Advice regarding transposed meter readings

On the plus side I do realise we have made a massive saving over the last 5/6 years that wont be backdated. Just getting stung with a big bill with a year until the wedding is going to hurt!

I don't see how this is your error at all ? seems a bit wrong of E.On to suddenly just land you with a massive bill because they haven't noticed their error for so long. If it comes out that legally you have to pay, you could maybe ask E.On to whack a bit on each month to pay it off slowly? They owe you this much, at least ☹️ - if you know your neighbours well, it might be worth letting them know the error too.

Hi, I have had the same sort of issue before with my electricity readings in that although a meter reading agency had read my meter over a number of years, the readings were never passed on to British Gas. When I rang up myself to give a meter reading I was told that I owed nearly £1,500 as there was a huge discrepancy between what I'd been paying and what I should have been paying!

I did a bit of research on t'internet and found that there is (although this may be outdated now) a Code of Practice for Accurate Bills which states that the supplier has a responsibility to their customers to make 'reasonable endeavours' to read the meter at least one every two years and to reassess usage based on this. In my case my direct debit had been adjusted a number of times so I assumed that my bills were based on my actual consumption. I wrote British Gas a snotogram explaining that I had met my obligation of providing meter readings via the meter reading agency and pointed out that my payment plan was calculated incorrectly due to their failures and the upshot was that they waived my bill as a goodwill gesture. Good luck! I am happy to email you a copy of the letter that I sent them if it helps!

Surprised no one has recommended me yet!

Transposed reads are really common, have you done a two hour test?

Let me see what eons back billing policy is for you. My company won't backfill for more than a year if the reads are transposed. Bg is sux months so eon probably have one too.

Im at work still so will post when I'm at home and on the pc as opposed to my phone

Duplicate

Ignore the double post. I would say that as you have had 5/6 years of cheap elec then you should have to pay for the one year. Customers have a joint responsibility for meter reads the same as distribution companies and the offer to only pay one year would be seen as more than generous I'm afraid.

what they should do though is arrange a payment plan for you to recoup the excess.

sorry. Not what you wanted to hear is if?

Yes it does mean we've had cheap electricity for years (not that we noticed!! god knows how much that will go up a quarter now!)

We did the two hour test, the one thats labelled up night rate changed so for all these years we and the meter readers have both made the same mistake and read the wrong one.

Innocent mistake on our part... what do I know about electricity meters!!! label says night i believe it!

But hey, E.On have made the same mistake every time they read it too.

Gotta just keep everything crossed this bill isn't insane..... wedding savings are in full swing now! bad timing!

Thanks for all of your helpful comments

How are they working it out? Have they told you?

Not heard anything yet!

What tends to happen is the meter reader will go out and read the meter as is. He will send the reads back and if they don't fit with what's already on your account the computer will switch em round to fit. At some point along the line e reads have been given wrong, possibly on the opening read and this will all stem from there.

As they have read the meter in the last year then they have not done anything wrong with reaga to their obligations. It also may not have been them who put e sticker on the meter, landlords are famous for whacking stickers on the meter without really knowing what they are doing! Transposed reads are really common as most customers don't have a clue what rate is what. That's why companies have backbilling policies in place.

You need to be asking them what date they are going to start the backbilling from, and what reads they are using to sart it. They should use an average consumption to guess the reads on16th may last year and then calculate what that energy costs, minus the amount you have paid them.

You can also roughly work out what your usage is going to be form now on so that you can budget. You have the correct usage it's just on the wrong rates so you need to look at your kwh usage on each rate over the last 12 months. Use readings as close to a year apart as possible and then times that by the relevant unit rates. Add the two together and dived by 12 to work out the dd amount.

Give me a shout if you need any help with it.

Ah thanks Mini you are a star!

Put same post on moneysavingexpert forum and got nowhere - who knew hitched could be so handy!

Will wait and see what they come back with and will run it by you - am currently still waiting for the email he said was comng my way.......

Thanks again! If you ever have any questions regarding dangerous goods on board an aircraft or something similiar you know where i am! x

Ha! My fear of flying is legendary! If there are dangerous items I don't want too know!

I was a customer service manager for an energy company (now work in hr) hence why I know this stuff! I'm not a closet energy nerd!

Hi Mini, just to keep you updated we received our new bill today. it's now £233.40. And breathe. We were thinking hundreds and hundreds! Our original bill was £175 so not gone up by much at all. The man is going to phone us in the week to go over it.

I'm assuming they havent spread it out already but even if they have it's only that every quarter. phew!!

Thought my plans for oh's 30th bday would be well & truly cancelled!

Thanks again for your advice x

Oh I'm glad it wasn't too much for you. Glad to be of assistance