, going to have to use my microwave for a week or so as instead of re-topping the meter up with £15 i went out and bought a convex heater for the same money from Tesco, so hopefully that will give me some heating.

Have emailed British Gas's prepayment department and wont hold my breath for an immediate response as last time i emailed them it took them nearly 2 months to reply, yes thats right, 2 months!  When i first moved into the property it took them nearly 4 months to send out the card for the meter.  They sent the meter reset woman twice to reset the debt and every time i phoned up and told them my details and each time they managed to lose them.

Cant wait til i move off my 6 month tenancy onto a proper one as then i can change over to a normal setup with monthly billing, land lord requested that i not change anything in the first tenancy as if i move out he has to change it back to a prepayment meter as the kind of housing i have is usually taken up by the drunks and junkies.

[beast5680]

when we moved into our current house the gas had a prepayment meter on it which ate credit like you wouldnt believe :shock:  turns out if the previous occupant was a bad payer or didnt pay the meter was programmed to recoup as much as possible by nicking your credit :shock:
stern words were had with BG and the meter outed and back to a standard and we got them to credit out account back with the credit we had nicked by the meter

[Lee_D]

Flipping nora! Next they will be fitting a Gatso between the bed and the bog!

 :lol:

[chuggaman]

and dont forget that you your landlord has to get a safety certificate from a registered corgi engineer once a year and he also has to provide you with this too.


mike

[tomarse]

a scientific test has shown that my gas fire uses around 3.5 units of gas per hour! more than i though it would!
More jumpers it is this winter...

[Lee_D]

Brandy......

Or Damson Gin.... only got to wait till the 17th now  :P

[Yoshi]

LOL, well for now the convex heater seems to be working, so i think i will stick to that as i am paying £30 a month to powergen and think i should get my moneys worth lol

[Yoshi]

Well here we go again, already been on hold for 15 mins while i try to speak to an advisor at British Gas, is this the worst call centre or what!  So far, over 2 phone calls i have spend nearly an hour waiting to speak to an advisor, all this at the cost of an 0845 number!!  going to give it another 15 mins, if there is no answer i am going to make a phone call to the ombudsman service as this is beyond a joke.

[Yoshi]

**UPDATE**

Well finally got through to british gas after phoning energywatch and complaining, they basically said that they wont send anyone out to look at the meter unless i pay for it in advance and that its my gas fire thats obviously at fault, so need to speak to my landlord to get a more up to date one fitted that wont cost as much to run :(