Over stating usage

Scottish_Power

Hi phillo365

I understand why you would want to do this but the saving you would make would not be worth the potential hassle it may cause with your billing account and I will explain what may happen:

1. By updating a higher than normal meter reading, our billing system will recalculate what it expects you to use over a 12-month period. As you are paying by monthly Direct Debit, the system may request that your monthly payment is increased to match your new level of consumption.
2. If a meter reader attends the property and obtains an accurate meter reading (which is lower than the meter reading you updated), then this will result in a meter reading exception on your account and will not be updated. We will then process a request to confirm a further accurate meter reading, either from the customer or meter reader.
3. If we write to you to confirm that your payments are being increased based on the latest level of consumption, the payment would only be lowered if you provided an accurate meter reading which confirmed that the old payment amount was actually correct (this will require you to provide a non-inflated and accurate meter reading).

By inflating your meter reading it would probably cause you more stress and inconvenience and therefore would not be worth it.

Let me know if you have any questions on this and I will be more than happy to answer.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

davidgmmafan

I think this has come up fairly recently and it was pointed out then that it is very close to breaking forum rules. I can see where you are coming from but wouldn't recommend it.

Apart from anything else they wouldn't accept a reading which was a massive advance. I noticed this when I gave an incorrect reading when changing supplier. Good job they ignored it and agreed an estimate as the bill would've been rather scary!

deshepherd

t0rt0ise wrote: »

That's not a good analogy. It's really like walking out of Tesco's with a dozen loaves of bread at today's price and sticking them in the freezer for later use.

Well, its actually more like telling Tesco you'll pay for a dozen loaves at their current offer price and you'll come in and pick one up each week for the next 3 months

t0rt0ise

You're probably right. The nearest I've come to doing this was when I changed supplier and they totally ignored the reading I sent in and made one up instead and as the error was in my favour I left it be. I don't think that was too wrong of me. I did try to give them the real reading.

Cardew

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

As far as I am concerned it was the power company who were perpetrating sharp practice. They would have known from last years bills that they were deliberately billing me low.

That is another 'urban myth' I am afraid and covered many times on MSE.

When estimating meter readings for a price rise all of the companies use an algorithm(computer program) that takes into account weather statistics from the Met Office, and this algorithm is independantly audited. (a contributor to MSE used to write these algorithms)

To do what you suggest(i.e deliberately billing low) would not just be 'sharp practice' it would be 'conspiracy to defraud' - a very serious criminal offence that would almostly certainly carry a custodial sentence, and the company fined £millions.

Who would order the person writing the computer program to commit such a crime? If some disgruntled employee blew the whistle even years later, the offence would come to light.

You might recall what happened to Severn Trent when they 'fudged' some statistics. Nowhere as serious as you are suggesting - yet it cost the company many millions of pounds; and that was because an employee reported the company.