Recovering an overcharge from a supplier

A query stands or falls on the evidence attached to it. Before contacting the supplier, hold four things: the invoice or invoices in question, the signed contract for the period billed, the reading or demand data the charge depends on, and a note of the exact difference you are disputing, expressed as a figure.

A query that says the bill looks high is closed as an enquiry. A query that says a named charge was billed at one rate when the contract states another, for a stated period, is treated as a billing dispute.

The query goes to the supplier in writing, quoting the account and supply numbers, the invoice numbers and the contract clause relied on, with the recalculated figures shown. It asks for a specific outcome: a corrected invoice, a credit, or a repayment.

Pay the undisputed part of the invoice by the due date and hold back only the disputed portion, in writing. Withholding the whole invoice usually creates a debt position on the account, and a debt position tends to slow the answer down rather than speed it up.

Every exchange is dated and kept. Where a query is escalated, the record of what was asked and when it was asked is the thing that carries it.

There is no single answer, and anyone offering one should be asked what it is based on. How far a supplier will reopen depends on the supplier, on the type of charge, on whether the error was theirs, and on any back-billing protection or contractual limit that applies to the account.

Because of that, the recoverable period is established as part of raising the query, not assumed at the start. It is also why leaving a suspected error unquestioned is expensive: the difference keeps recurring while the window to recover the earlier part of it closes.

A confirmed error is normally corrected as a credit against the account, or as a repayment where the account is in credit or closed. The correction should be traceable on the next invoice, against the period it relates to.

Two things matter after the money lands. First, the charge that was wrong is checked on the following invoices, because a corrected period does not always mean a corrected setup. Second, the cause is recorded, so the same error is looked for on every other site on the account.

We do not raise speculative claims. A query goes out when the figures support it, not to see what comes back, because a supplier that has answered three unfounded queries reads the fourth differently.

We do not take a share of a recovery unless that basis has been agreed with you in writing beforehand. The fee, and how it is calculated, is stated before the work starts.