A VILLAGE church has been stung with a £44,000 energy bill despite usually only owing £300.
The Welsh church didn’t pay its energy bill because it has no letterbox and never received a letter, its treasurer said.
WNSA village church in Wales has been stung with a £44,000 energy bill after not receiving its letter in the post[/caption]
WNSTreasurer Nathan Evans only said the bill should have only costed £304[/caption]
WNSEnergy supplier SSE stung the church £43,649.28 for their gas bill[/caption]
None of the 80-strong congregation of Castleton Baptist Church in Marshfield saw the bill envelope before the huge payment was taken directly out of the account.
Treasurer Nathan Evans only realised the money had been taken when he checked the church account the week after the raid.
Evans said: “When I saw the money that had been taken my reaction was total shock and panic.
“SSE say they sent an invoice sometime at the end of November 2023 on paper. The Church has no letterbox so it never got to me.”
The church’s bill is normally less than £300 a month – but energy company SSE took £43,649.28 instead.
SSE has now apologised and given the church near Cardiff £500 in compensation.
The money was taken out by the gas company on December 6 and wasn’t returned until January 11.
Evans said: “Where are the checks and balances, especially when you consider what our bill normally is?
“The church only happened to have a large amount of money in the bank because we were left money in a will.”
Evans said that when SSE recalculated the bill – it should have totalled just £304.
Reverend Rafael De Lima said SSE: “realised it had probably been a mistake and to get in touch with our bank to get it back but that took over a month for that to happen.
“There was a lot of toing and throwing and I believe now we have finally got the money back but they gave us quite a lot of hoops to jump through.”
He said that members of the church were “astounded” when Mr Evans told them of the accounting error, adding: “He was a real hero in getting it back.”
Rev De Lima said that the money would have previously have left the church overdrawn, if not for a recent donation.
He said: “We very fortunately had a substantial legacy left to us by one of our members and that was the only reason we had the money in there. Without that for sure the account would have been overdrawn.”
A spokesman for SSE Energy Solutions said: “We are sorry for the issues the customer has encountered with their bill.
“This was caused by the incorrect submission of a meter reading by a third-party industry operator, which our internal checks regrettably missed before the customer was billed.
“We are reviewing both our third-party’s checks and internal processes to improve our service going forwards and will also be reaching out to the customer to offer compensation.
“When customers query their direct debit payment, industry terms and conditions allow them to request a refund from their bank. The timing of this payment is dependent on the bank’s processes.”
WNSThe church has now been given the money back and £500 in compensation by energy company SSE[/caption]
WNSReverend Rafael De Lima said Evans was a ‘real hero’ for getting the money back[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
