electricity meter found to be faulty

madiba

My meter has been found to be faulty by a tester that EON sent out at my insistence. It was found to be running at some 3.5% higher than it should have been, on that day. EON want to repay me the difference of 1.8% or something, which falls outside the band of error allowed. But how do I know that it was always running at this speed, over the last 8 years I've owned the property? Is it possible to measure just how inaccurate it's been all that time? How else can we prove that we have overpaid over the years?

HappyMJ

madiba wrote: »

My meter has been found to be faulty by a tester that EON sent out at my insistence. It was found to be running at some 3.5% higher than it should have been, on that day. EON want to repay me the difference of 1.8% or something, which falls outside the band of error allowed. But how do I know that it was always running at this speed, over the last 8 years I've owned the property? Is it possible to measure just how inaccurate it's been all that time? How else can we prove that we have overpaid over the years?

It's a first offer. You now refuse the offer and make an offer to them. This goes backwards and forwards until everyone is happy. You may reach a deadlock at which time you can take it further. The deadlock letter will tell you what to do at that point.

madiba

so there's no scientific way of working it out - it's just a matter of who can negotiate most successfully? That's what I thought ...

rogerblack

madiba wrote: »

so there's no scientific way of working it out - it's just a matter of who can negotiate most successfully? That's what I thought ...

In principle, an in detailed analysis could be made to find out what the cause is of the meters degraded accuracy, and if it's likely to be a manufacturing error.

This would however cost considerably more than the disputed amount, and may be inconclusive.

As the other poster mentioned - the next step would be to demand the full overpayment back.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi madiba,

I hope you don't me popping on to this thread.

What we do is, after we've visited your property and found that the meter is faulty, a specialist will have a look at your account in detail and see when your consumption went up. We’ll do this by looking at your usage on the new meter going forward (with an allowance for seasonal fluctuations) and comparing with the usage on the old, faulty meter. This will tell us when the usage increased.

From that point, we'll work out your average consumption and then refund you the difference back.


If you’re unhappy with our proposal, please talk to us about this. We’ll be happy to give you a breakdown of the calculation used.

I hope this information helps, let me know if you've got any other questions.

Amy

rogerblack

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Amy wrote: »

What we do is, after we've visited your property and found that the meter is faulty, a specialist will have a look at your account in detail and see when your consumption went up.

In principle, this is a reasonable approach for meters that are wildly out.

But it's unlikely to be helpful in this case.
I would be astonished if there is anyone in the country that routinely has electricity bills to within five, or even ten percent.

So, it's back to negotiation.

jalexa

rogerblack wrote: »

In principle, this is a reasonable approach for meters that are wildly out.

But it's unlikely to be helpful in this case.

Not sure about that. I would say the E.ON rep has explained the process. Apparently the offer is 1.8%. OK, the OP should consider the trend evidence underpinning the 1.8%.

No clear evidence then it should be 3.5% for 8 years IMHO, plus a bit for trying to "dupe" the customer. What I'm saying is look at the justification not the number.

Terrylw1

From the suppliers point of view, looking at daily averages and considering seasonal changes is all they can do.

If the customer is unhappy with that, it my be a goodwill to take more of but the customer can go to the meter examiner stage for a detailed investigation which would be submitted to court if required by an independent.

Why is the refund % half of the over tolerence?

utility_csa

madiba wrote: »

My meter has been found to be faulty by a tester that EON sent out at my insistence. It was found to be running at some 3.5% higher than it should have been, on that day. EON want to repay me the difference of 1.8% or something, which falls outside the band of error allowed. But how do I know that it was always running at this speed, over the last 8 years I've owned the property? Is it possible to measure just how inaccurate it's been all that time? How else can we prove that we have overpaid over the years?

what's the actual error of tolerance for you meter.

ian_Sweetman

1.8% is incorrect , your meter should be -3.5~+2.5% and my maths says that 2% however if the meter is found to be 3.5% wrong then this is the figure that you should insist upon .

Make sure the following has happened
1) your meter was removed
2) a new meter was fitted
3) the meter was sent to an OFGEN approved test facility
4) you received a report from this facility

if any of the above were not followed your supplier has questions to answer, if they did .. good .. now hold your ground, the only time that your supplier can stand in a court of law and say they were billing your correct, will be when the meter was previously certified or tested,in most case this was when it was fitted. if you were resident at the property at the time of fitting, this is the first date of uncertainty else the date you moved in should be the calculation datum.
you are charged per KWH not KWH +2.5% so all calculation should be calculated using the error found at time of laboratory testing .
if your supplier does not want to play ball, contact the ombudsman.

Terrylw1

On top of that Ian, it could have been configured incoorectly by the Meter Operator which is a common way for some incorrectly set up meters to appear in batches e.g. 2 rate recording only allowed but 1 rate configured on E7...which is non compliant but possible on certain Ampy models for some ridiculous reason since the industry doesn't support it!

So, it could stretch that far back.