A man was left asking whether he was paying for an entire city after he received his staggering energy bill.
Ste Kirkman, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, was stunned when he checked his British Gas account recently and found that he was being told to pay over £1,000 every month for the coming year.
In a post on his Twitter account, the dad-of-two shared a screenshot of the message he received in his mobile account.
Advert
It stated that he and his partner would be liable for £1,954 each month, having to fork out an eye-watering £21,494.02 over the course of their 11-month plan.
Even with energy prices set to go through the roof over the next couple of months, Ste couldn't understand how they'd come to such a massive figure.
Sharing the screenshot, the 30-year-old wrote: "Hi @BritishGasHelp are my new energy increase prices covering the whole of f***ing Bolton?"
Ste, who works as a line manager, told LADbible that he briefly spoke to British Gas about it through its app, and was asked to provide more details, but says he didn't receive any reassurance over the figure.
Advert
And he said he's worried about people out there who will be struggling to pay their bills when prices rise and might be faced with the same problem.
"I was asked where I had got the number in the screenshot from, which is obviously there for all to see, so I'm not sure how they can't see it on my account," he explained.
"With the amount the original tweet has been viewed and how worried people generally are about energy costs going up, you would think the big companies would be looking to reassure people as much as possible that it is actually affordable.
"Someone struggling and logging onto their new energy supplier account after the previous one dissolved and seeing over £20,000 for the year could really panic."
Ste and his girlfriend were previously with Bristol Energy before the company folded, and were paying around £110 a month.
Advert
He said: "When they collapsed, we were automatically transferred over to British Gas.
"We did a meter reading update with Bristol Energy around three months or so ago, so everything balance wise should have been okay, give or take a small difference when the process of moving us to British Gas took place."
He went on: "The process has taken around six or seven weeks, and that figure [£21k] was the first I saw on my account history when our account was fully set up and activated.
"I haven't spoken directly with anybody from British Gas as of yet, only through the app, where I was asked where did I get the numbers from.
Advert
"I have updated my meter reading so currently a waiting game to see what comes from that."
Since sharing his story, Ste told us that he has logged into his account again and the figure has now changed to £137 for February to March.
LADbible contacted British Gas and were asked for more details so they could look into Ste's case.
Dominic Smithers