Bord Gais and Estimated Bills

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Midlandsgirl

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Hi,
My gas heats my radiators in my home. It is only on 4 hours per day. It has always been on for this amount of time. I received my Gas Bill bill yesterday, 8th Feb only to be greeted with a big fat bill for €700. i rang Bord Gais and a girl said that because my bill previously had been "severely under estimated" that, this was the reason.

Just to let you know the following are my bills for the past year
Feb 2011 €300 (obviously due to the freezing cold weather) Not estimated
April 2011 €237
June 2011 €112 (estimated bill) my heating has been off since April.
August 2011 €100 (Heating still off)
September 2011 €125 (heating back on mid sept.)
November 2011 €140 (Estimated bill)
Feb 2012 (€700) (even though for 2 weeks in December my boiler wasnt working and i had no heat)


I rang Bord Gais to try and make sense of the huge bill only to be told by the operator that i should think about re insulating my house (my house is 3 years old and the insulating is perfect). she gave me absolutely no explaination why the bill was so high. I rang back a 2nd and a 3rd time to get answers. The 3rd girl was understanding and she transferred me to someone that would help with a payment plan. I offer to pay €50 per week and i was told that this was not acceptable. I was told that i had to pay €71 per week until the 12th April and if i could not pay this every week then "our" agreement would be broken and i would be cut off. I have other commitments and cannot afford the €71 per week as some weeks bills have to take priority. The girl proceeded to tell me that i would be breaking our/their (not mine) agreement and i would be cut off.


I would like to know if anyone out there has been in this situation regarding estimated bills and what can be done about this?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and i look forward to advice.
 
If it is an estimate it is quite simple to resolve.

The first thing you need to do is to go to the meter and actually see what the meter reading is.
Then do a calculation +/- based on the estimated reading number that they gave you.

Contact Bord Gais and give them the actual meter reading and ask them to send out an updated bill or ask them what the bill should be based on the actual reading and just pay what they advise based on that figure.
 
This bill isnt an estimated bill. There were two estimated bills last year, back in November and June. I gave them a meter reading yesterday but it was near what was on the bill. Bord Gais said that it was because the two bills that "were" estimated were under estimated that this is why i have the 700 euro bill. IS there anything i can do. I rang them 3 times yesterday and they basically said pay it!!
 
If you have not got 700 to pay it, then just pay them what you can this month and every other month. If for example the bill comes in at 100 next month - then pay 150 or 200 and keep doing this until they send a threatening letter.

It might take them 2-3 bills before that starts happening but at least you will be on your way to overpaying the current bill + reducing the shortfall from the 700 euro bill.

I would not worry about it too much..until I got the threatening letters and you wont get that straight away !
 
How much heat do you need? Last September was incredibly mild,with temperatures reaching 26c in Dublin!
 
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