Crazy gas/electric bill advice?

[ubersonic]

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.

 

[ubersonic]

Yeah, that's not right. Hit them on social media, they seem to respond sharpish.

Thanks I'll try that.

Why did you need a ladder? Are you 100% certain you read the correct meter

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.

 

[ubersonic]

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!

@ubersonic
Consider the installation of a smart meter to avoid this happening in the future.

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

Not submitting any readings for a couple of years and calling them out for estimating your bill - Take some responsibility !!

If you read threads before replying you can avoid looking silly in future.