Disputing a final meter reading

DonkeyKong77

Hi

We got our final Gas bill, due to switching, and i am pretty sure the final meter reading is wrong.

They say that on the 27th Feb, it was 5951, but i noted the meter reading on 1st March and it was 5934.

Although, they (not sure if its Scottish Power - old siuppliers, or London Energy - new suppliers) say that their reading is an "actual" reading - and we had a meter reader come out - but that was in March (week commencing 6th i think)

If all this makes sense - what should i do - i think its about £10ish out of what it should be.

The final bill for 5 weeks (up to 27th Feb) was £80!

smartie1976

Well it looks like they are trying to use the MR read as the final read instead of your supplied one. I would ring them up and challenge it again.
There should be a record somewhere of the date the MR came out to take the read.

Hawksmuir

DonkeyKong77 wrote:

Hi

We got our final Gas bill, due to switching, and i am pretty sure the final meter reading is wrong.

They say that on the 27th Feb, it was 5951, but i noted the meter reading on 1st March and it was 5934.

Although, they (not sure if its Scottish Power - old siuppliers, or London Energy - new suppliers) say that their reading is an "actual" reading - and we had a meter reader come out - but that was in March (week commencing 6th i think)

If all this makes sense - what should i do - i think its about £10ish out of what it should be.

The final bill for 5 weeks (up to 27th Feb) was £80!

See that cheap digital camera martin told us about, use that to photgraph the meter, as it will record time and date of the meter reading

smartie1976

Hawksmuir wrote:

See that cheap digital camera martin told us about, use that to photgraph the meter, as it will record time and date of the meter reading

Unfortunately, it is likely the meter is now higher than this read, as there were only about 20 units difference from OP read and Meter reader read.

However, this is a useful tip for use when disputing reads at the time of the dispute (ie as soon as you get the incorrect bill)

DonkeyKong77

Looks like i messed this one up - i should have taken a photo of it - March 1st - i didnt and i didnt give them a meter reading as they didnt ask for one. The meter reading is now higher than the final reading of the last bill. It is now 5995.

So now it looks like my word against theirs

smartie1976

You should still call them and tell them they are wrong. In the end it's not so many units so you won't be inconvenienced too much, but any discrepancies should be highlighted to them. If you get a half decent Call centre employee and tell them the COT (change of tenancy) read has been used from the Meter reader read from 5 days after the COT date, they should amend it. but as it's a withdrawl you may need the w/d team.

DonkeyKong77

This may sound like a daft question but should i call the old supplier - who the bill is with (Scottish Power) or New Supplier (london Energy) as the final bill letter states they received a reading from the new supplier.

smartie1976

Well either way one supplier will have to talk to the other as one will amend their close read and one will amend their open read.

I would ring the old supplier first. See what happens. They will contact the new supplier if any changes are to be made, although you may wish to let your new supplier know if your old one agrees to amend the read, just to be on the safe side, as read amendments can take 28 days.

matto

Is it really worth it? So long as they both used the same number you may be out of pocket by 50p.