Back Billed due to incorrect meter readings!

saint007

We run a business were our warehouse electric meter has recently been switched over to one of the new digital meters. Just received a new bill covering the period since we had the meter installed along with back billing due to incorrect billing for our old meter. British G has billed us for almost £4k, they say that due to discrepancies with how our old meter was being read, sometimes as a five dial and sometimes as a six dial (at times including the red digit and at times not) the readings were not accurate, so they have billed us for the average consumption we using and backdating it to when we first started with them in early 2006.

Having spoken to them they say that the meter reader that has come round over the years has been reading the meter incorrectly and that’s why we been under billed. I did an estimate based on the new meter readings and it appears they may be right but having said that, it’s not our fault this has happened.

I know as a domestic customer they cannot backdate for more than a year, which isn’t the same for commercial, but can anyone help with were we stand with this. It’s not our fault their meter reading kept reading the meter wrong? We kept paying the bills as we received them and did our best to provide accurate readings. Also if we cannot do much are we in a position to negotiate to lower the bill? If I contacted the energy ombudsman can they help in such situation ?

Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.:)

Premier_2

If you have accurate meter readings stemming back the years, albeit sometimes 5 digit and sometimes 6 digit, it can be worked out what you used.

If it was really a 5 digit meter, and you sometimes had 6 digits read, simply ignore the last digit.

If it was really a 6 digit meter, and you only sometimes had the first 5 digits recorded, you still know how much was used to the nearest 10 units (about 330kWh for a metic meter, about £10-£20 ... about 3x that if imperial).

Terrylw1

If readings were going 5 to 6 & back again, if they had billed them you would have noticed because it's an easy way to send out massive bills, often to domestics.

If you have been consuming and underbilled, you have used more than what they charged hence what they are doing since they have to pay the local Distributor for the elec.

You shouls be able to negogiate on settlement in some way. Remember, if their reading history is all over the place, they have no clue what you should pay. so, they are looking at what you use now and just backdating it to cover the previous meter. They are also liable for this underbilling because they get those reads and they would have had an error, so should have investigating them. That just would have involved sending out another meter reading to check. So, you can use that against them.

Remember though, you are a business so should have an eye on your costs a lot more than a domestic would. This is why Ofgem don't offer much protection...also there is the extra tax to pay out and shouldn't that have been noticed? This is where they are coming from.

However, they don't know whether your output rate has gone up or you have expanded. Also, if you use more at certain times of the year and they used that time to calculate on, it could be too high.

So, I would suggest that you think about this, measure your reads over your business times and see what you get.

Negogiate though, as they are going to have no idea other than what you are using now.