British Gas changed my meter reading

Enlightenment

I submitted my meter reading on 12th March it was 59807 and now they have sent me a new bill and changed my meter reading I sent them to 69807 in the part 'On 12 Mar 2011
You gave us a reading' consequently making the bill much higher. Isn't this fraud? and what should I do about it?

eurmalian

I'd say that the two most likely options are that either the person you spoke to mis-typed it, or they already had meter readings for you which were over 60000, so may have assumed that you got the first digit wrong.

What was the previous meter reading? As if the bill shows that you've used over 10000 units in a short period they should accept that they've made a typo. If your last reading is higher than 59807 then it may be that you made a mistake when you read it, or that your previous reads on their system are wrong.

Enlightenment

The one before was estimated, we have trouble getting to read the meter as it's not in our property so have eventually read it as BG wouldn't come out themselves to read it and haven't since 2009.

In fact looking at the history of it 7th August it was 47710 (meter reader) and then 18th August it jumped to 63100 (estimated) 2009 and the last in December 2010 was 68844 (estimated)

The reading was definitely correct, so would taking a photo of it help? What I want to know is how do we proceed to correct this as BG changed my meter reading?

penrhyn

You have had two estimated readings over the last two years that you have not queried,until now.
I'm not surprised that BG have assumed you provided an erroneous reading.

The photo idea is a good one.

Enlightenment

Well the reason they have not been queried is that BG wouldn't come out and read the meter and the meter is not accessible to us until now, so we didn't have any proof, so we carried on paying each month by DD. It is in a shop which has been vacant for the last year and is now occupied, allowing us access. A strange set up I know.

Now, however we do have a meter reading and I submitted this last month online which they then changed to suit themselves.

penrhyn

You need to contact them as a matter of urgency, email if you don't want to talk to someone, they usually get back within 24 hours.

Enlightenment

Thanks penrhyn I have contacted them through their website, will get that photo and try sort this out, but are they really allowed to alter a customer's own meter reading when submitted online?

penrhyn

In my experiance the software does not usually allow you to enter a reading thats lower than the one thats gone before. Did this once myself and managed to lock up my account (Click6), they soon sorted it out for me.

i'd work on the basis of c0ck up rather than conspiracy at the moment.

Enlightenment

Right, well that's silly as I'm sure a lower meter reading than estimated happens a lot, if not the majority of the time. Well it did allow me to add it and it stayed that way since March 12th until when I checked today when their system added 10000 more units. Does seem a system c0ck up though.

mattcanary

Is your meter a dial meter by any chance?

May have been misread in the past. Often happens with them and 99% of the time they will get read too high, rather than too low.

10 000 units lower than previously billed would mean that you would be massively in credit on yur account. Your supplier therefore are assuming you have misread it. Unlikely to be a problem with estimated readings if this is the case. You would have noticed your bills being ridiculously high in the past if this were the case.

Enlightenment

It did jump a lot between the dates I noted above, so yes it is ridiculously high.