pmsumner

I was trying to figure out at work yesterday why I couldn't SSH into my home PC when nothing had changed. I figured that out when I got home pretty quickly. Guess who'd neglected to check the electric meter?

Tum-te-tum.

I don't quite understand how it ended up 5p in debt. Surely when your meter cuts you off you are cut off, and can't spend any more?

So today involves buying electricity tokens and hoovering and laundry. Fun, eh?

Only 2 days of backshift left. Thanks be. Am exhausted.

It's still ongoing.

A recap for those of you who don't know nor care. When I moved into my place in Greenock I decided to change electricity supplier from Scottish Power to Powergen. As far as I was concerned this was all OK and I paid Powergen a direct debit every month for 6mths or so. Then I received a bill from Scottish Power saying "Oh, btw - you owe us £x".

I was understandably upset. Had long emails sent to and from both PG and SP. In the end PG stopped billing me and I stayed with SP.

About 4mths later I received a letter from PG stating that they had taken over my electricity supply? I called them up and apparently my "transfer had been caught up and they'd only just completed it". FOUR MONTHS LATER? Gah.

Anywho. I then told them to transfer me back to SP. As far as I was concerned, this happened and was all fine and dandy. Then when I came to move out the flat, I called SP and told them my final meter readings. Nobody at SP said anything to me out of the ordinary so I thought "great, it's all sorted".

Then I got another bill from Powergen?? This time billing me for the 2mth period up until I moved out, but asking me to pay £110. My electricity bills have NEVER been over £30/mo, in part beause I had a gas heater I used instead of the electric storage heaters. Again I am understandably upset, call up to query it and get told that the charges stand. I can't get the final meter readings now as I threw them out when I told SP what they were, and because I wasn't their customer at that time, SP haven't kept them.

I don't know what to do. I'm extraordinarily pissed off with this whole mess and it makes me wish I'd never even tried to exercise my right as a consumer to switch supplier. Especially trying to do it twice - when it had gone so wrong first time. The problem I have is that I have no comeback. As far as the companies involved are concerned, they have done no wrong, and it's all my fault for not keeping track. But it's not like someone comes round and flicks a switch when you change supplier, so how do you know?

I think it's time for yet more emails to Powergen/SP.