Crazy gas/electric bill advice?

ubersonic

ubersonic

ubersonic

Soldato
Joined
26 May 2009
Posts
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Hi all,

Hoping somebody may have been in a similar situation and can advise what can/should be done here. Basically Eon hasn't bothered sending a meter reader to my mothers house in two years, they've just been estimating the readings. They sent a letter at the start of the year asking for a meter reading to be sent to them online, no offer of a discount for doing it for them or anything but okay I figured I would help out. I borrowed a ladder and read the electric meter, I bought a key to their meter box off Amazon and uploaded the numbers to their website. Now they have sent out a letter saying the account has been adjusted -£1300 and they are raising the direct debit payments by £320 a month until it's cleared.

Now to be clear I'm not complaining about them charging for gas/electricity that was used, that makes sense, though I am a bit miffed about such a large bill being generated due to them not reading the damn meters lol. But anyway it looks to me like they are charging for the excess gas/electricity at the current rates rather than the rates when it was used, does anyone know if they are allowed to do that? I tried calling them but all I got was a telephone jockey reading a script about payment plans.

Again to be clear I don't have a problem with them charging for what was used (even if is their fault the difference in estimates/readings is so vast). My issue is with them apparently using todays price to charge for stuff they supplied months/years ago.
 
When ever I have had a significant deviation (across a few companies) they have cancelled the last bill and recalculated
If shes been with that supplier for a long time I would be asking them to recalculate back to the last actual read. Ie cancel 2(?) years worth of invoices and re do it.

Why did you need a ladder? Are you 100% certain you read the correct meter
 
Dis86 said:
Yeah, that's not right. Hit them on social media, they seem to respond sharpish.
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Thanks I'll try that.


Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Why did you need a ladder? Are you 100% certain you read the correct meter
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Yeah her electric meter is up next to the fuseboards in the hallway, you need a ladder to get on eye level with it. The gas meter is outside in a locked box thing. This is why they are supposed to send out meter readers for her.
 
Get them to recalculate based on prices at the time, you may need to dig out previous bills to make sure the prices are right. I had a similar issue with my previous supplier (who went into administration thankfully)

They tried to charge me a years supply based on the current high rates rather than the low rates I was actually paying for most of that period.
 
This is why I see smart meters as a good thing, as they help to avoid estimated meter readings and large bills after the readings have been corrected.

@ubersonic
Consider the installation of a smart meter to avoid this happening in the future. If you don't like them, then at least read the meters on a monthly basis - for example, the 1st of each month.
 
Not submitting any readings for a couple of years and calling them out for estimating your bill - Take some responsibility !!
 
Yeah estimated bills.... How can this still be a thing...
I recently explained smart meters to my mum and.....
It's mind-blowing it's not a compulsory change.
 
Sorry but you shouldn't be relying on the company to read the meter. There have been shortages and cuts since covid hit so not everyones meter is being read. It's the house owners responsibility to read the meter and make sure it's up to date. The months of estimated bills should have been a red flag and your mother hasn't bothered to do anything. May sound harsh but thems the facts. Time to get a smart meter.

In regards to the rates yeah that should be corrected up to the rates increasing.
 
As you say, it’s not the amount of electricity consumed (which you are happy to pay for) but that it was used when electricity prices where cheaper, yet you are charged at todays crazy rate.

It might just also be worth a call to them first, explain the situation and see what they say about the charging at todays rate, they may help.
Surely it would be fair that the extra is pro-rata’d over the time period since the last meter reading and work out therefore the true cost to them, and offer that as a solution.
 
Unless you've seen a bill how do you know what rates you're being charged? You need a bill breakdown then you can challenge it.

On the meter reading side I have sympathy. It used to be the electricity company's responsibility. Have we all had a discount for them not doing it any more?
 
Thanks guys, I called them and after being passed between multiple people who just read of scripts I was able to get escalated to somebody with a brain, they have apologised for not reading the meters sooner, promised it won't happen again, and will be adjusting the bill based on historical pricing rather than current. Story is happy end! :)


darael said:
@ubersonic
Consider the installation of a smart meter to avoid this happening in the future.
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Looked into that a few years ago, they even sent somebody to fit one, sadly it couldn't be done because it's an old house and the gas/electric meters are too far apart :(


SDK^ said:
Not submitting any readings for a couple of years and calling them out for estimating your bill - Take some responsibility !!
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If you read threads before replying you can avoid looking silly in future.
 
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you should probably phone them and ask to be put on a repayment plan
On the meter reading side I have sympathy. It used to be the electricity company's responsibility. Have we all had a discount for them not doing it any more?
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they still come out and read my prepayment meter manually.

I think it's mainly because I use so little and they think I'm stealing it though.
I usually get 1-2 letters a year saying I haven't topped up in awhile.

I think the key when I top up reports it too them anyway? because on my account there's auto reports logged.

I'm trying to switch to a credit meter though for when electric prices go back down, just waiting to hear from the metering team when they can do it.
 
MatsyLR said:
Sorry but you shouldn't be relying on the company to read the meter.
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People stilll come to read meters?! I havn't seen a meter man for many many years.

Smart meters are the replacement essentially as they automatically send signals via the mobile network afaik. Good luck in getting one though they only do a district at a time and I've been waiting an age
 
ubersonic said:
If you read threads before replying you can avoid looking silly in future.
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Yeah - I did read the post.
Problem with your (family) issue comes from not reading the meter.

How can you fix the cost issue if you don’t know what you have used and when.
Clearly past use shouldn’t be billed at current prices, but what should it be and for how much energy used spanning 2 years, probably with different price plans during that time.
 
darael said:
This is why I see smart meters as a good thing, as they help to avoid estimated meter readings and large bills after the readings have been corrected.

@ubersonic
Consider the installation of a smart meter to avoid this happening in the future. If you don't like them, then at least read the meters on a monthly basis - for example, the 1st of each month.
Click to expand...
lol I still get estimated readings with my "smart" meter
 
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