Gas account gone wild.

bigmike20vt · 18 Nov 2021 at 19:28

I have contacted octopus but I hope they don't automatically try to take a payment. My maths could be off but by my reckoning that is around £71000 of gas.

Hmmm can't attach image basically according to my account yesterday I used 151000.5 m3 of gas between 6:30pm and 11:30.

Today is reading normally so it's not a leak. (And not only would I smell that amount, I would likely be dead if that leaked out)

MissChief · 18 Nov 2021 at 19:38

bigmike20vt said:
I have contacted octopus but I hope they don't automatically try to take a payment. My maths could be off but by my reckoning that is around £71000 of gas.

Hmmm can't attach image basically according to my account yesterday I used 151000.5 m3 of gas between 6:30pm and 11:30.

Today is reading normally so it's not a leak. (And not only would I smell that amount, I would likely be dead if that leaked out)

Smart meter?

K.C. Leblanc · 18 Nov 2021 at 19:42

Duff meter reading? My landlord got a nasty surprise on his electric bill, turned out a 0 had been added to the end of his meter reading?

bigmike20vt · 18 Nov 2021 at 19:59

MissChief said:
Smart meter?

Yeah. It's a new smets 2 one. I had to upgrade to support my electricity export as well as dual tarrif electricity. (And the gas meter goes hand in hand with electric)

bigmike20vt · 18 Nov 2021 at 20:01

K.C. Leblanc said:
Duff meter reading? My landlord got a nasty surprise on his electric bill, turned out a 0 had been added to the end of his meter reading?

I have no idea but that would have to be a lot of zeros. Also it's automated. What ever happened it's behaving now I mean.... Any human looking at it has to see it's nonsence... But my fear is it's all don't via computer. I don't want a failed bank withdrawal attempt (which will surely bounce) to affect my credit rating

Hotwired · 18 Nov 2021 at 20:45

Had something similar the other month for a final bill, difference of about 11,000. Froze my billing, told me to wait a week then give another reading and they corrected whatever it was.

Semple · 19 Nov 2021 at 07:55

They'll pick up on this no problem. There's no way a domestic property would consume 71grand of gas in 5vyears.

GinG · 19 Nov 2021 at 09:24

Could it not be test data if you've had the smart meter installed? Just get in touch and they will sort it out.

James Peach · 19 Nov 2021 at 13:44

jaybee · 19 Nov 2021 at 13:48

They will have an automated system that will flag bills over X amount I would think. I highly doubt they would allow automatic direct debits to attempt to take more than a grand in one go for "normal" flagged accounts.

DXP55 · 19 Nov 2021 at 14:09

If its like my council tax computer it never flagged up the fact I was paying into a ceased account - after loads of warnings I got the red letter so rang them - They had issued me with a new tax number but failed to tell me.

hood1971 · 19 Nov 2021 at 14:18

jaybee said:
They will have an automated system that will flag bills over X amount I would think. I highly doubt they would allow automatic direct debits to attempt to take more than a grand in one go for "normal" flagged accounts.

I had SSE take £3500 from dd in the past. I did enjoy the call centre worker saying that "IF" it was a mistake they would refund

volt9291 · 19 Nov 2021 at 14:55

Is this reading from the actual gas meter or the online dashboard? I know they are having issues with the dashboard online.

I had similar issues with massive readings on the dashboard and my meter not giving readings/working correctly. It's all sorted now and I have been billed correctly.

jaybee · 19 Nov 2021 at 17:11

hood1971 said:
I had SSE take £3500 from dd in the past. I did enjoy the call centre worker saying that "IF" it was a mistake they would refund

Unbelievable. Just complete cowboys. I remember having to deal with SSE once and ever since, I've made it my promise to never ever use them every again, even if they came up cheapest!

Dyson · 19 Nov 2021 at 17:14

jaybee said:
Unbelievable. Just complete cowboys. I remember having to deal with SSE once and ever since, I've made it my promise to never ever use them every again, even if they came up cheapest!

It's weird isn't it, in 25 years I've never had a problem with SSE - Quite the opposite really

SoliD · 19 Nov 2021 at 18:06

jaybee said:
Unbelievable. Just complete cowboys. I remember having to deal with SSE once and ever since, I've made it my promise to never ever use them every again, even if they came up cheapest!

You'll be fine now theyve left the market.

bigmike20vt · 19 Nov 2021 at 20:43

volt9291 said:
Is this reading from the actual gas meter or the online dashboard? I know they are having issues with the dashboard online.

I had similar issues with massive readings on the dashboard and my meter not giving readings/working correctly. It's all sorted now and I have been billed correctly.

It's the online dashboard. I fired up the display thingy , it took about 30 mins to get a reading buy it seems ok

I had another rogue reading on the dashboard yesterday between 10:30am and 11:30.

I tell you what tho. I wish their CS told me what you did. I sent a detailed email with images attached saying how big it was. I got a mail back explaining that I needed to shut off all my appliances and take readings to show it's a problem IF I think my readings are high. I mean FGS do they not even look at their tickets....... I could not use that amount of gas of I cut the pipe off and let it flow free.
Thanks for the info
.

volt9291 · 20 Nov 2021 at 10:19

No problem. It's strange they took that approach, CS email can be hit and miss depending on who replies, I've had some that are really helpful, and some as if they are just following a script, which makes it more painful sorting an issue.

When I called CS they were bang on and simply told me not to worry and they are aware of issues with the online dashboard (not sure why they don't just put a note on the website explaining some people may see errors and they are fixing this).

Like I said I've since had a bill, which covers the 9 months I had of my Gas meter not sending readings, its all correct and sorted now. In the future, if I have an issue I'm just going to call them.

TomO · 22 Nov 2021 at 13:30

I see you, and raise you...

still cant figure out why the system wouldn't automatically flag this before it got sent out. We did get a phone call after a week or so saying we could ignore it!

Semple · 22 Nov 2021 at 13:36

TomO said:
I see you, and raise you...

still cant figure out why the system wouldn't automatically flag this before it got sent out. We did get a phone call after a week or so saying we could ignore it!

Yep exactly.

It wouldn't be difficult to implement a system to raise a flag for manual review if a bill is over X amount, is over the typical average for that size property by Y amount, or for long-term customers if the monthly usage is significantly Z amount over what you would typically use.