money money money

[geodark]

Well, I started the day in a fantastic mood, sold my MG last night so had £700 in my pocket to treat myself to a new rifle. Wife comes in and swipes £100 of it, kids remind me that I had promised them £30 each when I sold it - oh, well still leaves me with £540 so I still go to work fairly happy. Get home to a lovely letter from the gas people saying that I had underpaid this last six months and that they want a payment of £430 to bring us up to date! So I now have £110 left - dont imagine I will get much for that!

BAH!

[kinkykingy90]

tell gas to go f**k them selves their mistake not yours, if they didnt charge you for it i dont think they can get it back from you, same as when my misses bought her ipod it was advertised for £15 instead of £155 and she only paid £15 as that was what they advertised it as.

[KADA82]

sorry to hear that i was lookin at your car quite clean for a 15 year old lol.
cant you tell them that you will pay it off bit by bit with your normal bill.
hope you manage to get a new rifle mate...

[KADA82]

that is the law that you the customer pays the advertised price as kinkykingy90 said.
so if a 1000 pound item is advertised at 100 thats what u pay by law

[kinkykingy90]

bang on!! if it was me and they said that to me id say no chance and be straight on the phone to them like kada82 said couldnt you ask to pay it off bit by bit at the end of the day its their mistake not yours so why should you face the consequences

[geodark]

We pay by DD, and they are saying that we used £430 more gas over the last six months than was covered by the DD.I thought about getting them to up the DD but to be honest It would work out at an extra £100 per month, so would rather just pay off the bill now. At least if we are up to date we can go on uswitch or something like that and see if there's anywhere cheaper around.

[Macdoog]

that is the law that you the customer pays the advertised price as kinkykingy90 said.
so if a 1000 pound item is advertised at 100 thats what u pay by law

No its not the law at all!!! The company has no legal obligation to sell on a mistaken price. A lot of companies will do so only for customer relations, nothing else.

That said, Id at least phone the gas company and ask why its ok for them to make a mistake and then ask for all that money in one go...I know what Id do!!

[stefan]

as he says above and is correct its not the law

[KADA82]

when i was buying a game for a family members b.day the game was meant to be 29.99 but was priced at 19.99 i spoke to them about it and the person serving me said by law we have to sell the item at the price sticker and i paid 19.99.
a few times this as happeed over the years with different company's...

if im wrong im sorry about that, but thats what i was told from a retailer

[Paul P]

Unfortunately consumer rights work differently for power companies

I had the same problem with a gas/electric company who had us on the wrong tariffs then sent me a huge bill when we moved.

I even phoned the energy ombudsman as I was adamant I didn`t have to pay as it was their fault for not adjusting the meters to the correct tariff and I was paying my bills unknowingly at the wrong price and I used...

"if I bought a pair of trainers priced up at £15 and as I walked out of the shop the sales assistant came running after me wanting another tenner because the trainers had been marked up at the wrong price" then I wouldn`t have to pay it

But unfortunately as the law stands at the moment (obviously in favour of incompetent power companies) you do have to pay

If you phone the company and explain the situation to them "paying the bills in good faith" etc they should (they did we us) knock some money off as a "good will" gesture so don`t just pay the bill without speaking to them first