Seeboard Gas www.seeboard-energy.com

Easy to read bills, clear instructions on automated telephone line or option to speak to an advisor, send revised bills quickly following providing an updated meter reading.

Today was just like any other day, until the postman delivered a letter from Seeboard (part of EDF Energy), who were advising me of their yearly gas payment review, which may not have seemed like a big deal, until I read an extra payment of £428.20 was going to be taken via direct debit in 2 weeks time.

Once I got over my shock, I rang the freephone number and waited to work my way up the queue, as my call was ever so important to the company. At this point I was asking myself how many other customers were ringing up with the same concerns over receiving similar letters.

I spoke to a customer service agent, who became very defensive once I started to ask questions relating to my bill and consumption statistics. Firstly, I couldn't understand why the direct debit payment was so off the mark, as this was set by Seeboard when I moved into the property in January 2005. I was then informed the company had underestimated the household usage, and after 15 months had realised their mistake. I stress 'their' mistake, but it seems I was the one paying for it. Incidentally, I had given two customer readings over the last year, but even this was not enough to trigger their systems into noticing their estimated bills were too low.

Secondly, I asked if there were any figures available with regards to general household gas consumptions, as I felt I didn't have any gauge to work from. Was my usage normal or above? I just couldn't tell. I was politely told none were available, and no comment could be made in my particular case.

Upon continuing the conversation with the agent, I actually managed to get this so-called one off payment spread across the next year, on top of my normal usage, which works out at £80 per month, but I only received this concession by threatening to cancel the direct debit, which was my last resort, being the one matter I still had complete control over.

Though I had finished with Seeboard, I decided to continue investigating using the one of the most powerful tools at my disposal, the Internet. Within ten seconds I found a free comparison service www.theenergyshop.com which is very easy to use. I put in my dual fuel details, and in the blink of an eye, a list of all providers was displayed, showing where I could save money. I was pleasantly surprised to find I could in effect save £200 per year by switching to another supplier, which I promptly did. Needless to say my current supplier didn't even feature in the top ten.

With comments like:-

' Seeboard Energy supplies gas and electricity to the UK. We are committed to working with you to maximise your cost savings' plastered all over the website, it would be nice to find a company actually sticking to these kind of self endorsing remarks.

In conclusion, I would advise to give monthly readings, whether it be gas or electricity usage. Maybe us 'millions' of consumers will start yearly reviews of our own and give the suppliers something more to think about than profits and shareholder dividends.